Time to close our the first weekend of the 2021 AFL Premiership Season with a fun 3 game Sunday slate. Draftstars have got us covered with another massive day of daily fantasy contests:

 


In addition to previews for each and every slate this season, Daily Fantasy Rankings will continue with our AFL Resources page. This section provides you all the data you need to build your best lineups. It includes daily cheat sheets for both Draftstars and DraftKings, Player Correlation tables, Player Out tables, Scores Against tables, Tagging information, statistical breakdowns and much more!

CLICK HERE TO ACCESS OUR CHEAT SHEET FOR THIS MATCH

North Melbourne vs Port Adelaide at MARVEL (PTA -33.5, 174.5)

GWS vs St Kilda at GIANTS Stadium (GWS -7.5, 150.5)

West Coast vs Gold Coast at the OPTUS (WCE -28.5, 172.5)

 

WEATHER WATCH

 

Sydney

 

 

Melbourne

 

Perth

 

Should be ideal conditions in Melbourne (can use the roof if needed) and Perth. The game between GWS and St Kilda in Sydney, however, is another story. Heavy showers are expected with up to 45mm of rain. The game should be an absolute slop and as such I would be avoiding any players from that game who rely on uncontested possessions and loading up on inside bulls who love contested play and tackling.

 

Where to Attack

With the season yet to kick off we don’t have any data to look at for points conceded in 2021 as yet, however we can still look back to last year to get an indication of where to attack. Remember don’t take these as gospel as teams can change significantly year to year, particularly if there have been significant personnel or coaching changes.

 

 

Based on last year there are two teams on this slate that we can attack through the midfield and they line up perfectly with the two teams expected to run away with big wins. Gold Coast gave up the third most points to midfielders and could be ripe for picking out West against the Eagles who are just under 5 goal favourites. North Melbourne was not far behind the Suns giving up the 5th most points at 2.5 points per player above league average.

 

 

It is a similar story up forward where both Gold Coast and North Melbourne are top 5 for points conceded to the position. Port Adelaide are 33 point favourites for the match against North and that might be light considering one team is a premiership contender and other a spoon favourite.

 

Game Stack - Port Adelaide midfielders and forwards

 

VALUE PLAYS

 

Paul Hunter (DS $8,240, DK $3,700) will be taking the lead ruck duties for the Saints who are down Rowan Marshall and Paddy Ryder. He showed he was capable in the preseason with a 60 point game against Carlton and he should draw an easier matchup on this slate against GWS who essentially have no real ruck to play. What makes this an even better play is the wet conditions will suit rucks as we can expect a large number of stoppages.

Riley Bonner (DS $8,810, DK $5,000) / Ryan Burton (DS $8,760, DK $4,200) are hard to split as similarly priced half backs. Bonner will push up onto the wing and it is a prime matchup for both players to rack up uncontested touches. I will be stacking plenty of Port Adelaide and these two will feature heavily.

William Drew ($6,500, DK $3,500) will be a lock and load value play for me on this slate. He has essentially taken Tom Rockliff’s role on the inside and at near the minimum price that is too good to pass up. In the one preseason game he racked up 93 fantasy points and this game could be similar in terms of being a blowout with Port over 5 goal favourites. Even better, as noted above this is an elite matchup for midfielders with North Melbourne conceding the 4th most points in the league to the possession in 2020.

Tom Powell (DS $5,000, DK $2,500) Wow value everywhere on this slate! Powell was the pick of the rookies for a ball magnet who will likely come in right away and have a fantasy impact. His preseason game did nothing to contradict this line of thinking posting 64 fantasy points form 67% game time. It isn't an ideal matchup for his debut, but at the minimum price he doesn't need to do much to return value.

 

MID PRICED PLAYS

 

Matt Rowell (DS $12,620, DK $5,900) will be hard to pass up at this price point considering what he did in his first few games last season. Playing just 4 games last year before going down injured he posted two above 100 fantasy points in (in short game time) and another 78 point game. One of those games was coincidentally against the West Coast midfield, although this will be on different territory out West.

 

PREMIUM PLAYS

 

Andrew Gaff (DS $16,270, DK $8,100) is always one of the safest premium plays around, especially over in the West at Optus where he averages 108 fantasy points per game (even better if you remove his shortened game scores from last year). It is an elite matchup for midfielders as noted above with the Suns giving up the 3rd most fantasy points to the position in 2020. There is plenty of value on this slate to allow us to spend up and Gaff is where I will be going.

 

Suggested Draftstars Team

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