Well isn’t this a nice little slate to get the weekend started early. An entree of two mediocre teams who can be attacked in certain ways for fantasy points, followed by a bit of a blockbuster which should offer up some nice fantasy angles as well. 

There is another $50,000 main contest (Two Games) on Draftstars, as well as all the usual options:

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In addition to previews for each and every slate this season, Daily Fantasy Rankings will continue with our AFL Resources page. This section provides you all the data you need to build your best lineups. It includes daily cheat sheets for both Draftstars and DraftKings, Player Correlation tables, Player Out tables, Scores Against tables, Tagging information, statistical breakdowns and much more!

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Hawthorn v Essedon at Adelaide Oval (Ess - 5.5 Total = 122.5)

Richmond v West Coast at Metricon Stadium (Rich - 2.5 Total = 123.5)

 

Teams: There are 2-3 changes for each team, the most significant being both Draper and Bellchambers out for Essendon, replaced by Phillips and Daniher. Both Jon Ceglar and Toby Nankervis come into muddy the waters in their respective ruck departments.

Trends: 

The obvious game to target on trends is the early game, with both teams in the top 5 for total fantasy points conceded. It doesn’t necessarily always pan out when bad teams play each other, but I do think Essendon have a good chance to rack up some points here.

The most well-known and obvious trend is backs against Hawthorn, but you can attack them anywhere. Beware that they restrict bottom 3 midfielders really well, so look at Essendon’s premium options instead. Mids, Forwards and Rucks are all good plays against Essendon, so a Hawks upset could be a lucrative stack. The best plays in the late game are premium Backs and Mids against Richmond, who give up a lot of uncontested ball in the back half of the field.

 

FWD: Well I’ll start by saying I’m not interested in Joe Daniher ($9,070 DS / $4,400 DK ), I just can’t see him being in top form straight away. Instead I’ll take some shots at Jake Stringer ($9,260 / $4,500) who had a shocking 12 in his first game back last week but did some really nice things pre-injury. Young Irving Mosquito ($6,010 / $3,300) also interests me as a young forward who just showed us he can touch 50 points and is still cheap enough to take a punt on. Jonathan Patton ($5,000 / $3,100) is fine as a min priced punt that only needs a goal or two to exceed 40 points. Chad Wingard ($11,850 / $5,800) holds some interest if you think Hawthorn can spring an upset, but he’s mostly stuck in the forward line lately so it’s a very risky play. Jarrod Brander ($8,760 / $4,300) has been growing into his wing role, and to my eye he looked pretty good last week. 3 of his 6 scores this year have been 60+, which I will take at his price with a pretty solid floor in the mid-40s.

 

If I am playing anyone from Richmond it’s probably Dustin Martin ($13,780 / $7,300), who surely has to play the whole game in the midfield again if Richmond are a chance. My only query will be the inclusion of Mark Hutchings who has done tagging roles against Martin in the past. 

 

MID: As I said, Mids against Hawthorn hasn’t been a great play, so I prefer to look at someone like Liam Shiels ($12,240 / $6,100) in that game, who has a big ceiling and can score well in various roles. Tom Mitchell ($15,300 / $8,000) and James Worpel ($14,270 / $7,400) have also been scoring well and there’s no reason they won’t do it again if you can find room for them at season high salaries. Of the West Coast premiums my favourite plays are Dom Sheed ($13,060 / $6,400) and Andrew Gaff ($15,440 / $7,800), who can both rack up plenty of uncontested ball and have regular 100+ ceilings at reasonable prices. I don’t have much confidence in any Richmond options to give us a GPP winning score.

 

The big value play is Xavier O’Neill ($5,650 / $3,500), who managed to sneak to 46 points on debut last week and is fairly safe at almost minimum price again.

 

DEF: How many Essendon backs can I recommend? I’ll start with Mason Redman ($9,050 / $4,600) who is priced nicely for a guy with a couple of 60+ scores in his last 3 and an 80+ at the start of the year. My favourite player to pair him with might be Cale Hooker ($8,160 / $3,900) who has been out a while and hasn’t scored great this year, but does have some nice historical ceiling games to lean on. Jordan Ridley ($13,150 / $6,500) is a great scorer but he’s gotten a little too expensive for me. Jack Scrimshaw ($8,500 / $4,800) is the one player I like from Hawthorn with his growing confidence, good recent scoring, and seemingly a bump from James Sicily going down. A similar option for the Eagles is Josh Rotham ($8,720 / $4,900), with 3 nice scores in a row and a solid matchup against Richmond.

 

Jeremy McGovern ($10,490 / $5,600) is another that has been scoring well and has great upside at his price if West Coast engage in a little kick to kick in the back line.

 

RUCK: I’m staying away from the dual ruck setups of Hawthorn and Richmond, so we’re left with Andrew Phillips ($10,620 / $5,200) in the early game who should be a reasonably safe cash play for around 60 points. For a little extra the obvious play on this slate is Nic Naitanui ($12,590 / $6,700) who has been in some nice form and has a good matchup, although the dual ruck setup at Richmond could make things a little more difficult.

 

The wildcard is Bailey Williams ($5,000 / $2,900), an athletic young ruckman that likely won’t have a great ceiling himself, but could steal enough time from Nic Nat to take away his ceiling.

 

Final Word: Don’t forget that we have a 4:40pm start time for this slate, very strange indeed. You can stack any team on this slate with no clear cut results, so get funky with it! Good Luck.

 

Dragon's Suggested Draftstars Team

Dragon's Suggested DraftKings Team

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