It’s played by thousands of Australians but what do the players in the game think of KFC SuperCoach and fantasy in the AFL?
Fans love it but what do those in the game think? In a must-read for KFC SuperCoaches, current players share their thoughts on the fantasy football craze in the AFL, the social media backlash, who plays it, the American influence and more
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It might be known as fantasy but it is a big part of reality for thousands of Australians.
Every weekend, more than 300,000 people, spread across multiple platforms – including KFC SuperCoach, the country’s most-popular game – take part in the passionate and addictive frenzy that is fantasy football.
Not only does it see more people watching the AFL, even if their team isn’t playing, it forms the basis of much weekly conversation, whether it be at the pub, office or in the lounge room at home.
Even on the street or at a local cafe, and, these days, often with the players involved.
“When I go out, people are always asking ‘should I put the captain on you?’ and saying ‘how are ya, Pig?’” Port Adelaide midfielder Tom Rockliff says.
‘Pig’ refers to Rockliff’s status as a fantasy star of the competition, as outlined by AFL Fantasy’s The Traders.
Players awarded Pig status are Fantasy favourites for going above and beyond what is necessary. They stick their snout in the trough and feast on the Fantasy points. They can be greedy.
And as captain, your total points for the week, which are based on your stats sheet, are doubled.
Day 1ï¸âƒ£3ï¸âƒ£ of self-isolation with @rockwiz38 - rest easy @AFLFantasy fans, footy might be on hiatus but the 🷠isn't going anywhere! #weareportadelaide pic.twitter.com/GmLuRoZhZG
— Port Adelaide FC (@PAFC) April 4, 2020
“Generally speaking, the first question is more about the fantasy side for people that I don’t necessarily know out on the street,” Rockliff adds.
“Their question will be about fantasy before it’s about Port Adelaide and my form.
Crow Brodie Smith agrees.
“In the last couple of years, it’s gone to another level,” Smith says.
“People have sort of gone beyond their club. If you support the Crows, it’s not so much about them winning or losing, it’s about what I scored in SuperCoach, what Lairdy (teammate Rory Laird) scored.
“The chat with people out at cafes and that sort of thing has definitely shifted from footy to fantasy scores.”
On the most part it’s lighthearted banter.
And for Gold Coast’s Hugh Greenwood, it’s all anybody talked to him about during his debut season at the Crows in 2017.
“Everyone was high-fiving me and stopping me, ‘you’re playing so well mate but gee, you’ve been good for my fantasy team’,” Greenwood recalls.
“That’s all I would get. Not ‘congratulations on your first year’ or anything.”
And the feedback for Greenwood, who started 2017 at the basement-price in all forms of fantasy before scoring 100 points on debut, wasn’t just from those he didn’t know.
“My uncle every week was like ‘mate, you’re just great for my SuperCoach team’,” Greenwood says.
“He would be like ‘you’ve played well but you needed more tackles’.”
At times, however, it becomes more than friendly feedback.
The passion of fantasy coaches leads to frustration and it’s the players involved in reality, unfairly, on the receiving end.
Sure, criticism is part of being a professional athlete but it often goes too far with Rockliff suggesting “sometimes we get a little too caught up on it”.
“Players cop a bit of abuse, myself included, and it’s not really warranted,” he admits.
“Our job is to win games of footy for the team we play for and not necessarily to score points.
“Obviously I’m part of it and have a few jokes along the way, there’s a huge amount of positives.
“But the negative is there is a lot of people out there who think that players are deliberately not scoring points or not doing their best.
“And they get abused for it.”
.@reecehomfray: "Were they (SuperCoaches) not happy with your 7 touches?"@Brodiesmith33: "Not happy at all."
— The Phantom (@ThePhantomSC) March 31, 2020
RH: Didn't they know you almost had a punctured lung?
BS: "No sympathy for that at all."
FULL PODCAST: https://t.co/USbaynnX6c
“You log onto Twitter and you see ‘any danger of scoring 100, champ?’” Smith says. “That’s where the frustration comes from.”
“That’s not going to make me score anymore the next week. I am going to try just as hard as a tried the week before,” he adds.
“There’s no point adding someone on social media and saying ‘I put all this time into picking you, why haven’t you delivered for me?’
“You’re not trying to get a low SuperCoach score when you’re out there.
“You’re not trying to get a high one either, you’re just trying to play your role.”
THE PLAYERS DO UNDERSTAND THE PASSION
“I see it and I just smile, I know how much time people put into it.”
They are the words of laid back young GWS midfielder Jackson Hately, who “absolutely loved” the fantasy side of the sport growing up.
And the way in which he followed it prior to being drafted helps him understand the passion – and frustration – from the other side.
“If you have a good understanding of fantasy, you know it’s not personal, they’re just disappointed their team hasn’t done as well as they would’ve liked,” Hately says.
“It doesn’t really phase me because I know how passionate people are about it.
