Super Dreams

Rewind 20 years or so and if you heard someone mention the phrase ‘Dream Team’, you knew they were talking about Messrs Jordan, Johnson, Bird, Ewing et. al. and their assault on the basketball tournament at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.

As a sporting collective, they stand practically peerless. Who could imagine being able to select such a star-studded squad for any sporting endeavour?

Well, if you close your eyes for a moment and just pretend that Michael Jordan is a high-marking centre half-forward and Magic Johnson regularly

knocks-up getting touches off half-back, you could choose that very squad.

Footy season is back, you see. And if not just yet in an actual sense, then certainly in a fantasy sense.

Yep, today you can take your pick – AFL Dream Team or Herald Sun Supercoach… or both. Dust off your coaching boots and get set for hour upon hour of staring blankly at your computer screen pruning and preening your squad in preparation for D-Day (March 24) and the 24-rounds of fantastic fantasy fun coming your way throughout the 2011 AFL Premiership season.

Those of you who’ve registered and jumped online already will have noticed a few tweaks to the ‘normal’ format, generally to accommodate the introduction of expansion franchise, Gold Coast Suns.

Without going into every particular detail for both comps, the brief has changed in the following ways:

• the ‘season’ is longer
• you must pick a bigger squad (and have a bigger salary cap to boot)
• you’ll have extra trades at your disposal throughout the season
• private leagues start from the opening round
• some ‘bye’ rounds will see head-to-head leagues suspended for the week (but cumulative scoring will continue unaffected)

Add to this the various other idiosyncrasies of the two distinct competitions (Dream Team and Supercoach) and anyone biting off teams in both leagues is in for a busy time.

So, how best to go about your initial squad selection?

Tough question. Particularly this year given there’s no ‘grace’ period at the start of the season for you to fine-tune your squad prior to private league matches commencing.

It’s cut-throat from Round 1 in 2011. If you’ve gone and picked a player who’s going to miss the first month of the season with a cheeky pre-season niggle, you’re probably going to suffer for it.

So, first advice is to be fairly confident that players in your squad will be among the first 22 chosen come game time. Scour the Herald Sun, AFL.com.au and other media outlets for injury updates and any hints on player form. It's hard to tip a winner on the track without studying form and the same goes for these fantasy comps.

And in the same breath, be prepared to tinker with your line-up right up until deadline day – it will pay off.

Of course, you’re going to have to punt on the likely selection of a few first-year players in doing so. But getting this right is like a veritable gold mine.

North Melbourne’s Ryan Bastinac is the perfect example of an over-achiever in this regard. His 22 games in 2010 at a healthy average of 70+ is the ultimate return on a sub-$100,000 debutant.

The new-wave of mature recruits (see: Fremantle’s Michael Barlow as a great example from 2010) are also fantastic if you pick them and they get it right. As a rule of thumb, if clubs have burned a draft pick on a guy in his mid-20s, you've got to think they've got the tools to make an impact at some stage.

New-recruit Andrew Krakouer should go close to a guernsey in Collingwood’s best 22 this year and even if he’s not absolute bargain basement, there’s every indication he’s a good bet. Krakouer and Suns number one draft pick David Swallow will both grace plenty of fantasy teams this year.

With added trades to burn in 2011, your ‘cheap’ players can also represent money in the bank – get it right and trade for a bigger name during the season once your rookie has bumped up in price.

When you’re looking for this type of buy, players from clubs in that most frustrating of phases, the ‘re-build’, are the best bet. Think North Melbourne, Essendon, Richmond, West Coast and Gold Coast as outfits likely to invest plenty of time in young or inexperienced players.

At the other end of the spectrum you’ve got the ‘guns’ – the guys you’re counting on to average in excess of 100 points per round. Both competitions have tweaked scoring regs for the new season, but as the old adage goes, class is permanent.

Yeah, you’ll have to pay out to get the big names in your stable, but if you can keep a handful of the likes of Swan, Goddard, Ablett, Hodge and Chapman on the park all year long, you’ve got something to build a team around. Don't forget your ruckman can also count as a gun. One stands head and shoulders above the rest, too – Fremantle's Aaron Sandilands. He's got to be there or thereabouts when you're picking your side.

Beware the obvious pitfall, however. Too many big names can mean too few bucks left to buy the serviceable backbone every teams needs.

The permutations are endless, as is the fun. If you’ve not played before, why not give it a go? You can always walk away if things get out of hand.

Kind of like the age-old ‘tipping comp’ for a new generation, fantasy football will not only give you something to do at work every Friday, it will give you a keen interest in practically every match this home-and-away season.

Time to go complete my first draft and see where that leaves me. Then I’ve got a lazy 51-days or so to spend tinkering and tightening.

Stay tuned to Making the Nut for updates as they come to hand.