I have been an NRL fantasy football player for years now and mostly sticking with salary cap versions of the game. I went out at the start of this season and got my league to take part in the draft version of the game.
While I know that this has been around for years already, it has been the first time that it has been more advertised and available for free on the NRL.com website and so I thought that I’d give it a crack.
So I got me eight-man league together and we set up our draft by picking a horse in a race and depending on the horses position is the order we used for our draft picks.
I pulled fourth pick and grabbed a very much in form Robbie Farah with my first pick.
Currently in the semi-finals now and looking back, I cannot believe that this is only the first time that I have taken part in this kind of fantasy comp.
It is so much more fun and enjoyable than the regular salary cap version.
I feel like the team is really my own. And it has once again changed the way that I was and enjoy football.
I love having Robbie Farah and Andrew Fifita and knowing that they are killing it for my team and no one else.
Then I also have the fun of watching Cameron Smith fumble the ball or make a mistake in a match. I know he’s going to be losing some points for that mistake and its great to know that only one person in my league is going to suffer for that one, rather than knowing that everyone in the comp is going to get the same point loss as they all have Smith as captain.
With the season coming to a close it makes me sad to know that I’ll have to wait enough six months before I can get back into picking me team and watching the waiver wire and trying to make shifty trades between my mates.
Yet I’m also excited to watch us come together next year for the draft day and make a new set of teams.
I’m always thinking of new ways to pick the draft order, as well as trying to find new punishments for those that get the spoon.
If anyone else out there is as crazy about their fantasy football I would really love to hear the insane ways you pick your drafts as well as any other rules you have for your league.
While I still enjoy the salary cap game, I have been completely sold on the draft version and will never be looking back.
Dylan
Roar Pro
Hey there Di The way that it works is you get your group of mates, I foundit better to have either 8 or 10 people. Just because with too many players the pickings get pretty slim. Once you have picked your draft order (the order you will take turns pickig players) you begin the draft. For example I had fourth pick in my draft so after the first three people chose a player I then picked my first player. Then the draft continues on. Most websites have different ways for how the draft works. I chose the snake order because it seemed the most fair. This meant that the order was 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3 ,2, 1, and then back again starting with 1. This way first draft got to pick the best player in the comp such, with this year was Cameron Smith, but then they don't make another pick until everyone has picked twice. You'll notice that 8th pick gets to grab two players at a time. This helps compensate then having to watch a lot of the top players get drafted to other teams. Once the draft is over and the teams are set, the team you have drafted is your team. No one else can have a player that you have chosen. For instance I picked up Robbie Farah with my first rounch pick. That means that he is my player and mine only. No one else in my league can have Robbie Farah on their team unless I drop him from my team or I trade him to someone else. In which case he then becomes their player and I no longer have him. This adds a whole new depth to the game. You find yourself looking at you team thinking "my back line is looking pretty poor, maybe I can squeeze a trade out of someone." Then you go hunting through other teams looking for someone to help boost your team. Only downside is that no one wants to give up good players so you need to really think about what part of your team you can afford to lose some strength in to help boost it some where else. However when all trade negotiations fail you then have the waiver wire to fall back on. The waiver wire is a pool made up of all the players that were not drafted at the start of the season. After the footy weekend has finished and lock out is over. There is a small window of time where all free agents are unable to be picked up. The all go on the waiver wire for a specified time (the waiver lasts 24 hours in my comp) where everyone puts in their bids for who they would like to aquire for their team. You pick the players you want and then order them by priority. The way my draft worked was if you are coming last on the ladder then you have number one pick on the waiver. So for instance if two people want George Burgess and both put in claims for him, who ever is coming lower on the ladder will pick him up and the other person will get their next highest priority choice. The waiver adds more fun to the game as well. Say Jared Hayne gets injured. You know that whoever has him on their team is going to be on the hunt for another Winger/Fullback on the waiver. So everyone else has the choice to grab the best WFB's they can to try and stop that other person picking up anyone good. This happened a few times this year in my league. Anyway I hope that helps a bit. If you have any questions let me know. Cheers
Dylan
Roar Pro
This is one of the best comedies I have ever seen. This is one of the big things that got me really into fantasy footy. Looking forward to season five begining in a few weeks.
Dylan
Roar Pro
I think that the DreamTeam Draft one on the NRL.com website is pretty good. Its simple and has live scoring. Plus its from the official NRL website so the stats are highly accurate and fast. Ive also heard that NRLCEO.com has a good layout too. A bit more complex but I think I want to give it a go next year. I also read on their website that they are making an app for it too, using the engine of thebench.com.au.
peeeko
Roar Guru
Played it for many years but am tired of the scoring system which is poor because they can't officially use the nrl stats
Pudd
Guest
Dude you would love the tv series- "the league" !! -- Comment from The Roar's iPhone app.
Haradasun
Guest
Ha, completely agree. We managed to round up 10 mates for a draft competiton for the first time as well this year and I have to agree it has been all encompassing in comparison to standard supercoach. I particularly like the fact that you can scratch around looking for free agents to draft into your team in the slim hope that you could come up with a hidden gem that everyone else somehow managed to overlook. Oftentimes you would see desperate managers hanging out down at the free range bar as we called it trying to pick up a decent trade to get that edge on next week's game. It could get pretty desperate down there late at night let me tell you. Quite often players would be drafted in for one week only, perhaps they scored well one week or showed the false dawn of promise, only to be mercilessly cast back down into the free range bar after a hapless fantasy performance, only for another hapless manager to stumble along late at night searching desperately for value. Of course the competition this year was completely rigged. Somehow I managed to come last, even though I had the third highest for score in the competition. No justice at all let me tell you and completely unlucky with injury. But my team the Paymasters will be back next year definitely stronger for the experience.
daniel p
Guest
Hi Ed I prefer the limited number of trades as it puts the pressure on you doing you're own research before the season starts
Hez
Roar Rookie
Have a look at nearlysport.com. Second year and loving it.
Clevo
Guest
You would e joy the fantasy football tv show The League. It's hilarious. Comedy about a group of mates doing one. I struggled with draft this year. Initially getting together and picking players was fun. But ran out of steam with no one really trading players. Basically had the same line up all year beside one or 2 injuries
Di
Guest
Hi Edward. I like Sportal.com.au. It has a Fantasy Dream Team with a 3 way Tipping Competition. 1. Tipping a winner. 2. Tipping a Team that you think will win and if it does that is blocked out and you pick a different Team the next week. 3. You pick one Team for the whole Season and predict whether it will win or lose. Cheers.
Di
Guest
Thanks Terry. I would like to give it a go next Season.
Edward Kelly
Guest
Played FOX sports Fantasy this year and enjoyed it but the end of the season is a bit disappointing as my mates and I ran out of trades so we just played basically the same team over and over and then some didn't make the "finals" so that was the end of it for them last week. I would have preferred having a wildcard where you could change your team completely once in the season, and more trades. Also it had this weird head to head competition as default rather than total points and forced us into a league with people we didn't know just to make the numbers up. I'd be interested to hear what people thought of any other fantasy league for the NRL out there.
Terry
Guest
Di I have not played it myself but I assume the basic premise is that each person in the league you are in can only pick a certain player once. That means that each team is totally different than each other, unlike the normal version where most 'good' teams would have about half the same players as each other ( Parker. Smith, Fifita etc...)
Di
Guest
Hi Dylan. I too love Fantasy Football. (Sportal, Supercoach Fox Sports and NRL.com) however I could not get my head around the Draft Maybe you could give a more detailed account how it works. Cheers.