NRL SuperCoach: Draft League Advice, Thoughts and Ideas

What we're trying to do by playing NRL Draft is step away from the homogenous SuperCoach/NRL Fantasy Classic style of gameplay where nearly everyone has the same team and things are differentiated by "point of difference players", and where a lot of the decision making is outsourced. Draft rewards preparation, management of draft pressure, skill and talent identification and a boatload of other strategy. We're also looking to broaden the appetite and exposure in Australia for DRAFT SC for NRL where the sport itself lends itself terrifically to SC scoring.

The things we need to get right in a solid draft league is; buy-in, consistency, integrity and fun.

Let's tackle these elements one by one to build out four pillars of a foundation that should lead to a successful and lasting league. Then, I'll throw in some added bits and pieces for consideration and discussion.

Ideas and pillars to draft league success

1. Buy-in:

Generating buy-in is most simply done by assessing and implementing the following two principles:

- recruiting good people who have a proven record of enjoying and watching NRL footy.

- making sure there's an incentive to play for the fringe operators - i.e cash money or some significant prize.

You can get creative and strategic in how you want to approach the reward element of your league. Money is easy to organise and usually quite attractive to most people. Make the value enough so that people feel like they have invested - that leads to buy-in. I'm talking $50 and up if you don't have other 'prizes'. The next level is combining money with some sort of symbol of victory like a trophy, championship ring or championship apparel. There are sites that sell reasonably priced fantasy championship wearable rings, or you can make a trophy online for reasonable cost, too. This means people feel special and get rewarded.

Related to this is punishing, to some significant level, the loser of the league. Losing sucks and usually the loser is someone who checks out and throws the towel in - which can disrupt competitive integrity. Honestly, just look at your league mates and get creative, get input and get to work on devising your approach to reward and punishment.

Recruiting good people is harder and something that is more intuitive or subjective. One strategy, is to not shy away from dropping from 12 to 10 team leagues, or 10 to 8 at a stretch if you're stuck finding new managers. The reason being, drafts can be ruined by one or two teams that draft some good top end talent, then tap out after origin and don't stay committed. You're better off running a tightly tuned 8 team league than having two dead rosters; for example.

The other strategy is to run a dummy team. To get you from 11 to 12 or 9 to 10. I've done it before. You draft that team on a second computer or phone and just take injured/trash players and that roster/team essentially becomes a bye week. Is it great? no. Is it an effective strategy? yes. Is it a burden on the commissioner? yes. Take $10 off the prize pool as a payment to yourself or the commissioner.

2. Consistency

Similar to personnel challenges, consistency is out of the control of the commissioner - to some extent.

Some things to consider; a group chat helps people stay engaged, so be active in there - and if you're really passionate; monitor line-ups, waiver pick-ups and check in with the slackers. Another thing to help consistency is building a weekly report (that tracks data from your league, showing weekly ranks, season ranks and other bits and bobs you can devise) - this may strike at the heart of some competitors to stay consistent. Similarly, recording certain records in your league over the years helps people commit as they feel the competitivity of the league is deeper than just the year-on-year champion. Reward these records too if you're committed and organised enough. Get creative! One way, is to reward the team that trades the most, for example, with say a carton of beer out of the prize pool. Is that the worlds best idea? no. But you get the point.

Buy-in and punishments/rewards help people stay consistent too - ultimate they have to have a desire to win in order to stay abreast of their team and the ever-shifting fantasy landscape.

Lastly, separate punishments for team neglect that are outlined in a constitution and everyone is aware of. Simply adding money to the prize pool is a good one. A person starts a non-fit player or two back-to-back weeks? have a rule for that where the person who does this has to swing $20 to the treasurer for the prize pool.

3. Integrity

Integrity is fundamentally about 1. giving a shit and 2. not colluding and performing dog shit trades at suspect times. The commissioner should manage this transparently with the league constitution and by monitoring trades and who's involved.

A word of caution; too heavy of a hand makes things weird. My anecdotal experience means I often trade with the same 3-4 people in the league because they're open minded and keen to work on 50-50/win-win trades and listen to offers. I'm not colluding with repeat trade partners. Unlike 9CAT basketball; trades in a points based fantasy league like NRL or NFL take a bit of communication and usually need to look like a win-win or be some sort of other strategic angle. Just use common sense and refer to league voting if things are weird.

4. Fun

Pretty subjective here, people enjoy different stuff.

In my league, I play to have an ownership stake over my favourite players so my enjoyment of the sport and their performances is multiplied. Another big factor of fun for me is the effort and reward involved in trying to nail my value evaluations and get the draft right. Then I enjoy playing hard all season and monitoring waiver pick-ups.

