Has Fantasy Footy Changed The Way We Watch AFL? | Thebigtip

I hate Collingwood. I don’t deny it and after seeing them play recently, I am proud of it. Having said that, I recently watched a Collingwood game on TV and found myself cheering for every goal that Scott Pendlebury kicked! Why? Well that’s an easy question to answer. I had Pendlebury as my Dream Team captain and my opponent had Dane Swan.

That is just one way Dream Team (DT) has changed the way I watch AFL. The second is I yell at players from the team I support, even though they are doing the right thing by the coach and team. “Don’t handball it, kick the bloody ball, you just cost me a point!” or “kick it to yourself, the kick in doesn’t get me any points!” I’m not meant to get angry at teammates from my own team, I’m meant to be cheering them on.

I am still yelling at the umpires but for different reasons then before. My DT captain has just earned a free kick 30 metres out in front of goal and the umpire allows some so and so to have advantage and kick a goal and rob my DT team of 18 points.

I have also found myself wanting to watch games I never had an interest in before. Port Adelaide vs Brisbane (who cares ten years ago) suddenly becomes can’t miss TV, as I wonder how many Rockliff & Redden could score. I had friends who don’t have a Dream Team side and they didn’t even know who Jack Redden was! (Only the fifth-best scoring DT midfielder for those that still don’t know!)

Not only do you watch games you never used to want to watch, but you also continue watching games that are no longer a contest. It no longer matters who wins, it’s about how many points your players will score in the final minutes (or quarters if it’s a Gold Coast game). Another example is when a team chooses to wind down the clock. Previously this was tedious and boring, now it’s either excruciating or the best thing in the world. Suckling to Guerra to Suckling to Birchall to Suckling to Guerra has either just helped your team get 33 points or it could be worse, your opposition 33 points, all in the space of one minute!

Dream Team is a fantastic competition but my friends got sick of having the same players as each other, so we created leagues based on a drafting format (highly recommended). If you take Swan with pick one, no-one else can have him. It was so popular; I created another league for a different set of friends the year after.  Nothing wrong with that I thought, until this year when I made both Grand Finals. Why complain about making Grand Finals? Well I found supporting both teams difficult. Thompson & Harvey could help me win one Grand Final but at the same time, cause me to lose the other. So I was actually hoping one of my star players would stop scoring points so I had a chance to win both competitions!

As the Fantasy season has now wound down (I have no idea why Dream Team abandoned their finals Competition), I wait for the ultimate fantasy football conundrum to occur. It’s the last quarter of the season and your AFL team is down by a goal at three quarter time, you need 25 points from one player in the final quarter of your DT Grand Final - could both your teams win and make your day a happy one?

Things remain close for the last quarter and then in the last minute, you find yourself in the following situation: your AFL team leads by 5 and you need 8 points from your DT player. It’s still possible to win both but I forgot to mention one thing, your DT player is playing against your AFL team. The ball is heading into the forward 50 and your DT player takes the mark and will be lining up for goal 30 metres out directly in front.  He kicks a goal, you win your DT final but your team misses the finals.

Now you know you are a fantasy sport tragic when the first thought that goes through your head is, “well we probably won’t win the premiership from eighth anyway”!  Where do your loyalties lie? In a recent edition of Monday Morning Quarterback (cnnsi.com), Peter King suggested that in the future, NFL fans won’t follow an NFL Team but will be more interested in their fantasy football teams. Could that happen in Australia? I can think of a few Port Adelaide fans that are thinking seriously about it!

Have fantasy sports changed the way we watch sport? Definitely. Meaningless games matter, opposition players can score goals against your team as long as they are on your fantasy team, your step-mum knows how well Dane Swan is playing as she had him captain this week - would that have happened ten years ago?!