Discussion 2025: AFL SuperCoach Discussion

[Manikato1]

@Manikato1 I wonder how long it will be before we actually use AI to assist us with Fantasy Sports. I believe it will be sooner than we think, by the current progress of AI.[/QUOTE]

I think for now it could assist with some stats analysis but there is not enough detailed stat information available to the general public. If that data detailed data did become freely available then those with the right skill set could have serious advantage.

 

[Baglimit]

Hey hey all, back for another season.

Your thoughts are always worth listening to Rowsus, here's some of mine.

Still trying to work out the best strategy for flex.
Seems to me there are a few approaches.

1. Use it as an extra midfield rookie slot.
2. Extra ruckman.
3. Premo that plays every week and has a low variance.

Leaning towards 3 at the moment, but will depend on teams for round one.

Thank you, excellent.

 

[Singapore Flyers]

I have been working through some things and gave a few thoughts

The 5 mid season byes might be fielding no rookies if you structure right. If I am right in this thinking, it might pay to be more mindful of teams having the bye versus players themselves.

How I got to this conclusion was:

I think many teams will have 8 starting proper premiums. Then we have the big 5 mid pricers that we are all banking on to be keepers. I am also starting 3 other mid pricers - Short, Peatling and Parker plus 7 onfield rookies.

Let’s assume that of those 8 MP’s, 5 become keepers. therefore starting with 13 premos +3 MP’s plus 7 rookies. between rounds 5-11, assume we can create 6 premos. I am assuming 5 will come from rookies (15 starting rookies, 3 per premo) and one will be converting a MP. Therefore going into R12, we can have 19 pros + 2 MP’s. In a best 18, therefore if we have only 3 players with a R12 bye, then we would have no rookies on field.

If we can add 1 more premo in R13, then we can have 4 players from those teams and have no rookies on field. 20 premos plus 2 MP

Across R14-16, we should complete our sides with 22 or 23 premos. (I question whether F6 will ever be actually a premo! ). We could then have 5 players from those sides and field premo only.

Teams completed quicker than this last year. If you can complete quicker, clearly you get one more R12 and one more R13 premo and still achieve a rookie free line up.

Looking at this, R16 had only B Smith from starting lineup. So I suspect that we could end up in a situation if we have too many R12 premos, then we might find ourselves needing a rookie score or two in R12, but benching a premo in R16.

(The other interesting part for me was by starting Bont, Brayshaw and Dawson if I needed another starting premium in the midfield, they all had a bye in R2-4. Very limited choices)

Anyway, that’s my thinking. I have managed to structure accordingly. It is not as good looking as some sides on paper, but if it can hold its own, then I might have an advantage in the mid season byes.

 

[Rowsus]

so you would be better putting a dpp there and a player that plays early in the round?

Having a DPP player there allows for more versatility, when you are shifting the player in the Flex position around.
Those playing a 3 Ruck gambit with the 3rd scoring Ruck in the Flex position will have no versatilty in replacing that player. If they want to keep that player, but move them out of the Flex (say a 1 week suspension) have no choice but to shift him to the Ruck line.
Those that have a DPP in the Flex position have 2 lines they can shift that current Flex player to.
I'm not sure it is imperative have a DPP there, just that it is more versatile option. Playing early is just a safe, common sense approach.

 

[Rowsus]

Hey hey all, back for another season.

Your thoughts are always worth listening to Rowsus, here's some of mine.

Still trying to work out the best strategy for flex.
Seems to me there are a few approaches.

1. Use it as an extra midfield rookie slot.
2. Extra ruckman.
3. Premo that plays every week and has a low variance.

Leaning towards 3 at the moment, but will depend on teams for round one.

Welcome back, Royal. Thanks for the kind words.
It's use will vary as the season wears on, and on how successful you have been in completing your team.
Early on it allows for another Cash Cow as we all pretty much start with between 12 and 18 Keepers and Midpricers. Those players fit into the old scheme of things, so the Flex just adds a player on top. We don't have any more cash for Prems or MP's, so it is a CC that gets added on top. That doesn't mean that that CC is or should sit at the Flex position. As to what position you are adding that Rookie into, that all comes down to how you structure your team.
Let's look at a situation. You have completed your team of 22 players across the 4 lines. The 23rd/Flex player would ideally be the most consitently high scoring player you don't already own. Mostly likely another Mid, but potentially a 3rd Ruck. Most people that are travelling really well with their side completion will likely grab a 9th Mid Premium before filling those low scoring holes like D6 or F5/6.
Your 3rd point of having a low variance Prem is sort of irrelevant. He's a Prem, he will be on the field anyway, unless you have 24+ Keepers. His score variance is sort of neither here nor there if he's on the field anyway. There's no advantage having the low variance player in the Flex position, if it is the same 23 players on the ground anyway.

