Round 23 of the AFL is set to be a massive one with plenty of teams still jockeying for seedings inside the top eight. Draftstars has set the bar in the fantasy community once again this weekend by offering a massive $50k guaranteed tournament for the five game Saturday slate. As usual, we are back with a fantasy team of the week for Saturday’s action that we hope can land in the money at Draftstars!
Remember, along with the Draftstars $50k, PlayON are offering a tasty little $1k tournament while there is $4k on the line at Moneyball for the five game AFL Saturday slate!
Defenders: Jayden Short, Jack Crisp
The Western Bulldogs allow the fourth most fantasy points of any team in the AFL and the second most 100+ scores in 2018 so far. Jayden Short has been good over the last two weeks, scoring 75 against the Gold Coast and 90 against Essendon last weekend. His teammates love giving him the ball coming out of defence and should rack up high teens kicks this weekend.
Jack Crisp has a good matchup against the Dockers this weekend, who allow the second most points in the comp in 2018 and the sixth most to opposition defenders. He is coming off games of 105, 108 and 73 in his last three matches and scored 114 the last time he played the Dockers back in June.
Midfielders: Gary Ablett, Isaac Heeney, Jordan Murdoch, Josh Caddy
Gary Ablett scored 119 against his old side when Geelong met Gold Coast back in June and is coming off games of 110, 110, 130, 76, 152 and 95 in his last six contests. Has become the best scoring Cats midfielder over that time and should have a field day against the Suns.
Jordan Murdoch and Josh Caddy were picked for matchup reasons. The Suns and Dogs are both top four in the league in fantasy points allowed and both Caddy and Murdoch were impressive last weekend with scores of 91 and 81 respectively.
Isaac Heeney loves playing against the Hawks. In his four games against them, his average of 21.5 disposals is the higher than any other opposition and although he was down last weekend with just 79 against the Giants, we expect him to be a bigger focal point up forward this weekend with Buddy potentially out or playing with a niggle.
Forwards: Michael Barlow, Tom De Koning
Going relatively cheap in the forward line with Michael Barlow and Carlton youngster Tom De Koning. De Koning was serviceable last weekend with 58 points in his debut and should get another good opportunity up forward and in the ruck. If there’s one thing the Crows do it’s allow big scores so expect a couple of snags from Tom this weekend.
Michael Barlow returned to the Gold Coast side last weekend for his first game since April and casually racked up 20 disposals. Was one of the best accumulators in the league in his prime and should get more time in the midfield as his fitness progresses. Expect 25+ disposals from him this weekend.
Ruck: Sam Jacobs
Matthew Lobbe allowed the Western Bulldogs combination of Roughead and Trengove to accumulate 34 hit outs last weekend and Trengove himself racked up 100 fantasy points. At his worst, Jacobs is still one of the biggest and most adept ruckman at accumulating hit-outs in the league. Has only had under 30 hit outs four times this year.
