A successful AFL Fantasy coach should...

[Colin D'Cops]

BigFooty are looking at publishing an article focussing on Fantasy tips and hints.

If you truly believe in your Fantasy ability, we'd like to hear from you! Of course contributors will be duly acknowledged. Once we get all these tips out into the open, it can then be easily assembled into an article type format. I'll kick things off...

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Tip #1: Get those juicy rookies!

To buy the best Fantasy players, cash is necessary. In order to obtain cash, you have to make money. The only way of doing that - is to use cash cows. The best kind of cash cows are generally rookies.

Lets look at last year for example. O'Meara started off at $109k and averaged 89 across 22 games. Incredible! Similarly, Wines averaged 74 across 22 games and started off at the bargain price of $150k. Due to these high averages and high number of games played, their prices went through the roof and subsequently could be upgraded in the mid-later part of the 2013 AFL season.

If O'Meara however could not be upgraded, which some Fantasy studs like to utilise (due to the common soreness/fatigue), there certainly was the option of keeping him on and hoping for the best. It is lucky some did actually hold onto him last season though! He only scored under 80 once in 8 games, which is a fantastic return IF he is one of the lower averaging players in your starting line-up. Cash cow or keeper, you decide. Either way, it's bargain galore and a chance for you to get a leg-up on the competition.

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Over to you BF

 

[BroughtonMid]

watch as many pre season games as possible

 

[Hank Scorpion]

Tip #4: Plan for the bye rounds

The bye round features in the nightmares of fantasy footballers. Planning ahead with your trades can make this hellish period a lot more comfortable.

It would seem that round 8 poses the biggest challenge this year. Adelaide, North, Gold Coast, Richmond, Collingwood, Geelong all miss that week and leave headaches for coaches. As it stands, the 4 highest priced midfielders would not feature. Losing your A-grade players, combined with absences all across your team due to byes, injuries, poor form, can leave coaches with a score in the low 1000's.

Thankfully, planning can help avoid this issue. If your 50-50 on whether to take Pendlebury or Barlow, look ahead to those bye rounds and see how many you'd be missing in each week. If your already missing 15 in round 8, it might be best to take someone who has the bye in round 9 or 10.

Alternatively, a coach may choose to forego one round of scoring by having 16+ players missing for one round, and choose to present a team with minimal changes for the other two rounds.

 

[Colin D'Cops]

Quick summation thus far:
- Juicy rookies important
- Pick with your mind, not with your heart
- Keep a close eye on preseason
- Plan for the bye rounds

Few more would be ideal

 

[cheesedogg]

Timing.

Know when it's the right time time to trade. Keep an eye on break evens, etc so you can get the maximum amount of value out of a rookie or cash cow & offload them before their scoring stagnates & their price starts to fall away again.

Likewise with those you hope to bring in at a bargain such as Premiums that have fallen in price. Keep an eye on on their break evens, scoring history against their upcoming draw and the like so you can try to pick them up when they are at their lowest possible point in price.

 

[Atavistic]

Have a good structure with at least 12 premium players (but hopefully more) so you aren't left with too many players to upgrade.

 

[Killer Power]

Have a plan but don't be too rigid. Obviously your starting lineup is critical to success as a good one minimises the number of corrective trades required. It is just as important to have a plan in relation to how the season will play out, 1)the bye rounds, 2) the players not originally in your team that you want in there by certain stages, 3) the rookies who will provide your cash flow and when you might cull. But don't become too wedded to your plan, Fantasy is an evolving beast and your plans need to adjust to the changing conditions. Injuries to players in your team (or other players you intended to add), form changes, rookies who take a long time to fatten, needing to pull the trigger on a player because of a high or low break even, your teams current performance within the league or total comp may mean you need to become more aggressive / conservative etc etc. it is important to retain the ability to be agile whilst still keeping your overall strategy on track.

 

[VSTone]

needs to have luck on their side for... injury avoidance, vest avoidance, suspension avoidance...

 

[Colin D'Cops]

Cheers guys.

So we have:
- Juicy rookies important
- Pick with your mind, not with your heart
- Keep a close eye on preseason
- Plan for the bye rounds
- Timing of trades critical
- Be flexible in strategy, footy is an evolving beast
- The best of luck - vests, injuries, suspensions

I would put the structure one in Atavistic, but that can be approached many different ways. Our very own Chook Raffle has done super for years by picking a heap of mid-pricers.

 

[SloppyJoe]

Making time to check the final teams just prior to lockout is always important.

 

[Butler]

A few things I have picked up.

The biggest problem I had for a few years was finding that fine line between going unique and going with the pack. Everyone wants to nail a unique pick but it can back fire so quickly.

I try and balance it out. Even if you like a number of unique players I have found that it is better to stick with a reasonably low amount of them. Pick a number and settle on it. There is no point picking up this gun unique if your other selections are just taking away those extra points you earned.

Another important part of the game imo, which is also linked with the above, is not getting carried away with a couple of big scores. Ideally, you need to be watching those games to see what went on. You need to notice how damaging they were, if their role was different due to a teammate not playing or if they had any attention given to them. Make a decision for the long run. If you believe they are going to start getting more attention or that the particular role they are playing might not last, then don't select them. Birchall and Hartlett last year are good examples of this. With Birchall especially, it would have been a big call not to bring him in when he was on his tear of massive scores but a lot of ground would have been made later on in the season.

Oh, and read all those fantasy articles that are all over different websites but don't make a decision purely on what they recommend. Use their information and take on board what they say but make your own decisions. I have always gone by this and I can only laugh at people who simply follow everything that is said in those articles then blame them when it doesn't come off.

 

[Blue and Gold Blood]

check the weather before making your captain choice. Id take Ablett in a sunny game at the Gold Coast over Swan playing in the rain at launceston.

 

[Blinger]

Know the players history.
Games played in previous seasons, in regards to injury.
Previous seasons average & main positions played. Whether player may have a change of position, which could effect scoring.
Whether the players team is on the improve or decline.
Job security.

 

[Colin D'Cops]

All tremendous points, cheers lads. Shall be an interesting article

 

[West Coast Weasel]

Use the BF community! It never hurts to go on another teams board and ask 'What's the deal with [insert name]?'

 

[Atavistic]

Use the BF community! It never hurts to go on another teams board and ask 'What's the deal with [insert name]?'

What's the deal with Yeo this year?