Onto the position-by-position breakdown, then. First it’s the backs, where it’s pretty hard to go past Andrew Mackie, Darren Milburn, Corey Enright, Luke Hodge and Grant Birchall. As to who the seventh back spot will go to, that’s a little harder. Xavier Ellis is a decent choice but he may not even play, depending on team structure. Thomas Murphy, dropped last week but with a good job on Stevie J from the round 17 clash with Cats under his belt, is a chance to replace Ellis in both the Hawks team and some fantasy teams. Campbell Brown got in five scoring shots against Geelong in that R17 clash so he’s a big chance to score highly again. Tom Harley is a chance, as is Matthew Scarlett who scored a DT ton in last year’s grand final. Max Rooke could be the new Mark Yeates but he could also have a decent fantasy day following Hodge around.

In the midfield, obviously it’s impossible to go past the “ABC” combo of Gary Ablett jnr, Jimmy Bartel and Joel Corey, but after that it gets a little more difficult. Sam Mitchell and Brad Sewell did some of the best clearance work of their careers against the Saints in the prelims, but they’ll have stiffer opposition this week, especially Mitchell in the form of Cameron Ling. Joel Selwood is also going to be found under a lot of packs. Meanwhile on the outside, Clinton Young’s finals campaign has been faultless from a fantasy viewpoint, while Jordan Lewis has been good for the past couple of months. Chance Bateman and Michael Osborne have also had excellent finals series, though not always getting full value on fantasy scoreboards. Finally, James Kelly had a DT ton last time these teams met and can’t be forgotten.

Among the rucks, Brad Ottens is a lock but Molly argues that the other three can be tossed up: Robert Campbell, Mark Blake and whoever gets picked out of Brent Renouf and Simon Taylor are much of a muchness.

In the forwards, it’s harder to find “locks”. Lance Franklin should be a lock but last week’s performance is worrying. Jarryd Roughead has done well against the Cats and is coming off a DT hundred so he’s pushing strongly for lock status. It turns out that Cameron Mooney has a very poor recent record against the Hawks, and against Trent Croad in particular, so he’s no certainty, while Tom Lonergan is rumoured to be the “out” for Paul Chapman (though m0nty is way down on Chapman’s prospects). Travis Varcoe had his best game for the season in the prelim but has pulled up sore during the week, removing the lock on his place in the Geelong 22. Mathew Stokes and Stevie J are probably the safest Cats, albeit Stokes’ scoring hasn’t been great since returning from injury. Cyril Rioli looks better and better when all of the question marks over other forwards are considered, while Molly also has a soft spot for Stuart Dew.

In the captaincy choices, again it’s hard to pick against ABC, but there’s a case to be made for Mackie - especially if you think the cluster is going to stump the Cats - and another one for Franklin or Johnson depending on who you think will win the game.

Good luck to current leader Lewis Nguyen in the Fox Sports competition, which is still going this week under some strange circumstances… it turns out that fielding less than a full 22 might be the key to success this week, as m0nty explains!

This is our last show for the year, so m0nty and Molly spend the last few minutes thanking everyone who made the Coaches Box a success during the year, including all our guests and those on the live Talkshoe chats who made it a fun experience. See you in 2009, and may your fantasy team win every week!

The Saints and Dogs have survived the repechage so it’s onwards and upwards to the bronze medal playoff for them! Go for bronze, boys! (Who says Hawks fans are arrogant?)

When we get onto talking about this week’s prospects for Finals Dream Team, we start once again with the backlines. Corey Enright, Andrew Mackie and Darren Milburn are all fine prospects, as are Luke Hodge, Grant Birchall and Brent Guerra from the Hawks. Hard to go past Brendon Goddard, Sam Fisher and Jason Gram from St Kilda, while Jason Blake, Raphael Clarke and Lindsay Gilbee are all discussed in detail.

Onto the midfield, and it’s very hard to go past the Cat triumvirate of Gary Ablett jnr, Jimmy Bartel and Joel Corey… and not many will be leaving them out! Cameron Ling and Joel Selwood are even putting in strong cases to be the fourth Cat picked in your engine room. The Hawks are more even, with Sam Mitchell, Brad Sewell, Jordan Lewis, Clinton Young, Michael Osborne and Chance Bateman all vying for selection, while at the Saints there are also good reasons to pick Nick Dal Santo, Lenny Hayes and Leigh Montagna. Molly isn’t so hot on the Dogs though, with Daniel Cross, Matthew Boyd, Adam Cooney and Ryan Griffen all likely to struggle.

