daily fantasy sports articles

We are back on again for Thursday night AFL football this week as Round 15 of the 2023 AFL Premiership Season kicks off with a massive clash between Geelong and Melbourne down at GMHBA Stadium.

Melbourne are sitting in third and looking to continue their quest to follow up their grand final win in 2021, while the Cats have slipped down to 10th as injuries mounted during the middle part of the season. this is a vital clash for their finals chances and it should produce a finals-like atmosphere!

Draftstars has put together a $60,000 main contest for this match, as well as more qualifiers for the $750,000 AFL Star Final later in the year!

• AFL $60,000+ Cats vs Demons at Draftstars
• AFL $10,000+ Cats vs Demons High Roller ($150 Entry) at Draftstars
• AFL $5,000+ Cats vs Demons Fiver at Draftstars 
• AFL $3,000+ Cats vs Demons Mini ($2 Entry) at Draftstars
• AFL $50 AFL Star Qualifier at Draftstars
• AFL $5 AFL Star Qualifier 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 ($1.96) vs Melbourne ($1.84)

Line: Melbourne -1.5
Points: 150.5

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Weather

Geelong – Very high chance of showers in the evening, 13 degrees.

We are looking at a bit of wet weather for this contest down at Geelong tomorrow night. It is expected to impact the game with the total points line also on the lower side. As a result, I would monitor the conditions heading into the first bounce. Consider including inside midedifleders who love tackling as well as potentially doubling up on the rucks if possible with dual positions. 

GHMBA Stadium is typically a ground that suits a contested style of play anyway given the dimensions, so a bit of wet weather would only enhance that.

Where To Attack?

Melbourne have continued to give up points to defenders this year, a trend that has continued on from 2022. They love to structure up with an extra man behind the ball which gives their opponent the opportunity to possess the ball in their back line. The Cats are no strangers to that type of play especially at home, so even if the wet weather comes in, stacking up Geelong backs would be a solid approach.

Geelong have been giving up plenty of points to forwards this season, which is certainly a surprising turn around from last year, but it makes sense given their position on the AFL ladder, and particularly their run over the last five games. Now in this matchup, I would be cautious about attacking this trend given the game is being played down at Geelong’s home ground where they have been hard to beat and score against.

Game Script – Geelong backs, Melbourne inside midfielders

VALUE PLAYS

James Jordan ($7,820) is pretty much a lock for me on this slate. Getting a full game has been rare for him this season, but in the four matches where he has not been the sub, he has averaged just under 74 fantasy points per game. That is close a 10x return at this price point and in a single game slate with little value on offer, you have to roster him along with the majority of the rest of the field.

Brad Close ($8,150) presents an opportunity for a point of difference at a value price. Close hasn’t been able to follow up his 2022 season where he had somewhat of a breakout fantasy season averaging 70 points from 22 games. This year his scoring has been down, but he did have a stretch of four straight 70+ point games during the middle of the season when the Cats went on a winning streak. So I like looking at him in this matchup back down at the Cats home ground and considering the conditions potentially will be wet as Close is a solid tackler.

MID PRICED PLAYS

Tanner Bruhn ($10,680) has been presented with plenty of midfield opportunity this season as you can see attending pretty much 55+% of the Cats centre bounces since Round 7. He also looks to have found his grove in recent weeks posting fantasy scores of 93, 79, 100 and 49 from his last four games. Now that 49-point game last week was due to him getting injured in the second quarter, so he was on track for yet another solid fantasy game before that occurred. With Patrick Dangerfield rules out, the CBA% of Bruhn isn't going to go backwards.

PREMIUM PLAYS

Jack Viney ($14,030) is fresh off his best game of the season with a 135 fantasy point outing last week against Collingwood. That is somewhat frustrating as there will be plenty of players rostering him off recency bias this week. But I absolutely love this matchup for Viney. We go down to the narrow ground at GHMBA where tackling and inside play becomes key, and added to that is the fact that there will likely be rain during the matchup. It is perfect for his game style, particularly with Oliver still out and the Demons having to lean on Viney as their main inside bull.

Christian Petracca ($16,050) has continued on his merry way with Oliver out of the lineup. He has posted three straight tons and is now at eight games over 103 fantasy points from his last 10 matches. He is seeing plenty of inside midfield opportunity and this will continue against the Cats.

Suggested Draftstars Lineup

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