daily fantasy sports articles

AFL action kicks off this Thursday night for Round 18 of the 2023 AFL Premiership Season with the Sydney Swans hosting the Western Bulldogs at the SCG. The Swans are a full two wins plus percentage out of the top 8 and are now looking like they will miss the finals after making the Grand Final in 2022. The Western Bulldogs on the other hand are clinging to 7th with a weak percentage, making this game critical for their finals chances.

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+ Swans vs Bulldogs at Draftstars
• AFL $10,000+ Swans vs Bulldogs High Roller ($150 Entry) at Draftstars
• AFL $2,000+ Swans vs Bulldogs Fiver at Draftstars 
• AFL $3,000+ Swans vs Bulldogs 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

Sydney ($1.75) vs Western Bulldogs ($2.08)

Line: Sydney -4.5
Points: 165.5

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Weather

Sydney - Sunny, 21 degrees.

Absolutely perfect football conditions in Sydney this Thursday night. Let’s play.

Where To Attack?

As we noted last week, the Bulldogs structure has consistently conceded points to defenders in recent years and this has continued in 2023. We used this to our advantage last week with the Magpies backs filling up the stat sheet and I expect the same to occur this week with the Swans.

Again, another trend that has held consistent is the Bulldogs giving up fantasy points to forwards. This has generally been to the key forwards given their lack of talls to match up, however this year we have seen plenty of the small forwards taking advantage. The Swans are slight favourites and should get up on their home ground, so I will be looking to roster plenty of their forwards in this matchup. 

Game Script – Sydney backs and forwards

VALUE PLAYS

Lance Franklin ($8,370) popped up last week with an 80-point fantasy game, which was his first solid game in three weeks. However, it shows he still has upside from a daily fantasy perspective at this price and I love this matchup with the Bulldogs conceding points to forwards and having trouble with a direct matchup for Franklin. Alternatively you could look to Logan McDonald or one of Sydney’s smaller forwards such as Will Hayward or Tom Papey for a similar price point.

MID PRICED PLAYS

Hayden McLean ($9,620) will draw the sole ruck this week with Tom Hickey left out of the side. This makes him a great play at this price point given he has already shown the ability to hit over 100 fantasy points just three weeks ago while pinch hitting in the ruck. This matchup could not be a better time for McLean to get given the number one spot either, as the Bulldogs conceded the most points in the league to the opposition's number one ruckman at over 19 points per game above league average.

Oliver Florent ($10,600) should see a sharp increase in possessions in his role across half back with Jake Lloyd out of the lineup this week. Last week with Lloyd going out early in the game resulted in Florent racking up 103 fantasy points and we have seen all season that Florent does have the ability to post solid fantasy returns at this price point as this was his fourth game over the 100 mark. As noted above this is an elite matchup for Sydney backs so I would be looking to stack Florent up with another Swan defender.

PREMIUM PLAYS

Tom Liberatore ($14,560) has had an elite fantasy season averaging 102 points per game. This should be a heavily contested game through the midfield with both the Bulldogs and Swans conceding the fewest amounts of fantasy points to midfielders in the league. The small SCG ground should suit Liberatore’s contested game style and I expect him to be one of the few mids to top the 100 point mark in this game.

Callum Mills ($13,940) has seen a return to his role through the midfield in the past two weeks and this should continue with both Warner and Sheldrick out of the lineup in this matchup. If Mills is playing through the middle he is simple under priced at under $14k. Mills has posted just five games under 100 points at the SCG in his last 19 games at the ground. This is a lock and load play for me on this slate.

Suggested Draftstars Lineup

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