In the rucks, Brad Ottens will probably score the best of the lot, but can you find a spot for him among your six allowed Geelong players? The media are talking up Robert Campbell to play back this week, which would mean the selection battle between Simon Taylor and Brent Renouf would take on a new dimension. Justin Koschitzke is always a fantasy factor, while Molly argues the toss for Will Minson to be a stronger prospect this week than Ben Hudson.

There are plenty of choices to be had in the forwards this week, but only seven spots you can fill. Steve Johnson and Cameron Mooney have to be considered from Geelong with Mathew Stokes and Tom Lonergan also possibles. For the Hawks it is almost illegal not to pick Lance Franklin, while Jarryd Roughead, Stuart Dew and Cyril Rioli are selectable too. Apart from Nick Riewoldt it’s difficult to build a case for Stephen Milne and Adam Schneider outside the Dome. Finally, at the Bulldogs, Brad Johnson, Daniel Giansiracusa, Robert Murphy, Jason Akermanis, Josh Hill and Mitch Hahn all have claims.

The boys go through each position in order: defenders, midfielders, ruck and forwards. Particular time is spent on Nick Maxwell, Andrew Gilbee, Jason Gram, Jason Blake, Shane O’Bree, Amon Buchanon, Jarrad McVeigh, Daniel Cross, Darren Jolly, Justin Koschitzke, Will Minson, Paul Medhurst, Leon Davis, Dale Thomas, Tarkyn Lockyer, Barry Hall, Ryan O’Keefe, Nick Riewoldt, Stephen Milne, Robert Murphy and Jason Akermanis.

As an aside, m0nty asks Molly about some Melbourne players: Nathan Jones, who disappointed everyone with his drop-off on what had promised to be a breakout year; and the half-back rebounders Paul Wheatley and Brad Green, who might have delighted their fantasy owners with their unaccountable Joel Bowden-like stat-whoring antics but didn’t really do much for the Demons’ chances of winning matches.

Finally, all the captaincy candidates are in the Saturday game so that means Dane Swan, Lenny Hayes, Sam Fisher and Brendon Goddard.

Before that, however, the boys go through the winners of all major fantasy AFL competitions for the year, as well as some minor ones. Last week’s guest snagadelic managed to get up for the Eliminator prize - well done mate! - while his grand final opponent Matt, known as Brad Fisherman on BigFooty, consoled himself with winning the Toyota Aurion for the overall Dream Team comp (watch him on the final DT Talk episode of the year).

M0nty has some big news of his own… his league won the $20,000 prize for Premium Dream Team! He’s pretty stoked with that, which kicks off a discussion on whether PDT will overtake “normal” DT in fantasy coaches’ minds as the most important competition. The winner of the $5000 team prize in PDT, demondomination, is now pimping himself out as a DT tutor on BigFooty… with a premium to teach m0nty a thing or two!

Elsewhere in fantasy comps, members of the EliteDre@mTe@mers group won the Yahoo, LG and Geelong Advertiser comps, while the leader of the Fox Sports comp (which continues through finals) is also an EDTer. Finally, the winner of FanFooty’s Lethal League comp is grimlock, yet another EDTer, and members of EDT filled the top three spots!

Finally the boys turn their eyes, and their helper programs FFGenie and Too Serious, to the subject of Finals DT. Every possible configuration of players is gone through with a fine-toothed comb… suffice to say that you won’t find a more comprehensive analysis of this competition anywhere on or off the Net.

We’ll be podcasting all the way through the finals to help you with your Finals DT selections, so keep listening all the way through to the granny!

We have a guest this week for the first time in a long while: snagadelic, whose team Tanks A Lot is in the Eliminator final with The Convicts, coached by BradFisherman. We chat with snagga about his starting team, his trading trends, his overall fantasy philosophy and his prospects for knocking off the all-conquering DT-leading Convicts outfit which is also #1 in the race for the car at the top of the Dream Team rankings for 2008.

One of the big surprises with The Convicts is how the starting strategy of the team was in direct opposition to the supposed elite strategy of guns-and-rookies; BradFisherman started no rookies in his initial 22, avoided the big-ticket busts, and had quite a few dud mid-price choices to begin with. This was in stark contrast to last year’s Dream Team winner Peckin Away, coached by Steve Morfesse, who started five rookies in his 22 this year. This causes a long conversation about structures.

