AFLW Fantasy Round 1 Review
The Australian football fantasy community collectively rejoiced last month, when two-time AFL Fantasy classic winner Shelby Lee-Steere and his team at Moreira’s Magic introduced AFLW Fantasy, an online fantasy game for the 2022 AFLW competition.
With Round 1 of the AFLW competition now done and dusted, Azza is on hand to bring you a full wrap-up of the round and some stats to help you improve your team heading into Round 2.
Player of the Round
Kiara Bowers (MID $91,100) is a name you will see here regularly as the player of the round. Bowers is an absolute superstar of the competition who averaged 108.7 points last season and 106.6 across her 25 game career.
Against West Coast on Saturday, Bowers managed a mighty impressive 123 points coming from 17 kicks, 7 handballs, 2 marks and a whopping 14 tackles and is the Round 1 player of the Round.
Her sheer fantasy dominance has seen her become one of the most owned players in AFLW Fantasy, sitting at 51.7% at the end of Round 1. If she is not in your team already, now is the time to find a way to get her in. An absolute must have set and forget player.
Other players that rounded out the top 10 were:
| Name | Team | Position | Price | Score | Ownership |
| Kiara Bowers | Fremantle | MID | $91,100 | 123 | 51.7% |
| Anne Hatchard | Adelaide | MID | $67,900 | 120 | 2.7% |
| Ashleigh Riddell | North Melbourne | MID | $72,600 | 113 | 5.1% |
| Alicia Eva | GWS | MID | $56,900 | 107 | 0.8% |
| Orla O’Dwyer | Brisbane | MID | $47,800 | 106 | 0.4% |
| Tarni White | St. Kilda | MID | $41,400 | 100 | 3.4% |
| Tyla Hanks | Melbourne | FWD | $66,700 | 97 | 37.1% |
| Ebony Marinoff | Adelaide | MID | $76,200 | 97 | 20.2% |
| Brittany Bonnici | Collingwood | MID | $79,400 | 96 | 16.6% |
| Alyce Parker | GWS | MID | $77,500 | 95 | 10.6% |
You can sign-up and create your team at AFLWFANTASY.COM.AU right now!
Cash Cows and Rookies
Fantasy players knew what to expect from Georgie Prespakis, the number 2 draft pick from Geelong. Coming into the 2022 AFLW season, Georgie averaged 85.2 points in the VFLW from 5 matches, averaging 17 disposals and 10 tackles a game.
Prespakis started her AFLW career just as well against a formidable North Melbourne team, scoring 79 points from 20 disposals, 6 tackles and a behind. There’s good reason why she was picked in 62.9% of teams…
As for the other top performing rookies, the top 10 are as follows:
| Name | Team | Position | Price | Score | Ownership |
| Georgie Prespakis | Geelong | MID | $20,100 | 79 | 62.9% |
| Jasmine Ferguson | North Melbourne | DEF | $14,300 | 65 | 23.9% |
| Ann McMahon | Fremantle | MID | $14,300 | 57 | 5.3% |
| Meagan Kiely | Richmond | MID | $14,300 | 57 | 27.9% |
| Charlie Rowbottom | Gold Coast | MID | $20,300 | 56 | 47.4% |
| Ally Morphett | GWS | RUC | $14,300 | 49 | 4.4% |
| Ally Dallaway | GWS | MID | $14,300 | 49 | 0.6% |
| Pepa Randall | GWS | DEF | $18,800 | 47 | 3.3% |
| Courtney Jones | Carlton | MID | $14,300 | 45 | 0.2% |
| Airlie Runnalls | Fremantle | MID | $14,300 | 45 | 8.4% |
Value Buys of the Round
Overall, it was Jasmine Ferguson (DEF $14,300) who was the biggest value pick of the round scoring 65 points while only costing $14,300. Ferguson will see a healthy rise in price of the back of this, with a breakeven of only 17 heading into Round 1.
Since most of the top value picks were under $20,000, let’s take a look at some other value picks from the round.
| Name | Team | Position | Price | Score | Ownership |
| Libby Birch | Melbourne | DEF | $21,400 | 68 | 12.6% |
| Tarni White | St. Kilda | MID | $41,400 | 100 | 3.4% |
| Daisy Walker | Carlton | DEF | $20,500 | 48 | 1.1% |
| Megan Fitzsimon | Melbourne | MID | $23,200 | 52 | 1.4% |
| Eloise Jones | Melbourne | FWD | $31,400 | 70 | 1.2% |
| Orla O’Dwyer | Brisbane | MID | $47,800 | 106 | 0.4% |
| Andrea Gilmore | West Coast | FWD | $21,300 | 46 | 3.4% |
| Angelique Stannett | Fremantle | DEF | $22,600 | 47 | 2.2% |
| Ellie Hampson | Gold Coast | DEF | $23,600 | 49 | 2.1% |
| Jordyn Allen | Collingwood | DEF | $30,200 | 62 | 0.8% |
Time on Ground and Points per Minute
Another big metric that is used in the fantasy community is Time on Ground (TOG) and Points scored per minute (PPM). This really helps identify the fast scorers in the game and may help us find some hidden gems that struggled to get some game time this round but could explode if given the opportunity.