 

[wogitalia]

Having a DPP player there allows for more versatility, when you are shifting the player in the Flex position around.
Those playing a 3 Ruck gambit with the 3rd scoring Ruck in the Flex position will have no versatilty in replacing that player. If they want to keep that player, but move them out of the Flex (say a 1 week suspension) have no choice but to shift him to the Ruck line.
Those that have a DPP in the Flex position have 2 lines they can shift that current Flex player to.
I'm not sure it is imperative have a DPP there, just that it is more versatile option. Playing early is just a safe, common sense approach.

Worth noting that the DPP isn't important anymore, they finally fixed it so you don't need to use the 0 trade trick to restructure your team and can just use existing DPP players to move players around.

So for example, if you've got a D/M, D/F and M/F in your side anywhere you can move basically any DPP player freely around them so the FLEX itself doesn't need any kind of DPP to be moved. Obviously this is limited once rolling lockout is in but I would suggest that most coaches will be locking the Flex in as early as possible to compensate for the no emergency aspect anyway so not likely to be a big factor.

This also isn't exclusive to the FLEX position, it works for all positions.

I'd highly suggest that coaches have a play around with it in the preseason to get a feel for the mechanic as it's very powerful but does also take a bit of fiddling to get the understanding going. Will make having a D/F guy super useful as means you really only need a single DPP guy in the mids to be able to cover from either back or forward.

You're spot on with the ruck only guys though, albeit a R/F (or R/D) in the R3 spot effectively frees you to cover from anywhere if you've got the DPP assets in place. So for example, if you have Boyd in the FLEX and Archer Reid (R/F) in R3, you can swing Reid into F8, field the two rucks and have whoever you want in the FLEX.

I actually think the FLEX is going to have the least value in the first few rounds from a team flexibility point of view, albeit might have the most from points gained given high volatility of rookie scores, I'd be surprised if it doesn't just turn into either an R3 or more likely M9 by the byes though.

 

[wogitalia]

Welcome back, Royal. Thanks for the kind words.
It's use will vary as the season wears on, and on how successful you have been in completing your team.
Early on it allows for another Cash Cow as we all pretty much start with between 12 and 18 Keepers and Midpricers. Those players fit into the old scheme of things, so the Flex just adds a player on top. We don't have any more cash for Prems or MP's, so it is a CC that gets added on top. That doesn't mean that that CC is or should sit at the Flex position. As to what position you are adding that Rookie into, that all comes down to how you structure your team.
Let's look at a situation. You have completed your team of 22 players across the 4 lines. The 23rd/Flex player would ideally be the most consitently high scoring player you don't already own. Mostly likely another Mid, but potentially a 3rd Ruck. Most people that are travelling really well with their side completion will likely grab a 9th Mid Premium before filling those low scoring holes like D6 or F5/6.
Your 3rd point of having a low variance Prem is sort of irrelevant. He's a Prem, he will be on the field anyway, unless you have 24+ Keepers. His score variance is sort of neither here nor there if he's on the field anyway. There's no advantage having the low variance player in the Flex position, if it is the same 23 players on the ground anyway.

I mentioned above but, imo, it's going to turn into most likely an M9 spot and most likely you'll sacrifice the F6 spot to get as much cash into it. Probably grab one of the volatile KPF types who can put up huge scores to be your F6 and an extra mid. This is later in the season.

Reminds me a lot of back in the day when emergencies covered the entire field, so the two midfield bench spots would be premiums and the weakest of D5-6 and F5-6 were just a donut.

On your point, I'd 100% prioritise getting the 9th mid into the FLEX spot over getting your 22 sorted at the cost of, likely, F6, even if you're fielding a rookie there I'd argue you're better off having M9 in the team. Also probably means that we really should be targeting top 5 forwards a bit more than in past years where you could scrape by at F6 as you wont even need the F6 most weeks.

Will definitely be an interesting twist, I do think it's not going to change a lot, main change is probably that the bench depth that all the extra trades has caused the last few years will be less needed, definitely lends itself to a more min-max type of team build.

 

[Under The Dome]

Worth noting that the DPP isn't important anymore, they finally fixed it so you don't need to use the 0 trade trick to restructure your team and can just use existing DPP players to move players around.

So for example, if you've got a D/M, D/F and M/F in your side anywhere you can move basically any DPP player freely around them so the FLEX itself doesn't need any kind of DPP to be moved. Obviously this is limited once rolling lockout is in but I would suggest that most coaches will be locking the Flex in as early as possible to compensate for the no emergency aspect anyway so not likely to be a big factor.