As an aside, m0nty reveals a new page on FanFooty called Champion Data Brownlow Voting, which collates Super Coach scores and allocates 3-2-1 votes for each game according to the ranking points to mimic the real Brownlow. This has traditionally been a significant pointer to the actual Brownlow votes, and no surprises as to who is leading the 2008 tally!

To round out the discussion on last year’s winners, we go through this year’s offering from 2007 Super Coach winner Casha, who interestingly also started zero rookies in his 22 to begin with.

After m0nty mentions briefly his membership of the leading league in the $20,000 Premium Dream Team competition, he listens dutifully as Molly explains his trade dilemma: he has two trades left (!!) and wants to replace Matthew Pavlich and Heath Shaw. After much debate, he decides on a Crow and a Cat to slot in.

Finally, in the captains segment, there are some very tasty games to chew over, including Geelong toying with the Eagles at Skilled, Carlton’s mids up against the Hawk cluster, and the Richmond vs Melbourne clash in which both sides should play kick to kick.

The Finals Dream Team competition is back for 2008, complete with the eagerly-awaited player positional changes which are often a precursor to changes in the “real” Dream Team comp the following year. The full list is at the bottom.

Instead of a regular round review this week we tried something different: a look at a younger player from each team with a view to 2009 prospects. Travis Boak kicks us off, followed by Scott Pendlebury, Patrick Ryder, Nick Gill, Ricky Petterd, Scott Selwood, Bradd Dalziell, Andrejs Everitt, Patrick Veszpremi, Harry Taylor, Shane Tuck, Travis Tuck, Matthew Kreuzer, Lindsay Thomas, Matt Campbell, Robert Warnock and Clinton Jones.

We spend a bit more time this week on the captain choices, seeing as it’s probably the only choice you’ve got left to make this week with trades gone and bench options scarcer than Aussie gold medals. Those under the microscope include Daniel Cross, Adam Cooney, Brent Stanton, Matthew Richardson, Matthew Pavlich, Kane Cornes, Cameron Bruce, Brad Green, Nick Stevens, Jonathan Brown, Joel Corey, Jimmy Bartel, Gary Ablett jnr, Brent Harvey, Nick Riewoldt, Matt Priddis, Jordan Lewis and Lance Franklin.

PLAYER POSITION CHANGES FROM 2008 DT to 2008 FINALS DT
Richard Douglas: CTR/FWD to FWD
James Sellar: FWD to RUC/FWD
Scott Stevens: BAC to BAC/FWD
Brad Symes: BAC to BAC/CTR
Kurt Tippett: FWD to RUC/FWD
Bernie Vince: FWD to CTR
Jared Brennan: BAC/FWD to CTR
Mitch Clark: FWD to FWD/RUC
Robert Copeland: CTR/FWD to FWD
Daniel Bradshaw: BAC/FWD to FWD
Joel Macdonald: BAC/CTR to BAC
Wayde Mills: BAC/FWD to BAC
Joel Patfull: BAC/FWD to BAC
Albert Proud: BAC to CTR
Cheynee Stiller: CTR to BAC/CTR
John Anthony: BAC to FWD
Nathan J. Brown: BAC/FWD to BAC
Leon Davis: FWD to CTR/FWD
Alan Didak: FWD to CTR/FWD
Tarkyn Lockyer: CTR to CTR/FWD
Corey Enright: CTR to BAC
Tom Lonergan: BAC to FWD
Mathew Stokes: FWD to CTR/FWD
Harry Taylor: BAC/CTR to BAC
David Wojcinski: CTR to BAC/CTR
Stuart Dew: FWD to CTR/FWD
Xavier Ellis: BAC to BAC/CTR
Luke Hodge: CTR to BAC/CTR
Rick Ladson: BAC/CTR to BAC
Jarryd Morton: FWD to CTR
Michael Osborne: BAC/CTR to CTR
Jarryd Roughead: BAC/FWD to FWD
David Hale: FWD to RUC/FWD
Leigh Harding: FWD to BAC
Scott McMahon: BAC/FWD to FWD
Drew Petrie: FWD to RUC/FWD
Jess Sinclair: CTR to BAC
Brett Deledio: CTR/FWD to CTR
Shane Edwards: CTR to CTR/FWD
Jake King: BAC/CTR to BAC
Matthew Ferguson: BAC to BAC/FWD
Leigh Fisher: BAC/CTR to BAC
Ed Barlow: BAC/CTR to CTR/FWD
Andrew McDougall: BAC/FWD to BAC
Stephen Tiller: FWD to BAC/FWD
Callan Ward: BAC/CTR to CTR

Once the round review is underway, we start with Addam Maric and Austin Wonaeamirri. However, we’re no sooner started the review than m0nty gets sidetracked into a long discussion of who everyone chose as replacements for Heath Shaw and Alan Didak, who were the two most popular outs last week. Winners of that battle were Brent Guerra, Lance Franklin and Andrew Mackie.

