We are at the time of year when a major event for many sport fanatics is fast approaching: the often anticipated – for the prepared – and also dreaded – for the unprepared – deadline of when Dream Teams must be submitted for the season ahead.
For the uninitiated, the AFL Dream Team basically involves picking a squad of 30 players under a salary cap, of whom 22 will score points for you (through a scoring scheme) based on their performance that weekend.
For more details visit Dream Team 101
If you forget to set up your AFL Dream Team by the time of the deadline, you will regret it for the whole football season. You will not be able to watch matches, and hope that Buddy Franklin kicks no goals, after being completely outplayed by a dominant Harry Taylor. Or watch matches and hope that Collingwood wins after a best on ground appearance by Dale Thomas.
This article seeks to help those with no idea on how to pick their perfect team underneath a salary cap.
There are a number of tips and tactics used to pick a team that will remain successful and consistent throughout the season.
1. Watching the NAB cup is a must for Dream Team fans to seek out those players who have put in the hard yards in the preseason, and will surely pay off for your team, with a greater amount of points compared to their market value. You can see the points each player accumulates in preseason matches, by looking at Fan Footy. You can also view previous season scores on this website.
2. Check the injury status of all your picks. It is a bad start to the season if you accidentally pick a player who will be out for the first 8 weeks, and have to use up one of your valuable trades on something avoidable.
3. Pick some youngsters who will rise in value quickly. Some players in your team you can afford to gamble on like the stock exchange. If first year player has a brilliant out of the ordinary first three games there price will rise significantly. It might be time to sell down to a first year player who hasn’t played yet (but probably will), and use the extra money to trade up a mid-level player to one of the Dream Team superstars.
4. Don’t judge players by watching them on television. You must pick players by judging them on how many points they score in the dream team, not how well they are setting up goals. Neither Gary Ablett nor Adam Cooney were in the top five dream team scorers last season. Scott Thompson was though.
5. Scour the player lists for bargains. These are most likely players who were injured in previous years, or who had a poor season last year. A lot of the bargains pay off, and the best way to find them is by checking out the Dream Team board on Big Footy.
6. Get at least one superstar player. By appointing one player a week as the captain of your team they receive double points for that week.
7. Have a small amount of cash left over at the start of the season. There is always a player who gets injured in the first round and plummets in value. You want to be able to replace him with a quality player.
8. Don’t overspend on the reserves. If you get lucky the reserves won’t be needed, and you you want to fill these spaces up with stock market players. Less money spent on these possible unwanted players means more money for certain starters.
9. Check team lists each Thursday night. Most rounds start on the Friday night, and team lists will released on the Thursday night before. Check to see if there are any surprises in team lists. Try not to make any changes to your team until after you have seen this list. A star player may be injured at training, and if you have used up all your trades, then it could be a loss on the cards for that week.
10. Think about where your salary cap is being spent. Is it worth spending an extra $20,000 on a player who will get 15 more points a week consistently, or spending it on a player getting 10 – 25 points more each week.
There are many more tips on how to succeed at AFL Dream Team. But you shouldn’t trust my judgement.
I am just like most How to become a Millionaire writers, completely unsuccessful.
But you may be luckier. The Roar has its own Dream Team set up, so sign up now, and then enter league number 610209.
Kazama
Roar Guru
Ok, The Roar's AFL Dream Team league is now full (again). Cheers.
Kazama
Roar Guru
Seems so. There was 16 when I last checked, I was tinkering with my team today and decided to check the league and now there's only 15 players.
Pippinu
Roar Guru
did someone pull out?
Kazama
Roar Guru
We now have a vacant spot available in The Roar's AFL Dream Team league if anyone is interested in joining. League code is 610209.
Kazama
Roar Guru
The final two vacancies in The Roar's AFL Dream Team league have been filled. We now have a complete league with 16 teams.
Pippinu
Roar Guru
It'll be great to fill the 16 spots with Roar regulars - come people - even those of you not enamoured of aussie rules - give it a crack just for the hell of it!!
