2018 AFL SuperCoach study guide, catch up on everything you need to register, build your team
BE alert, not alarmed, the 2018 AFL SuperCoach season is less than three weeks away. Now is your chance to catch up on who the experts are picking ahead of Round 1.
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The countdown is on for the 2018 AFL SuperCoach season.
Be alert, not alarmed, with less than three weeks to go it is not too late to get up to speed.
To make your jobs easier, we have packed the best SuperCoach news, views, and reviews in one place.
HOW TO PLAY: L-PLATE GUIDE TO SUPERCOACH
NEW to AFL SuperCoach? Want to be part of Australia’s biggest and best fantasy game?
Here’s how it works: You’re a coach, with a salary cap, team to pick and games to win.
HOW TO WIN — THE NUTS AND BOLTS
SOMEONE has to win, right? It might as well be you.
No one plays AFL SuperCoach to lose, especially when the overall winner gets to bank a cheque for $50,000 at the end of the season.
Let’s start with the Three Cs.
HOW TO (ACTUALLY) WIN
RESIST temptation.
Patrick Dangerfield, Dustin Martin, Tom Mitchell and Nat Fyfe might look pretty all together in the midfield but it can backfire spectacularly if you’re weak in defence or attack.
SuperCoach winner Ayden Potter has learnt a lot since taking home the $50,000 grand prize.
REVEALED: FEV’S SUPERCOACH TEAM
IT’S that time of year again.
Picking a good SuperCoach team is not just about picking superstars, it’s about picking players that will accumulate points and grow in value.
This year I’ve done my research and got some inside information from some of the league’s best recruiters and former player — veteran of SuperCoach — Russell ‘Fly’ Morris.
STRATEGY: HOW MANY IS TOO MANY
HOW many premium midfielders should we start with in 2018?
I have found that it isn’t the midfielders that make this decision, it is the other positions on the ground. That might sound strange, but let’s unpack it in more detail.
When we first start picking our teams there is always a temptation to go heavy in the midfield, and this year the lure is greater than ever with rolled gold super scorers at the top of the price list and lots of potential value.
DR SUPERCOACH: JLT SCOUTING REPORT
BUDDY blitzed the Lions, the Blues bolted out of the blocks and Isaac Heeney bombed — but don’t panic.
The race for Round 1 spots is heating up after five more JLT Series matches that helped SuperCoach players refine their starting squads — or threw up a lot more questions, depending on your perspective.
Miss a minute of the action? Don’t panic. The team from the Doctor SuperCoach podcast had a close eye on every game — here are the players you need to know about.
NO INTERNET, NO WORRIES
PLAYING SuperCoach without an internet connection is no easy feat, but Swan Hill’s Merryl McNaughton doesn’t let that stand in her way.
Despite never owning a computer, smartphone or tablet, the aircraft maintenance engineer has played SuperCoach for seven years, scribbling down players and points in notebooks.
After short-listing players, McNaughton, 60, calls the Herald Sun sports desk in January, asking for the SuperCoach price list to be posted to her.
THE 10 COMMANDMENTS
BEING good at SuperCoach is easy; being great at SuperCoach is infinitely more difficult, says Alexie Beovich.
Luckily for me, SuperFooty has only asked me to make a guide to being good at SuperCoach so I’ll be keeping the secret to winning the $50K prize to myself … actually, the secret is luck.
But you can set yourself up to be in a winning position with the 10 SuperCoach tips and, who knows, maybe you’ll be the lucky one in 2018.
THE SEVEN PLAYERS YOU NEED
THE secret to SuperCoach is not the players you always pick, but the ones you miss that determine your fantasy fate.
These are not always the stars with the biggest names and boldest scoring reputations, but often, recycled or mature-aged recruits and bona fide SuperCoach jets on the comeback trail from injury.
ROOKIE BIBLE (ADULTS ONLY)
PICKING superstars and the top draftees is only the beginning when it comes to SuperCoach.
When it comes to nailing your side, you need to look deeper into the draft and trades pool to unlock the key to SuperCoach.
ROOKIE BIBLE (THE KIDS)
CASH is king in SuperCoach and the only way to make a motsa is to pick the right cheapies.
REVEALED — ROBBO’S 2018 TEAM
And your SuperCoach team has to be different to most of the other teams.
Who knows what happened to the hard-nosed, quick-thinking Bulldogs midfielder in 2017?
THE PHANTOM ... UNMASKED?
NOT quite, but The Phantom is on a mission to prove the doubters wrong after a bout of second-year blues. The Adelaide-based (we think) SuperCoach crusader is a font of knowledge on all things fantasy — check out his mid-priced smokies.
THE SUPERCOACH JURY
THE verdict on seven big names in the first instalment of the 2018 SuperCoach jury. Stay tuned for more in the lead-up to Round 1.
GILBERT GARDINER’S TOP 40 SUPERCOACH PLAYERS
LET’S agree on one thing, it’s complicated.
The top three pick themselves as standouts in respective positions. Then it gets hard. The midfield is the minefield.
REVEALED — AL PATON’S SUPERCOACH TEAM
IF IN doubt, copy the premier.
Richmond proved last year you can achieve ultimate success with one very good forward and an army of no-name foot soldiers around him.
And I’m following the same path in my pre-season SuperCoach selections.
AFLX: THE EYE-CATCHERS
THE whirlwind of AFLX has come and gone, and left us with some valuable information about which players might be part of Round 1 action.
Draftees, recruits and players returning from injury all took the opportunity to get valuable game time and impress selectors at their clubs, and in SuperCoach.
SUPERCOACH DILEMMA I
CLARKO has done it again.
The master coach thrust James Sicily, a talented but inconsistent forward, into defence from Round 14 last season with great effect.
SUPERCOACH DILEMMA II
WILL one of the most hot and cold players in SuperCoach burn us again in 2018?
Tom Rockliff is one of the all-time SuperCoach studs, part of an elite group capable of reeling off monster scores on a weekly basis. But he can also cause massive frustration if he plays injured or out of position.
SUPERCOACH DILEMMA III
JAEGER O’Meara is one of the most divisive players in SuperCoach.
Is this the year his knee holds together and he returns to his AFL Rising Star Award winning, SuperCoach premium scoring days?
Or will it be deja vu for the coaches who lived through the Jaeger nightmare in 2017?
DUSTY: LOCK OR NOT
DUSTIN Martin swept all before him in an incredible 2017 labelled by Leigh Matthews one of the best individual seasons ever played.
Does that make him a must-have in SuperCoach for 2018?
Bargain watch: AFL Trade period SuperCoach specials
It’s never too early to start planning 2025 SuperCoach success, and the trade period has delivered some potential steals. Here are the names and numbers you need to know.
AFL obsession to NBL addiction: How SuperCoach hooked me on hoops
I hadn’t watch the NBL since the Andrew Gaze and Shane Heal days. Now I’m taking my son to United games and watching Phoenix on Kayo because of one reason.