The News Limited competitions have opened, giving us our first official glimpse at the fantasy year.
At about three o’clock this morning, VirtualSports turned on the servers for the Super Coach competition for 2009. As the most popular competition in the country last year, after the problems that the AFL Dream Team comp had with its late start and inferior prize pool, the headline news is good: prizemoney is up this year. With the TAC as new sponsor, the winner takes away $55,000 cash – no doubt as a tie-in to a driving campaign to get people slowing down to 55kmh on the roads! The interface is much improved, with some AJAX functionality for team functions like trading, setting captains and choosing emergencies that should come in handy during the 160 minutes of maelstrom by cutting down on server stress.
Never mind the bells and whistles though, what fantasy coaches are really focused on now is what has changed in the game, what the prices are, and what the player positions are. The answer to the first is pretty simple: nothing has changed. Same scoring system, same positions, same rules.
On the prices, the magic number is about the same, which makes sense seeing as the salary cap is constant at $10 million. Here is the list of player discounts I have been able to discern at first glance:
Tim Schmidt: $395,500, 30%
Nathan Krakouer: $217,800, 20%
Josh P. Kennedy: $217,800, 20%
Daniel Connors: $254,000, 20%
Andrew Raines: $279,900, 20%
Shannon Cox: $372,500, 20%
Kane Tenace: $198,100, 20%
Adam Campbell: $269,600, 20%
Patrick Veszpremi: $286,400, 20%
David Johnson: $189,500, 20%
Jesse W. Smith: $314,400, 20%
Marlon Motlop: $236,900, 20%
Alwyn Davey: $344,600, 20%
Ben McGlynn: $228,300, 20%
Josh Head: $261,300, 20%
Ryan Houlihan: $298,900, 20%
Pearce Hanley: $196,000, 20%
Ryan Brabazon: $175,000, 15%
Andy Otten: $134,600, 10%
Of the players who missed a year for whatever reason, Paul Hasleby, Ben Cousins and Hayden Skipworth are the only ones not to be basement draftee or rookie price. Hasleby got about a 25% discount on his 2007 numbers, Cousins got 10% off and Skipworth got zero discount. That means that the following players are at minimum price despite playing in 2007:
Draftees at $94,200: Matthew Egan, Matthew Laidlaw, Brad Dick, Mitchell Brown, Mitch Thorp, Leigh Adams, Scott Gumbleton, John Meesen, Beau Dowler, Malcolm Lynch, Angus Graham
Rookies at $83,400: Chris Schmidt, Daniel Dzufer, Danny Meyer, Brad Howard
On the player positions, here are the highlights that we didn’t already know about, or had guessed wrong on the Fanplanner:
• Jason Davenport is NOT a back, despite being listed as such in the Prospectus (as I was told). The same goes for Jack Ziebell, who is a FWD/CTR.
• Adam Goodes is not a forward.
• Amon Buchanan, Brent Staker and Shannon Byrnes have forward eligibility.
• Xavier Clarke, Ryan Cook, Clint Bartram, Ed Barlow and Paul Stewart all have back eligibility.
• Shannon Cox and Ben Ross are FWD/BACs.
Now, there is no guarantee that all of these changes will also hold for AFL Dream Team. Nevertheless, the vast majority of Super Coach discounts carry over to DT, and all of the positions do.
Overall, VirtualSports have been much stingier with the discounts, but have been kind to us with some relaxation on positional requirements for key players. The starkest difference in my opinion is those players who missed a year, like Gumbleton, Dick, Thorp, Brown and Dowler, all being draftee price. If you don’t get some of that action I think you’re missing out, because it’s the best discounting on offer in 2009.
What’s your reaction? Nice interface, does that matter to you? Are you annoyed that your pet player didn’t get a random discount according to VirtualSports’ mystical black-box approach? Would you like to send them a strongly-worded letter arguing the toss over a positional change or two? Are you going to spend as much time on SC as you do on DT this year, given that SC got more registrations last year? Let me know in the comments.
James
February 2, 2009 at 9:09 am
So annoyed about davenport, but them the breaks I guess…
Chad
February 2, 2009 at 9:26 am
Always been a DT’er (scoring is much easier to follow and i feel SC is a little more reliant on the people taking the stats to determine what is effective or not). I will do a SC team, but only using the same principles i have in DT (and similar players).
James
February 2, 2009 at 9:50 am
Also, Alwyn Davey doesn’t have as big of a dicount as we thought which really hurts my team. 🙁 Had to get rid of Lynch and replace him with Veszpremi…
Adam
February 2, 2009 at 9:56 am
Why did my team just go to -$248k since last night?
