The 2023 AFL Premiership Season is underway and the action continues with Geelong hosting Collingwood in a blockbuster at the MCG on Friday night.

Both these teams flourished in 2022 with the Cats emerging as premiers, so expect a high-quality contest in this one.

Draftstars have come to the party again, offering a $100,000 Guaranteed Main Contest along with a wide variety of other lower stakes options with big prize pools. It's a great time to get involved with daily fantasy AFL at Draftstars!

  • AFL $100,000+ Cats vs Magpies at Draftstars
  • AFL $15,000+ Cats vs Magpies High Roller ($150 Entry) at Draftstars
  • AFL $5,000+ Cats vs Magpies Fiver at Draftstars 
  • AFL $5,000+ Cats vs Magpies Mini ($2 Entry) at Draftstars

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 line-ups. It includes daily cheat sheets for Draftstars, 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

 

Betting Markets

Geelong ($1.54) vs Collingwood ($2.48)

Line: Geelong -11.5

Points Line: 165.5 points

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Weather

Melbourne - Cloudy, 24 degrees

Friday night should present perfect conditions for football. Given the warm end of summer temperature, any underdone players could have their fitness exposed late in proceedings.  

Where To Attack?

With this being the first round of the season, we don’t have a body of data to look at in 2023 as of yet. That said, we can take plenty of cues from the prior season assuming neither the Cats or the Magpies implement any major game plan changes in 2023.

While both teams performed well across the ground in 2022, the Magpies showed themselves to be a leaky midfield unit from a fantasy perspective. Collingwood conceded the most points to opposition centres over the season, particularly contested players who thrived in clearance settings.

Game Script – Geelong midfielders

VALUE PLAYS

Esava Ratugolea (DS $6,000) will return to Geelong’s line-up after an interrupted 2022 season, with the promise of a new role. Chris Scott has earmarked a move to the backline for Ratugolea, who has traditionally played as a key forward. This is great news for DFS players, as intercepting tall defenders can be great scorers and Esava has already averaged over 58 in two seasons (2019 and 2020). If Ratugolea can put up a score in that range, he is just about hitting 10x value, which is Draftstars gold.

MID PRICED PLAYS

Tanner Bruhn (DS $9,920) is in a similar boat to Esava, which means he is on our radar. After crossing over to the Cats from GWS, Bruhn has stepped into Geelong’s midfield, considerably raising his ceiling from the small forward role he was playing for the Giants. Bruhn comes up against 2022’s leakiest midfield (Draftstars points) on Friday night, so it’s a great chance for the new recruit to prove his worth.

Max Holmes (DS $10,760) was the heartbreak story of Geelong’s 2022 triumph, missing the Grand Final due to injury. The exciting speedster will undoubtedly have a fire in his belly coming into this season, and he was awarded some CBAs by Chris Scott in the practice matches, so I can see an uptick in fantasy scoring. Holmes put up two 90+ scores in the back end of last year and scored 77 against Collingwood early in the year… a score of 80+ here will make him an astute selection.

Jordan De Goey (DS $12,130) spilled his soul for a spread in the Herald Sun this week, and I’m expecting him to start season 2023 with a bang. The Collingwood midfielder has had a trouble-free pre-season, staying healthy and out of the headlines. He should be set for a career best year, and although we’re looking to stack Geelong mids this could be the exception.

PREMIUM PLAYS

Cameron Guthrie (DS $13,620) is a reliable premium in Draftstars and he will lead Geelong’s midfield again this season. Given that Selwood has retired and Dangerfield is one year older, I can see Guthrie attending bulk CBAs, which bodes well for his scoring. With a prime matchup against the Magpies, $13k is great value for Guthrie.

Suggested Draftstars Lineup

Draftstars

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