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AFL Grand Final Daily Fantasy guide: The strategy you need to build a winning team
The Roar
29th September, 2023
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The Roar
29th September, 2023
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Some Grand Final traditions have stood the test of time. The overnight Grand Final Marathon, the pre-game beverage(s) at your mate’s BBQ, and the half time kick to kick on the street.

These days however, new traditions are starting to take over.  Showing your mates that you have the knowledge and confidence to back in your Norm Smith pick, your first goal scorer and picking the winner of the Granny. And for value you put those selections in a same game multi.  Yet when it comes to ultimate bragging rights in your group of mates, it is all about beating them on the leaderboard on Draftstars.

If you have never heard of Draftstars before, the site is for Daily Fantasy Sports. You probably heard of season long fantasy competitions such as AFL Fantasy, Supercoach and Dream Team but Draftstars contests are just a one-day fantasy format.

You need to construct a line-up of players within a $100,000 salary cap and then once the game is underway, you score fantasy points for your line-up from the players statistics. These statistics are updated live so you can see where you stand on the contest’s leaderboard. If your team puts together a very good performance, then your paid entry can yield a handsome return!

This week, Draftstars have released their prize pools for the AFL Grand Final between the Pies and the Lions. The featured contest is guaranteed for $200,000 in total cash prizes for that one day in September.

The $200k is not the only contest they have on the site, there are other contests that suits everyone’s budget with contest fees starting at 50 cents per entry all the way up to $150 per entry if you like to play with the “High Rollers”. The site also can create custom contests between your friends so you can really cheer on your players after your Same Game Multi is dust after the 1st quarter.

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The scoring format is exactly the same as the official AFL Fantasy game, so if you are used to that format then it will be easy to follow.  

Building a Draftstars team for the Grand Final is quite simple if you keep to these principles:

  1. Select your ruckman first – Since there are only a couple of players to choose from as your ruck, then make that selection first. You don’t want to make a beautiful-looking team and realise you do not have enough money in your salary cap to roster a ruck. Do this first – and if you like to live dangerously then roster our favourite American angry man Mason Cox. 
  2. Dual-position players are popular – With nine roster spots and four positions, there is overlap for players who push forward or roam back. Thus, Draftstars give these players a dual position. Players such as Darcy Wilmot and Will Hoskin-Elliott could give you a vital balance, as they can be rostered in multiple positions – Wilmot as a defender and midfielder and Hoskin-Elliott as a midfielder and forward.
  3. Decide on a line-up strategy – Having a salary cap means you can’t just pick the best players and win. In season-long fantasy, the best coaches load their teams at the start of the year with premiums and rookies. The rookies play and their salary increases over the season. That is no different for the grand final: you can build teams with 3-4 expensive players and fill the rest of your roster with cheaper, low-salary players; or ‘stars and scrubs’. Steele Sidebottom is that exact type of player here: mid-priced but with the ability to score a big amount of fantasy points.
  4. You don’t have to spend all your salary cap in tournaments – You have rostered your final player and you see you have over $1,000 left in your salary cap. To you it may look wrong but do not change it! Our minds are trained to extract all the value you can from an item. Playing fantasy is no different. You may have enough money in your salary cap to go from Hugh McCluggage to Lachie Neale, who is exactly $1,070 more; 98 people out of 100 will automatically change from McCluggage to Neale because they have the funds and Neale’s Brownlow win certainly counts for something; but it might not necessarily be a winning strategy.
  5. Have a smoky – Think of a player that no one would have in their team; can Jack Ginnivan dazzle in his first match as a starter this finals series? Is it Darcy Wilmot’s day to dominate? Will Harris Andrews be an intercept king as he was in the preliminary final? Having a rostered player who will be low owned can make or break your team, but this is a tournament with over 14,000+ in entries. If your smoky goes above and beyond their expected score, then your line-up has the potential to be at the very top – and few others will have him on the books.
  6. Build to your narrative – Think the Lions will win by 10+ goals? Then you may want goalkickers such as Charlie Cameron, Joe Daniher or Eric Hipwood in your teams. Will the Pies try and maintain possession at half-back with uncontested marks aplenty? Then Jeremy Howe, Isaac Quaynor or Oleg Markov may be your best bet. Think about how the game might play out and roster players for that narrative.

This is the last chance to use your AFL Fantasy knowledge before we put it away for the year; and a cheeky brag to your mates on Grand Final day if your line-up comes up trumps is a good way to end the footy season in anyone’s books!

Keen to give it a go? Hit up Draftstars today to get started.

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Who’s in your ultimate team?  Pick the best team and compete with other fans for daily prizes on Draftstars.  For the best odds on the game try out Aussie bookmaker PlayUp.  Think. Is this a bet you really want to place?  Set a deposit limit.

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