What is the Draft?

In order to ensure that all teams start out on an even footing at the start of the season, we use a draft system to allocate players, which is one of the most important parts of the fantasy season. Simply put, this means that all team owners take turns picking players one at a time until all teams are full. There are two options for running your team draft, which are a live online draft or an automatic draft.

In the live online draft, you are pitted up against the other team owners in your fantasy league all trying to secure the best players for your individual teams. You and the other members of your league will all need to log on to Sportsighted.com at a specified time (set by your organiser during league creation), and you then get to make all your picks in real time. The Sportsighted website will keep track of all picks made, and will provide real time breakdown of whose turn it is, and give warnings to those set to pick next.

The draft order is generated randomly at the start of the draft. Once the draft begins, the team owner picking first is now "on the clock", and must draft a player before their allotted 45 seconds is up. If they don't make a pick in that time, then the owner is treated as absent, and a player is selected either from their wish list or the Sportsighted experts ranking. Once a selection is made, the team owner that picks next is on the clock. The draft order will snake, meaning that the team that picks first in the first round picks last in the second, and vice versa. As the draft progresses, you will be able to see your team fill up, and you will be able to adjust your draft strategy accordingly to ensure you will have both a strong starting squad, and a deep bench.

In the event that you, or another one of the owners, are not able to be online at the specified time, you have the option of setting up your team to do an automatic draft. All you need to do is set up your wish list with the players that you want on your team. This can be as long or as short as you like, but the longer the wish list is, the more control you have over your team's composition. Once all the players from your wish list have been picked (either for your team, or any other team in the league), then your subsequent selections will be made based on the Sportsighted experts' draft rankings, and the Sportsighted experts' team composition logic.

Once the draft is over and your team is full, you can now start trading players with your opposition, and adding/dropping players based on their weekly performances, injuries, or upcoming match-ups.

Top five draft tips

1. Draft Goal kickers early - Each round you get to nominate one player to earn points as your designated goal kicker, players who kick goals accurately will provide you with valuable points each round.
2. Recruit players who are likely to start each game - In the early rounds of the draft, you should stay away from 2nd tier bench players or players who may be injured or injury prone. A player who isn't on the field for their squad, won't earn you any points.
3. Draft the positions you need first - Having three first class Fly Halves in your team is useless if you don't have enough wingers in your squad. Make sure you have all of your starting positions covered before you go picking back-up players.
4. Prepare - Learn about the players in the competition, read the rules to see what players earn points for. Draft the players that you think will earn the most Fantasy points.
5. Don't draft Forwards or Forward packs too early - There are plenty of Forward Packs and Forwards for everyone, use your early picks to select the best backs.