History of fantasy Aussie rules footy

[m0nty]

http://www.fanfooty.com.au/blog/2008/02/11/a-short-history-of-fantasy-aussie-rules-football/

Please let me know if there is something you can either add or fix up, particularly with regards to timelines.

 

[Jan Juc]

There was a line in there somewhere that The Australian's DT ended in the late 90's......

I can 110% guarantee it was running in 2001.

I am about 95% certain it ran in 2002.

I can remember emailing them in the Feb/Mar of the year they stopped - I'm fairly sure that was 2003.

I can remember having to send your team in via post or having to submit it over the phone (took about 10 mins @ $3 squillion bucks a minute!!!), pretty sure there were only two trade windows and your entire squad had to be under 140 or so points.

My only query was on its' last year of operation - fairly sure that was 2002. Actually, I remember picking Barry Hall as a defender (6 points) knowing Blighty was going to play him at FF, so that backs up 2001. I'm trying to remember the name of a young kid I picked up (possibly was injury-riddled then/bad shoulders perhaps) that has since become a gun - that will help put a time-frame on their years of operation....

 

[Jan Juc]

I can 110% guarantee it was running in 2001.

I am about 95% certain it ran in 2002.

I'm trying to remember the name of a young kid I picked up (possibly was injury-riddled then/bad shoulders perhaps) that has since become a gun - that will help put a time-frame on their years of operation....

Just went through 2002 player lists and the player I was thinking about was Graham Polak whose first six games were in season 2002.

OK, so he's not exactly a gun, but I can remember picking him out before he had played a game as a kid who should go alright.

Lock in 2002 as The Australian's last year of competition.

 

[Jan Juc]

If you're lucky I may be able to dig up a copy of their player list from 2001/2002......

 

[pie35]

Monty, I'm pretty sure the 2004 season didn't have weekly trades. IIRC you could make 4 trades after round 7 and another 4 after round 15. Any cash left over in your salary cap couldn't be carried over to the next trade period. There was also a limit as to how many "premium" players you could pick in each position. The weekly trades came in in the 2005 comp.

 

[bloods01]

There was a line in there somewhere that The Australian's DT ended in the late 90's......

I can 110% guarantee it was running in 2001.

I am about 95% certain it ran in 2002.

I can remember emailing them in the Feb/Mar of the year they stopped - I'm fairly sure that was 2003.

I can remember having to send your team in via post or having to submit it over the phone (took about 10 mins @ $3 squillion bucks a minute!!!), pretty sure there were only two trade windows and your entire squad had to be under 140 or so points.

My only query was on its' last year of operation - fairly sure that was 2002. Actually, I remember picking Barry Hall as a defender (6 points) knowing Blighty was going to play him at FF, so that backs up 2001. I'm trying to remember the name of a young kid I picked up (possibly was injury-riddled then/bad shoulders perhaps) that has since become a gun - that will help put a time-frame on their years of operation....

Actually there was a dream team competition in The Age in '95 / '96 from memory. Then The Australian bought one out. Trading players was a nightmare. It was ok when there was a 1800 number, but when they had the 1300 number, I was a little reserved with my trades.

 

[m0nty]

I've made all the above changes. Thanks fellas.

Anyone remember when the Age comp finished?

 

[dont bowl there]

The West paper ran a fantasy comp way back called "SGIO TOPTEAM".

 

[dont bowl there]

A little bit i found off the net on "Topteam"

"West Australian Newspapers Foundation is a
charitable trust established to distribute to
worthy causes in the local community profits
earned from The West Australian SGIO Top
Team fantasy football competition.
Sponsorships totalling $65,000 were distributed
from the 1999 Top Team revenue"

Pretty sure it ran from about 96-2000

 

[m0nty]

Thanks for that DBT, updated. Interesting to hear of all these comps, it's bigger than you think when you get into it!

 

[Stats Man]

1998 was the big Age one.

Inside Footy had one in 1997 and 1998 I know that...and 1999 - SuperCoach.

 

[m0nty]

I thought the Age one came before the Oz... when did they both start?

 

[Ecky]

Thanks for adding in the information about our competition, the AFFL, Monty.

 

[DIG]

My dreamteam league started back in 96 and i've still got some old clippings including draftlists.

We used the Age initially then switched to australian. I don't know which was used in '98 but '99 was definitely the Australian, i still have the player list. Then we used the afl website since that started - was painfully manual running our own league offline.

Plugger was the first player i picked in '96 - back in those days Jim Stynes used to dominate.