Those of you fantasy nuts out there who are interested in American sports are well into the fantasy giridron season, with the NFL into week 6, with baseball just finishing up and basketball about to start again. One of the features that is a staple of fantasy analysis in the States is the team depth chart, and I’m wondering if something like that would be useful for Australian fantasy coaches.
The depth chart - an example at Rotoworld here - is a list of players for each real team sorted by position, and then sorted again by likelihood of playing in the next game. In baseball and basketball the positions are set which makes it pretty simple (i.e. the top player plays if fit), whereas in gridiron the amount of running backs, wide receivers, tight ends, linebackers etc change for each play so the depth chart is a guide only. One thing you’ll note in that Rotoworld chart is that players can qualify for multiple lists depending on their role.
In Australian football it would probably be silly, in these tactically advanced times, to rank each of the 18 onfield positions. Taking a bit of a leaf from the Champion Data positional designations, I think it would be more prudent to look at the following (with usual distribution in an AFL team in brackets):
- Key defenders (3)
- Small defenders (3)
- Key forwards (3)
- Small forwards (3)
- Inside midfielders (4)
- Outside midfielders (4)
- Rucks (2)
- Taggers (n/a… taken from other positions)
Alright, let’s use that as a template and see what we can come up with using a real AFL team. Why not my Hawks! 
|
Key defenders Trent Croad Campbell Brown Stephen Gilham Thomas Murphy Zac Dawson Hugh Sandilands |
Small defenders Luke Hodge Brent Guerra Grant Birchall Xavier Ellis Matt Suckling |
Key forwards Lance Franklin Jarryd Roughead Jarryd Morton Tim Boyle Mitch Thorp Beau Dowler |
Small forwards Mark Williams Cyril Rioli Michael Osborne Stuart Dew Cameron Stokes |
| Inside midfielders Sam Mitchell Brad Sewell Jordan Lewis Tim Clarke Josh P. Kennedy Ben McGlynn Beau Muston Garry Moss |
Outside midfielders Chance Bateman Clinton Young Shane Crawford Rick Ladson Travis Tuck Brendan Whitecross Alex Grima |
Rucks Robert Campbell Brent Renouf Simon Taylor Max Bailey Luke McEntee Tim Walsh |
Taggers Brad Sewell Michael Osborne Rick Ladson Chance Bateman Xavier Ellis |
No doubt this is a fun thing to do, and the comments will contain arguments over certain players’ eligibility and ranking, but is this table really worthwhile for a fantasy coach? In some ways it’s just self-evident. However, I reckon it might be valuable in figuring out who each rookie and draftee has to fight out for a spot in his team’s 22. What do you think?
i have a Nfl fantasy team just to keep me occupied until footy starts again champion data should make some sort of crcket dream team.
Champion data Max? Virtualsports should.
They stopped running the NBL DT so I’m stuck with some shitty Sportal thing. Hate Sportal…
aaaannnnyway yeah I think a depth chart in AFL DT is about as much use as Jarryd Morton as a key-forward lol
But here’s the Crows’ anyway:
KD:
N.Bock
B.Rutten
S.Stevens
A.Kite
SD:
G.Johncock
A.McLeod
K.Massie
B.Symes
KF:
B.Burton
T.Walker
K.Tippett
N.Gill
T.Hentschel
L.Jericho
SF:
J.Porplyzia
S.Goodwin
R.Douglas
J.Petrenko
J.Jacky
IM:
S.Thompson
T.Edwards
N.van Berlo
M.Doughty
R.Shirley
OM:
C.Knights
B.Vince
B.Reilly
D.Mackay
P.Dangerfield
A.Otten
M.Cook
RU:
Maric
Moran
Griffin
TA:
R.Shirley
N.van Berlo
M.Doughty
B.Symes
That’s fair hard when there are so many ‘utility’ players. Tough to distinguish between inside and outside mids sometimes too.
I’m building a page to get these up permanently. My efforts at Adelaide and the Lions are done:
http://www.fanfooty.com.au/players/depthchart.php?team=AD
http://www.fanfooty.com.au/players/depthchart.php?team=BL
Nice! dont wanna be pedantic lol but just a few things u should definitely change for the Crows:
Bassett’s retired - Campbell and Gallman have got one foot out the door as well, thats why i didnt have them in mine.
Dangerfield is 100% an outside mid. Probably Dougie too if he’s not a SF. And Cook.
You’ve got Armstrong twice - he’s playing SANFL reserves atm so best leave him at the bottom.
Aaaand NVB is much more of a tagger than Edwards. Good call on Douglas as a tagger though, i forgot him in mine.
good effort! it would be tough doing all 16 and then keeping them up to date.
Good job on the brizzy one too. I bet it wouldve killed u to put Albert Proud behind Begley eh!
ahh, the key forwards that are the envy of all sides. Burton out for the year, walker never played a game, tippett not a game breaker, gill could kick reliably from 10m out, hentschel’s last game was 2 years ago and im pretty sure that Kericho got delisted didn’t he? As a Port man, i love that the crows never go after a quality forward.
KF:
B.Burton
T.Walker
K.Tippett
N.Gill
T.Hentschel
L.Jericho