I’ve been thinking a lot lately about structures of fantasy salary cap teams. Experienced fantasy AFL coaches think about players as being in three categories: premiums, mid-prices and rookies. Premiums are the best fantasy players in the competition, proven guns whose prices already reflect their quality. Rookies are priced at about $140,000 down to the bare draftee or rookie price.
One of the cardinal sins which noobs make in selecting their fantasy team is getting too many players from one category and not enough of the others: specifically, that they choose way too many mid-price players and not enough premiums and rookies. So, given what I’ve learned in my time in the EliteDre@mTe@mers forum and in talking with the experts on the Coaches Box, here’s a team structure I think is going to work this year.
BACKS
3 premiums from: Chad Cornes, Joel Bowden, Josh Drummond, Peter Burgoyne, Lindsay Gilbee, Heath Shaw, Darren Milburn, Sam Fisher, Andrew McLeod, Adam McPhee
3 mid-prices from: Shannon Hurn, Mark Nicoski, Xavier Ellis, Tadhg Kennelly, Brad Symes, Martin Mattner, Jesse W. Smith, David Mundy, Brett Jones
3 rookies from: David Myers, Dennis Armfield, Callan Ward, Levi Greenwood, Eric McKenzie, Darren Pfeiffer, Tom Lonergan
CENTRES
2 premiums from: Nick Dal Santo, Gary Ablett jnr, Kane Cornes, Luke Hodge, Jed Adcock, Joel Corey, Heath Scotland, Adam Goodes, Andrew Carrazzo, Daniel Cross, Sam Mitchell, Dane Swan, Simon Goodwin, Nathan Foley, Mark McVeigh, Brent Stanton, Tyson Stenglein, Matt Priddis, Chris Knights, Scott Pendlebury, Jobe Watson, Steven Salopek
2 mid-prices from: Nick Stevens, Richard Tambling, Chance Bateman, Ryan Griffen, Bryce Gibbs, Byron Schammer, Brett Peake, Andrew Foster, Courtenay Dempsey, Brent Prismall, Clinton Jones
4 rookies from: Chris Masten, Jamie McNamara, Travis Tuck, Daniel Connors, Rhys Palmer, Bachar Houli, Beau Muston, Craig Bird
RUCKS
1 premiums from: Dean Cox, Jeff White, Josh Fraser, Brendon Lade, Darren Jolly, Justin Koschitzke
1 mid-price from: Troy Simmonds, Daniel Gilmore, Jonathan Griffin
2 rookies from: Matthew Kreuzer, Shaun Hampson, Angus Graham, Max Bailey
FORWARDS
5 premiums from: Matthew Pavlich, Nick Riewoldt, Jonathan Brown, Scott Lucas, Steve Johnson, Quinten Lynch, Ryan O’Keefe, Nathan G. Brown, Lance Franklin
2 mid-prices from: Stuart Dew, Barry Hall, Brett Deledio, Brendan Fevola, Travis Cloke, Dale Thomas, Tom Hawkins
2 rookies from: James Sellar, Jarrhan Jacky, Ben McKinley, Cyril Rioli, Daniel O’Keefe, Lachie Henderson, Lachie Hansen
The only deviation from that I’d see is loading up on two premium rucks, as I did last year. You’ll notice that I will be starting one rookie in the backs and two in the centres in my 22, but none in the rucks or forwards: that reflects my opinion on the rookie talent stocks in the various positions this year. My final list will be dictated by NAB Cup form, injuries and team sheets for round 1, of course, but I would be surprised if any of my 30 came from outside the above squad.
