Two high quality games of AFL greet us this Sunday on one of the best days of footy action we’ve seen in a while.
First up, Geelong will head to the SCG to face the ladder leaders in Sydney. No doubt, it’s a massive ask for the Cats, but if they are going to play finals this season then they need to be purring in the second half of the season. They aren’t at their best yet, but a win over the Swans on their deck would go a massive way to ensuring their September action.
Then at night we have one of the great home-and-away matches of the season as Essendon will play Carlton at the MCG in front of 95,000 fans. The hype seems real about both of these teams this season which means were going to get fireworks on Sunday night!
Draftstars continue to offer massive prize pools with the Sunday main contest worth $50,000 along with their usual variety of alternate contests:
- AFL $50,000+ Sunday
- AFL $5,000+ Sunday High Roller ($150 Entry)
- AFL $3,000+ Sunday Mini ($2 Entry)
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
Sydney ($1.30) vs Geelong ($3.40)
Line: Sydney -20.5
Points: 172.5
Essendon ($2.54) vs Carlton ($1.50)
Line: Carlton -11.5
Points: 168.5
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 AFL betting preview for each game where we provide our best bet for the game as well as a great value Same Game Multi!
Weather
Sydney - Mostly sunny, 17 degrees.
Melbourne - Showers, 14 degrees.
Sydney has copped some heavy rain during the week. The forecast is clear for Sunday but just check out the early coverage to make sure the ground has drained ok as the SCG is not known for being the best draining ground.
In Melbourne, there’s some showers expected which might make for some slippery conditions.
Where to Attack?
The once formidable Cats have been a fantasy fun land this season for their opposition. They conceded more points to inside midfielders than any other team and they come up against Sydney who are inside mid beasts. The Cats also concede huge points to opposition rucks and above average points to opposition forwards, so Sydney stacks is going to be a popular play on this slate.
The one area that Sydney do leak points is to outside midfielders, so look for some wing options as possible plays for the Cats.
Meanwhile the Blues have been particularly stingy towards opposition defenders, so don’t expect the Bombers distributors to get an easy time of it.
Game script: Sydney inside mids, rucks and forwards
VALUE PLAYS
Alex Cincotta ($6,000) surprised us last week when he was thrust into the middle of the ground with a hard tag on Zac Butters. Will he get a similar role this week on Zach Merrett perhaps? It didn’t result in a huge score for Cincotta with a 51 and only 2 tackles, but if he’s going to be led to the ball at a budget price then the upside is there to take the risk with a good role. This is especially true given some of the other attractive $6k options have been massive sub risks recently.
Joel Amartey ($6,510) might be a nice point-of-difference play if you think the Swans can run away against the Cats. Where the Geelong defence has been a force in previous seasons, they have been conceding points to opposition forwards this season, and it won’t take much for Amartey to hit value at a bargain price. Let’s hope he can hit the scoreboard.
MID PRICED PLAYS
Nick Hind ($10,570) has been trying to cement his place in the Essendon team but his last couple of weeks have been really solid with scores of 110 and 96. He has been playing a high half-forward role, but perhaps could get a shift into a favourable half-back distributor role with Mason Redman out through injury.
Will Hayward ($10,760) has had a great season and is producing really strong fantasy scoring as a half-forward with a season average of 72.1 and season high of 109. Will need to hit the scoreboard to hit that sort of mark, but this is a great matchup against the Cats who give up plenty of points to opposition forwards with the Swans warm favourites.
PREMIUM PLAYS
Brodie Grundy ($15,250) is the stand out premium ruck on the slate as he has been in ominous form recently and gets a great match up against Geelong who have conceded massive numbers to rucks this season. Grundy’s season average is 101.1 but has a high of 142 so the ceiling is still there. Should man-handle Stanley and Blicavs and produce another huge score here.
Isaac Heeney ($16,440) / Errol Gulden ($15,640) / Chad Warner ($14,920) are the stand out plays if we’re going with the Swans stacks against a leaky Geelong midfield. It’s tricky to take them all but you could mount a case for any of them. Heeney is more expensive but does offer you a spot in the forward line, while Warner has been on fire recently but his numbers do include a lot of goals which might not be sustainable.
Suggested Draftstars Lineup
AFL Fantasy Cheat Sheet - coming soon!
