The Traders, AFL.com.au's resident Fantasy experts, are back for 2015 with the freshest take on all things Fantasy. Join Warnie, Roy and Calvin throughout the pre-season for club-by-club guides and the most extensive Fantasy coverage of the NAB Challenge.
SUMMERTIME for us means sun, sand, sausages and spending time studying for a new season of NAB AFL Fantasy.
As school teachers, we are currently on holidays so at this time of the year we are full-time Fantasy coaches. In between the beach and barbecues, we are taking notes and participating in healthy debate about who we will be starting with (and importantly, without) in our initial Fantasy squads before the first lockout in early-April.
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Firstly, we like to highlight the bargains of the year and fit them in around the proven performers. In the past we have traditionally looked to go with the tried and true guns and rookies strategy. This season, we need to look for value more than ever before due to the player prices being higher than previous years.
While we may have often talked each other into picking or leaving certain players through group-think, this pre-season we all have very different ideas about who will make the final cut of our individual sides.
The task of selecting a side that would represent The Traders was quite challenging… and lengthy, clocking in at around four hours of arguments (or, as we call it, healthy debate)!
As the reigning premier of our league, Roy held court and, with conviction, made the final decision on some of the hotly contested choices. Calvin and I made sure some of our must-haves made the final squad, even if they copped ridicule from fellow Traders.
In essence, every one of these players appears in at least one of our teams.
Starting with the midfield, only Roy is starting with Tom Rockliff but he makes a convincing case that the points we would get from him as our captain will make him worthwhile, even if he drops a few dollars. He also argues that to be able to upgrade someone to him will require a lot going right over the first few weeks, and it may take until after the byes to get the Fantasy Pig into our teams.
We’ve chased some value in Scott Selwood, Nathan Van Berlo and Daniel Rich who are all returning from injury-affected seasons.
Premium defenders are lacking in our team. I am devastated that my boy Michael Hibberd didn’t make the cut despite putting out there that I was the highest ranked coach at the end of the season of the three of us (748th overall for the record).
With a mid-priced strategy down back, we’ve selected players who we think have upside; including the heavily discounted Beau Waters and Brendan Whitecross. There has been plenty of hype already about Jack Newnes, who has gained defender status this year, stepping things up and potentially finishing the season as one of the best available in the position.
Quite possibly the most popular starting ruck combo will include, as Calvin dubbed them, the Matt Attack. Together, Matthew Leuenberger and Matthew Kreuzer will cost you less than either Stefan Martin or Sam Jacobs, the two highest averaging ruckmen of 2014. This allows us to again save some dollars to spend elsewhere. For us, that's in the forward line.
The Fantasy Gods have looked after coaches this year. Brendon Goddard, Brett Deledio and the original Fantasy Pig, Dane Swan, are among the big names to gain dual position status in 2015. It was unanimous decision for us to include the trio in our squad. Adding FWD/MID hero Dustin Martin and the superstar Lance Franklin, we’ve gone big up forward with five of, who we believe, will be in the top six forwards for 2015.
We are in for a challenging and year of Fantasy. Our own teams will chop and change many times over the next few weeks as we hear about another player who is “training the house down” or is having “the best pre-season ever”.
The NAB Challenge from February 26 will give us some more data to help us tweak our squads. Every player will again be on the radar and it’ll only take a ton in one of the practice matches for us to scream “LOCK HIM IN”!
Stay tuned to AFL.com.au for the very best Fantasy coverage from The Traders. Follow the boys on Twitter and Facebook to stay up to date this pre-season.
THE TRADERS' FANTASY TEAM: FIRST CUT