Kazama
Roar Guru
Only 2 spots left in The Roar's AFL Dream Team League - get in while you still can! The league code is 610209
Kazama
Roar Guru
3 spots left - better hurry up Redb! I just got back from Fall Out Boy. I've got all this ringing in my ears and none on my fingers.
Kazama
Roar Guru
4 spots left now... Redb - assuming that wasn't you who just joined: Go to the leagues page and the ladder for your mates league will come up. Next to your team name and badge at the top of the page it should say Currently viewing - (number) then in bigger font under that either your league's name or "Public League." Next to this it should have View League 2 and in bigger font (not yet joined). Under that it should say "join a 2nd league / create a 2nd league." Click on join a 2nd league and a box should pop up asking for a league code. Enter 610209 and you should be in. Let us know if it works.
Pippinu
Roar Guru
redb if you look under "leagues", you'll see the league you're currently in, but you'll see the option to join two more leagues - I haven't got the number handy, it's probably floating around on this thread, but put it in and bob's your uncle!
Pippinu
Roar Guru
I made the mistake of not checking the team lists on the Thursday before the first round last season, and had two blokes in my team that didn't play. It's unforgiveable no to have 22 blokes earning points in the first round! If you miss two blokes, that's a hell of a lot of points that go missing! The other early season trick, as both Forgetmenot and Kaz have mentioned - pick youngsters who are a definite start, because: 1. they earn you stacks of money guaranteed, and 2. their bargain price means you get more guns in your team.
Redb
Guest
I'm already with a mate's DT league, and can't find the link/button to enter a second league on DT? Redb
Kazama
Roar Guru
Yes, it does. That's why it is vital to follow the NAB Cup so you can identify cheap players who are likely to be given a bigger role this season and thus score more points. We've now got 11 players, so only another 5 spots to fill. Can't wait for Round 1, though when the league matches start in Round 4 things will really heat up.
Pippinu
Roar Guru
Just did my 30 players - it seems to get harder every year!
Forgetmenot
Guest
It was actually RedB (if i recall correctly) who started up the idea of the AFL dream team. But hopefully it is a tradition starter at The Roar.
Kazama
Roar Guru
I actually think forwards will be the most difficult, given that a couple of gun midfielders can be picked as defenders this year. It'll be interesting to see how much game time the new draftees get - I think there's a few potential Bradd Dalziells in the bunch but we want them to start playing a lot earlier in the season than he did. Yeah, well done Forgetmenot for doing this. Hopefully the start of a tradition on this site.
Michael DiFabrizio
Expert
Looking forward to it, guys. There are quite a number of midfielders out there (both young and old) destined to improve. But as usual, the defenders seem to be the trickiest to sort out. Big kudos to Forgetmenot for getting this off the ground.
Kazama
Roar Guru
It could be a way of turning some random DTs into Roarers - but really, do we want the possibility of a random beating us all? Yeah, another article or two about a week before Round 1 would be a good idea if there are still spots available. There's an element of luck as well with picking the team. The more research you do the better your chance of success, but it all goes down the toilet if half your team is injured by round six. So, it isn't unlikely that a person who spends a moderate amount of time in picking their team can do well if they get lucky with some choices. In my first year of DT I had no idea what I was doing but thanks to some fortunate selections I nearly won my league and finished in the top 10,000.
Forgetmenot
Roar Pro
Hopefully we get 16 The Roar players. But i suppose if we get a few randoms they may become interested in The Roar and become regular contributors. I actually wrote the article to try and get a few more people interested in joining our league. Perhaps another one, closer to the due date, with a few recommended picks may get more people if we dont have them by then. It takes a while to pick a decent Dream Team score, and ages to pick an awesome one. I think ill be going for the decent team, i dont have a lot of time around this time of year which is a pity.
Kazama
Roar Guru
Thanks Adrian, much appreciated. 38 days, 42 minutes to go...