It’s hard to know how the perennial ‘there or thereabouts’ Swans will perform for 2019. Some new faces in the engine room appear likely and assessing the potential relevance for each always makes for an interesting debate.

The Saints have a fantastic early draw on paper with games against the Gold Coast, Essendon, Fremantle & Hawthorn. Is there opportunity for clever coaches to capitalise on this for a handy head start on the competition?

With JLT out of the way and just a handful of days remaining until the real thing starts, it’s time to finish off our research and start finalising our teams with confidence.

North Melbourne completely overhauled their midfield over summer. Whether they got the outside run they were targeting or just whoever was willing to come to Arden Street is a debate for another day, but in any case it certainly makes assessing their collective fantasy options a little more interesting.

A huge trade period for Melbourne yielded a lot of new faces at the club, many of which will be competing with established guns for spots in the best 22. It’ll be fascinating to see how they gel and whether the hapless Dees can finally go one step further this year.

One soldier out, one soldier in. Mitchell might be done for the year already but as always, that only creates opportunity for other players and the Hawks will be highly relevant again across the various fantasy formats.