Back to the round review, and Molly opines on the performance of the entire Geelong team against Sydney this week, seeing as they’re everyone’s fantasy bogey team, with particular reference to the captain options in the midfield engine room.

Andrew Walker is mulled over, then the Power ruck committee is looked at with Brendon Lade on his last legs and Dean Brogan vying with Fabian Deluca for time on ground in the future TOG-share.

It’s a short Hawk Talk this week with only Clinton Young covered, but the Hawks game gets a fair working over with the advent of the "double cluster" - Brisbane taking a leaf out of Hawthorn’s book by deploying a rolling zone of their own in Launceston on the weekend, with fascinating results. The fantasy implications of what could be a very important tactical shift in the AFL are looked at from every angle.

Small forwards Leon Davis and Adam Schneider are canvassed, while the struggles of Ryan O’Keefe and Brett Kirk are assessed.

The Fremantle backline is worth looking at again, with fantasy yo-yos David Mundy, Roger Hayden, Michael Johnson and Luke McPharlin all combed over for 2009 value.

The aging Brent Harvey is given the once-over for ‘09, while the Bulldogs have been down of late with Daniel Cross, Adam Cooney and Robert Murphy all slowing down after hot fantasy starts to the season. Ryan Griffen is also inspected for a mooted move to the backline.

Fantasy coaches everywhere are hoping that Simon Goodwin becomes forward-eligible in fantasy comps next year, which makes him worthy of consideration as a starter next year.

Jordan McMahon and Brett Deledio are gauged as late-season captain prospects - especially against the aforementioned cluster.

m0nty gets to bash up his favourite spud Ashley Hansen again by talking up Ben McKinley and Josh J. Kennedy, with an excursion into Quinten Lynch land. Finally, Angus Monfries‘ good last fortnight is examined with a view to next year.

The Premium Dream Team competition is coming down to tin tacks, especially for those in the running for the major cash prizes on offer. m0nty has a tale about the leader in the league competition, victigers, which mysteriously lost 400 of its 600-point lead with a late amendment to the Web site after the game had opened on Sunday night. Subterfuge and skulduggery aplenty!

Finally in a hurried captain segment, Kane Cornes is endorsed, as is Molly’s boy Scott Thompson along with several other usual suspects.

Of course, we have to talk about the humongous disaster of Alan Didak and Heath Shaw. Molly and m0nty spend the first 30 minutes of the show going through all the implications both in fantasy and in real AFL terms, including a highly detailed discussion of trade options plus m0nty predicting an Eagles-level meltdown of the Collingwood Football Club in 2009.

Back to the rest of the round review: Beau Dowler, Matthew Lloyd, Matthew Bate, Nathan Van Berlo and Nick Stevens are surveyed.

A look at Brad Ottens leads to a lengthy perusal of the ruck options for 2009, with particular reference to finding the “default” #2 and #3 ruck options - likely options include Matthew Kreuzer, Matthew Leuenberger and next year’s top draft prospect Nicholas Naitanui.

Then it’s Chris Newman, Daniel Wells, “Triple-D” Bradd Dalziell, Albert Proud, Robert Murphy, Barry Hall, Jason Gram and Danyle Pearce.

From the derby, the boys discuss the kids in the Freo midfield including Byron Schammer, Brett Peake, Rhys Palmer and Garrick Ibbotson, while for the Eagles Mark LeCras and Matt Priddis are canvassed.

m0nty brings up a BigFooty thread about reclassifications and the boys try to ascertain what positional changes will happen for next year’s VirtualSports competitions.

In the captain choices, it’s hard to go past the Geelong, Carlton and Port Adelaide midfields, while options in the forwards are looking less tasty this week and the backs are giving us nothing.

Good luck for your fantasy finals campaign!

There is now a FanFooty Facebook group, by the way. Notifications of upcoming Coaches Box shows will be pushed through there, as well as many other things in future.

Before anything else, m0nty has some very harsh words to say about a terrible set of figures. The numbers relate to a certain video podcast put out by a previously reputable media organisation, shedding some very poor light on so-called stars of the industry…

So we move on to the round review. Hawk Talk is right off the bat with Sam Mitchell and Xavier Ellis, with one of this week’s themes being the value of high draft picks in fantasy. The other theme is big injuries to fantasy guns, starting with perennial injury room inhabitant Paul Chapman!

