Catch up with the latest Official A-Leagues Fantasy talking points from Round 22, brought to you by Liberty.
Another brilliant weekend of Official A-Leagues Fantasy action has been and gone and several high-scorers caught the eye, creating the big talking points at the end of Round 22 in the Liberty A-League.
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Team of the Season highlights missed opportunity for Canberra United
Canberra United finished second-last on the Liberty A-League table this season – despite two of the best players in the competition turning their attack into one of the most lethal in the league.
Michelle Heyman and Vesna Milivojevic were the first and third-highest fantasy scorers respectively at the end of the regular season; their joint-attacking threat led to Canberra posing the best shot conversion rate (16%) of any side this season.
Unfortunately for head coach Njegosh Popovich, he was unable to stitch attacking prowess together with defensive solidity as the free-scoring but porous Canberra slumped to an 11th-placed finish.
Heyman’s 293-point fantasy total across 22 games was 43 higher than Sarina Bolden’s 250-point haul. The Newcastle Jets forward – classed as a midfielder in fantasy – finished second on the scoring leaderboard despite playing just 16 games, having been recruited by the Jets after the start of the season.
Milivojevic came in third on 247 points; the top 10 was dominated by midfielders and forwards with just one defender (Kayla Morrison, Melbourne Victory) featuring inside the top 10.
As for the Team of the Season, a 3-4-3 formation is needed to assemble the highest-scoring XI across the entire campaign using a legitimate fantasy lineup.
Liberty A-League Fantasy Team of the Season
Player (Total Points)
GKP: Morgan Aquino (200)
DEF: Kayla Morrison (217), Kirsty Fenton (199), Jamilla Rankin (197)
MID: Sarina Bolden (250), Vesna Milivojevic (247), Rachel Lowe (234), Chloe Logarzo (211),
FWD: Michelle Heyman (293), Sophie Harding (240), Hannah Keane (235)
Incredibly, the Team of the Season would have cost you $3,578,400 to assemble in pre-season – well under the $4,000,000 salary cap given to each manager.
Top 10 scorers – Liberty A-League 2023-24
- Michelle Heyman (293 points)
- Sarina Bolden (250 points)
- Vesna Milivojevic (247 points)
- Sophie Harding (240 points)
- Hannah Keane (235 points)
- Rachel Lowe (234 points)
- Cortnee Vine (229 points)
- Kayla Morrison (217 points)
- Chloe Logarzo (211 points)
- Lauren Allan (207 points)
Heyman unsurprisingly featured in the final Team of the Week of the season alongside seven Newcastle Jets stars; the Jets thrashed Adelaide United 8-0 on the road in what was the biggest win in Newcastle’s history and as a result their stars featured prominently in the weekend’s highest-scoring fantasy team.
Isuzu UTE A-League back with a bang as hat-trick hero rewards high ownership
Nestory Irankunda has one of the highest ownership bases of any player in A-Leagues Fantasy – and in Round 22 of the Isuzu UTE A-League season, the Adelaide United teenager put on a show against Western United, rewarding the 20.1% of fantasy managers who own him.
Since the start of Official A-Leagues Fantasy in 2022-23, Irankunda had never scored more than 21 points in a single game week but the 18-year-old blew that number out of the water with his first career hat-trick and a 30-point fantasy haul.
He joined Sydney FC’s Joe Lolley – who played two games in the fantasy round – as the competition’s highest scorer for Round 22, to lead the Fantasy Team of the Week:
Isuzu UTE A-League Fantasy Team of the Week – Round 22
Tolgay Arslan was the highest-scoring midfielder in Round 22 with 26 points – and the Melbourne City star is quickly becoming the most prolific fantasy scorer in the game.
A three-round scoring average of 24.3 is far and away the best in the league heading into Round 23, and is thanks to back-to-back hauls of 41 and 26.
Arslan is now the fifth-highest scorer in the game behind Jay O’Shea, Angel Torres, Zach Clough and Joe Lolley.
