Round 21 of the 2024 AFL Premiership Season gets underway on Friday night this week with a special 2 game night slate. Things get underway with the Western Bulldogs hosting Melbourne at Marvel Stadium in what will be a crucial game for both teams finals hopes. The Bulldogs are in their hottest form of the season winning five of their last six games, including a belting of the top placed Swans last week. Meanwhile, Melbourne have lost their last two games will likely be out of finals contention with a loss this Friday.
The second game is a dead rubber between West Coast and the Gold Coast Suns over in Perth. However, and this is why we love DFS, there will be plenty of fantasy options to load into our teams in this game.
Draftstars continue to offer massive prize pools with the Friday night main being worth $50,000 along with their usual variety of alternate contests:
- AFL $50,000+ Friday
- AFL $5,000+ Friday High Roller ($150 Entry)
- AFL $2,000+ Friday Fiver
- AFL $3,000+ Friday 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 have returned 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
Western Bulldogs ($1.28) vs Melbourne ($3.60)
Points: 168.5
Line: Western Bulldogs -21.5
West Coast Eagles ($2.85) vs Gold Coast ($1.41)
Points: 168.5
Line: Gold Coast -15.5
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 Round 21 Betting Previews for both games where we provide our best bet for the game as well as a great value Same Game Multi!
Weather
Melbourne - No concerns at all on weather with the game being played at Marvel Stadium.
Perth – 17 degrees, cloudy with slight change of showers. No impact on the game.
Where to Attack?
West Coast continue to be a great source of fantasy points for their opposition conceding the most points in the league to key forwards over the last 10 games (at over 7 points per game above league average), and they have also been getting destroyed through the midfield over that same time period leaking over 9 points per game above league average to the position. The only real caveat on this one is that the Eagles do play a lot their home ground a lot better than away and could get up for a competitive game against the underwhelming Suns.
Melbourne are the team to attack in the other game as their form has been relatively dismal over the last 10 games conceding above average points to key and general forwards, over 6 point per game above average to inside midfielders and over 5 points per game above league average to designated kickers.
Game Script – Western Bulldogs designated kickers, inside midfielders, Gold Coast Suns forwards
VALUE PLAYS
Bailey Humphries ($7,950) is fresh off a 75 point game against one of the toughest teams to score against in the league in the Brisbane Lions. While he didn’t receive any midfield time in that game, which is what we really want to see from Humphries, he does move into a much easier matchup this week against the Eagles. If the Suns get on top and Bailey can hit the scoreboard, he should be able to reach a similar return this week.
Buku Khamis ($6,620)... on a slate where it looks like stacking up the Western Bulldogs backline will be a strong play, I like to use Khamis if I need the value. He has a solid floor of around 50 in this role but has shown ability to score 70+ this season. If you’re looking to spend up a little more in a Bulldogs back stack, consideration of Rory Lobb ($9,960) is still in play after moving back and posting 82 and 99 from his last two games.
SUB WATCH
West Coast are playing several young players whose natural role is through the midfield. It’s likely that one of Zane Trew ($8,910), Clay Hall ($6,000) or Harvey Johnston ($6,000) will start as the sub, but for the ones that don’t on a slate with limited value options. they would be worth considering assuming the Eagles will give them some midfield opportunity at this point in the season.
MID PRICED PLAYS
Harley Reid ($10,530) is well and truly overdue to crack his first ton. Last week would’ve been it if he didn’t give away 5 frees against. I love rostering Reid when the Eagles are playing at home, and this is an elite matchup for West Coast inside midfielders as the Suns have been getting crushed in that position in recent weeks. While the Eagles are still underdogs, this would be a potentially winnable game for them and Reid will likely not receive the same level of defensive attention he copped in the derby last week.
PREMIUM PLAYS
Max Gawn ($15,740) is now onto his second game back from his injury against one of the best matchups in history for a ruck. Tim English and the Western Bulldogs have consistently been at the top for points conceded to rucks in recent years and 2024 is no different with them conceding the fourth most points over the last 10 games. Max is well underpriced for his output this season before the injury struck (still averaging 112 points per game) and is almost a lock play on this slate.
Ed Richards ($14,210) is playing plenty of time as an inside midfielder for the Bulldogs (typically over 60%). I love this matchup for the Bulldogs as we outlined in the above section and nicely priced coming off back-to-back scores of 114 and 131. There are obvious Bulldogs mids to spend up further on if you can find the value or want to stack their entire middle, but I kick things off with Richards at this price point.
Suggested Draftstars Team
Cheat Sheets
