The final AFL drafts for 2008 take place on Tuesday week, with six picks up for grabs in the pre-season draft, and rookie numbers set to expand to as many as eight at some clubs with concessions given as part of the introduction of the Gold Coast team. Fantasy relevance may be limited for some clubs, with others hiding some gems you’ll need to know about. (more…)

Kudos to the Age for daring to report on the speech given by Justin Shaffer, senior vice-president new media for Major League Baseball, last week which referenced the AFL’s exclusive $60 million online content deal with Telstra. This is a topic which needs more background to understand exactly why the AFL has shortchanged online fans for so long. (more…)

One of the things fantasy coaches always look for in national AFL drafts is the mature age player: a player who for whatever reason comes into the league significantly older than the 17 to 18 years of age that is the norm among AFL draftees. Think Darren Pfeiffer from last year’s draft, or Alwyn Davey of a couple of seasons ago. There are a handful of young men who fit the bill this year who should factor into your decisions. (more…)

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…)