We have a fun three game slate this Sunday to close out Round 8 of the 2025 AFL Premiership season. Things get underway with the battle of the bridge between Sydney and GWS at the SCG. The Swans are fighting for their life this season currently with just two wins and would love to kick start things with a win over their cross town rival, while the Giants need a win to push further up the top eight. We then move onto Hawthorn vs Richmond at the MCG, which will be a great option for daily fantasy game stackers. The nightcap is another state rivals game between Brisbane and Gold Coast at the Gabba. Not only is this for bragging rights in Queensland but they are both currently sitting in the top three are looking like premiership contenders.
Draftstars is offering a massive $60,000 prize pool in it’s main Sunday contest. In addition, there are a variety of alternate contests so pick what takes your fancy:
AFL $60,000+ Sunday
AFL $5,000+ Sunday High Roller ($150 Entry)
AFL $3,000+ Sunday 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
Sydney ($2.16) vs GWS ($1.70)
Points: 169.5
Line: GWS -6.5
Richmond ($9.20) vs Hawthorn ($1.06)
Points: 178.5
Line: Hawthorn -48.5
Brisbane ($1.54) vs Gold Coast ($2.49)
Points: 174.5
Line: Brisbane -10.5
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 a strong range of AFL betting markets and offers, including great fantasy markets, novelties and Same Game Multis.
Additionally, we have full AFL betting previews for every match this weekend where we provide our best bet as well as a great value Same Game Multi!
Weather
Brisbane – 23 and partly cloudy
Melbourne – 22 and cloudy
Sydney – 21 and sunny
Nothing of major concern for fantasy scoring. Let;s play!
Where to Attack?
Richmond have been getting lit up fantasy wise all season. They are giving up the most points in the league to inside midfielders over the last five games. In addition, they are conceding plenty of points to backs over this time period, including the second most to attacking half backs and general defenders and over 6 points above league average to the designated kicker. This will be an elite game stack position with the Hawks just under 50 point favourites.
The other games are much tougher to pick apart with solid teams playing and all have been relatively stingy in fantasy points this season.
Game Script – Hawthorn backs, midfielders and forwards. Full stack.
VALUE PLAYS
Jarman Impey ($9,030)… on a slate with challenging value options I will be looking for value from the Hawks stacks. The Tigers have been giving up a stack to defenders as noted in the targets section above and Impey has shown plenty of capability for big scores over his career with a ceiling of 100 points.
MID PRICED PLAYS
Henry Hustwaite ($10,300) / Josh Ward ($10,650)
There looks to be a lot more of these mid priced plays on this slate, especially when stacking up the Hawks side against Richmond. Heny Hustwaite has been long spruiked by the Hawks and should finally get a good run as an inside midfielder with Connor Nash and Cam Mckenzie out of the side. Last week he attended 36% of the teams centre bounces, scoring 74 fantasy points, and that number should go up this week.
Josh Ward is another that has been seeing over 30% of the teams centre bounces in recent weeks and should see a spike there this week. He took advantage of the elite matchup against the Eagles last week with a 91 point fantasy output and this week is another soft matchup.
Brodie Grundy ($12,950) draws an elite matchup in the ruck this week against Kieran Briggs. The Giants have been giving up over 5 points above league average over the last five games and while there is a better matchup to exploit through Lloyd Meek, you will need to want to go up to his $14k price tag.
Jaspa Fletcher ($10,670) / Bailey Humphrey ($10,240)
A few options to consider outside of the Hawks stacks are two players whose roles have been changed to a degree this season. Fletcher has moved to the half back and we have seen scoring increase with his last four scores of 101, 98, 70 and 81. At this price tag there is still value with upside of 100 points.
Bailey Humphrey is starting to get some play through the midfield in recent weeks, attending an average 26% of their centre bounces this season. Last week was somewhat of a breakout game posting 103 fantasy points.
PREMIUM PLAYS
Jai Newcombe ($15,970) is an easy premium option on this slate going against the Tigers. As noted above, Richmond have been giving up the most points in the league to inside mids over the last five weeks. Newcombe has been the form midfielder for the Hawks in recent weeks with two 118 point scores from his last three matchups. My midfield stacks will start with Newcombe.
Suggested Draftstars Team