YELP!
mouzer
February 2, 2009 at 10:03 am
Good to see it up and running so early this year! I didn’t pay much attention to SuperCoach last year, but have been doing my homework so far this time around, thanks to the FanFooty Fanplanner 😉
Chris
February 2, 2009 at 10:20 am
How is Sean Rusling $231,000?
Virgil
February 2, 2009 at 10:42 am
Prestigiacomo at $250, 000!
Bargain!!!
Heater
February 2, 2009 at 11:01 am
Woo Hoo! Happy days are here again!!!
Wish Davenport was a back though!!!
wixy
February 2, 2009 at 11:20 am
Marty Clarke backman :D:D:D
get on him
Athomas
February 2, 2009 at 11:30 am
HOULIHAN A DEFENDER!
sam
February 2, 2009 at 12:19 pm
yeah i think i got the same problem as u adam- all of a sudden i just lost about 100K and now some error??? might delete my account and start again…this happening to anyone else
Brad
February 2, 2009 at 12:44 pm
Yep my team was $200K over this morning as well.
Back to the drawing board.
Does anyone think i will get stung by not including any of, Lucas, Coghlan, Hasleby or Headland in my side?
I dont want to suffer like i did last year for not including Stevens or Bradshaw.
I have also taken Priddis over J. Selwood is this a good move.
I have Bartell in the side already but the whisper is that he will not get the same mid field rotations this year and Selwood’s TOG will increase significantly.
In that case i could down grade Bartell to Selwood and use the spare cash elsewhere.
Your thoughts would be greatly appreciated.
Adam
February 2, 2009 at 1:03 pm
My -248k was from Rusling, Ben Ross and Petterd and a few others going way up so I tossed the lot.
I’ve chucked Houlihan in the back, Ziebell in the front and read up on Shaun Higgins. All is now right again with the world.
Scumbag
February 2, 2009 at 1:17 pm
For those with a web server background do you think that the changes they have made will have any difference on the 160 minutes of madness? With respect to last season do you think they even stress test the load they get at that time?
Adam
February 2, 2009 at 1:25 pm
It will definitely make a change in the load, however with Supercoach popularity who knows if it will be enough?
When you go into “trade mode”, you can add and remove players from all positions without refreshing the screen so as whereas before every single trade would take two refreshes, you can now do a dozen trades and it only send the info back to the server when you hit “save my team”
BTW in answer to Monty I spend more time on supercoach because the guys at work decided they like it better than DT, to my dismay. Before it was easier just picking guys who tackle lots or mark, kick, goal = x points but NOOOO! Now I have to know about clearances and effectiveness and all this crap grrrr…. however it was quite funny when my boss had Ben Reid starting and he got a -4 LOL!
james
February 2, 2009 at 1:35 pm
Rookie backs? There is none besides suban. Grrrr.
Ruuuupe
February 2, 2009 at 1:36 pm
YTF is Shaun McKernan a back?????
James
February 2, 2009 at 1:45 pm
Hey james at 1:35, look at Gallman, Petrenko and Kite from Adelaide. They could all line up at round 1 but sadly are fighting for similiar spots. 🙁
james
February 2, 2009 at 1:52 pm
Thanks James ill have to wait for nab cup form.
sam
February 2, 2009 at 2:27 pm
because herald sun opened supercoach early does that put pressure on afl dreamteam to open theres some time today? doubt anyone would know that answer…but still
Nick
February 2, 2009 at 2:27 pm
I was stupid to put a player listed as F/B in the forwards to begin with. I’m certain an extra established player in the forwards will sound it up, but I’m not sure about anyone at rookie 115,300.
James
February 2, 2009 at 2:39 pm
Yeah james just see which of the trio get the call-up in the NAB Cup as this will probably be an indicator as to who will start. Also going to be looking at how Petterd goes in the NAB and I may just start him. I’ll see how it goes.
CC
February 2, 2009 at 3:21 pm
Houli is a back… That could be helpfull.
m0nty
February 2, 2009 at 3:22 pm
Dream Team will open up pretty soon, sam. Have just a little more patience. 😉
Lee
February 2, 2009 at 3:53 pm
Any idea when the NAB Cup/Dream Team version of the AFL Record will hit news-stands?
ShrewDext
February 2, 2009 at 5:20 pm
SC Overall prize is now $50,000!
The Perth Now comp that ran independently from the Herald Sun last year has been merged. I would imagine the same goes for SA.
No more double dipping for us in the west this year – Damn!
mouzer
February 2, 2009 at 5:33 pm
should be this week with the NAB Cup starting on Saturday
mouzer
February 2, 2009 at 5:36 pm
AFL Record should be out this week I meant to say…
BinMan
February 2, 2009 at 5:39 pm
Get on Oakleigh-Nicols for Brownlow….Odds on….
XztatiK
February 2, 2009 at 7:41 pm
Lol at Tim Schmidt’s price!
