Round 23 of the 2024 AFL Premiership Season gets underway this Friday night with a game that showed so much promise at the middle of the season but has now become far less dramatic. Essendon will host Sydeny at Marvel Stadium and the Bombers are close to elimination from the finals race, while Sydney need to win to remain a game clear in top stop. Either way it is another daily fantasy game for us to dive into.
Draftstars continue to offer massive prize pools with the Friday main contest worth $50,000 along with their usual variety of alternate contests
- AFL $50,000+ Bombers vs Swans
- AFL $5,000+ Bombers vs Swans High Roller ($150 Entry)
- AFL $2,000+ Bombers vs Swans Fiver
- AFL $3,000+ Bombers vs Swans 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.
Betting Markets
Essendon ($2.38) vs Sydney ($1.56)
Points: 175.5
Line: Sydney -9.5
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 Essendon vs Sydney Betting Preview for the game where we provide our best bet for the game as well as a great value Same Game Multi!
Weather
No concerns here, game is at Marvel. Lets play!
Where to Attack?
Despite being in poor form both sides have been relatively stingy form from a fantasy perspective over the last 10 games. The Bombers have been conceding points to key forwards and inside midfielders over this time period in the range of over 3 points per game above league average. The Swans on the other hand have continued to be below league average to forwards and midfielders, but slightly above league average to defenders. This leaves us with a typical game script scenario where we stack up the Swans forwards and midfielders and the Bombers backs, which suits the narrative of Sydney being favourites in this game.
Game Script – Sydney key forwards and inside midfielders, Essendon backs
VALUE PLAYS
Nick Bryan ($9,480) has taken over the number one ruck duties for the Bombers as the season comes to a close. Last week he attended over 70% of their centre bounces and returned a fantasy score of 70 fantasy points. While that isn’t a huge return even at this cheaper price point, for a single game slate it looks to be a better return than spending up on Brodie Grundy, given that Essendon have given up the third fewest points in the league to the position over the last 10 games.
Taylor Adams ($9,790)… with Chad Warner out there, there will be a big hole to fill through the midfield for Sydney in this matchup. Taylor Adams should see an increase in centre bounces and has the most friendly price point to take advantage of this role. Also look to Luke Parker ($11,660) and Callum Mills ($10,700) to see their midfield time to increase.
MID PRICED PLAYS
Mason Redman ($12,530) / Ash McGrath ($10,720) look best priced to take advantage of the Swans leaking points to opposition backs. Both have shown 100+ point upside this season and have dipped to that mid-range price point. They are essentially splitting up the kick-ins for the Bombers.
PREMIUM PLAYS
Darcy Parish ($13,990) has resumed full duties back into the inside midfield the last two weeks with over 60% attendance rate in centre bounces. This has resulted in back to back scores of 107 and 98 fantasy points. We all know Parish’s upside when in the right role and I love him here. This is a steal at under $14k.
Isaac Heeney ($15,230) will lead the Swans midfield this week without Warner in and despite not being in the same level of form he was earlier in the season, last week he notched up his highest score of the season at 127. This a positive matchup for Heeney with the Bombers conceding above league average to both inside midfielders and forwards.
Suggested Draftstars Team
Cheat Sheet
