• Nine things we learned from round one
• After the siren: Mind the gap behind the fearsome Hawks

THIS weekend has been a long time coming. Along with thousands of other NAB AFL Fantasy coaches, we've spent the past few months preparing for round one by crafting our Fantasy line-ups thinking we have the right squad to take out the overall prize and our league premierships.

As soon as the ball was bounced on Thursday night, that all changed.

In the first couple of minutes Brett Deledio was reported, Dale Thomas went down with a shoulder injury and at the end of the game the most popular premium forward, Dustin Martin, finished on just 53 points.

Is this where it ended? No.

On Saturday afternoon, Gary Ablett was far from his best returning from shoulder surgery and Luke Parker was tracking well before being subbed out with concussion. Later that night at the Gabba, Steele Sidebottom broke his thumb and will miss six weeks while Tom Rockliff, the most expensive player in the competition, was sent to hospital with broken ribs and a punctured lung. The midfielder is also set to spend six weeks on the sidelines.

The bad luck continued throughout Easter Sunday and Monday.

If it wasn’t players getting hurt, it was players performing well below their asking price to bring the average scores down for the opening weekend of Fantasy.

Fantasy Pig

Brad Ebert (163 points): Averaging 99 for the past three years, Ebert may break into the 100-plus range if his game on Sunday night is anything to go by. Posting his highest career score, the Port Adelaide midfielder racked up 34 disposals but boosted his numbers by laying seven tackles and taking a game-high 14 marks.

Fantasy Prestigiacomo

Gary Ablett (61 points): It is tough likening Ablett to Presti, one of Fantasy's all-time great underperformers. However Captain Hindsight flew in to remind us that we shouldn't have started with him after not playing any pre-season matches. The Little Master is usually a walk-up start in our Fantasy squads from round one, but after his game on Saturday that saw him only take one mark and not lay any tackles, maybe this year we should have re-considered. Ablett was the sixth most selected player overall and the most popular captain. This may change in round two.

Junior Swine

Kamdyn McIntosh (101 points): We were lucky enough to be at the game on Thursday night and right in front of us was number 33 playing on the wing. This was Kamdyn McIntosh, the defender who we all started on our field before the partial lockout kicked in. At just $120,000, the 21-year-old Tiger was a shining light and one of the top scorers for the 31 per cent of coaches who selected him.

The top five

Brad Ebert MID 163
Jordan Lewis MID 156
Taylor Walker FWD 146
Ollie Wines MID 131
Eddie Betts FWD 130

Tweets of the week

How many coaches were feeling over the weekend as many players under-performed and we started thinking about our trades for round two.

This is a serious possibility! While we’re sure that we won’t have the same bad luck in future weeks, we only have our two trades per week to fix things all of our issues. Someone starting their team this week could make up the 100 points or so per round to get the overall win.

Starting with Rockliff was looking like a good move for the 18 per cent of coaches starting with him for their perma-captain each round. With around six weeks on the sidelines, coaches are left with no choice but to trade. Thankfully we have two trades to use each week. The one positive thing about having to trade Rocky out is that you can do whatever you want and potentially set yourself up for trades in futures weeks. Your first choice should be to select a reliable captain option such as Scott Pendlebury or possibly an up-and-comer like Luke Parker, who was looking great before he was subbed out. Alternatively, you can select a mid-priced player who will look at increasing in value over the next few weeks. Rockliff's teammate Daniel Rich could be one of the biggest movers this season and over half of the competition chose to go into the season without him.

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