The Thursday Scramble: Opening Round

Welcome Back!  Doesn’t seem that long since we were riding the wave of success or slide of failure in our Fantasy Finals. But now is the time for redemption, and of course it is time to Scramble!

Why do we care about Opening Round?

Personally I am not a fan of this opening round idea, I can’t see why we can’t have the Northern states teams all play at home but as well having all other teams playing too.  But hey, I don’t get to make decisions at the AFL, so I will just stick to what I know.  Anyway, everything has changed now with just the two games and that now means that it is far less of a risk to pick Geelong and Brisbane players.

So given we are stuck with the OR (well the Temu version with just two games now), what should we as astute coaches be looking for in it

• Rookies! – This is our best view on what the rookies are going to be doing in those 4 teams. No matter what happened in the AAMI series, this is the real deal and we will finally get to see who is actually going to get a game and who isn’t. For me, this will have a big bearing on my side.  But not only that, the capacity to score that these guys have will also be on show.
• The Cheat Code. I am sure you have heard Roy talk about the cheat code enough and really, that is exactly what it is. With these sides we don’t have to wonder how they will score in their first game and are they going to be good cash generators. So the mid pricers and the rookies are the most important on this scale here for us. I would certainly have liked to look at Sam De Koning but I guess we just have to take the AAMI as our best guide.
• Roles. We all know that everyone gets more mid time or more half back time in the preseason, but like everything else, we will finally see who actually gets these roles and importantly what it does for their scoring.

What does this weekend mean for our fantasy teams?

Remember that the points for this weekend don’t count in the classic games. However, some of your draft leagues (depending on the platform) may have the option of using the scores your players get in this round whilst they are on their bye. I know at least one league I am in is doing that. So check your settings in draft and if so, take careful note of what your guys score as it could be very important when you get to that early bye round.

Whilst prices won’t change after opening round the scores your players achieve are included in their first price change after either round 1 or round 2 depending on the game that you are playing.  This is where the aforementioned cheat code comes in!

If you are drafting over the weekend (like the DT Shiva is) then you still have time to make adjustments to your draft boards depending on injuries or what you see in these games, so don’t just ignore them, in fact they are crucial resources for you.

Leagues!

As always I have created some leagues for you to join in all the formats so that we can have a bit of fun and play against each other.  If they fill up really quick I will create a couple more and pop the codes on Twitter (I am old school and hate the new Elon version of it so it will always be Twitter to me (yes, I am grumpy old man yelling at a cloud)).

Please only join one in each format so that there is room for everyone.

AFL Fantasy

DRECEWUY  Thursday Scramblers!
YYAKFS44      Let’s Scramble!

SportsDeck (RealDreamteam)

500157 DTTalk Scramblers
699887 DTT Scramble Time

Supercoach

435937 DTTalk Scramblers
303944 DTT Let’s Scramble

Bolter

770749 DTTalk Thursday Scramblers

Things to Remember

Fantasy Footy is fun. Don’t get too stressed over it.

You don’t lose your league in the first week. It is a marathon not a sprint, your trading and generating value is the key to winning this game.

All the best for all of you up in Qld, hopefully things aren’t as bad as predicted and there is little to no damage for all of you.

What do you want on your Thursdays?

I’m here for you all, please let me know either in the comments or on Twitter (@pkd73) what you would like to see from me on Thursday mornings, I am happy to accomodate what would help you all best throughout the season.

Have a great weekend before it all get’s going, get your drafts done, get your teams sorted and by next Thursday we will all need to lock in our teams for the first lockout of the season!

Catch you all next Thursday morning!!!

Dunny

A passionate Port Adelaide Fan who simply loves footy! That is how I would describe myself. Catch my weekly article "The Thursday Scramble" with all the last minute things to think about for the weekend Follow: @pkd73.