AFL Dream Team 2011: The Rules

Due to Gold Coast entering the AFL next year, there are some changes to the Dream Team competition for 2011. We know the the AFL roster will be out to 24 rounds for next season so that each team is able to have 2 byes. In this, there will be 19 rounds with 8 games played (1 bye) and 5 rounds with 7 games played (3 byes). We will see the 2011 roster in late October, so stay tuned for that. It will certainly be the start of some strategy discussion.

Because of these changes, Virtual Sports have made some alterations to how DT will run. To compensate for the bye(s), we will have 24 trades and we will still only be able to trade twice a week. Our teams will have added depth with an extra player on the bench for defenders, midfielders and forwards, with these three extra players, our squads are extended from 30 to 33.

The salary cap is inline with the actual cap placed on AFL clubs. In 2011 it will be $8,212,500. This is ‘irrelevant’ as to making the game ‘easier’. It will depend on what the ‘magic number’ will be. I am tipping that the base priced players are unlikely to be less than $100K.

As for pricing of Gold Coast players, their side will have quite a few dudes that have played AFL. Their prices will be based (with relevant discounts) on their previous averages. All rookies are likely to be priced as they have been in the past – on the draft order.

Leagues will change a little for next year too. It looks as though there will still be 16 teams for a league, however we will start playing Head-to-Head from Round 1. When there are the 5 rounds with 3 byes in them, league games won’t be played. So with 19 one bye rounds, 15 of those will be the normal roster matches and 4 of those will be the finals series… pretty much as it is currently.

This will take some pressure off coaches coming up against opponents worry about covering players with the bye, especially if those rounds ended up having Collingwood, St Kilda and Geelong having a bye the same week! Those playing for national ranking will have to think hard about how to limit the damage over those weeks. More will come on that when the roster is released.

That’s pretty much all we know so far. We’re looking forward to next year and working out plenty of strategy in how to deal with 2010!