MATT Mottram has been playing Fantasy football for several seasons. He has always had the goal of being the No.1 coach in Toyota AFL Fantasy and 2022 was his year!

It is quite a challenge playing the Official Fantasy game of the AFL, but Matt didn't expect it to be as tough at it was after hitting the front at round nine and holding on.

Matt tells his story of beating almost 150,000 coaches to win the Toyota HiLux and the title of No.1 Fantasy coach in the land.

Picking my starting squad

Although no-one starts with a perfect team, it is important to nail most of the right rookies and a few mid-pricers.

This year we were lucky to have some obvious rookie selections for our squads like Nick Daicos, Jason Horne-Francis, Nic Martin, Josh Ward and Josh Rachele, with Daicos being the standout.

We also had some nice mid-priced picks we could rely on like Will Brodie, George Hewett and James Sicily, who I failed to include in my starting squad. If you had most of the rookies and at least a few of these mid-priced selections you were set up well to attack the season.

When picking my starting premiums my aim was to find value. As a result, I didn't start with the top-priced players Jack Steele or Touk Miller. Instead, I went with Jack Macrae and Josh Kelly who I thought would outscore what they were priced at and a couple of value premiums like Lachie Neale and Patrick Cripps. Although Macrae had a poor last half of the season and Kelly took a while to heat up, they scored well enough, while Cripps and Neale both had hot starts to the year.

I had three mid-priced selections with Hewett, Matt Rowell and Brodie. Two of these were season-defining picks. I also started with Tim English at R2 with Braydon Preuss on the bench. This helped me to make some key trades early.

Making key moves early 

Moving on underperformers early and a few correction trades was the key to setting up my season.

Bringing in Sicily after round one helped fix my backline issues, while trading Rowell out after round two helped get me ahead of the curve. Rowell went on a horrid run and many were still trying to get him out several rounds later.

This really gave me a jump on the competition as I was able to get in Andrew Brayshaw in the Rowell trade. Having Preuss slot into my rucks, I was able to trade Brodie Grundy with Rowell for Brayshaw and a rookie, setting me up for a great run.

Getting in the right players before they went on good runs also set up my season. I brought in Jordan Dawson in round four and Callum Mills the following week. Dawson ended up being a top three defender, while Mills went on a scoring run averaging 122 for me over an eight-week span. This included scores of 162, 131 and 156. Max Gawn came in at round six for his 119 and 149 and Luke Parker in round seven for his 119 after gaining FWD status.

It was these early trades that set my season up, catapulting me from 14,552nd after round one all the way to 17th overall after round seven.

Getting to No.1 and staying there

Being aggressive early was the theme of my winning season and it's what got me to No.1.

Over rounds eight and nine I traded out the top rookies Daicos and Horne-Francis and was able to bring in an under-priced Miller and Darcy Cameron who had recently inherited the No.1 ruck duties from an injured Grundy. Cameron ended up being a winning pick for me and for most who brought him in around this time. I also brought in Tom Stewart who scored a massive 169 a few weeks later.

By the end of round nine, I had moved to No.1 overall and was fast approaching a full team of premiums. This was largely due to aggressive trading and having some super mid-priced picks who became premiums like Brodie and Sicily.

Having reached the pinnacle of the No.1 spot in AFL Fantasy, my next question was how do I stay there?

Being a serious AFL Fantasy fan, I knew immediately that no-one who had got to No.1 this early had ever won the competition. With the byes only a few weeks away I didn't want to get ahead of myself. I made sure I had an even spread of players to cover me over the byes and a plan for who I would be targeting during those weeks.

By the end of the byes, I had brought in Zach Merrett, Marcus Bontempelli, Tim English (again) and the new Fantasy pig Rory Laird. My team was now a full team of premiums by round 15. This put me ahead of the competition, allowing me to make luxury trades and bring in the best players in each line.

This was unique to 2022 as in previous years teams weren't complete until later in the year. For this reason, I was able to keep my top ranking and hold it as long as I did, unlike other years. Yes, I had some carnage along the way. I didn't avoid the bad luck that we all suffer with injuries, concussions and late outs. But being in this good position so early made it less damaging.

