SuperCoach 2016 draft: Nick Campton gives you the lowdown on fantasy football at its purest
FORGET cheapies, cash cows and PODs, you’re in a different world when you sign up to SuperCoach draft. Nick Campton gives you the lowdown on fantasy football’s purest form.
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FORGET everything you know about cheapies, cash cows and POD players because none of that will save you now.
We’re in SuperCoach Draft country my friends, where every team in every league looks different and you can’t cruise through the season on a steady diet of Corey Parker, Johnathan Thurston or Paul Gallen.
How do drafts work?
Every person in the league selects one player. Once a player is selected he cannot be chosen by any other team. Repeat until every member of the league has a 17-man roster.
Wait, only 17?
Yes, only 17. Your starting 13 (which is set up in the same formation as SuperCoach Classic) will get points, your four bench players will not.
How many people are in each draft?
Depends. Unlike SuperCoach Classic there’s no overall prize, everything is set up in head-to-head leagues. Like SuperCoach Classic, you can set up a private league with your mates or go in a public league with a bunch of randoms.
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What’s the prizemoney?
There is no official prizemoney. The easiest way to think of the cash behind a draft league is like a tipping comp — everyone in the league kicks in $20 or $50 or what have you and at the end of the season whoever wins the grand final takes home the cash. Nice and easy.
How many people should be in my league?
However many you like, but some numbers are better than others. If you have too few players then everyone in the league has teams filled with absolute studs and it’s impossible to string wins together. Have too many and the opposite happens, teams are so depleted that nobody can ever win or lose consistently. Somewhere between 10 and 14 is usually a pretty good number and we like to err on the side of inclusion — it facilitates more trades.
How do I trade?
You can trade up to five players at once at any time of the season. Trades and the negotiations of trades are the lifeblood of SuperCoach Draft once the season starts.
How do we decide who picks first?
Again, however you like. The league administrator can change the draft order as much as they like in the lead-up to draft day. Decide the order by drawing the names out of a hat, go off the reverse finishing order from last year’s league, have a FIFA tournament — get creative about it!
What kind of drafts are there?
You can have three types of draft structure — straight, snake and banzai. Straight is simple and straightforward — one person picks, then the next, then the next and so on and so forth until everyone has selected one player. Then the person who had the first pick selects another player. Repeat until everyone has a 17-man squad.
Snake is a little more varied — the draft order reverses after every round, so whoever has the last pick of the first round has the first pick of the second round, then the last pick of the third round, the first pick of the 4th round and so on.
Banzai is straight up crazy — the draft order reverses for round two, stays the same in round three and then continues as if it was a snake draft.
When should I have my draft?
About a week before the season is a good time to get it all underway. Everyone has a good idea about the squads for round one, but there’s still enough time to make some last-minute deals.
Does everyone in my league have to draft from a single computer?
No. You don’t even need to be in the same room. You can all draft off a single computer if you like, or you can do it all remotely. Take it from us, set up a draft day party, crack a few beers and unleash the drafting fury. It’ll be the best day of the SuperCoach year.
Who should I draft?
That’s a very expansive question.
Who you draft and when you draft them is incredibly important. A good draft can set you up for the entire season. A bad one can torpedo your premiership dreams. All the blue chip guys who are staples on SuperCoach Classic go inside the first three or four rounds. Cameron Smith, Corey Parker, Johnathan Thurston, Sam Burgess — usually every team gets two or three of these kind of players and need to find quality in the later rounds.
With 17 rounds in the draft you’ll need to hit a few late winners if you want to take the title. For example, a guy in my league picked Semi Radradra in the 14th round in 2014 and ended up making the grand final. Then again, that same guy took Jake Mamo in the 4th round last season, so don’t go calling him for advice or anything.
There are a thousand and one draft strategies but a good rule is to stock up on reliable outside backs and halves as early as you dare. Good forwards are easy to come by in SuperCoach, good backs are far rarer.
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