IT IS AFL Fantasy Draft season. Thousands of leagues across the country are holding their live drafts as coaches take it in turns to build their 2017 squads.

Ideally, draft day should be in the few days leading up to round one. The footy-free weekend between the JLT Community Series and the Richmond v Carlton season opener is the perfect time to put some pies in the oven, and get your crew of mates around to hold the draft.

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While there appears to be more premium defenders than forwards at the top end, 50 players averaged more than 70 points last season. 72 forwards were able to achieve this.

Using ADP data (Average Draft Pick), 11 defenders have been taken within the top 50 selections in drafts held so far this year.

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Taylor Adams is a first-round pick, with some coaches keen to take Heath Shaw among the early picks. Together we believe that Rory Laird could be a bit of a bargain based on his ADP.

The same can be said for pre-season bolters Zach Tuohy and Callum Mills.

It appears that a run of defender selections is common around the third to sixth round, locking away the top line players down back before the scoring drops away.

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The Traders' defender rankings
We've ranked our top defenders in the order that we would select them on draft day. The rankings were then combined to create a consensus order. ADP (Average Draft Pick) is based on data from completed drafts at the beginning of this week, and refers to the overall average position players were drafted.