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Round 24 of the 2023 AFL Premiership Season gets underway with an old fashioned Victorian blockbuster this Friday night as Essendon and Collingwood square off at the MCG. The final round of the season will bring plenty of drama, and despite the Bombers being out of finals contention, they will have an opportunity to spoil an old rival's chance at the minor premiership. 

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

Essendon ($4.90) vs Collingwood ($1.17)

Line: Collingwood -30.5
Points: 173.5

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Weather

Melbourne - Mostly sunny, possible shower. 19 degrees.

All signs point to a clear and perfect night for football the MCG this Friday. There might be a small shower at game time but nothing that should impact the match signficiantly. Monitor as the first bounce approaches.

Where To Attack?

Essendon have allowed the fifth most points per game to the opponent's defenders this season. This has been driven in large part by conceding the second most points per game to the top three scorers at the position. They love giving up uncontested ball which goes right up to the wings.

Collingwood are over 30-point favourites in this game, where they still have something to play for while the Bombers will likely have one foot on holidays. We saw how that played out last week with the Giants cruising to 126-point win. As a result we can expect Magpies forward stacks to be a very popular play on this slate.

Game Script – Collingwood backs / outside players

VALUE PLAYS

Will Hoskin-Elliott ($7,650) … on a single game slate where value is hard to come by, I will be turning to Hoskin-Elliott in the midfield to enable spending up in the midfield and back line. Hoskin-Elliott has shown 80 point upside this season and should take advantage of the fact that the Bombers give up one of the highest number of uncontested possessions and marks in the league this season as he pushes up on the flanks.

Brody Mihocek ($8,990) will not replicate the exploits of Jesse Hogan last week, but he will get the opportunity to take advantage of the Bombers soft back line. Mihocek has been in solid form the past two weeks kicking 7 goals and returning scores of 73 and 81. The Magpies are strong favourites in this matchup where the Bombers have nothing but pride to play for so stacking up the Collingwood forwards stands out as an obvious play.

MID PRICED PLAYS

Brayden Maynard ($12,040) / John Noble ($11,400) 

Stacking up the Magpies backs plays right into the game script with the Bombers giving up the fifth most points to backs this season. This has particularly been driven by the fact they give up 93 points per player to the top three scoring defenders, the second highest mark in the league. As a result looking to pay up across the Collingwood back line is the preferred strategy on the this slate.

PREMIUM PLAYS

Josh Daicos ($14,770)… consistent with the outside scorer trend, paying up for Daicos, who should link up with the Magpies defenders, is the play I prefer here. Daicos topped the 100-point mark earlier this season against Essendon and is capping off the best season of his career averaging just under 95 points this season.

Zach Merrett ($16,800) has just come off back-to-back games where he has drawn a tag and managed to outlay just 90 and 94 points - well below his usual standards. I expect him to finish out the season with a monster game as he should expect little to no hard attention from the Magpies. He has had a great history against Collingwood and loves playing at the MCG. After the embarrassment Essendon received last week, Merrett will want to lead from the front in this game and I expect a ceiling type game of 140+.

Suggested Draftstars Lineup

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