How do you Compare to the Top 100 AFL Fantasy Coaches?

Here we are again, it’s the AFL Fantasy bye rounds! Every year, this is where major jumps in the ranking are achieved. Most coaches would love to believe that they are astute and full of experience when it comes to preparing for the bye rounds. However, force trades to premium players have certainly wreaked havoc on most of the coaches’ bye preparations. Come round 12, the players that we planned for compared to the players that we have on the ground may be few and far between. Then there are the top 100 AFL Fantasy coaches. These are the top echelon of the league.

Note that the following data and information will focus on the most selected players in the top 100.  The statistics below show the percentage of the players for each line.

After eleven rounds, “How do I compare with the top 100 AFL Fantasy Coaches?”  My team has 18/22 of the vanilla selection as per the list below.

DEFENDERS

Sicily (99%), Short (88%), Crisp (79% + 1% MID), De Koning (72% + 25% FWD), Hewett (71%), & Zorko (58% + 2% MID)

MIDFIELDERS

Clark (100%), L. Neale (96%), J. Macrae (77%), McComb (77%), Mills(73%), Oliver (67%) Cripps (64%), & Brayshaw (53%)

RUCKS

Gawn (94%) & Hayes (87%)

FORWARDS

Dunkley (98% + 2% MID), Brodie (90% + 8% MID), Coniglio (81% + 4% MID), Cameron (75%), Butters (67% + 9% MID) & Durdin (55%)

Defenders

D1 Sicily Ave (98), R11 (86), $792K Top 100 Ownership 99%

D2 Short Ave (104), R11 (84), $838K Top 100 Ownership 88%

D3 Crisp Ave (103), R11 (102), $874K Top 100 Ownership 79%

D4 De Koning Ave (47), R11 (83), $406K Top 100 Ownership 72%

D5 Hewett Ave (103), R11 (116), $811K Top 100 Ownership 71%

D6 Zorko Ave (88), R11 (49), $771K Top 100 Ownership 58%

These six players represent the most common premium defenders in the top 100.  The most selected DEF is Sicily. Interesting fact, Sicily’s average score falls outside the top 6 defenders for the year.  The top 6 highest averaging defenders this year are Stewart (106), Docherty (106), Short (104), Crisp (102), Hewett (103), and Sinclair (102).  Stewart, Docherty, and Sinclair have top 100 ownership of 11%, 25% and 20% respectively. I expect this to change by the end of round 14.

In the last round, it was Stewart who demonstrated that he was capable of a very high ceiling. He scored a whopping 169! Can he keep doing this every week? That is the question. Experience tells one that AFL opposition coaches will surely send some attention his way soon. Stewart is an accumulator, +6’s are his forte and he took a total of 16 marks last week. To put that into perspective, Rowell again went an entire game without marking the ball. That’s four games in a row without a mark, 7 out of 11 games without taking a mark, and still only taking 8 marks from 11 games! Back to Stewart, note that he hasn’t played against the West Coast Eagles yet. He plays the WCE twice this year, after Geelong’s bye (Round 14) and on the last game of the fantasy season! Boom!

Sinclair continues his good form down back, his top 100 ownership is only 20% and if you are looking for a point of difference, his name should come into the discussion. The same goes for the second top averaging defender, Sam Docherty. Seriously, what an inspiration, both on and off the field. Doc’s top 100 ownership is only 25%, he is a prime target coming off his round 12 bye. Honourable mention goes to Jordan Dawson, he is a top 7 averaging defender (100), and in reality, a top 6 defender in the top 100 with 57% ownership. He bumps De Koning who had a cameo role for his 83 points last week. There would have been many coaches that accepted De Koning’s “Emergency” loophole in defence.

58 top 100 coaches are not happy with Zorko’s latest scoring output including a disappointing 49 on his last outing. He has the round 14 bye, the top coaches that have brought him in are hoping that he can produce 100+ from here until then. However, the verdict is still whether he will be a top 6 defender at the end of this season. The decision to hold or fold after the bye will be significant because he is held at a high percentage in the top 100 fantasy coaches.

Midfielders 

M1 Clark Ave (74), R11 (62), $413K Top 100 Ownership 100%

M2 Neale Ave (116), R11 (143), $932K Top 100 Ownership 96%

M3 Macrae Ave (106), R11 (107), $869K Top 100 Ownership 77%

M4 McComb Ave (57), R11 (55), $387K Top 100 Ownership 77%

M5 Mills Ave (113), R11 (107), $957K Top 100 Ownership 73%

M6 Oliver Ave (113), R11 (107), $942K Top 100 Ownership 67%

M7 Cripps Ave (102), R11 (89), $806K Top 100 Ownership 64%

M8 Brayshaw Ave (115), R11 (94), $899K Top 100 Ownership 53%

These eight players represent the most common midfielders in the top 100. In contrast, the 8 highest averaging mids consist of Smith (118), Neale (116), Brayshaw (115), Oliver (113), Mills (113), Laird (111), Parish (109) and Keys (108).  Petracca’s poor showing last week, 40 points, would have seen him tumble out of the top 8 averaging midfielders.

