As the fight ramps up on for selection in Stuart Dew’s squad to face the Sydney Swans in the 2023 AFL season opener, there are more questions at the selection table – who earns a Round 1 berth in your AFL Fantasy squad?
With AFL Fantasy officially open for another season, SUNS Media takes a look at which of the club’s new brigade could be valuable selections in your squad.
Two SUNS sit inside the top handful of most selected players with James Tsitas (30.07% of teams) and reigning Club Champion Touk Miller (26.38%) the popular picks to date, however there’s plenty of coaches liking the look of some fresh faces in 2023.
Top draft-pick Bailey Humphrey enters his first campaign with a slightly elevated price tag of $290k after being taken with Pick 6, but that hasn’t swayed many from throwing the powerful 18-year-old into the mix – he’s currently the third most-selected SUN (12.49%).
The Gippsland Power product is only in marginally more sides than fellow off-season recruit Connor Blakely (11.72% of teams) whose 235k price tag will tempt plenty with the experienced midfielder priced well below season-best averages of 91.8 in 2017 and 91.5 in 2018.
Whilst being the most expensive of the SUNS new recruits at $738k, former Kangaroo Jed Anderson could be a dangerous point of difference (POD) having shown he’s capable of notching massive AFL Fantasy scores. The 28-year-old recorded scores of 149 and 142 last season and is currently in just 0.67% of sides.
While traditionally not a prolific AFL Fantasy scorer, Ben Long’s final game for St Kilda in 2022 was a career-best haul of 138 points. He’ll start 2023 with a $513k price tag.
Tom Berry will be looking to earn more game time than he did over three seasons at the Brisbane Lions whilst also looking to make the small forward role vacated by the departure of Izak Rankine his own. The 21-year-old will set you back $286k to open his first season in SUNS colours.
If it’s PODs you’re after, former GWS Giant Jake Stein ($288k) and Northern Territory Academy product Lloyd Johnson ($200k) both sit in under 0.5% of squads to date.