Round 1 of the 2026 AFL Premiership Season gets underway this Thursday night with another huge daily fantasy contest on offer from Draftstars with over $60,000 in guaranteed in prize money in their main daily fantasy tournament.
For this matchup we see Carlton taking on Richmond at the home of football, the MCG. This is the traditional opening game of the season and you can expect an exciting contest infront of a near capacity crowd. The Tigers are still right in their rebuilding phase, while Carlton will be desparate to rebound after an embarrassing opening round loss to Sydney last week. From a fantasy perspective we can expect plenty of value plays from the Tigers end with youngsters getting opportunity, while with the Blues we have had a look at how they will be playing last week.
Draftstars are offering a number of different contests to suit your style, some of these include:
AFL $60,000+ Blues vs Tigers at Draftstars
AFL $5,000+ Blues vs Tigers High Roller ($150 Entry) at Draftstars
AFL $3,000+ Blues vs Tigers Mini ($2 Entry) at Draftstars
AFL $2,000+ Blues vs Tigers Micro (50c Entry) at Draftstars
Also this season the AFL Star is back for 2026 with a massive $1 million prize pool! Win your way into the Final by winning a Golden Ticket in a range of qualifiers running every weekend!
If you're new to the Daily Fantasy Sports scene and want to join in on the fun, simply join Draftstars via this link!
AFL Daily Fantasy Lineup Tips: Round 1 – Carlton vs Richmond
AFL Fantasy Round 1 – Sunday: Where to Attack?
With a lot of the AFL still yet to play their first game, we will be leaning on last years trends again this week. It is not shock that the Tigers were one of the best teams to target from a fantasy perspective in 2025, giving up the second most points in the league to midfielders (over 8 points per game above league average), and key forwards (over 9 points per game above league average), and the most points in the league to designated kickers and general defenders. This means we can pretty much attack them across the field in this matchup.
Carlton were also a team that could be targeted with key forwards as well as inside midfielders and outside midfielders last year. The Sydney game did nothing to contradict this perspective last week. The one area of consideration will be that after a week of controversy and spotlight around their performance if the side has any pride (which apparently a former Club captain may think that they don’t) we should see a huge uplift in effort and performance against a side that is primarily being rebuilt around youth.
Game Script – Carlton key forwards, midfielders and backs, Richmond value plays
AFL Fantasy Round 1 – Thursday: Our Value Fantasy Picks
Sam Grlj ($7,800) will make his debut for the Tigers this week and has been a much heralded rookie in fantasy circles this summer. He will be playing across half back, which as we all know is a plumb fantasy scoring positionp. And while Tigers will have their lead designated kickers in the lineup, there should be plenty of opportunity for Grlj to return value at this price point if the Blues are on top of the contest. Through the preseason we saw the impact his role can have on fantasy output where he notched up a massive 98 fantasy points in a match sim against Essendon.
Kane McAuliffe ($9,960) is one of the Tigers young up and coming midfielders who is right in that breakout zone from a fantasy perspective. He showed plenty of glimpses in the 2025 averaging 74 points per game from five matches that included a 94 point performance against Essendon. During the preseason his role looks to be a plus from a fantasy perspective despite being out on the wing, he posted 94 points in the match sim against Essendon and followed up with the second highest fantasy output in the game against Melbourne in the preseason.
AFL Fantasy Round 1 – Thursday: Our Mid Price Fantasy Picks
Harry McKay ($11,440) makes for a great mid priced play especially in Carlton stack builds. As noted at the top, the Tigers were getting decimated by key forwards in 2025 and there are no major changes that would indicate that will stop this season. McKay stands out as the Blues number target up forward (with Curnow no longer in the picture) and with the Blues just under 20 point favourites, he should get plenty of opportunity to hit a ceiling performance of 100+ fantasy points on this single game slate.
AFL Fantasy Round 1 – Thursday: Our Premium Fantasy Picks
Patrick Cripps ($13,260) is purely a narrative play. After last week’s performance, and the Club being dragged through the mud this week there will be no excuse for the captain to not stand up and take this game by the scruff of the neck. If you want data, we can look at the fact that the Tigers gave up the second most points in the league to inside midfielders last season, but to me I expect Cripps to give every ounce of effort he can possibly offer in this game and that will likely result in a 100+ point fantay performance.
Toby Nankervis ($13,460) looks to be a solid play in the ruck given he is likely to be the sole ruckman in the side. The Tigers will likely chop him out with Ben Miller ($8,080) who makes for alternate value option (after racking up 100+ as the ruck in the preseason), but Nankervis will essentially dominate the ruck role for the majority of the game this week. I like the matchup against Pittonet and Reidy, he averaged 91 on the season last year which would be a solid return at this price point and he opened up his year last year with 123 points against the Blues.
Here is our Suggested Draftstars Lineup for AFL Fantasy Round One – Thursday
Weather Report for Thursday 12th March
20 degrees and cloudy
Carlton vs Richmond Betting Odds
Odds: Carlton ($1.36) vs Richmond ($3.18)
Points: 172.5
Line: -18.5
Also, be sure to check out our full AFL Preview and Betting Tips for each match this round. Our experts break down each individual game and highlight some key bets that you can follow!
