It was discussed during the season last year with Dunlop.
He was always worried about the oversupply of midfielders if you go to a traditional 6-5-1-6 setup using default positions.
For memory, he did some checks based on the positions as they were at the end of the season that worked favourably for the setup we’re using.
I then did some checks based on default positions at the start of this year and it was tight but manageable. The difficulty by basing it on current positions is you’re missing the stats of guys who have been delisted and retired who will be replaced when the new season begins.
The other comp also had some differences with selection with the utilities position that gave more flexibility. But that is not available in the AFL Fantasy platform.
Regardless of which setup you do, rucks will be screwed and difficult to manage. You almost need to trade or draft whoever the backup for your leading ruck is to have cover because some teams don’t play two ruckmen weekly are there is a shortage of FR default options.
It may be we’re light on for midfielders the way it’s setup, but the other way, you may be light on for both forwards and defenders.
And once AFL Fantasy start adding positions to players, it opens up a bit more flexibility as long as the multi positional players are played as midfielders. For memory they were doing this once (maybe twice) prior to covid. Now they do it two (maybe 3 times).
It’s tough to tell whether it’s going to work without trialling it. And there is every chance that the team setup will change next year once we’ve trialled it.
In hindsight, I wish we made this change last season instead of using thebench. Dunlop around managing the transition would have been very helpful and we would have had a year of data to work out the best way forwards for this comp.
Maybe a 6 forwards, 6 mids, 1 ruck and 5 defenders might balance out better considering what’s available in the draft pool at the moment? It’s tough to tell as the draft is going. There hasn’t been a run on rucks yet (some of that happened during trade period) and there hasn’t been a run on defenders yet either. Personally, I’m still trying to modify the way I’m used to historically draft compared to current rules as the draft progresses. And that’s with very little time for research on individual picks like I used to do.
This year is going to be tough. And I’m sure we will arrive to many problems given the amount of rule changes we’re going through.
I’m only looking at the available players on AFL Fantasy and there’s plenty of options as forwards.
There’s 25 players who played at least 17 games last year. They aren’t great prospects though. They’ll probably average 50.
There’s a similar number of defenders but I think the forwards are more likely to be better scorers.
Midfielders and rucks are already pretty lean on numbers.
I reckon 7 mids is the right call. Looking at the available players left in the draft, there’s certainly more midfield quality remaining compared to other positions. And dual position players are almost alway midfielders. It probably also more accurately reflects positioning in the modern game.
From my perspective in the other league we have used 7 mids before the advent of the Utility position. Historically it led to a lot of donuts as there is a relative scarcity of mids. Personally I think the best mix is probably a 5/5/5/1 but then you are stuck with only playing 16. With 6 backs and 6 forwards you are forced to look at lock down defenders and defensive forwards who are traditionally not great scorers to round our your team.
It will be interesting to see how the season evolves for both leagues give the difference.
I think it should be 1-5-5-1-5-1 , where the two bookends are a designated “key position” player. It then adds value to players who currently have little, since you’d need a couple of options at each end. And it’d reflect a real field better.
We’d almost need custom positions. Or manually enforce it week to week across the season.
How do you define a KPD?
It’s something that is a good idea to do and I like it a lot. But this is the first year with this platform and I’m not sure what its capabilities are.
Even the trading during the draft is an idea that could be on the table for future years.
Pretty happy to get McVee at this pick. Played lots of games last year in Melbourne’s backline so Goodwin obviously rates him, still only 20yo so upside as well (hopefully) , which I’ll need from him. The other one I’d written down was Seamus Mitchell but Red got in first.
Little bit of a break now, but then picks every 9-10 selections for the next 5. Hopefully I can find what we want/need in that grouping.
Sheamus is out for 4 to 6.
He’ll probably come back through VFL as well.
Makes my Ethan Philips pick a little better (even though he may not be a great scorer).