AS THE days, hours and minutes tick down on the lockout clock for Toyota AFL Fantasy, coaches are making plenty of tweaks to their teams. For the former champions of the game, they’re also feverishly making changes ahead of round one.
2022 looks to be a season like no other.
Tried and true formulas are out the window and those hunting for Fantasy glory will have to change up their game plan in order to be successful … and to fit your 30 players in under the $14.8 million budget.
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Back-to-back champion Selby Lee-Steere (2017/18*) has discussed at length his 'blueprint' for winning Fantasy Classic via moreirasmagic.com.au, but may have to adjust some thinking due to the lack of basement priced players that are likely to play in round one.
The man Selby tied with in 2018, James Robinson, agrees and only has half a squad picked as he waits on news of debutants as that will dictate his structure. Trent Sutcliffe has proven to be a coach who can adapt his game after winning the challenging 2020 season which has been dubbed 'Coronaball' due to the many moving parts of the heavily impacted season.
Warnie sat down for a special episode of the podcast with the trio to answer burning questions posed by Fantasy coaches via social media. The insight from the coaches who have driven away at the end of the season in their Toyota give their two cents on some of the key issues facing coaches as they aim to park a $60,000 Toyota HiLux in their garage as the No. 1 ranked coach this year.
Listen to the AFL Fantasy Podcast with The Traders at Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Google Podcasts.
In this special Coaches’ Corner …
2:00 - How James and Trent went in 2021.
3:00 - "Feel like I put in more work now than I did in 2017" - Selby isn't playing, but is producing is epic season guide.
4:25 - We've got a scarcity of rookies and may have to spend more on the bottom end players.
6:10 - What is the preferred ruck strategy?
8:45 - Do you take any cash into round one?
10:00 - How many rookies do you need to generate cash and how many points do you need from them?
11:45 - Could you go four deep with on-field rookies in the midfield?
14:15 - Zak Butters or Isaac Heeney?
16:20 - The verdict on Matt Crouch, Lachie Neale, Caleb Serong and Patrick Lipinski.
18:00 - Why Trent is disappointed that Justin McInerney and George Hewett performed so well in the pre-season.
21:05 - "Pick the best available" says Selby rather than trying to make your team unique based on ownership.
24:50 - Jack Crisp vs Jake Lloyd?
25:30 - What impact do they bye rounds have on initial team selection?
27:00 - How did they champions go in the last few rounds when they realised they were a shot at winning Fantasy Classic?
29:00 - Last minute advice for coaches finalising their teams this weekend.
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