This article is your one-stop shop of the last-minute lockout and key dates leading into the first round of AFL. Please note, All times are in AEDT (Australian Eastern Daylight Time)
Wednesday, March 20th
6:30pm (approx.): Carlton & Richmond release their Round 1 teams (22 + 4 emergencies)
You’ll want your AFL Fantasy (AF), Real Dream Team (RDT) SuperCoach (SC) & Ultimate Footy (UF) draft teams all set up and ready to go as best as you can guess at this point, just in case of server/freezing issues closer to Round 1 starting.
Thursday, March 21st
5:50pm: Carlton & Richmond name any late changes
6:30pm (approx.): Round 1 teams are named for the remaining matches. Sunday games will only be extended benches (St Kilda v Gold Coast, GWS v Essendon, Fremantle v North).
You’ll now have about 50 minutes to update all of your various teams across formats, however most things should only be partial lockout at this point so have a list ready to go of any vital changes you’d have to make before Carlton v Richmond begins (eg if certain rookies are/aren’t selected, if any Carlton or Richmond players are your backups to plug into your team or onto your field etc). Beware of certain formats freezing at this point (UF has been the worst for this in recent years, however people have also had their seasons ruined due to glitches in AF’s programming as well so be careful attempting to change things very close to lockout in that format).
7:20pm: Carlton v Richmond begins:
- Partial lockout begins for AF, RDT & SC. All Carlton & Richmond players are now locked. You cannot put the ‘C’, the ‘VC’ or an ‘E’mergency designation onto or off them now. You can’t trade any of them in nor out of your teams. You cannot move them to a new position if they are DPP.
- If you’re using the VC or Emergency loophole in AF, you must use players from this game as AF fully locks out from the Friday game (eg put Dusty/Cripps as VC).
- Any Ultimate Footy (UF) draft leagues that are locked as of the first game of the round are now fully locked for Round 1.
- Any UF leagues that are not locked as of the first game of the round will nonetheless have their Carlton & Richmond players locked.
- Beware that in UF there are separate settings for ‘Weekly lineup lockout’ and ‘Weekly signing lockout’. Even if your league has a full/partial rolling lockout for lineups, if its signing lockout is the first game of the round you can’t pick any free agents up at this point (if you do they’ll only be available for Round 2+).
Once the first game has begun, you still have partial lockout in all salary cap formats and still have unlimited trades among the remaining 16 teams’ players.
Friday, March 22nd
5pm: Final 22’s & emergencies are named for the Sunday games
6:20pm: Collingwood & Geelong announce any late changes
At this point you should be finalising your AF team as it has Round 1, and thus season lockout, once the Friday game starts (at least, according to the AF website).
7:50pm: Collingwood v Geelong starts:
- AF is now fully locked out
- RDT & SC are full rolling lockout all year (RDT is new to this, SC has long had this) so unlimited trades continue for Round 1, minus Carlton, Richmond, Collingwood & Geelong teams
Saturday, March 23rd
1:45pm: Melbourne v Port Adelaide starts (the first Saturday game)
- This is the important time and date for any UF leagues that have lineup or player signing deadlines as of the first Saturday game
The rest of the rounds’ games will continue on from here, with RDT & SC (and some UF leagues) slowly locking out incrementally as each AFL game begins
Your season is now fully underway – Good luck!
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