AFLW Fantasy Round 2 Review

AFLW Fantasy players were given their first taste of the possible impending carnage that this pesky pandemic could throw our way, with Brisbane v Western Bulldogs postponed and a plethora of players wiped out with COVID and rested under the AFLs new Health and Safety protocols.

It’s going to be a tricky season to navigate, but we fantasy players are a resilient bunch and Azza is here to wrap up the round that was, give us a preview of Round 3 and provide us some tips to manage any future headaches that will definitely be thrown our way.

Player of the Round

With Brianna Davey out for the season with an unfortunate ACL injury, Brittany Bonnici (MID $79,400) stepped up and rose to the occasion, scoring a massive 133 AFLW fantasy points against St. Kilda on Saturday.

Only 5 players in AFLW history have scored more points in a single game.

Highest AFLW Fantasy Scores (2017-2021)

But Bonnici wasn’t the only player this round to post a monster score, with Anne Hatchard scoring 130 against North Melbourne, the 8th highest AFLW fantasy score of all time and her 7th 100+ score after a 120 last round. Clearly looming as another must have player after this incredible start.

Other players to round out the top 10 were:

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Cash Cows and Rookies

Number 1 draft pick, Charlie Rowbottom wowed the competition against West Coast on Sunday, topping nearly every statline for the Suns. Rowbottom finished the game with 17 disposals, 12 contested possessions, 12 tackles, 1 mark, 6 frees for, 3 frees against for a total of 94 AFLW fantasy points.

Rowbottom is currently sitting in 54.3% of AFLW fantasy teams, ranking as the 2nd most owned rookie behind Georgie Prespakis, and will net owners a hefty price rise.

As for the other top performing rookies, the top 10 are as follows:

Value Buys of the Round

Tara Bohanna (FWD $13,700) was definitely the value pick this round, going big with an impressive 87 AFLW fantasy points against West Coast. 

Sadly, I was one of those owners that had relegated Bohanna to my bench after the 10 in Round 1, but will welcome the healthy price rise since Bohanna went into Round 2 with a breakeven of only 22.

Maggie Caris (RUC $14,400) and Charlie Rowbottom (MID $23,000) rounded out the top 3, but since most of the top value picks were under $20,000, let’s take a look at some other value picks from the round.

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 Brittany Bonnici (MID $79,400) with a staggering 2.51 points per minute. Had Bonnici played the full 100% game time, Bonnici would have broken the AFLW fantasy record and scored 177.

Rebecca Beeson featured yet again with 2.21PPM but sadly only spent 16% of the game on the field. One to keep an eye on though given Beeson also registered 1.70PPM last round too.

Interestingly, Carlton had 4 players in the top 10 for points per minutes this round, with Prespakis, McEvoy, Guerin and Harrington all featuring. For reference, GWS had the most last round with 3 players in the top 10.

Anyway, here’s a list of the other fast scorers in Round 2.

Again, since the top 10 here are all mostly midfielders, here is an additional small list of the highest PPM players that are not midfielders.

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Round 3 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.

Navigating the Chaos

Given the current situation we are facing with COVID and its Omicron variant, it’s likely we’ll see more players rested due to the AFLs new Health and Safety protocols, and games being postponed under the new AFL rescheduling guidelines.

It’s going to be a tricky thing to navigate throughout the season, but there are ways that we can limit the damage to our sides.

1. Ensure you don’t fill your side with too many players from the one team. Make sure you’ve got a nice even spread so you’re not impacted too badly if a match gets postponed.
2. Ensure you use your trades wisely. Wait as late as you can until trading and keep abreast of any news that filters in. Not much we can do about Sunday teamsheets that aren’t published until after lockout, but make sure you do have 5 available emergencies just in case.
3. Let go of the fact you can’t control the chaos, embrace it and try to have fun.

Now, there is a slight silver lining to this predicament in the form of season averages. As per the AFLW fantasy rules, “If a game is postponed, all players selected in that game will receive their 2022 season average.”

This could be used to coaches advantage throughout the season if your cards fall the right way. Take Orla O’Dwyer for an example. With the Brisbane Lions v Western Bulldogs match from Round 2 still postponed, 6.5% coaches that own O’Dwyer will be rewarded with her average of one score – 106.

It’s an interesting tactic that could come into play throughout the season, but of course it does come with a risk. If a game gets postponed but is still played at least 24 hours prior to the commencement of the following round, the players’ score in the rescheduled game will still count and averages will not be applied.

Use with caution, but most of all, try to have fun amongst all the chaos. Best of luck to all AFLW coaches for Round 3!

If you have any questions or stats for Azza, hit him up on Twitter at @azzajewell.

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