The 2023 AFL Fantasy season is done and dusted with top final round target Taylor Walker delivering with a Round 24 top score, while Callum Mills ensured he’ll garner plenty of interest in 202 as a fallen premo after a huge 155.
Essendon v Collingwood
Freak: Merrett (146)
Flop: DCam (68)
Season on the line? Effort needed for one last ditch attempt to get you to victory? Nah, nvm. This is what DCam and Essendon have in common. Let’s be real, though the writing was on the wall for both of them. Almost nobody showed any faith in Merrett for the VC, so the few that did spent Friday feeling very smug. Parish (112) also showed enough in Fantasy terms only, as Essendon went out with a fizzle rather than a bang.
Hawthorn v Fremantle
Freak: Brayshaw (134)
Flop: Jackson (80)
Ok so after all the drama, the Finnster (21) went to Ryan (86), shut him out for a bit, then shut down Serong (120) for a bit and in the end none of it really mattered unless you had brought Ryan in. Brayshaw was back to racking-up best and Young (94) and Sicily (103) also get pass marks. Jackson and Day (85) were in a two horse race for the flop while Freo continued the supremely annoying trend of ruining our 2024 rookies via Emmett (84). Rudeness.
North v Suns
Freak: Flanders (146)
Flop: Harley Reid Cup
Boy oh boy North only went and won and said “over to you, West Coast”. Anyone who let Flanders go would be absolutely kicking themselves, as holders rode him home in grand finals. Meanwhile Larkey (162) tried to win the Coleman and Scott (128) was a very sneaky and clever pick up. Miller (100) and Anderson (101) rounded off a bit of lacklustre season and Sheezel (94) will be very welcome on the end of season trip. Sheez has had perhaps the most dominant fantasy rookie year ever (sorry Mick Barlow), finishing just outside the top 6 forwards and defenders.
Brisbane v St Kilda
Freak: RoMar (132)
Flop: Steele (67)
Another supreme performance from Marshall has seen him and English cement themselves as the correct set and forget option this year. Sinclair (103) ticked over a cool hundred and Neale (100) had us very worried early but pulled it together. Crouch (91) and particularly Steele were once again ridiculously disappointing. What a strange season from Jack Steele. Will things get better, making him an option again in 2024, or is that it?
Geelong v Bulldogs
Freak: Smith (160)
Flop: Daniel (69)
A blockbuster game for Fantasy results with Treloar (131), Libba (127), Bont (125) and Stewart (118) all delivering. But I couldn’t not hand the Freak to the outgoing Isaac Smith. Holy hat how about those numbers?! Treloar has turned into a stellar late season gamble and basically everyone took Bont’s captaincy score. English (98) could’ve done with two extra points just to underline a truly remarkable season at R1. I don’t know what to say about Caleb except ‘never again’ keeps springing to mind.
West Coast v Adelaide
Freak: Walker (164)
Flop: Witho (60)
For three quarters West Coast took it to Adelaide and thought about handing the no. 1 pick straight back to North. It wasn’t to be, though, with the Walker move proving exactly as good as we all thought it would be two weeks ago before we got worried out of it by the Eagles’ win against the Bulldogs. Side note, it was almost as if the goal umpire was deliberately trying to rile Adelaide up by reviewing every single goal in this game whether it was close or not remotely so. Retiring legends Shuey (101) and Hurn (89), frequently mainstays of our Dreamteam and Fantasy sides, bowed out with impressive numbers. Laird (110) and Dawson (105) sort of got the job done, unless you had either of them as captain. Witho’s numbers were always going down with Hurn in the side, but is he a sneaky starting option for 2024?
Port v Richmond
Freak: Rozee (138)
Flop: Taranto (69)
I wish I had the option of trading out Taranto. How the mighty have fallen. The trade out just felt right given the match up and the reduced output. Rozee nearly made up for it on his own, and a tip of the hat to anyone who bravely went for Houston (119). Butters (104) ticked over a fifth ton in a row to end his Fantasy season. All of this has me pondering who is going to be in our forward lines next year? Like, Grundy if he leaves Melbourne I guess. Macrae? idk. seems like it’s going to be a bit of a desert island imo.
Sydney v Melbourne
Freak: Mills (155)
Flop: Gawn (74)
HA HA HA what the HECK, Millsy?? He outscored himself from last week by one hundred and four points, for goodness sake. He’s an enigma, I literally cannot predict it. Millsy 2024 back on then? What an absolute insult to injury situation for the Crows, too. They’d literally have the Swan’s spot if they’d won last week. Gulden (142) has been a revelation. He overtook TT as the highest averaging forward and has been a brilliant starting pick for us. Viney (129) was excellent again and Oliver (101) and Petracca (100) scraped twin 100s together. Gawn was unders and this wouldve provided telling in a few GFs around the country.
Carlton v GWS
Freak: Cogs (107)
Flop: Newman (82)
GWS understood the assignment here, and I wish I could say the same for Nic Newman (82), who was well down on recent weeks. Those riding Hewett (80) have been going well but this week it wasn’t to be. On the other hand, Jelly (108), Cogs (107) , Green (105) and even Whitfield (119) all acquitted themselves nicely, with Cogs edging out the others for the Freak because of his stellar work throughout the year.
With the trades now all done, my wrap up has a slightly different feel. Thanks for reading, putting up with my Ru Paul references, and riding the Tillies with me. Here’s to 2024 and get behind the aflw game, I’ll see you there. My first picked is Bowers, so i’ll be making the same mistake i did with the men’s game come round 1.
Freaks of the year
Best premo pick: Marcus Bontempelli
Best underpriced premo pick: Nick Daicos
Best midpriced pick: Will Day
Best rookie pick: Harry Sheezel
Flops of the year:
Floppiest starting pick: Bailey Smith
Biggest missed premo: Luke Ryan
Biggest missed rookie: Dylan Williams
Longest red dot stint: Matt Roberts