This also isn't exclusive to the FLEX position, it works for all positions.

I'd highly suggest that coaches have a play around with it in the preseason to get a feel for the mechanic as it's very powerful but does also take a bit of fiddling to get the understanding going. Will make having a D/F guy super useful as means you really only need a single DPP guy in the mids to be able to cover from either back or forward.

You're spot on with the ruck only guys though, albeit a R/F (or R/D) in the R3 spot effectively frees you to cover from anywhere if you've got the DPP assets in place. So for example, if you have Boyd in the FLEX and Archer Reid (R/F) in R3, you can swing Reid into F8, field the two rucks and have whoever you want in the FLEX.

I actually think the FLEX is going to have the least value in the first few rounds from a team flexibility point of view, albeit might have the most from points gained given high volatility of rookie scores, I'd be surprised if it doesn't just turn into either an R3 or more likely M9 by the byes though.

Just on the Flex DPP move. Mid round in BBL there was an issue moving players around the flex position. It was workable trading that player out and back into the other line though. Hopefully no one gets stuck on having to make late quick trades.

 

[Chumpion]

Just on the Flex DPP move. Mid round in BBL there was an issue moving players around the flex position. It was workable trading that player out and back into the other line though. Hopefully no one gets stuck on having to make late quick trades.

Yeah my advice is to move players to the flex then trade them, as it will allow you to update trade to any player. If you have them in the mid line and want to update trade you can’t move them to flex and pick any position.

 

[Chumpion]

so you would be better putting a dpp there and a player that plays early in the round?

I would highly encourage everyone to look at the Flex spot on a week by week basis. One of the best things about it is the flexibility it unlocks for your team, so having a player in mind that you leave in that spot isn’t making the most of what it can allow.
Also with fixtures and team order changing each round, there probably won’t be a player from one team that works best so it’ll need to evolve round by round. It’s one of the things I like least about going with the 3 ruck strategy early - if there is a must get rookie on a line you can’t squeeze them in, then you’ll be behind all the other coaches that can rejig things via the flex.

 

[Bermi]

@Manikato1 I wonder how long it will be before we actually use AI to assist us with Fantasy Sports. I believe it will be sooner than we think, by the current progress of AI.

I think for now it could assist with some stats analysis but there is not enough detailed stat information available to the general public. If that data detailed data did become freely available then those with the right skill set could have serious advantage.[/QUOTE]

In the future, AI will not only assist Fantasy Coaches with data and statistics, but it will also conduct all the analysis for us. Additionally, it will provide us with the optimal strategy to employ, the best players to select for our preferred structure, the ideal Captain choices for each week, and the most suitable player to Flex. If we need information about a player, AI will scour the internet and deliver all the data, the most up-to-date player's health status, and the reasons for and against selecting a player. We will no longer have to spend time scrolling through forum pages and websites to find all that information.

One of the creators of AI compared AI's intelligence to humans, using an example in human years, stating that AI is akin to an adult and humans to a six-year.

The concern with AI is that we may lose the ability to use logic, judgment, problem-solving abilities, and cognitive skills. Recent studies have found that this is happening now with the younger generations, who rely on AI to find answers for them, effectively "thinking" for them.

One issue to be cautious of with AI is that it hallucinates, meaning it sometimes provides false information that it has sourced from unreliable news.

 

[OnTopBar]

(The other interesting part for me was by starting Bont, Brayshaw and Dawson if I needed another starting premium in the midfield, they all had a bye in R2-4. Very limited choices)
.

Conversely, those are the exact players to upgrade into after round 4.

I've set my team up with exactly the same structure and for the same reasons, 3 premos missing round 12 and 4 missing round 13. We would differ a little on our choices, but 8 premos, 8 MP's and 7 rookies. The three MP's outside the five possible keepers for me are Sanders, Peatling and Rivers, hoping to upgrade Sanders before his bye with Rivers and Peatling being upgraded during the byes.

I'm not sure that I'll get to 19 keepers and 2 MP's by round 12 but if I fall short then I'd be hoping that my 18th best scorer ( a rookie) would deliver an 80 or so.

 

[BIGB0Y]

Very satisfied with my team $0 remaining. Going to sit on this for a while.
Would like to hear what you guys think cheers

 

[Creeker]

View attachment 83478
Very satisfied with my team $0 remaining. Going to sit on this for a while.
Would like to hear what you guys think cheers

Nailed it @Bigboy.
This is the structure we should be aiming for.
Just the 3 on field rookies. Looks safe.
Not sure on Maric, but I'll be following his pre season. Hearing he has the role change.

