The Anzac Day games are on this Friday as part of Round 7 for the 2025 AFL Premiership season. We get things started with the traditional afternoon game at the MCG between Collingwood and Essendon. The Magpies enter the round sitting on top of the ladder and looking towards another run at a premiership, while their old rivals Essendon will be looking to edge towards a top 8 spot with a win by breaking their dead lock with five other teams. Then for the night game we head our West where Fremantle will host the up and coming Adelaide Crows. The Dockers are looking to break into the top eight while the Crows will be hoping to keep their strong start to the season going and edge towards the top four.
As always this is all about the daily fantasy and this massive Friday slate 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+ Friday
AFL $5,000+ Friday High Roller ($150 Entry)
AFL $3,000+ Friday Mini ($2 Entry)
As always this is all about the daily fantasy and this massive Thursday night game draws another massive $60,000 prize pool at Draftstars in their main contest. In addition, there are a variety of alternate contests:
Betting Markets
Collingwood ($1.25) vs Essendon ($4.00)
Points: 159.5
Line: Collingwood -24.5
Fremantle ($1.82) vs Adelaide ($2.04)
Points: 177.5
Line: Fremantle -2.5
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Weather
Melbourne – 24 degrees and rain increasing (up to 20mm)
Perth – 22 and mostly sunny
All clear for the night game in Perth but in Melbourne we could see quite a wet game with a chance of thunderstorms in Melbourne during the afternoon. Keep an eye on the conditions before the first bounce, but I would be leaning towards a focus on contested style players and consider using rucks from this matchup.
Where to Attack?
No surprise that the two better sides on the slate, Collingwood and Adelaide, have been two of the tougher teams to score fantasy points against this season across the majority of positions.
On the flip side, Fremantle opponents have been racking up points in the back line, giving up the third most points to the designated kicker and over 4 points above league average to general defenders.
Essendon are giving up the second most points in the league to key forwards and above average scores to inside midfielders.
Game Script – Collingwood forwards and midfielders, Adelaide backs
VALUE PLAYS
Tim Membrey ($8,590) is a speculative play but he has shown upside this year with a 106 point outburst in the second game of the season. Love this play for large tournaments given his price tag and the fact that Essendon have given up one of the highest marks in the league to key forwards this season.
Matthew Johnson ($9,540) should see a boost in centre bounce attendances this week with Jaeger O’Meara out with injury. He has already had three games of over 40% attendance this year and has notched up scores of 76 and 75, with a history of ceiling games of around 100 in past years.
MID PRICED PLAYS
Reilly O’Brien ($12,300) has one of the best matchups in the league for a ruck this season with the Dockers giving up over 7 points per game above league average to the position (second most in the league). O’Brien has a big ceiling fresh off a 110 point game last week with a nice price tag. Alternate options to consider in the ruck are Todd Goldstein ($10,390) coming in as the number one ruck for the Bombers due to injury (although he hasn’t shown much evidence of being able to score at the level recorded at this price point in recent years). Or you can look to spend up to Darcy Cameron ($15,730) who should dominate Goldstein in the wet.
Matthew Hinge ($11,590) has been the Crows main designated kicker this year and the Dockers have been giving up the third most points in the league to this position so far in 2025.
PREMIUM PLAYS
Will Setterfield ($13,920) continues to show huge fantasy scoring potential through his first two games of the season with back to back 100+ point games. He is still priced nicely at under $14k and the wet will suit his game style as he has been averaging 9.5 tackles per game through his early start for the season.
Nick Daicos ($16,650) is just a lock for me on ANZAC day. Wet or not he will be the best on ground and it isn’t likely that Essendon will have a suitable run with role to play on him. He is averaging 113 points per game from his last three matchups with the Bombers.
Suggested Draftstars Team
