Friday night footy for Round 8 of the 2025 AFL Premiership season will see St Kilda hosting Fremantle at Marvel Stadium. Fremantle are currently sitting right on the verge of the top eight in 9th spot, while St Kilda are one win behind in 13th. This will lead to a hard fought clash with both teams having aspirations of playing finals this year.
As always this is all about the daily fantasy and this massive Friday night game draws another massive $60,000 prize pool at Draftstars in their main contest. In addition, there are a variety of alternate contests:
AFL $60,000+ Saints vs Dockers
AFL $5,000+ Saints vs Dockers High Roller ($150 Entry)
AFL $3,000+ Saints vs Dockers Mini ($2 Entry)
The AFL Star contest is back again for 2025 and Draftstars are once again 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.
Betting Markets
St Kilda ($2.19) vs Fremantle ($1.68)
Points: 172.5
Line: Fremantle -5.5
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Additionally, we have a full St Kilda vs Fremantle Betting Preview where we provide our best bet for the game as well as a great value Same Game Multi!
Weather
Forget about the weather, this is at Marvel under the roof. Lets play!
Where to Attack?
St Kilda have been giving up points across the board over the last five weeks. They are conceding above average fantasy points to forwards and inside midfielders, while also continuing their trend from past years under Ross Lyon of giving up points to defenders. Their setup behind the ball has consistently allowed scoring by opposing backs and this year they're currently conceding the most points in the league to attacking half backs (over 10 points per game above league average) and the third most points to designated kickers (at over 6 points per game above league average).
Fremantle have been quite stingy to midfielders and forward this year, but are giving up one of the highest scores to rucks and above average scores to the designated kicker and general defenders.
Game Script – Fremantle backs, Fremantle forwards, mix midfielders.
VALUE PLAYS
Hugh Boxshall ($6,000) will make his debut and is quite possibly a SUB WATCH for his first match. If he does get the start he will be worth consideration given he is priced at the minimum on a single game slate, and he's been absolutely dominating in the VFL as an inside midfielder posting three straight scores of 122, 135 and 110.
Hugo Garcia ($9,600) / Mattaes Phillipou ($10,610) is going to be an interesting consideration on this slate. Garcia had a shocking game last week and was subbed early in the contest after a brutal verbal spray from Ross Lyon. But he has been getting midfield time and has shown upside of 110 fantasy points, and attending over 50% of their centre bounces for four straight weeks before being subbed early last week.
Phillipou, on the other hand, around the same price point will be playing his first game of the season after getting injured in the preseason. But coming into the year he was expected ot be one of the biggest breakdown candidates in the league after finishing 2024 in the midfield. There's no reason to believe he won’t be getting midfield time now, however it might be a bit more of a split with a forward role as he works his way back.
MID PRICED PLAYS
Hayden Young ($12,790) is just too low priced due to his injury interrupted start to the year. He has attended over 50% of the centre bounces the last two weeks and has racked up two 90 point games from his 3 matches this year. This is an elite matchup for inside midfielders with St Kilda giving up the second most points to the position over the last five games.
PREMIUM PLAYS
Rowan Marshall ($15,970) has been down in form but will draw one of the best matchups in the league for rucks this season. He returned to a 100+ point game last week after three straight sub 100 point games. As a result of that form his price has come down under $16k and is much more of a palatable play then trying to split the difference on the Dockers two rucks who will share duties.
Jordan Clark ($14,920) will be where I start with the Fremantle back stacks against the easiest team to play defenders against over the last three seasons. Luke Ryan is another great option here, and he has loved playing at Marvel in past seasons with four games over 120 from his last 7 games on the ground.
TAG WATCH – Marcus Windhager on Caleb Serong – take the under if you are betting.
Suggested Draftstars Team
