No, I’m not talking about rating everyone in relation to the Geelong engine room of Ablett-Bartel-Corey. Well, not directly. I’m talking about the way of looking at midfield groups in terms of classing them as A-grade, B-grade and C-grade, as they do on Fox Sports every week on their AFL Teams show. (more…)

Lakey91, a commenter on this very blog, did some research on the Dean Laidley Effect yesterday, which he posted over on BigFooty, that I think bears repeating. Do you wonder why we all think Laidley is the Fantasy Antichrist? Are you trying to think of reasons why you should buy Jack Ziebell even though he has now been enveloped by the Dark Side? Here’s proof of our disdain. (more…)

Whodathunkit, it turns out that the media gets it right once in a while. The much-hyped late switch of Fremantle’s #3 pick from Daniel Rich to Stephen Hill took place as advertised, leaving Brisbane to get an early Christmas present. Those poor old stupid Dockers, when will they ever learn?! (more…)

Draft’s about to start, here we go! (more…)

Oh no, not again. The jungle drums are beating about a prominent fantasy back with a season-wrecking injury that has led to major surgery. Xavier Ellis, who is vying for the spot of most popular back in the Fanplanner, is rumoured (EDIT: now confirmed in the papers!) to have had hip surgery that could put him out well past round 1 of 2009. Will the defender curse of 2008 ever stop? (more…)

While all the media attention will be on the kids and their proud new mentors at the 2008 AFL draft this Saturday, fantasy coaches are also keeping a close eye on where their favoured prospects are going to end up, hoping that they’ll go to a club that desperately needs them in the seniors from Round 1 onwards. So what are the best fits? (more…)

We won’t have the official Champion Data player classifications until the AFL Prospectus comes out in January, but it’s possible to take some educated guesses at what the top draft prospects will be based on Champion’s own guidelines… so let’s cross-reference a projected list with my recent post on rookies’ first one and three games to look for some value. (more…)

You may think that the biggest peril looming in the Ben Cousins saga, which has taken an upturn with the AFL approving his application to rejoin the league, is his predilection for nasty stuff that streams through his veins. Oh no. The real problem is fantasy coaches who are now in mortal danger of becoming addicted to Cousins’ fantasy point scoring potential in 2009. (more…)

You have to read these pre-season training reports like a hawk to make sure you don’t miss anything. Invaluable snippets of info can be buried deep towards the bottom of otherwise mundane stories. Such as today, where a normal story about the Crows’ training plans contained an update on Jason Porplyzia and how he will not resume competitive training for four months. (more…)

It hasn’t taken long for the first big injury news to hit 2009 fantasy teams… it’s barely even November 2008! Matthew Egan is now considering retirement after getting bad news from a specialist in Sydney about the foot he broke in round 22 of 2007. (more…)