I have a mate who plays just to be part of the league and is nearly never in contention; but still gives it a crack.

Others just enjoy the analytics or the draft experience - it's all good - but as above; the right elements need to be set-up so that the season-long competitiveness is maintained for a quality league.

The most important part of the "fun" in my opinion is doing your drafts in person - even if it takes some planning and logistics. It brings people together, is never a bad time, builds culture and competitiveness and gets people buzzing.

Some leagues go away for a weekend and make it a big extravagant thing - that's bloody good.

Celebrating the end of the season is not something I've explored but I've seen it done - a good way to implement punishments too!

Related, try an auction draft where possible!

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Other Ideas / Thoughts

1. Rewards

In my league, the draft and the group chat has become the central attraction - which is great.

Money has basically become a non-factor, instead the winner of the league gets a custom apparel item (currently a t-shirt) which sets them apart from other draftees on the big day.

I do think financial reward is valuable though. I suggest a figure of $100+ for the minor premier (make week-to-week spicy!) then get organised to reward the finals champ with some sort of memorabilia or apparel so they feel like an absolute weapon for winning it all.

2. Bets

Some people don't like a stagnant league with no trades, so they introduce bets to certain rounds and sort that out external to the application.

I.e:

Player 1 versing Player 2 this weekend, need to bet who scores higher out of their two best players (or similar). The winner takes the losers best player and the loser gets the winners substitute in that position (as to not detriment them too greatly.

E.g. Latrell Mitchell vs Harry Grant in the upcoming weekend - Player 1 bets Harry Grant scores more than Latrell and visa versa. Harry scores 80 Trell scores 70. Player 1 gets Latrell because he won the bet, but he gives the other owner Dylan Edwards as replacement. Essentially just forcing a 60-40 or 70-30 trade.

There are different iterations to this.

Note, I don't implement this in my league.

3. Roster Construction / Bench Depth Considerations

Shorter Benches:
One way you can encourage trading/activity in your league is either by STRINGENT roster construction (2 player benches) or by Large rosters (6, 7 or 8).

Stringent means people have to stay active on waivers to stay competitive. In my opinion this punishes injury luck variation and schedule luck and variation far too greatly.

I do not recommend shorter bench play or significantly restricted rosters (minimum 11 starters for NRL Draft/SC Draft)

Larger Benches:
Larger benches creates more depth. This can have multiple impacts, good and bad. Bad, rosters can stagnate and waivers dry up as people stash and stay solid. The good however, in my opinion outweigh the bad if the starter roster size is also reviewed (smaller rosters, such as dropping a CTW or 2RF or both away). This is because depth means more TRADE assets. Have more CTWs than me? Give me one and I'll give you a FRF bc I have good depth there. Easy trade material.

The other benefit is added drafting value/strategy. Draft for depth and quality so can leverage this for trades.

While it's ultimately a preference thing - I lean bigger benches in the modern game due to HIAs and Injury rest periods and increased byes etc. It makes week-to-week more engaging, and I ultimately as an Auction Draft league I want the draft to be a big event where skill and preparation pay off. I don't want someone winning because they got lucky on week 2 waiver wire - that involves far less skill. Please note that by bigger benches - I recommend 5/6 bench spots. Standard being 4 is fine, but I think 5 is the new standard given the injury/HIA/Bye week ecosystem in the NRL Now.

4. Captains or No Captains!?

Probably quite a controversial topic.

I've tossed and turned over Captains league or not a lot as commissioner.

Where I've landed is this if your league doesn't really have a strong opinion; then go for Captains. It's pretty fun staying in the fight if your captain pops off, and it helps balance the variance related to HIA's in my opinion. If you have a decent captains performance it CAN offset HIA impacted scores to some extent.

I also think the Auction Draft lends itself to Captains leagues far better. If you want the pinnacle captains - YOU HAVE to pay up. It means you're taking a risk and risk is good.

On the other hand, if you're snake drafting, in the current "meta" - if you will - of Nicho and Cleary doing everything on the field, I don't think captains leagues make as much sense. The gap between Hynes and Cleary to the next best captain(s) is too significant, and because most snake drafts are randomized order, why should two people be rewarded so greatly for doing .. literally nothing?

So; if auctioning or your league is truly nonchalant - go captains. If snake drafting and people get annoyed - scrap the cap.

The one year we did no captains was the least engaged my league was, I don't know what that means ultimately, but it's interesting.