IT'S the format of AFL Fantasy that continues to grow every year, and for good reason.
Not only is it great fun among friends with plenty of banter, it comes with arguably the best day on the Fantasy calendar – Draft Day.
So what is it?
Fantasy Draft is played by a group of people who create a league to compete for the ultimate prize – premiership glory – during the Toyota AFL Premiership Season.
A draft takes place at a time agreed upon by your league and you alternate picks until everyone finishes with a unique team.
Hopefully yours is good enough to take you to glory – with the help of a few sneaky trades.
How does it work?
First, you need to create a league at fantasydraft.afl.com.au and invite a group of friends to join.
This makes you the Commissioner, the boss of the league with all the power. The Commissioner is in charge of getting the settings sorted and getting the crew together for Draft Day.
You can create a league of between two and 20 players. The ideal settings for your league can be found on page four of this year's Fantasy Draft Kit.
Then, you need to set a time for a draft. When that time comes, coaches must be ready to select the players they want. This is Draft Day, and you should make it a day, or weekend, to enjoy, where everyone comes together to pick their teams.
Every coach gets their turn to pick a player through the draft until everyone's squad is full.
Once your draft is compete and teams are set, get ready for the start of the Toyota AFL Premiership Season. But, don't forget, you can still make trades to strengthen your team, or pick up players who weren't picked in the first place.
Every round you go head-to-head with your mates, trying to book a spot in the finals and ultimately, to win your league.
In one way, this is easier than Classic. Rather than having to make trades every week, you can just move players on and off the bench, and change captains, throughout the season. If you wanted to, that's all you have to do!
Fantasy Draft follows the same scoring system as Classic, or you can opt to customise scoring to make some parts of the game more, or less, important. Points for a clearance or a spoil? Make it happen.
Think it sounds hard?
Think again. The Traders compile a yearly Fantasy Draft Kit – this year's is available here – to help you draft your team.
There's a Mock Draft and player rankings to help you pick the best team you can. Warnie has been doing positional rankings that you can find on AFL.com.au/fantasy, and there's more to come.
There's no better feeling than when you find a hidden gem late in a draft, and they play a key role in your success.
Landing Nick Daicos, Harry Sheezel, Marcus Bontempelli or Rowan Marshall in a draft is great, but late picks can be crucial.
Listen to the AFL Fantasy Podcast with The Traders at Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
Anything else I need to know?
Sure, and it's impressive. The Fantasy Draft platform has been rebuilt for 2025 with A STACK of new features. The new Draft Board is slick and there are a bunch of game-changing features.
How do we decide our draft order?
Here are some ways to decide your draft order.
What happens to the team that finishes last?
Well, this is your choice. It can be nothing, or it can be plenty. Here are some ideas for you.
I've heard about Keeper Leagues. What is it?
A Keeper League is a draft-style league where instead of drafting a new team every year, you keep players from year-to-year. At the end of each season you select which player you want to keep, who you want to delist and then top up your squad for the following season via a draft.
Page five of the Draft Kit has more details.
Everything else you might need
Fantasy Draft: All the features as new platform launches
Fantasy Draft rankings: Warnie's top 30 defenders
Fantasy Draft rankings: Warnie's top 40 midfielders
Fantasy Draft rankings: Warnie's top 15 rucks
Fantasy Draft rankings: Warnie's top 30 forwards
Fantasy cheat sheet: Match sims, injuries, role changes, more
