CLUBS will announce their teams the day before they play and therefore, a rolling lockout will be in place for AFL Fantasy Classic.
Coaches who participated last season will be well-versed in how to play the game with the daily team announcements and managing their squads with multiple partial lockouts (aka a rolling lockout).
Put simply, you will be able to adjust your team throughout the round; however, once a game commences, players from those clubs will be locked.
Players won’t lockout until their scheduled match time – this means you can trade, substitute, captain and select emergencies right up until their match time.
Full lockout will occur once the final match of the round begins.
Round one and the rolling lockout
Prior to round one, coaches have unlimited trades. You can add and drop players from your team as much as you want. When the first match stats, players in that match will lockout.
This means if they’re in your team, you won’t be able to get rid of them and if they’re not in your team, you won’t be able to add them.
If you’ve selected any of them as a Captain, Vice-Captain or Emergency, they will be locked too.
All other players – whose matches haven’t started – will remain unlocked and you’ll continue to have unlimited changes to use on any player who isn’t locked.
As more and more games begin in round one, you will have fewer and fewer players left that can be removed from or added to your team.
Round one games and lockout times
Thursday, March 18
Richmond vs. Carlton (MCG) 7.25pm AEDT
Friday, March 19
Collingwood vs. Western Bulldogs (Marvel) 7.50pm AEDT)
Saturday, March 20
Melbourne vs. Fremantle (MCG) 1.45pm AEDT
Adelaide Crows vs. Geelong Cats (AO) 4:05pm ACDT, 4.35pm AEDT
Essendon vs. Hawthorn (Marvel) 7.25pm AEDT
Brisbane Lions vs. Sydney Swans (G) 6:45pm AEDT, 7.45pm AEDT
Sunday, March 21
North Melbourne vs. Port Adelaide (Marvel) 1.10pm
GWS Giants vs. St Kilda (GS) 3.20pm
West Coast Eagles vs. Gold Coast Suns (OS) 3:10pm AWST, 6.10pm AEDT
How do the loopholes work?
You can take advantage of the loopholes throughout the rolling lockout.
Firstly, you can name a player as a Vice-Captain and if you like their score, you can name a non-playing player from a team that is yet to play as the Captain. If your Captain doesn’t play, your Vice-Captain gets double points. You would need to place one of your usual on-field players on the bench (with emergency on) in order to get their score to cover for the ‘zero’ that is on your ground.
Secondly, there is the emergency loophole. If you name a player on your interchange as an emergency and you would like that score to be included in your 22 on-field scorers, you can have a non-playing player on the field in that position and therefore your emergency will be activated.
Both of these come with some risk. It is encouraged to have all 30 players in your squad playing. Not only for the options week-to-week, but for the cash generation. During the round, emergencies are important for late changes or players not selected. By using either of these loopholes, you could be facing a donut (score of zero) if another player doesn’t play.
Can I start a team at any time during round one?
Yes!
You can register on Friday and pick a team with players from all clubs except for Richmond and Carlton (as they would be locked from the Thursday night game).
If you start on Saturday morning, there’s still 14 clubs worth of players to pick your squad from. Only players from games that have started will be locked out.
What about Fantasy Draft?
We recommend commissioners change their league settings to a rolling lockout.
There is the option of the standard lockout which will lock players at the start of the round and this will be with information on very few teams. The new Saturday lockout option will lock Draft teams at the start of the first Saturday game. This option means teams would have been named for all but Sunday games.
Stay up to date throughout the season with The Traders in the Fantasy Hub. Follow AFL Fantasy on Twitter and like the Facebook page to join the conversation.
