The reason you’re sitting there reading this article is because you didn’t make it as a professional sportsman.
The reason I’m sitting here writing this article is because I too could never make it as a sportsman. Not that my Dad had high hopes for me as a youngster after he saw my raw motor skills anyway…
We’re all passionate about sport and we love the personal involvement. The conversation is starts with mates. The emotions we feel when our teams win is hard to beat.
But what takes the emotion of it all to the next level?
Where every Tom, Dick and Harry can be a master coach. Sure, tipping competitions are ok, but the year that Wendy from accounts won it ruined it for you. No matter the up and down results of the NRL, it’s much easier to tip one of two teams. It’s much harder to assemble a master squad of elite players to beat your mates.
Enter fantasy rugby league. I remember playing the old fantasy game out of the newspaper when it first came out. That was the beginning of my addiction. The Internet took things to the next level. More stats. Live results. 24 hour news coverage about footy. It couldn’t get any better, right?
Wrong. You see the more resources and news available to us all, the more similar teams started to look. Corey Parker scores a try. Should be a celebration, but that turns to jealousy when you realise everyone else in the comp has CP13 too. All of a sudden everyone had 11 of their starting line up the same as their mates. It lost its shine.
Enter fantasy drafts. There’s a reason the Yanks love this version of the game so much more than any other you know… It’s the full hog. The Holy Grail.
It’s the reason I’ve been playing a private draft with exactly the same group of mate for 8 years. None of us would dare to leave the Canberra Cup. Our lives would be lesser without it. Sure, there are fiery debates and arguments about even the minutest details. We have behind the back phone calls, collusion and secret alliances, but that’s all part of the fun.
You see the draft means that you get complete ownership of the real life players. If you select Greg Inglis in the draft, he is yours. And only yours. So when he scores a hat trick, there’s only one person cheering; you.
What’s been better about the draft is that you can run a live draft weekend. I’ve previously written about how great a live draft weekend is here.
Now I’ve got a confession to make. I’m a little biased towards the draft. You see I run a fantasy game called NRLCEO. It’s a draft game. The best draft game. What started off as a spreadsheet, has morphed into the best online product around. Now with a mobile responsive website and an iPhone App, we offer the best premium draft product ever.
If you also dabble with the dark side then we offer a version for you as well. TheBench was originally created for AFL, so if that’s what tickles your fancy
So what are you waiting for? Get your mates together and run a draft. The only thing you’ll regret is the divorce. It’s addictive.
Check out NRLCEO by clicking here: http://www.nrlceo.com
