The 2024 AFL Premiership Season’s first ever official Opening Round will wrap up on Saturday with the first multi game slate of the season. A little prelude to the regular season super Saturday slates will kick off with a grudge match as Gold Coast and new coach Damian Hardwick will host his former club Richmond. Then the nightcap will see a rematch of one of the most exciting finals we have seen as the GWS Giants host the reigning premiers Collingwood.
Just the like the AFL, Draftstars are kicking the year off in monster fashion with a massive $75,000 main contest to go along with the usual array of supplementary games from which you can pick your poison:
- AFL $75,000+ Saturday
- AFL $10,000+ Saturday High Roller ($150 Entry)
- AFL $2,000+ Saturday Fiver
- AFL $3,000+ Saturday Mini ($2 Entry)
On top of Friday’s selection, Draftstars have announced a couple of exciting initiatives for this AFL season.
The AFL Star contest is back for 2024 and Draftstars are offering the biggest prize pool in Australian DFS history with a $1 million guaranteed final with $250,000 top prize! There are qualifiers and satellites running for every AFL match, while there will also be a sprinkling of qualifiers across other sports such as NRL and NBA.
Meanwhile the 1000 AFL Target contests are set to return to Draftstars for the first time since 2018. Enter the contest and hit the 1000-point barrier with your team to scoop the jackpot!
Betting Markets
Gold Coast ($1.44) vs Richmond ($2.75) - Odds thanks to PlayUp
Points: 166.5
Line: Gold Coast -14.5
GWS Giants ($1.66) vs Collingwood ($2.18) - Odds thanks to PlayUp
Points: 166.5
Line: GWS -5.5
If you’re looking to bet on the AFL this season, then you can bet with PlayUp by using the same account that you have at Draftstars. PlayUp are Australian owned and offer an strong range of AFL betting markets and offers, including Same Game Multis.
Additionally, we have a full Betting Preview for both games where we provide our best bet for the game as well as a great value Same Game Multi!
- Gold Coast vs Richmond Betting Preview
- GWS vs Collingwood Betting Preview
Weather
Expect warm conditions with no expectation of rain during the games to worry your fantasy selections. A top of 28 is expected in the Gold Coast area with a 60% chance of rain over the course of the day. Likewise, a top of 28 is forecasted for the Sydney area, with 10% chance of rain.
Where to Attack?
Stack up the Suns backs and midfielders against the Tigers at home as they have had a history of giving up points to defenders over the years.
Look at possibly playing inside midfielders against Collingwood as they were conceding points to this position over the last 10 games in 2023.
Game Script – Suns back and midfielders
VALUE
Xavier O’Halloran ($7,210) looks set for a break out season as he enters his sixth season. Primed to get a role on the wing with the ability to pinch hit through the midfield he has shown plenty of ability to rack up the football through the preseason collecting 26 possessions and 78 fantasy points in the Giants preseason game last week. Now fully entrenched with a positive role in the site I expect this will be the cheapest we see O’Halloran all season.
MID PRICED
Liam Baker ($9,970) has been ear marked for a more permanent role through the midfield this season. We saw glimpses of it during the preseason game last week where he was able to rack up a solid 22 touches and 71 fantasy points. Last year during the games where Baker was set free in the midfield we saw huge upside with ceiling scores in the 120 point range. At this price point he offers a relatively safe floor with huge upside.
Sam Naismith ($9,870) will be taking the sole ruck position to start the season for the Tigers with Nankervis out injured. During the preseason he notched up 52 fantasy points in under 70% game time.
Alex Sexton ($10,750) has been the talk of the preseason in fantasy circles with new the coach redefining his role from forward to half back. We all know that this is the optimum transition when it comes to fantasy scoring and Sexton did nothing to dissuade of this during preseason posting a massive 31 disposals and 115 points last week. His price isn’t a layup, but he should still return value in this role.
PREMIUM
Sam Flanders ($13,980) finished the 2023 season with a role through the midfield that saw 9 of his last 10 games posting scores of 90+, 6 of which were over 100 fantasy points. He finished the season with back-to-back games of 125 and 146 and all of the word coming out of the Suns this year is that he is ready to rip the league to pieces. This might be the only time we see him under $14k all season.
Suggested Draftstars Lineup
Cheat Sheet