Steve Johnson, Joel Selwood and Jobe Watson are all examined as 2009 prospects to step up to the next level.

For what seems like the umpteenth time the boys mull over the Collingwood ruck committee, with Cameron Wood dropped this week in favour of Josh Fraser with Chris Bryan providing support. Still on the Pies, Molly gives his views on what next year will bring for top 5 picks Dale Thomas and Scott Pendlebury.

Quinten Lynch was rattling his big stick this week, and Mark Nicoski, Brendon Goddard and Richard Tambling are also covered.

The once-strong Brisbane midfield is the next in the sights of the lads, with Simon Black, Luke Power, Travis Johnstone, Jed Adcock, Michael Rischitelli, Justin Sherman, Jared Brennan, Bradd Dalziell and Albert Proud all coming in for their fair whack, not to mention coach Leigh Matthews.

Adam Goodes, Patrick Veszpremi, Nathan Bock and Kurt Tippett are canvassed, while the news doesn’t look good for club-suspended players Graham Johncock and Peter Burgoyne despite their very different days playing for the Port Magpies in the SANFL.

Over at Melbourne Chris A. Johnson and Nathan Jones are following very different form lines at the moment, while the ruck division of Paul Johnson, Mark Jamar, Jeff White and Jon Meesen is again under scrutiny, leading to a discussion about the way the cards will fall in next year’s AFL draft with the likes of Jack Watts, Nick Naitanui and Daniel Rich all likely to fill top 3 draft slots.

Finally, Brad Johnson, Jarrad Waite, Heath Scotland and Andrew Carrazzo are all assessed for their 2009 possibilities.

Between segments, m0nty gets the opportunity to crow about beating 2007 winner casha in his Super Coach league game this week. Next time, mate!

Then it’s the captain segment, with the Pies and Hawks game likely to be not quite as productive in fantasy terms as the Dons v Dees game. The usual suspects dominate talk of the Geelong game, while the Sydney effect is expected to dampen the Dogs’ spirits. Nick Riewoldt is in a hot run of form and Kane Cornes has been running free so the Dome game on Sunday arvo is tasty, but the derby is expected to be a more dour affair.

Trades of the week both involve Bradd Dalziell, and with a breakeven somewhere south of -135 it’s easy to see why!

Good luck in your attempts to make the finals this week!

After Molly gives his opinion on Drew Petrie’s qualifications for the Shinboner captaincy, we settle down to the round review with Corey Jones, Michael Firrito, Lachie Hansen, Heath Shaw, Darren Milburn, Andrew Mackie discussed as well as the entire Bulldogs team, who were all down against the might of Gerolsteiner… oops I mean Geelong.

Nathan G. Brown, Shane Tuck, Scott Lucas, Leroy Jetta, Bradd Dalziell (henceforth known as Triple D), Josh Drummond, Eric MacKenzie and David Wirrpanda get the time trial treatment.

Despite our many misgivings we have to talk about some Saint players, so it’s three-goal hero Jason Blake and Adam Schneider who we grudgingly mention. Then in Hawk Talk we bemoan the poor recent performances of Brent Guerra and Jordan Lewis.

For the second week running m0nty wants to ride “his boy” Bryce Gibbs up the mountain, so Molly indulges him by talking up his prospects of being the next Kane Cornes.

After gauging Ryan O’Keefe’s credential as a Birdman replacement, Molly pontificates on the relative fantasy worth of Power midfielders Domenic Cassisi, Steven Salopek, Danyle Pearce and Shaun Burgoyne.

Finally, Jason Porplyzia, Brad Symes, Kris Massie, Josh Head, Colin Sylvia and Austin Wonaeamirri are all covered.

M0nty talks up his concept for a top 9 finals system for the AFL when it expands to 18 teams… Molly is skeptical but not immediately dismissive!

In the captain segment the obvious choices are Dean Cox, Nick Riewoldt and Matthew Pavlich, but there are also some yellow jersey prospects in the Port vs Freo game as well as Pies vs Dons.

Finally, the boys discuss the phenomenon of those who are fighting for league spots in the peloton making defensive trades to align their teams with their next opponents, a technique mentioned by last year’s Dream Team winner Steve Morfesse as one of his successful strategies.

Good luck for the bunch sprint to fantasy finals in the next couple of weeks! And go Cadel!