 

[BIGB0Y]

Nailed it @Bigboy.
This is the structure we should be aiming for.
Just the 3 on field rookies. Looks safe.
Not sure on Maric, but I'll be following his pre season. Hearing he has the role change.

Role change to defence, they are using his foot skills to distribute out of defence and taking kick ins. Sounds good to me. Hopefully an ave of 75-80 would be great.

 

[Shannon]

View attachment 83478
Very satisfied with my team $0 remaining. Going to sit on this for a while.
Would like to hear what you guys think cheers

Well done, one of the best sides I have seen - we have many players in common lol

No need to change anything till preseason games 👍

 

[wogitalia]

Just on the Flex DPP move. Mid round in BBL there was an issue moving players around the flex position. It was workable trading that player out and back into the other line though. Hopefully no one gets stuck on having to make late quick trades.

Yeah my advice is to move players to the flex then trade them, as it will allow you to update trade to any player. If you have them in the mid line and want to update trade you can’t move them to flex and pick any position.

I don't do BBL but I'm going to assume they hadn't added the feature that's new this year and you no longer need to use the zero trade exploit to achieve it.

As I said, highly recommend throwing a D/F, M/F and D/M into your draft team now and playing around. You can literally switch a D/M into the forwards temporarily if you've got a D/F in the back line.

The flex itself is definitely a bit clunkier and doesn't work well in this regard though, you can only move the FLEX itself back into the eligible positions they have but you can quickly move them to other spots once that's achieved.

This is one of the signature new features in SC and it's pretty powerful and something worth having a full grasp on before teams are locked in round 1 so that you can trade into and use in the future, assuming no D/F starting pick is available which looks likely right now. They haven't made it as intuitive as they should have but after years of asking for it they've finally at least done it and stopped having to use exploits to achieve it.

 

[Herbie66]

Had a better look at my structure today taking into account the Round 12-16 Byes

Hopefully a better balance , could all come down to how viable Flynn is

Still liking the 8-8-7 starting setup depending on the rookie priced players

D: Sheezel , Sinclair * , Clark , Mills

M: Serong , Cripps , Brayshaw , Davies-Uniacke , Oliver , Peatling

R: Gawn , Flynn / Reid *

F: Macrae , Smith * , Parker * , Daniel , Lynch , Powell-Pepper

Flex : Boyd

no idea when/who I will be downgrading/upgrading in the Round 5 to 11 period

 

[Chumpion]

I don't do BBL but I'm going to assume they hadn't added the feature that's new this year and you no longer need to use the zero trade exploit to achieve it.

As I said, highly recommend throwing a D/F, M/F and D/M into your draft team now and playing around. You can literally switch a D/M into the forwards temporarily if you've got a D/F in the back line.

The flex itself is definitely a bit clunkier and doesn't work well in this regard though, you can only move the FLEX itself back into the eligible positions they have but you can quickly move them to other spots once that's achieved.

This is one of the signature new features in SC and it's pretty powerful and something worth having a full grasp on before teams are locked in round 1 so that you can trade into and use in the future, assuming no D/F starting pick is available which looks likely right now. They haven't made it as intuitive as they should have but after years of asking for it they've finally at least done it and stopped having to use exploits to achieve it.

Yeah new feature is so good and so overdue!
What came up for me in BBL was basically I had a bat only player playing the last game that I’d traded in, but I wanted the option of changing him to a bowler depending on the toss. So I moved him to the flex position, however when I went to update the trade to a bowler it only gave me bat options because the trade had originally been on the bat line. Thankfully I had another player in that game so I could move them around and update the trade that way.
A few games later I had a similar situation, but instead of doing the trade on the bat line, I swapped him to the flex spot and then did the trade. When I went to update it I could bring in someone from any position.

Won’t always be needed with DPP and the new feature, but if it’s a player playing late and DPP options are locked out or too many players have played, it could be a life saver!

 

[Darkie]

Yeah new feature is so good and so overdue!
What came up for me in BBL was basically I had a bat only player playing the last game that I’d traded in, but I wanted the option of changing him to a bowler depending on the toss. So I moved him to the flex position, however when I went to update the trade to a bowler it only gave me bat options because the trade had originally been on the bat line. Thankfully I had another player in that game so I could move them around and update the trade that way.
A few games later I had a similar situation, but instead of doing the trade on the bat line, I swapped him to the flex spot and then did the trade. When I went to update it I could bring in someone from any position.

Won’t always be needed with DPP and the new feature, but if it’s a player playing late and DPP options are locked out or too many players have played, it could be a life saver!

Thank you, this is interesting.

Is it right to say that you can maintain maximum flexibility if you do all your trades through the flex position?

Ie switch any player you’re planning to trade out to flex first, and then move them back where you want them after the trade is executed?