AFL Fantasy Season 2014

So round 1 of the AFL has now finished (yes, I'm one of the many who are somewhat annoyed at the split round start to the season) & the various fantasy competitions are underway.
With the apparent falling out between Virtual Sports & the AFL, there are now three big AFL fantasy competitions running in 2014 - the official AFL Fantasy comp, the Herald Sun run AFL Supercoach & the Virtual Sports run Real Dream Team.
I had a decent start in all three competitions,  AFL Fantasy 2144 (rank 10837/166604); AFL Supercoach 2233 (rank 12835/230702); Real Dream Team AFL 2114 (rank 2458/31632); Glad I scored over 2000 in all three comps (a good benchmark score to aim for), though a little disappointed with a few of my scores in AFL Fantasy, which is the main comp I am playing.
Here is the team I went into round 1 with & how they scored:

With the 'free hit' in round 1 (unlimited trades until the start of round 2) I decided to load up the midfield in an attempt to get a big round 1 score & all my selections (with the exception of Brandon Ellis) did fantastically. I was also happy with the cheap ruck options I went with - Aaron Sandilands & Shaun Hampson combining for just under 200 is a good score for such cheap rucks! Many of my premium forwards performed well - Chad Wingard, Tom Mitchell & Josh Caddy, however Patrick Dangerfield was a bit of a let down & my cheap option of Gary Rohan & Matt McDonough were decent for rookies, but in hindsight I should have played a few mid rookies, who can score big for a relatively cheap price. The Defenders were a bit of a disappointment though, with 85 being the top score there, with Sam Mitchell & Luke McDonald being the disappointments.
I'll be re-vamping my team prior to round 2 & I think it will look much more like my Real Dream Team side, but with a few changes.
My Real Dream Team round 1 team (with scores) was as follows:

Much happier overall with this side - the lack of standout forward rookies means my choice of 6 premium/breakout (non-rookie) players is probably the way to go in fantasy competitions this year. Rucks were solid, although I expected a slightly higher score from Ryder (have Hale in the Forwards as my 'Sandilands insurance' in case he picks up another injury, so I can avoid a trade & still have 2 solids rucks on the ground). I think Langdon will have to move onto the field this week after his week 1 performance & I also like the look of Langford from Hawthorn (though not in my team at present). Happy with many of my midfield selections too - Liberatore scored a little under what I was hoping for, but it was still decent & MacRae was fantastic. Rookies were all solid & I obviously would have scored higher if I had Dunstan on the field over Ellis or Michie, but its really hard to pick which rookie will have a big week in advance!
I think my round 2 AFL Fantasy team will be something similar to the RDT side, but with the extra trades, I will probably take a few more risks as it is easier to correct them with the additional trades.

I should also mention my AFL Fantasy league - use the code 2K5XUSVE to join & take me on!

I'm hoping to do an occasional update on my fantasy progress (which may become more frequent if I have the time or inclination), so feel free to check back later for more thoughts (or have a look at a few of the AFL-related pages on the right column of the blog).