EVEN though AFL officially kicked off last weekend with the Opening Round, it’s not too late to start playing AFL Fantasy.
Head to fantasy.afl.com.au to create your team and claim bragging rights over your mates.
The Traders’ starting team for 2025 has been shaped from hours of pre-season research, the AAMI Community Series and, of course, last week’s Opening Round.
This round gave us a free look at some players and even though they will now have an early bye, there were some scores that are too good to ignore.
Defenders
The biggest talking point here is the fact we are going against the 56 per cent of Fantasy coaches and not starting Harry Sheezel (DEF, $1,151,000). A move like this is fraught with danger and a decision that wasn’t easy. At the end of the day, you can’t start with all the top players, and some big decisions need to be made.
With the rescheduling of the Brisbane v Geelong game, the door has opened for Max Holmes (DEF/MID, $969,000) who no longer has an early bye. Geelong’s No.1 player averaged 95 last season and should improve on that once again.
Even with an early bye, players like Matt Roberts (DEF, $780,000) and Harry Perryman (DEF, $759,000) cannot be overlooked. Both had great scores of 104 and 90 respectively in the Opening Round and are both drastically under-priced.
Fingers crossed Sam De Koning (DEF, $564,000) is named as Geelong’s No.1 ruck when teams drop this Thursday night. He had the role in the AAMI Community Series and could average 80-plus if the role remains.
Midfielders
With an effort to minimise rookies on field, we have elected to go with just Levi Ashcroft (MID, $328,000) on field in the midfield. He’s supported by some cheap options in Hugo Garcia (MID/FWD, $421,000) and Nathan O’Driscoll (MID, $441,000) who both appear to have new roles and more opportunities in their respective teams for 2025.
At the top end we have gone with Jordan Dawson (MID, $1,080,000) who is coming off a very impressive score of 135 in the AAMI Community Series. Last year he only attended 59 per cent of Adelaide’s centre bounces. A spike in this number will only mean a big spike in his scoring output.
Even though he was temporarily crossed off our list, it is now too hard to look past Will Day (MID, $760,000) after what did in the Opening Round. He scored 96 in the first half against Sydney and finished the day on 129. Day now has a breakeven of 30 and could be worth over $900,000 in a matter of weeks.
Rucks
Boring and predictable. Sorry guys, there’s no surprises here.
Tristan Xerri (RUCK, $1,175,000) and Tom De Koning (RUCK, $900,000) will be a very popular starting combination for obvious reasons.
Xerri is coming off a huge breakout season where he averaged 125 after his bye and De Koning looks set to be Carlton’s No.1 ruck, taking over the reins from the injured Marc Pittonet.
Your captain scores you double points in AFL Fantasy and with Xerri playing against the Western Bulldogs in round one, a team he had 122 and 129 against last year… the decision is an easy one.
Forwards
The forward line is an area that hasn’t really changed since Fantasy opened all those weeks ago.
The ex-Bulldogs… Jack Macrae (FWD, $732,000), Bailey Smith (MID/FWD, $598,000) and Caleb Daniel (MID/FWD, $514,000) were the first players we locked in. Even with a few injury scares over the pre-season, this won’t be changing, and this trio will be extremely popular for starting line-ups.
One rookie on field in the forward line was another easy decision after Sam Davidson (FWD, $230,000) lit up his AAMI game against the Hawks with an eye-catching 102. Now, we can’t expect that each and every week but a score of 60 from any on-field rookie is more realistic.