Sitting atop the list with the highest PPM this round is none other than Kiara Bowers (MID $91,100) with 1.89 points per minute. Plenty of other high scorers mentioned earlier feature, with only Rebecca Beeson and Chloe Dalton coming onto the list while scoring less than 80.
Chloe Dalton unfortunately suffered a shoulder injury during her match against Gold Coast but is certainly one to keep an eye on given her 1.67PPM score. Had she continued at that pace without injury, her score would have been around 85-95 mark which is exceptional given her price.
| Name | Team | Position | Price | Score | PPM |
| Kiara Bowers | Fremantle | MID | $91,100 | 123 | 1.89 |
| Alicia Eva | GWS Giants | MID | $56,900 | 107 | 1.86 |
| Orla O’Dwyer | Brisbane Lions | MID | $47,800 | 106 | 1.85 |
| Ashleigh Riddell | Kangaroos | MID | $72,600 | 113 | 1.81 |
| Brittany Bonnici | Collingwood | MID | $79,400 | 96 | 1.80 |
| Tarni White | St Kilda | MID | $41,400 | 100 | 1.70 |
| Rebecca Beeson | GWS Giants | MID | $65,000 | 79 | 1.70 |
| Chloe Dalton | GWS Giants | MID | $26,700 | 36 | 1.67 |
| Anne Hatchard | Adelaide Crows | MID | $67,900 | 120 | 1.62 |
| Amy McDonald | Geelong Cats | MID | $69,000 | 94 | 1.61 |
Since the top 10 here are all midfielders, here is an additional small list of the highest PPM players that are not midfielders.
| Name | Team | Position | Price | Score | PPM |
| Ebony Antonio | Fremantle | FWD | $52,000 | 75 | 1.53 |
| Tyla Hanks | Melbourne | FWD | $66,700 | 97 | 1.53 |
| Eden Zanker | Melbourne | RUC | $49,800 | 82 | 1.47 |
| Ally Morphett | GWS Giants | RUC | $14,300 | 49 | 1.47 |
| Emma Swanson | West Coast Eagles | DEF | $54,900 | 90 | 1.47 |
And here’s a helpful bar chart too with the top 50 PPM scores.
Round 2 Preview
The AFLW is still in its infancy, so we don’t have a great deal of historical data to go on, so AFLW fantasy matchups aren’t entirely useful just yet.
But that won’t stop me from sharing the data and selecting my best picks for each game next round based on their past performance against their opponent and at the ground they’re playing at this round.
| Best Player Pick | |||
| Round 2 Matches | Player | Average against opponent | Average at ground |
| Richmond v Melbourne Swinburne Centre | Montique Conti (MID $58,800) | 84.0 | 66.9 |
| Collingwood v St. Kilda Victoria Park | Georgia Patrikios (MID $76,000) | 108.0 | 108.0 |
| Brisbane v Carlton Maroochydore Oval | Emily Bates (MID $51,600) | 69.5 | N/A |
| Geelong v Western Bulldogs GMHBA Stadium | Ellie Blackburn (MID $74,100) | 106.0 | 120.0 |
| West Coast v Gold Coast VU Whitten Oval | Jacqui Yorston (MID $40,700) | 74.0 | 67.0 |
| Adelaide v Kangaroos Norwood Oval | Ebony Marinoff (MID $76,200) | 119.0 | 94.8 |
| Fremantle v GWS VU Whitten Oval | Kiara Bowers (MID ($91,100) | 109.0 | 101.0 |
Here’s wishing all AFLW fantasy coaches the best of luck with Round 2!
Pepa Randall is no rookie. This is her sixth season. Pretty happy to have her in my team at an almost rookie price though!
The subheading was “Cash cows and rookies” so….anyways I had one of the lowest scores of the first round due to picking 2 girls from the Saints who were the 2 most expensive players and both of them didn’t play LOL….one of them is vaccine hesitant?…haha should’ve done a bit of research I guess, I should score a bit better this week, thank Buddha for 3 trades per week 🙂