“I was the exact same.”
At high school, Hately, who was picked by the Giants at No. 14 in the 2018 draft, was a football-obsessed teenager who lived and breathed fantasy football.
He would pick his team, follow the players and, of course, join in the banter with his friends.
“As a kid, pretty much all the way up until last year, I used to absolutely love it. I was on DT Talk all the time and going through all those articles and all that,” Hately admits.
Even in his first year as one of the players – a popular one, too – in the game, Hately still found time.
His passion remained but it also helped plenty of Giants shared a similar interest. And not just players.
“The boys love their SuperCoach. We’ve got a league, there’s probably about 15 or 16 guys in there,” Hately says.
“The boys and all the staff take it pretty seriously.”
One of those is superstar Josh Kelly, who Hately says would happily pick himself.
And it’s hard to blame him.
“(St Kilda champion and Giants assistant) Lenny Hayes loves it, too, he gets involved,” Hately adds.
Another staff member in the league is Property and Logistics Manager Ady Schwegler.
And on Hately’s return to the senior side in Round 15 last year, Schwegler traded the young draftee in to his team to cash in on two impressive early-season scores of 95 and 85.
“He was pumping me up all week, he was kicking me all of the footies during the warm-up, trying to get me ready,” says the 19-year-old.
“But I didn’t score too well from then and I don’t think he talked to me for two months,” Hately jokes. “That probably hurt our relationship a little bit.
Like in most clubs, there are a few who don’t like it or don’t understand the craze but Hately says most of the Giants playing group appreciate the fantasy side of the game.
And, while he’s stepped away from it to an extent, in order to focus on football in reality, the South Australian will continue to have his on eye on it.
“I’m always helping my brother out. He’s always asking me questions so I still secretly love it, I still try to stay involved as much as I can,” he says.
“I’ll just become a professional helper.”
AND NOT JUST BECAUSE OF THE AFL
When Greenwood arrived in the US to start his college basketball career with the University of New Mexico, he didn’t know much about the NFL.
But, like many, the fantasy side of the sport saw him become an avid follower.
“When I got there, I had no idea about the NFL but they (his college teammates) needed an extra number for their league,” Greenwood recalls.
“I just got into the game by following the players that were in my team.
“And since then, I’ve had a huge passion for it.
“I’ve got three teams in three different leagues and that’s where it all started for me.”
It started in the US but it followed him back to Australia and into a competition chaired by former Crows teammate Rory Laird.
It might be different now with Greenwood and his partner Kjiersten welcoming a baby boy, Titus, into the world in February but, like most fantasy coaches, he was dedicated.
“They give you right up until kick-off so my partner hated it when my alarm went off at 2.50am so I could double-check if my players were playing or not,” Greenwood laughs.
American fantasy sport – which is played by nearly 60 million worldwide according to a study by the Fantasy Sports & Gaming Association in 2017 – is a common interest among AFL players.
Big man Peter Wright runs the Suns’ NFL fantasy league which Greenwood will join next season, while Sam Day and Jordan Murdoch are in charge of the NBA competition.
Prior to the suspension of the season, the bottom-placed team in Day and Murdoch’s league was to buy the winner a new jersey.
That player is currently second-year forward Ben King.
But it’s the NBA league of former Adelaide teammate Sam Jacobs, which features current Crows players and Olympic champion Kyle Chalmers, where Greenwood holds the bragging rights.
His team ‘The Chokers’, named after his previous effort in the playoffs, were crowned champions in 2019.
“I got a big ring made. I found it in an op-shop and my partner customised it,” Greenwood, who had his first go at an AFL version with his mates back home in Tasmania in 2019, says.
“I’ve shuffled the three College rings across and put the fourth one in there – it blings, it spins, it’s got the works.
“There’s my diploma and family photos but perched up the top is the trophy – it was a big deal.”
Despite joining an NBA competition during his time in Brisbane, Rockliff’s interest isn’t as strong.
But he notes the connection between the understanding of AFL fantasy and the players who follow the American games.
“The guys that play the American ones get an insight into what it’s like and why so many people get affected by their scores on the weekend and probably understand it all a bit better,” Rockliff says.
“Whenever I get mad about my players, NFL especially, I get it,” Greenwood adds. “On a much smaller scale, though, you see some of the stuff they cop, it’s out of this world.”
Smith on the other hand had a go at fantasy cricket last summer, entering his team in the SuperCoach BBL competition.
“That was quite frustrating, when you pay a heap of an opening batter and gets out for a duck,” he says.
“I can understand why people who put so much time into it get filthy when you don’t get the score they were expecting.
“But I would vent to a mate in a private message about the players I picked.
“NBA and NFL are huge, the boys get right into that, that’s why we can understand the AFL comp … but there’s no point coming at us on social media because that doesn’t solve anything.”
“I think if we could eliminate that it would be a fantastic platform,” Rockliff says.