SuperCoach AFL L-plate guide: How to pick a team, how to win SuperCoach, and the basics to joining the fun in 2024
Been invited to join your work SuperCoach league but have no idea how to pick a side? We’ve got you covered for all the tips and tricks for beginners to SuperCoach.
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Good news, everyone! SuperCoach is open! But, what exactly is a SuperCoach?
In time, dear reader, you can become a SuperCoach - a list manager for 30 players, an expert in trading, and someone for your friends to look up to.
Whether it’s to rule the roost over your colleagues in the office, to get bragging rights on site, or to hunt down the elusive $50,000 prize pool - with this quick guide, we’ll get your SuperCoaching to your heart’s content in no time.
HOW IT WORKS
To pick a SuperCoach squad, you’ll be pulling together 30 players across four different positions.
You’ll select eight defenders, 11 midfielders, three rucks and eight forwards.
Of those 30, you’ll pick 22 of them each week to be “on your field”, and use the points they score each week to add up to your team’s total.
Your total will be compared to your colleagues’ and classmates’ in head-to-head leagues, which play out similar to the AFL to give you a ladder and finals at seasons’ end, while also being added up across the season to compare against every other SuperCoach in the game.
You’ll pick six defenders, eight midfielders, two rucks and six forwards to make up your score each week, leaving two defenders and forwards on your bench, along with three midfielders and one ruck.
Some players will have multiple positions you can select them in.
Popular selection Nick Daicos is one of those, who can be selected in either the defence or midfield.
If you select him in defence, and then pick another player in your midfield who has defence-midfield “dual position eligibility”, or DPP, then you can switch them between either line, which can be helpful when you need to cover injuries or byes.
Before the season begins, you have a salary cap of $10 million to spend on your squad, ranging from the most expensive player in the game, Tim English at $724,600, down to a plethora of rookies at the bargain basement price of $102,000.
You have an unlimited number of trades between now and the end of round one, but once we finish round one you’ll have just 40 trades for the rest of the season.
Between rounds, you can trade two players per week out of your side for two new players. This could be to cover an injury, to trade a player out of form, or to bring in someone who is going gangbusters and averaging 130.
Five times a season, you can activate a “trade boost”, which will let you use an extra trade for the week you’ve used the boost.
Likewise, during rounds 12, 13, 14 and 15, you’ll be able to use three trades each week without using a boost as they are bye rounds.
In the bye rounds, scoring will be from your best 18 players of the 22 you have on-field to account for players who’ll be missing during the byes.
STRATEGY
Players who get near the ball are the ones who tend to score really well, as SuperCoach scoring rewards impact on the game.
There are 50 different points of data which go into making a players’ SuperCoach score, but players who are able to win contested ball and intercept possessions tend to do the best, alongside tackling and contested marks.
Similarly, players who turn the ball over with poor kicks or handballs will lose points, while kicks tend to score more than handballs.
So all you have to do is pick the really good players right? Well, yes, but that’s where the salary cap comes in.
Try as you might, you simply won’t be able to squeeze 30 Marcus Bontempellis and Max Gawns in your side.
You’ll have an average of $333,333 per player to split, so for every Superstar player you pick - which are normally priced around $600,000 - you’ll need to pick some rookie players, who are normally priced between $100,000 and $200,000.
And that’s where the magic happens - prices change during the season, with players who score well going up in price and players who score poorly going down in price.
Rookies, who start with a lower price point, generally make a lot of money, going from being worth, say, $150,000 up to as much as $400,000.
Some, like Harry Sheezel last season or Nick Daicos the year before, even become players you keep all season.
But most rookies will be traded out for other bargain basement players, meaning you can trade two rookies worth $350,000 out for a player worth $100,000 and another worth $600,000.
That’s cash money, which is what I’m reliably informed the Kool Kidz say these days.
You can start getting very funky when you look at players who, due to injury or role changes, have started at cheaper prices.
So, most teams will be a balance of rookies who are less than $200,000 and premiums, who are more than $550,000, with a sprinkling of players like Zac Williams who are known as “mid-pricers”.
WHO SHOULD I PICK?
If you figure it out, let me know, would you? It could be my… I mean… OUR ticket to $50,000.
The things to look out for in rookies are if they’re playing - generally if they’re playing they’ll make money and be worthwhile.
For other players, you want to be sure of their role and be certain they are going to get their hands on the ball.
We’ll be publishing plenty of articles in the pre-season to help guide you through the best and worst players to pick, but keep an eye out for players who are set for an added role in the midfield or off halfback, or are stepping into “voids of significance” left by players who have retired or left a club.
You also want to be targeting players who are likely to outperform their pricepoint.
Stick around and we’ll help guide you through, but if you see a player you like or you think is going to take the world by storm in 2024 - trust your gut and find a way to pick them.
You’ll be in the hunt for the $50,000 in no time.
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