For those who don’t know me – and I’m guessing that’s pretty much all of you – I am the lucky individual who won the 2011/12 Fox Sports Fantasy A-League competition, earning myself a new car and tickets to a Socceroos game (not sure that really qualifies as a ‘prize’ these days).
Last season I overcame an awful start to eventually finish 4th. So after two top-four finishes in consecutive seasons, I’ve been asked to write a blog on the Fox Sports Fantasy A-League game and give you all the information you need to beat me. Wait, what?
I’m starting off with a couple of articles on the basic strategies I use when playing the game, followed by an ‘FAQ’ – so if you have any general questions about the Fox Sports Fantasy A-League game, submit them in the comments below or to me on Twitter and I’ll try to answer them in that post. After that I am going to do an overview of the 10 A-League clubs, including looking at who of the new signings I think could find their way into fantasy contention. During the season I will be doing a weekly preview, discussing the players you should be considering trading in or out as well as other important fantasy trends. Anything else you want to read about? Let me know in the comments section below or on Twitter.
So for this first post I’m going to talk about my mentality for playing fantasy A-League, though much of this can be adapted to other fantasy games. While these concepts may seem simple, particularly if you are a fantasy veteran, I think they are both extremely important to follow if you want to win. Do you have any ‘golden rules’ for playing Fantasy A-League? If so, sound off in the comments.
Last season I overcame an awful start to eventually finish 4th. So after two top-four finishes in consecutive seasons, I’ve been asked to write a blog on the Fox Sports Fantasy A-League game and give you all the information you need to beat me. Wait, what?
I’m starting off with a couple of articles on the basic strategies I use when playing the game, followed by an ‘FAQ’ – so if you have any general questions about the Fox Sports Fantasy A-League game, submit them in the comments below or to me on Twitter and I’ll try to answer them in that post. After that I am going to do an overview of the 10 A-League clubs, including looking at who of the new signings I think could find their way into fantasy contention. During the season I will be doing a weekly preview, discussing the players you should be considering trading in or out as well as other important fantasy trends. Anything else you want to read about? Let me know in the comments section below or on Twitter.
So for this first post I’m going to talk about my mentality for playing fantasy A-League, though much of this can be adapted to other fantasy games. While these concepts may seem simple, particularly if you are a fantasy veteran, I think they are both extremely important to follow if you want to win. Do you have any ‘golden rules’ for playing Fantasy A-League? If so, sound off in the comments.
Knowledge FTW
For the simple reason that you can’t take out a fantasy sports competition by fluking it. Sure, you need luck on your side, but you need to have a decent knowledge of the A-League. No, you don’t need to know how many Brazilian love ballads are on Cassio’s iPod (are iPods still a thing?) or what colour chinos Ljubo Milicevic wears on the 3rd Thursday of every month, but you need to at least have an idea of what position the key fantasy prospects play in, who is in or out of form, who is carrying an injury or suspended for next week etc. etc. etc. Of course I am here to help you with that, but I also encourage you to take in as much information and as many games as your time and level of interest in the league allows.
I’d recommend looking beyond mainstream coverage of the A-League (e.g. Fox Sports, SBS).They oversimplify for the sake of the average punter and while that’s great for bringing in new fans, it’s not much use to us fantasy coachestrying to get the inside track on which players are going to rack up the points. If you are interested in checking out some real analysis, you can do far worse than having a look at:
The A-League is, despite what the ‘Euro snobs’ will tell you, a very entertaining league –it’s well worth following each week, especially if it helps you take out a fantasy championship and win some sweet prizes in the process.
I’d recommend looking beyond mainstream coverage of the A-League (e.g. Fox Sports, SBS).They oversimplify for the sake of the average punter and while that’s great for bringing in new fans, it’s not much use to us fantasy coachestrying to get the inside track on which players are going to rack up the points. If you are interested in checking out some real analysis, you can do far worse than having a look at:
- what the young upstarts at Leopold Method are coming up with: http://leopoldmethod.com.au/category/matchanalysis/aleague/
- Tony Tannous also delivers some fantastic insights over at The Roar: http://www.theroar.com.au/author/tony-tannous/
- as does Tim Palmer at Australia Scout: http://www.australiascout.com/category/a-league/
The A-League is, despite what the ‘Euro snobs’ will tell you, a very entertaining league –it’s well worth following each week, especially if it helps you take out a fantasy championship and win some sweet prizes in the process.
Pick with your head not your heart
Especially if your team sucks! You need to be able to put your biases aside when playing fantasy football if you want to have a chance of winning. It’s seriously not a simple thing to do and I think it’d certainly be a hell of a lot easier if you didn’t follow a team, but if you want to win you just have to. So if Besart Berisha is banging in the goals, forget that you have a dartboard with his face on it in every room of your house and pick him. Even make him captain against your own team – I did 2 years ago and he ‘rewarded’ me by scoring 4 goals. It also wasn’t the only time I’d picked my captain against my own team that season and they scored (yeah, we sucked…). But it doesn’t mean I was jumping for joy when the goals flew past Eugene Galekovic. It was a consolation at best. Perhaps the most worrying thing from my title win 2 seasons ago was that I started to tolerate Berisha – after all, how can I hate the man whose goals won me a car? Playing Fantasy A-League may cause awkward feelings like this that won’t wash away after 20 cold showers (trust me) but in the end, it may be worth it.
My next post will discuss the general strategies I use for selecting my initial team. Feel free to post any comments or feedback below, hit me up on Twitter, and please tell your mates about this blog – all of this is appreciated, as is your taking the time to read this. Cheers!
My next post will discuss the general strategies I use for selecting my initial team. Feel free to post any comments or feedback below, hit me up on Twitter, and please tell your mates about this blog – all of this is appreciated, as is your taking the time to read this. Cheers!