It's the easiest bye-week of the season but we also have a Thursday to Monday festival of footy for round 13! The round the never ends which includes a bye for Geelong and the Gold Coast Suns, coaches will also be without inform weapons Jordan De Goey (literal weapon...), Liam Duggan, Sean Darcy... maybe Clayton Oliver as well but guess what... these are the rounds that separates the men from the boys! Keep your ears to the ground and stay ahead of your competition,
But anyway, it's time now to get stuck into some fantasy chatter! GameDay Squad is a little bit different to your more traditional AFL Fantasy and AFL Supercoach platforms. Some features that make it a little bit of a different experience are:
There are no weekly trade restrictions, this means that you can take your MRO frustrations out stress free.
In GDS the cards you use to play are virtual player cards which you can collect from player card packs, with that, there is a fully functioning peer-to-peer transfer market which you can trade, auction and sell player cards that you own. Yes, this means that you can not only rage trade but rage sell all of your James Sicily cards!
It’s also essential to keep in mind that GameDay Squad is a dynasty fantasy football platform and that will be heavily taken into consideration in this article.
Let us know your thoughts on who we have included below on all of our socials - twitter, facebook, instagram, discord.
BUY!
Harry Himmelberg
Greater Western Sydney Giants - Forward (FWD)
2022 fantasy stud Harry Himmelberg pretty much fell off the face of the earth going into the 2023 season. Early pre-season games and reports all but confirmed his return to the Giants forward line, all but decimating his fantasy relevancy and value. That was up until round 10! Where we saw Harry Himmelberg return to the GWS defence in an injury crises. Unfortunately his suffered an injury early in that game, but returned to both the field and the defence in round 12 and went on to put up his highest score of the season to date. Himmelberg put up 107 GDS fantasy points off the back of tallying up 15 kicks, 3 handballs, 7 marks and 4 tackles. His round 12 score of 107 towers over his season to date average of 69 GDS fantasy points per game (including his 107 score) which just goes to show how dangerous he can be for fantasy when deployed as a defender.
Bailey Dale
Western Bulldogs - Defender (DEF)
So Bailey Dale is starting to finally hit his 2023 straps! He's been the epitome of inconsistent so far this season with 6 sporadic 100+ scores mixed in with 6 scores below triple digits. In the last three weeks Dale is averaging 131 GDS fantasy points which includes two scores of 142 and 157 GDS fantasy points, reminding us of just how powerful a scorer he can be for footy fantasy. Dale will be relied upon even further for a period of time with Ed Richards joining fellow Doggies defender Jason Johannisen on the sidelines with an injury. He's still risky, but I think you can do a lot worse than taking a punt on Dale to provide some large scores over the bye-round period.
Dom Sheed
West Coast Eagles - Midfielder (MID)
In a season where it’s hard to find any good when talking about the West Coast Eagles, one man that has turned his individual form around at least is 2018 Grand Final ice man Dom Sheed! Sheed came into the 2023 season with some level of fantasy hype, particularly on the AFL Fantasy and SuperCoach platforms given his low price and potential midfield role increase. Because of an injury which kept him out of the West Coast side for four weeks and some inconsistent scores, many would suggest Sheed has been a failed selection. That would be up until his last three games where he’s out of scores of 168, 76 and 165 GDS fantasy points! Those scores above 160 are absolutely absurd! Obviously he has a lowly 76 point outing stuck in the middle there but now that the injury is behind him and he can start to get his hands on the footy at a consistent rate I think we should expect his scores to become more consistent. Sheed has also averaged a centre-bounce-attendance percentage of 78% so far this season! He could be a fantastic point of difference selection, particularly through this bye-round period.
SELL
Liam Baker
Richmond Tigers - Defender (DEF)
Liam Baker was a bit of an early season point-of-difference legend after averaging 123 GDS fantasy points through rounds 2 to 5 and held some remnants of relevancy for some time after that... Until he was pushed forward. A coaching change, and more health to players like Nathan Broad and a little bit of a team shake up with young guns Hugo Ralphsmith and Tylar Young playing deeper defender roles, means that there is less and less available defensive time for Liam Baker. I believe Baker can still put up some good sporadic numbers, but the consistency will be missing until he works back into the defensive role he excelled at earlier in the season.
James Worpel
Hawthorn Hawks - Midfielder (MID)
One of the most confusing players in all of fantasy sports is James Worpel. The man has every tool, opportunity and talent to become the bees knees but he just hasn't, time and time again he hasn't taken the next step. There were trends in the right direction to start the season, the Worpedo tallied up 5 100+ outings through the first seven rounds, since then? Just one! It's hard to point to the reason as to why he hasn't been able to keep up the form, his midfield time is there, his time-on-ground is solid and he's supposed to be a senior-ish player on this Hawthorn list, but the penny hasn't dropped and you have to wonder how long Sam Mitchell can hold the likes of Josh Ward, Cam Mackenzie and Connor Macdonald for.
HOLD...
Sam Flanders
Gold Coast Suns - Forward (FWD)
A little bit of a weird one here given he isn't currently playing league footy but Gold Coast Suns young gun Sam Flanders is going off head in the magoos as of late! Flanders was earmarked as a potential breakout prospect and was touted to have a greater role in the Suns midfield rotation in 2023, but an injury and inability to break back into the senior side early in the season meant that the trajectory to fully breakout was put on the back burner. Flanders hasn't fallen below 130 GDS fantasy points in 5 games on the trot in the two's and his most recent game he tallied up 34 touches! He's one to hold onto and watch for when he does inevitably break back into this Suns side.
Alex Witherden
West Coast Eagles - Defender (DEF)
Ahhhh here we go again. I was off Alex Witherden and truthfully there's a large part of me that still is but! We may have to forgive his hot and cold nature for this week at least with Liam Duggan being ruled out due to sickness/suspension. After Witherden's trademark burning in round 11, scoring just 70 GDS fantasy points, he went on to repay those who kept him in by scoring a nice score of 117 GDS fantasy points in round 12 against a formidable Collingwood Magpies team. With the aforementioned Liam Duggan as well as Shannon Hurn being ruled out and then on top of that Tom Barrass fighting for availability, Witherden might be the only defender down back for West Coast this weekend.
Will Day
Hawthorn Hawks - Defender (DEF)
Unfortunately, young Hawthorn stud Will Day finds himself on the chopping bloke for coaches everywhere going into round 13. Day started the season like a house on fire, averaging 116 GDS fantasy points through the first 8 rounds of the season. Since round 8 however, Day's only been able to average 96 GDS fantasy points per game. So why the drop and major discrepancy? Most recently Day dropped about 20% of his season to date centre-bounce-attendance percentage and spent 80% deep in the Hawks defence. Could it be down to the Hawks missing their skipper and largest vocal point down back in James Sicily last week or are we starting to see a trend? One thing is for certain, the guy is a beast and will be a bonafide stud sooner rather than later, hold.
The information contained in the article is not intended and should not be understood or construed as financial advice. As always please do your own research, my placing history suggests you should absolutely do your own research!