Round 20 of the 2026 AFL Premiership Season continues this Friday night with a cracking two-game slate featuring Melbourne vs Geelong at the MCG and Fremantle vs West Coast at Optus Stadium. Draftstars are offering $50,000 in guaranteed prize money in their main daily fantasy tournament.
Friday night serves up two of the most storied rivalries in the competition. At the MCG, Melbourne host Geelong in a clash with genuine finals implications for both sides — the Demons sit sixth and are coming off back-to-back wins, while the Cats have free fallen to 9th on the ladder and will need every win they can get to close out the year and get out of the wildcard round. Things won’t get any easier for Geelong after losing Max Holmes to injury, however that will be somewhat mitigated by the return of Mark Blicavs and Tanner Bruhn. Melbourne have made five changes including three injury-enforced, but their core of Gawn, Pickett and Sparrow remains intact. The second game should be a fiery contest despite teams being at opposite ends of the ladder. The Western Derby at Optus Stadium between Fremantle and the West Coast Eagles sees the top team in the league face a 16th placed Eagles, however in recent weeks West Coast have shown they can genuinely compete at home and will throw everything at their cross town rivals. Fremantle go in without Jaeger O’Meara (injury) and Hayden Young (illness), two significant outs, but welcome back Shai Bolton whose return adds serious midfield and forward firepower. West Coast lose senior players Baker and Graham, replacing them with younger legs in Ryan Maric and Harvey Johnston.
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AFL $50,000+ Friday at Draftstars
AFL $5,000+ Friday High Roller ($150 Entry) at Draftstars
AFL $3,000+ Friday Mini ($2 Entry) at Draftstars
AFL $2,000+ Friday 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!
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AFL Daily Fantasy Lineup Tips: Round 20 Friday
AFL Fantasy Round 20 Friday: Where to Attack?
Let’s go game by game.
Firstly in the Victorian clash at the MCG we get a Melbourne side that has been giving up huge scores all year to opposition defenders. At the MCG this should be as big a play as ever due to the size of the ground and I love the fact that this play is setup against the Cats who generally love to possess the football in the backline. Melbourne have been giving up over 7 points per game above average to wings and attacking half backs at 5 points above average to the designated kicker. With Max Holmes out you can expect other Geelong players to soak up a lot of his possessions in that area of the ground. Look for Cats back stats as a clear play here.
On the clip side, Geelong have been giving up the second most points in the league to rucks this season at a massive 18 points per game over league average. It is no surprise given the players Geelong have had lining up in the ruck this year, and while Blicavs provides some reprieve to the role, I dont expect them to be able to hold down arguably the best ruck in the history of the game.
In the Derby at Optus Stadium, it is no shock that we are seeing Freemantle as heavy favourites in the betting markets at over 44 points. With the Dockers on top of the ladder, it will be a popular play to stack up their side with the expectation of a blow out. West Coast have been giving up big fantasy scores especially to opposition defenders and wings, at +9.55 above average to wings and attacking half backs and +9.34 to general defenders. The Eagles also leak big points to rucks at over 9 points above average and the key forwards at over 1 point above average, all fitting nicely into a big Fremantle win game script. On the flip side the Dockers are one of the hardest teams in the league to score against and I wouldn’t be looking too hard at Eagles players unless there is an obvious value play due to mispricing.
Game Script – Melbourne rucks, Fremantle backs and key forwards, mix midfielders
AFL Fantasy Round 20 Friday – Our Value Fantasy Picks
Patrick Dangerfield ($9,760) continues to be a player I love to take a value chance on. This is a huge Victorian clash at the MCG and when Danger wants to turn it on he can to the tune of a three figure fantasy score. We saw evidence of this three weeks ago with a 124 point game and this will be a must win for the short handed Cats.
Brandon Starcevich ($7,020)… it isn’t an easy pure value slate to unearth something, but a sneaky safe option is Starcevich. He has been taking a few kick-ins for West Coast and getting involved in some backline chains, which we could see plenty of in this game with Fremantle being such heavy favourites. His three-game average is 64 points, which would be a great floor at this price point.
AFL Fantasy Round 20 Friday – Our Mid-Priced Fantasy Picks
Josh Treacy ($12,890), Murphy Reid ($12,910), Jordan Clark ($12,680)
I will be loading up on the mid-priced Fremantle plays on this slate. With the Dockers such heavy favourites and the matchup data in their favour, looking for Dockers stacks is the way to go.
Starting with Treacy, arguably the best key forward in the league this season, he has dominated from start to finish and has been a key to the Dockers success. He is averaging 80 points per game, has shown a ceiling of 120 and will get plenty of opportunity in a side favoured by over 40 points.
Murphy Reid is the link up forward and placing him in the same side as Treacy makes a lot of sense as there hasn’t been a player much better going inside forward 50 this season than the youngster. He has also averaged 80 on the season and has found himself plenty of midfield opportunities as well as playing off the half forward flank. Earlier this season against the Eagles he returned a 106 point fantasy score.
Jordan Clark will be where I start my back stacks. As noted at the top, the Eagles are giving up big scores to defenders and we saw earlier in the year Clark take full advantage of this posting his season high of 117 points.
AFL Fantasy Round 20 Friday – Our Premium Fantasy Picks
Max Gawn ($15,460) is the ruck lock of this slate and it isn’t close. Geelong are giving up over 18 points above league average to rucks and Gawn against some combination of Mitchell Edwards, Mark Blicavs and Sam De Koning. He has posted 100, 104 and 95 in his last three games, but with Max Heath out of the lineup he will be back to taking the majority of the ruck contests himself, which is where the ceiling scores come in. Without Heath in the lienup this year, Max is averaging 115 points per game, over 19 more than he scores when Heath plays. Combine that with Geelong being the second best matchup in the league for rucks and his price point being $15k, he is the lock of this slate for me.
Caleb Serong ($14,800) is the premium I would look to for the Dockers on this slate. Always be wary of the tag, and he could draw Hough on this matchup. That said his last week's have been one of the better runs of his season posting three straight scores of 100+ points. Keep the ear to the coaches box heading into the game as they will typically give an indication of who the tag is going to. Jump off and switch to Brayshaw if you expect Serong to be tagged.
Suggested Draftstars Lineup for AFL Fantasy Round 20 Friday
Weather Report for Friday July 24th 2026
Melbourne - Cloudy, 15 degrees.
Perth - Couldy, 18 degrees.
AFL Betting Markets Round 20 Friday
Melbourne ($1.84) vs Geelong ($2.00)
Line: Melbourne -1.5
Points: 176.5
Fremantle ($1.07) vs West Coast ($8.50)
Line: -42.5
Points: 172.5
Also, be sure to check out our full AFL Friday Preview and Betting Tips. Our experts break down the game and highlight some key bets that you can follow!
