AFL FANTASY IS OPEN: Make your team now

HAVE YOU ever wanted to be an AFL coach? Here’s your chance!

Fantasy coaches manage a squad throughout the home and away rounds of Toyota AFL Premiership Season with their team success based on players’ actual on-field performances.

Your Fantasy team will accumulate points from Champion Data’s official statistics of games each round as you go head-to-head with your mates and people all over the world.

PLAY AFL FANTASY Pick your team NOW

For every kick your player has, they’ll get three points. Defender Daniel Rich enjoyed the highest average for kicks with 21.4 per game. A tackle gains you four points helping make Jack Steele (8.4 per game) one of the competition’s best Fantasy players. Rucks keep their score ticking over with one point for each hitout making Brodie Grundy and Max Gawn consistently the top two rucks due to their average of 32 hitouts last season.

Finding players whose game gets stats from the key scoring categories is the key to Fantasy success.

You can follow the fortunes of your team live through the AFL Fantasy website and app as games are playing out in real time. The Match Centre on AFL.com.au and the AFL Live app provide up-to-date AFL Fantasy stats as games progress.

It’s a fun way to add to your enjoyment of watching the greatest game on Earth

Fantasy Classic

The most popular game is AFL Fantasy Classic. You are given a budget of $14,800,000 to select a squad of 30 players. Last year’s No.1 Fantasy player, Touk Miller, will set you back $1,024,000 due to his 122.1 average. The cheapest players are draftees and many who are yet to play a game start at $190,000.

FANTASY PRICES Million-dollar men unveiled

Your squad is made up of 22 on-field players who will score points each week. A bench of eight players, of which four are emergencies, can be used if one of your on-field players are out.

The 30 players are made up of eight defenders, 10 midfielders, three rucks, eight forwards and one bench utility who can be chosen from any position.

To fit a team in under the salary cap, you’ll need a mix of some of the cheaper players, discounted gems and premiums to make sure you’re getting bang for your buck.

BARGAIN HUNTING Calvin's best Fantasy buys

What makes playing AFL Fantasy fun is playing in a league against your mates. You can set up a head-to-head league featuring between four and 20 of your friends or be involved in an open league with unlimited entrants, perfect for large workplaces.

The Gill McLachlan of your group is referred to as the commissioner. They can set your league up, send out invites and let the banter begin.

Listen to the AFL Fantasy Podcast with The Traders at Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Google Podcasts.

Fantasy Draft

There are a number of reasons that many leagues are opting to make AFL Fantasy Draft their game of choice among their mates.

In Fantasy Draft, you play against your league mates by holding a draft prior to the season commencing to select your squads. Each coach will take it in turns to make a pick. As soon as a player has been selected, no one else can pick them up. Every team is unique.

So if you’re keen on owning Aaron Hall, the top scoring defender in 2021, you’ll need to get him before your league mates. But once you’ve got him, he’s yours to keep! That is unless someone wants to facilitate a trade for him…

DRAFT CUSTOMISATION Check out all these options introduced in 2021

Draft day is one of the best days on the calendar. Get a crew together and lock in a date to hold your draft. You can host your draft from Thursday 3 February.

A significant amount of customisation is available for commissioners to choose from when setting up their league. Advanced scoring is a popular new feature where you can change the value of points from the traditional scoring system and include other statistics such as spoils, goal assists, contested disposals, effectiveness of disposals, clangers and a whole heap more.

Once your league is set up and you’ve joined, you can go ahead and compile your rankings in preparation for Draft Day.

FANTASY DRAFT RANKINGS Roy's top players by position

Another feature added last season was Keeper Leagues.

In a keeper league, coaches can keep players from year-to-year and manage their squad like a list manager. Commissioners can set the number of players you intend to keep ahead of the draft. They will be unavailable to select on draft day.

More features have been added for season 2022 such as the ability to assign certain picks to coaches; handy if you’re open for pick trading/swaps in your league.

FANTASY FREAKO'S NOTES 22 rookies to keep tabs on

Fantasy Draft is continuing to evolve with new additions based on feedback from fans. A new 5-team finals structure has been added as well as the ability to change your team name across your draft leagues.

Get expert advice from The Traders during the pre-season in the Fantasy Hub. Follow AFL Fantasy on Twitter and 'like' the Facebook page to join in the conversation.