Getting things wrong along the way

No-one plays a perfect season. It's impossible and I made plenty of mistakes along the way. I had several failed captain choices, including the time I put the C on Callum Mills for a return of 54 points. This cost me a large chunk of my lead and allowed those chasing me to catch up considerably.

Not all my trades were good. Even though moving on rookies early is the right play, trading Daicos as early as I did hurt me in the end. Teams near me at the top who still had him caught me when Daicos had those big scores to end the year. I also regretted trading out Sicily over Jayden Short/Jack Crisp with three rounds to go. His 151 in the final round would have made the final weekend a lot more comfortable.

Finally, that man nicknamed 'the Berg' tormented me for the last half of the year. Harry Himmelberg was another winning pick like Darcy Cameron and not getting on him early really hurt me, especially when 'Shuckas', the second-ranked team, owned him. When I finally got Himmelberg in for the last round he had one of his worst scores.

Bringing it home

It proved to be a challenge over the last few weeks in my attempt to bring it home.

I was always aware of the top teams chasing me and kept notes on their points of difference and trades each week. I did this while making sure I still played my own game.

My main aim was to keep getting the best players available in each line. We had a few injuries as the season rounded out. Tim English (again), Josh Kelly, George Hewett and a late out Stephen Coniglio to throw us all into a mad panic. The move that probably won me the HiLux in the end was captaining Zach Merrett for his 172. This was round 20 and I was still about 100 points ahead of second. I had planned to captain Rory Laird against Carlton but had been thinking about changing it due to the harder match-up. I ended up swapping it off Laird and onto Merrett last second due to a hunch I had at the time.

As you probably know by now, Merrett was sitting on 37 points at half-time against North Melbourne. I honestly thought 'What the hell have I done?' Fortunately, Merrett came out after half-time and went on a record run, scoring 135 points in the last half to total 172 as my captain. I have no doubt, without this happening, 'Shuckas' in second place would have caught me and the last few weeks may have turned out a lot different.

Coming into the last week my lead had been cut to 38 points. In AFL Fantasy that is nothing, and although it gave me a slight advantage, the nerves I felt all weekend were intense.

It had come down to me and ‘Shuckas’ as the rest had dropped away and were unlikely to pull it back due to having a lot of the same players. My strategy was to match him as much as possible to limit the variances, hoping it would fall in my favour. I was able to match his captain, going with Rory Laird and in the end, we had three different players.

It all came down to the last day, where I needed 129 points from Bailey Smith and Jack Crisp. Smith copped the Finn Maginness tag against the Hawks and was struggling until the tag was moved to Tom Liberatore in the last quarter. This literally saved me as he ended up on 74 points, meaning I only needed 56 from Crisp to win the HiLux!

I had the family over and we all cheered every mark and kick Crisp got. He got to that elusive 56 late in the third and finished on 72 for the game. We celebrated but all I felt was relief.

After leading for 15 weeks, the pressure had been immense, and to hold it that long and finally get over the line, was just pure relief. Since then, it has started to sink in and I am super proud of what I accomplished to become the overall winner of AFL Fantasy classic for 2022.

Advice for next year

I am still undecided if I will take a year off or come back to have another crack at it. Either way, no Fantasy year is ever the same.

My advice in the pre-season is to make as many notes as you can on players moving teams, role changes and who is getting the famous “more midfield time". Follow all the amazing content we have out there now on AFL Fantasy and listen in to all the podcasts, especially the three legends from the Traders!

I haven't given much thought as to some early picks for next year, but I do like Lachie Whitfield’s value with a new coach and the way Jy Simpkin and Connor Rozee finished off the year. Hopefully Brodie Grundy can end up somewhere he can ruck solo all day. Keep looking for value, pick players you like and follow your gut. You may just win that HiLux.

Good luck and see you next year!

Matt Mottram
Coach of Mottram's Marvels