The AFL AAMI Community Series continues on Friday night with a tasty clash as the Western Bulldogs collide with the Brisbane Lions. Two contenders in 2021 are both expected to be around at the business end of the season in 2022, so it will be interesting to see how they come out of the gates in this one.

 

Again Draftstars are offering a solid prize pool for a pre-season match with $20,000 guaranteed up for grabs, along with a range of smaller contests.

 

As we mentioned yesterday, be careful when going too hard in the pre-season. It’s a long season, both for you and the players! We don’t want to be peaking in March! Teams will throw players around into different positions and many stars will be playing managed minutes so keep that in mind when building your line-ups.

 

 

Here’s a few players to watch for who may be worth considering for your Draftstars teams.

 

Keidean Coleman (Bris) - $6,180 (Fwd/Def)

The first player who jumps off the page for me is Keidean Coleman. Historically, he’s only averaged in the 40s for fantasy points, which is hardly exciting, but there are strong whispers for a new role for Coleman off half-back. WIth no Grant Birchall, there’s a hole there for the skillful Coleman to fill as a key distributor which means an excellent fantasy output for a bargain basement price. You also have the bonus of playing him as a forward or defender.

 

Cam Rayner (Bris) - $10,000 (Fwd)

Cam Rayner is returning from a serious knee injury last season, so it’s hard to expect too much of him straight away, but he’s had a big pre-season and looks super fit. He’ll be ready to go and ready to spend more time in the middle of the ground this year. That’s exciting to hear about a former #1 draft pick.

 

Josh Dunkey (WB) - $12,150 (Fwd/Mid)

It’s an interesting year ahead for Josh Dunkley. He’s supposedly happy again and after an injury-riddled season last year, he’ll be looking to get back to his best, and that means huge fantasy scoring! Played a lot forward last season, but you’d expect the Dogs to wrap Bont and Macrae in cotton wool so there should be an opportunity for Dunkley to have a big game in the middle here.

Rinse and repeat the above for Adam Treloar as well.

 

Jarrod Berry (Bris) - $7,870 (Mid)

Another who had a poor 2021 season through injury but has supreme talent. Berry was superb in the practice match last week and anything near that output would be a huge return in this match at a cheap price. With Brisbane likely to rotate through the middle heavily, expect Berry to be popular.

 

Lachie Neale (Bris) - $14,930 (Mid)

It’s tricky to talk too much about the premium players in pre-season but Lachie Neale is worth mentioning. He struggled for much of 2021 and clearly wasn’t quite right. The word is that he’s back to his best, looking as fit as ever, and that means trouble for his opponents. He’ll be keen to come out fast in 2022 and one premium I’ll be happy to take here in this match.

 

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