Clark is the most selected midfielder in the top 100. If he is not in your M8, he is probably the first choice as a MID loophole. If you are looking at a point of difference in the midfield, upgrading Clark to a premium midfielder after his bye round should be on the top of your list as a top 100 coach.  With a break-even of 23, he still has some cash left to make. He goes against Adelaide before his round 13 bye. The question for the top 100 teams is when to upgrade Clark?

What about Macrae? Usually, he is a slow starter then he goes boom! He did it last year and the year before that and so on but not this year. His average is still respectable at 106. To put this into context, his fantasy score in the last 4 years has been anywhere between 115 to 122.  He is the third most selected MID in the top 100 only beaten by Clark (100) and Neale (96), proving that he is still a favourite amongst the elite coaches.

Smith’s week off from AFL Fantasy ensured low ownership in the top 100 continued. Despite having the mantle of the top averaging midfielder this season (118), his top 100 ownership is only 14%. Will he be the top most traded player this round if he is available? If he is not, then you’re not playing the game right. His added FWD position would also make him the most wanted player in the FWD line before the round 12 lockout.

If it’s a point of difference you are after, Laird is a standout. With only 15% ownership in the top 100, Laird is averaging 111 and is the seventh most prolific scorer in the midfield. Parish and Keays have low ownership in the top 100 with ownerships of 4% and 2% respectively. There have been coaches that have been burnt by Parish in the previous fantasy season that will likely stay away. With names such as Merrett, Kelly, Wines, Walsh, and Miller, are there better and proven names available to pick from? Yet it could be the year that Parish proves fantasy coaches wrong. He is 902K with an average of 109 points and is a unique in the top 100. Is he on your radar?

Then there is Ben Keays, last year he averaged 108 and he is on track to maintain or beat that this year. Keays is a top 9 averaging fantasy midfielder this season thus far. Keays started with a bang with scores of 132, 131, 96, 134, 114, 102, and 100. His last 4 output has been lower with scores of 98, 92, 88, and 104. That has seen his price dip to 835K. Including Smith, there are only 8 midfielders that have a higher average than Keays. The cheapest one is Brayshaw coming in at 899K and the most expensive is Mills at 957K. If you are looking at price vs scoring output, Keays looks like a prime buy.

Ruck

R1 Gawn Ave (104), R11 (104), $841K Top 100 Ownership 94%

R2 Hayes Ave (56), R11 (34), $408K Top 100 Ownership 87%

At the beginning of the year, fantasy coaches were presented with a plethora of rucks. Then they all started to fall. Grundy went down, so English will be a top 2, then he went down. Coaches were presented with Preuss, but he didn’t take his vitamins, he got sick and now he can’t get into the team. Coaches were left with Hayes and last week he gave us a rookie score to boot. The top 6 averaging rucks consist of English (115), Gawn (104), Preuss (99), Blicavs (95), O’Brien (92), and Witts (91). If you jumped on to O’Brien, you would have been happy with 159!  He is a unique pick in the top 100, owned by only 5 coaches.

English also pumped out 132 in his return game. Any doubts over his fantasy output after several weeks off due to illness and injury were laid to rest last round. He is owned by 3 out of the top 100 coaches. His form suggests that he will be either a top 2 ruck or a top 6 forward defending on your preference.

Forwards

F1 Dunkley Ave (115), R11 (139), $901K Top 100 Ownership 98%

F2 Brodie Ave (94), R11 (83), $752K Top 100 Ownership 90%

F3 Coniglio Ave (90), R11 (108), $704K Top 100 Ownership 81%

F4 Cameron Ave (76), R11 (94), $694K Top 100 Ownership 75%

F5 Butters Ave (84), R11 (92), $643K Top 100 Ownership 67%

F6 Durdin Ave (49), R11 (29), $400K Top 100 Ownership 55%

These six players represent the most common forwards in the top 100 teams. Will Dunkley maintain top billing in the top 100 in the forward line? As a result of Smith getting the FWD status, will he claim the top FWD spot in the top 100? This year the top highest averaging forwards are Smith (118), Dunkley (115), Treloar (100), Taranto (100), Bontempelli (98), and Parker (96).  English can also make a case as a top 3 FWD booting Parker out of the top 6!

The surprise packet of the year is no other than Will Brodie. He is averaging 94 and is a top 8 averaging FWD. Brodie is now worth 752K and is still highly owned in the top 100 (90% FWD and 8% MID).  His TOG remains low each week at around 70% but continues to produce a more than handy average. He has the round 14 bye. However, come round 14, 98 coaches in the top 100 will be asking “Is it time to go Brodie?”.

For the coaches that are aiming to move up the top 100 or are hedging against the top 100, the forward line is where you gain your ground. In AFL Fantasy, this line by far represents the most incomplete. The question that we all have is “can you have too many Bulldogs in the forward line?”  Apart from Dunkley, the top 6 averaging forwards are all still unique and owned at low percentages in the top 100. Then there is Taranto, fully fit, he should also come into your calculations, he has a week off this round, so all eyes are on the selection table next week to see if he is named to play. There are no coaches in the top 100 that have Tim Taranto.

The pointy end of the season is upon us. These bye rounds will once again dictate the rest of the year for all the fantasy coaches.  I wish you all the best of luck, no carnage, and rookies to boot. Good luck to everyone and happy trading!

How did you compare? If you need any specific top 100 player statistics, don’t hesitate to hit me on Twitter.

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