I’m 100% a DT guy but I’m making an SC team still, the interface does look pretty good – hope the DT one’s similar.
Look out for my Half Back Wankers this year!
stevross
February 2, 2009 at 7:46 pm
Richo is a mid, thats a big change
Heater
February 2, 2009 at 8:36 pm
Anybody having the following problems??
Picked my full team and when I remove a player from the midfield I lose all my rucks & forwards. I then pick them again and suddenly one of my mids (Sidebottom) is in the ruck!!!!
sam
February 2, 2009 at 9:14 pm
yeah had a simalar problem heater…i ended up ditching that account and starting a new one…no computer wiz but might just be an error cos so many ppl are making a side at the same time?
toby
February 2, 2009 at 9:30 pm
who are the best rookies!!!!
its so hard to make a good tem
MiGZ
February 2, 2009 at 10:13 pm
just made my sc team up on herald sun, pretty good side actually, seems abit easy…
XztatiK
February 2, 2009 at 10:55 pm
Too easy. I got 900,000 spare anyone want it?
Jared
February 3, 2009 at 12:36 am
i played SC last year and still dont no how the points work
could some1 list all them if possible
ShrewDext
February 3, 2009 at 12:48 am
Adding a premium price to players taken in the Pre Season Draft is a bit rude IMO.
Rockliff @ $119 is rough given he is an 18 ish y.o. who was overlooked in the initial Draft.
Can you explain this at all Monty, I think it is the 1st year this has happened.
Does this perhaps explain why Cousins and Skipworth are priced higher than first thought.
Brad
February 3, 2009 at 8:24 am
Good question Jared.
The super coach website lists i think 20 ways that your player can score points or lose points for that matter.
However, there are over 50 stats that supercoach use to determine final player rankings.
I would also like to see the entire list of stats that are used to score in this competition so if anyone can point us in the right direction where we can see all 50 of these stats it would be much appreciated.
Nick
February 3, 2009 at 8:38 am
Just FYI, The West Australian and Mark Harvey have climbed right into bed with Stephen Hill after Fremantle’s intra-club match. Harvey said: “Make no mistake, he’ll play in two weeks time against Richmond. He’s an exciting prospect.”
More interestingly he said: “He’s still got to develop in his body and you don’t want to play them too early when physically they’re not there. But this kid seems to be able to get around that.”
I’m just a Freo supporter hoping to get our picks worth from our #3 as quickly as possible, so there’s a heavy bias, but I would like to see him come off the bench for a blinder during the NAB cup, potentially force his way into the team, however slim the chances.
Scumbag
February 3, 2009 at 8:55 am
ShrewDext good pick up on the extra $ for the pre-season picks, I noticed some of the higher rookie draft picks are a little higher too, sometimes higher than a basement draft pick. I don’t see why there was a need to do that sort of thing, the normal draft there’s definitely some facts behind that decision at least.
Quigley
February 3, 2009 at 10:55 am
ShrewDext I initially assumed that Rockliff’s price was an error but it looks like if you are taken high in the PSD you are slugged with a higher price (Jurrah is $144k). Why should being taken in the PSD after being overlooked in the national draft make you more expensive than the other first year players? Very strange.
The one error that I did note was that Murray who is a rookie is listed at 94k rather than the rookie price.
jason
February 3, 2009 at 11:58 am
do you have to fill all 30 spots before the team can be saved? i’m getting a few gremlins cropping up on the interface. any other problems being experienced?
chris
February 3, 2009 at 1:45 pm
Apparently it hasn’t officially been released so possibly still a bit buggy. Esp. since its using a lot of fancy AJAX and seems quite different in IE and FireFox. But you should be able to save at anytime
Rupe
February 3, 2009 at 2:38 pm
Ricky Henderson (ADE) never played even an SANFL game before – taken late in the rookie draft – somehow 90k
Carl Williams
February 3, 2009 at 5:19 pm
Why is John meeson worth nothing in dt????
Burley
February 4, 2009 at 10:31 am
DT is OPEN!!!!!
Nick
February 4, 2009 at 1:17 pm
..and Alwyn Davey is a fair bit more expensive than we though he’d be.
XztatiK
February 4, 2009 at 4:37 pm
IT’S OPEEEEN!!!!
OPEN!!!!!
AAAAAAHHHHHH!!!! IT’S OPEN!!!!!
The top heading thingy looks shit. I’m sick of Dale Thomas being on everything, he hasn’t done shower to put himself in that superstar category yet.
Is a Hilux as good as an Aurion?
WormBurner
February 4, 2009 at 5:11 pm
Anyone been looking at Beames from Collingwood, Hes been killin them in the pre-season, Rich from bris, Zeibell NM.