It is that time of the year where footy fanatics all over the country start planning for the upcoming AFL season and with that the upcoming fantasy football season. This season with the introduction of Greater Western Sydney sees the competition expand to 18 teams, which means a change to how the byes and the fixture are done. Before the start of the season, a finalised team will be required to have selected 30 players and remain under the salary cap, $10 million for SuperCoach. This requires players to select a mix of champions, rookies and players in between to make up their squad. Furthermore a squad of 30 needs to fit within the parameters:
- Nine defenders;
- Eight midfielders;
- Four ruckman;
- Nine forwards.
After your squad fits the following parameters and is under the salary cap you pick 22 players, a captain, vice captain and three emergencies. The 22 players along with the captain, who scores double points, makes up your score for the round. Emergencies only come into play when you have a player not playing and an emergency selected in the corresponding. The vice captain only comes into play when your captain is not playing for the round. At the end of the round you can change all of this. The aim of fantasy football is to get the highest score possible each round and build up a score as a high as possible for the whole season.
For the 2012 season the main changes for this season for both Supercoach and Dreamteam are:
- Trades are up to 24 now, with two per round maximum and during the bye rounds (11-13) it is three trades maximum.
- Squad sizes are back to 30 with an extra player lost from the defender, midfield and forward lines compared to last season.
- Reversible trades until lock out (The Heath Shaw rule)
- Leagues start in round three, a week earlier than previous years.
- League games will be played during the bye weeks.
- Byes are done over three rounds instead across the whole season. Six teams each round have a bye.
- Increased trading flexibility.
The Byes Situation
Let me start of by saying that you will cop a zero at some point during this season’s bye period, the only way to avoid involves picking Scott Lycett, a farcical amount of luck and trading a midfielder from the third bye group (which has very few rookies) for a midfielder in the first or second bye group. Below is how the bye groups looks for season 2012.
| Round 11 | Round 12 | Round 13 |
| Adelaide | Collingwood | Carlton |
| Brisbane | Essendon | Gold Coast |
| Greater Western Sydney | Fremantle | Hawthorn |
| North Melbourne | Geelong | Port Adelaide |
| West Coast | Melbourne | Richmond |
| Western Bulldogs | Sydney | St Kilda |
As I said before you will more than likely cop a zero at some point during the bye period. The main key to getting through with minimal damage is planning your premiums (keepers) to make sure that no more than two of them are in the same bye group for each line. For example picking Gary Ablett, Marc Murphy and Sam Mitchell would be asking for trouble since they all fall within the same bye group.
The second key to getting through the bye thing is using all three of your and being thoughtful with them as trades this season come with more flexibility attached to them. Rookies playing their second or third game around this period will play a big part in how people trade as well as how people deal with the byes.
Lastly, as I have said before you will need plenty of luck throughout the season to do well but more importantly plenty of luck to get through the bye periods for seasons relatively unscathed.
Scoring in Supercoach
The main motto for Supercoach is quality over quantity.
Scoring in Supercoach is done through the Champion Data ranking system that measures how effective a player is during a game. Every game of football under the Champion Data system gives out approximately 3,300 points and gives players a share of them based on how influential they were during the game giving weighting to key periods within the game. Further weighting is giving to contested stats over uncontested stats as well as gaining possession of the ball from the opposition. Due to Supercoach rewarding quality, it means that there are situations where a player can gain a negative score if they dispose of the ball poorly and gives away free kicks. In the past, it has been reported that Champion Data uses approximately 50 variables to determine a player’s score. This underlines how complex Supercoach can be but also how satisfying it is to get it right.
Selection Options
Below are some selection option which should be given consideration in teams as to whether or not they should be picked. Firstly, I could have just said pick Scott Pendlebury, Gary Ablett and Nick Dal Santo and told myself that I have done a good job but those are obvious choices and should always be given plenty of consideration. Alternatively, I could have said to avoid Chris Tarrant, Darren Glass and Matthew Lobbe, but just as obvious, as the above were to be considered the three I have just mentioned should never be mentioned.
Players to consider
Due to various factors, these players do not get much consideration in selection from people making their Supercoach team.
Jack Redden – He barely rates a mention outside of Queensland but he is every bit as good as Rockliff. At 21 and into his fourth year in the AFL system he is set to jump up another level again. Last season he averaged 7.5 tackles a game and having the third highest amount of pressure acts of all players during the season. All this equates to Redden being able to score well without having to have a huge amount of disposals. Additionally, he will not attract taggers due to Black and Rockliff having the attention of the opposition. Finally, he falls within the first group of byes that do not conflict with teams such as Geelong, Collingwood and Hawthorn where the popular midfielders are.
Michael Hurley – He has been likened to Wayne Carey and for years, he has threatened to break out. This year will be his year. Entering his fourth year in the AFL system and being part of the up and coming Essendon side means that he will get more of the ball coming to him. He can take a contested mark and kick a goal, which means that he will rack up points. His byes are his only negative with them clashing with Collingwood, Fremantle and Geelong, which all have fantasy relevant forwards.
Sam Jacobs – Came to Adelaide from Carlton last season and improved his numbers dramatically. Another coming into his fourth year into the system his numbers will jump again. Additionally there are no ruckman that can take game time off him. This means that he will have maximum opportunity to score points. Unfortunately, his byes clash with North Melbourne and Brisbane who both have popular ruckman but as a unique pick, he could provide a big point of difference throughout the season.
The DT/SC Difference
With the difference in scoring methods between Dreamteam and Supercoach there will be different scores for each player for every game. Across the season, there will be trends that suggest a player will score and average significantly higher in Dreamteam than they would in Supercoach. Below are some players that have score significantly higher in Supercoach over the Dreamteam and offering an explanation as to why this happens.
Shane Mumford – Last season he had a 22 point differential between his Supercoach and Dreamteam average. This was due to him being number one in the competition for hitouts to advantage, a highly regarded stat in Supercoach. Also 61 per cent of his disposals are contested which is another highly regarded stat in the Supercoach scoring system.
Sam Fisher – Last season he had a 15 point differential between his Supercoach and Dreamteam average. Last season he was ranked in the top ten for effective kicks and for intercepts off opposition disposal. Last season his role was also to play as a loose man in defence, which meant he had plenty of opportunity to intercept the ball and get a possession from that. Both of these are highly regarded in Supercoach that leads to high scores.
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