Fantrax and Football

Draft Academical
  • 5.0 (5)
  • Fantasy Sports
  • Updated weekly

Fantasy football. Banter. Questionable takes. No experts here — just lads chatting draft fantasy premier league and football.

  1. 2 days ago

    GW1 Review: Tzolis Delivers, the Cold Brothers and Brighton/Brentford Delight

    Football's back and Game Week One is in the books, so the lads sit down for the first proper in-season review, with Duncan back on the mic for the weekend wrap. The season format takes shape here: performance reactions, waiver targets, and a start of the week pick to round things off. They run the GW1 talking points. Brighton dismantling a dismal Villa, whether Everton are a right-back away from a top-ten side, Brentford making Spurs look ordinary and the Rolls-Royce debut of the summer's most slept-on signing, plus a sober look at Man United after an opening-weekend shock. Then the first Believe It or Not of the year, where they over- and under-react to week-one showings: a certain nineteen-point winger's debut (and a well-earned victory lap), the two Brighton names everyone's chasing, whether you buy into the promoted-team defenders, and which reactions to keep and which to bin. There's a genuinely useful waiver-wire deep dive across every position, complete with the Luke Shaw Index for deciding who's rosterable and who's wire fodder, and honest debate over the set-piece merchants worth a claim. It closes with each host's start of the week for GW2 and a reminder that it's about how you finish, not how you start. As always, the data comes from draftacademical.com, where the waiver-wire article now lands before the waiver deadline. Join the community through the Discord and the new r/DraftPL subreddit: 👉 https://discord.gg/FAuaGADgEA

  2. 6 days ago

    LIVE Fantrax Gazette: Draft Review, Mailbag and a League Drafting in Real Time

    A big first for the podcast: this one's recorded live, on video, with the community watching and chatting along. Tim and Karl (faces finally attached to the voices) run a season-opening Gazette while the last of the seven listener leagues drafts in real time in the background. They go league by league through the six drafts already done, armed with ruthless verdicts sent in by each commissioner. The best and worst picks, the surprise steals, the stacks, the manager who tanked his whole season in round five, and the running joke of certain players following certain hosts around every single year. Sean's in the live draft too, so he gets no mercy. Between rounds, the lads take a stack of mailbag questions from the Discord: whether blowing your entire FAAB budget on one post-draft signing ever works, how to think about the no-defenders-early principle, where Doku's injury drops him now, which players' stock has risen and fallen most since the club-by-club series, and how to set a multipositional player's slot. Plus the horse-sized-duck question a Newcastle-heavy chat had no business answering. It wraps with score predictions for opening weekend and the small matter of how you seed placement leagues when a seventh one throws off your perfectly balanced maths. Recorded live on August 20th, the night before kickoff. Everything runs through draftacademical.com and the Discord: 👉 https://discord.gg/FAuaGADgEA

  3. 18 Aug

    Draft Review & Plant Your Flag 2026/27

    The season is days away and the drafts are done, so the lads sit down to review how their own boards played out and plant their flags for the year ahead. Gary's back in the UK and can't join live, but he's sent voice notes with his draft, his plant-a-flag pick and his fade, which the crew react to in real time. First, a quick word on last-minute moves, including the deadline-day injury that sparked the great Doku bail (and the community's ruthless verdict on it). Then the draft reviews: three leagues, three very different boards, and a running theme that ADP was close to useless this year once the middle rounds hit. The lads work through their own hauls, the picks they'd defend to the death, the ones they already regret, and the wildest decisions their league mates made, up to and including a manager who drafted four goalkeepers. It closes with the return of the Plant Your Flag segment: each host names a player going outside the top fifty they're backing to smash their ADP, and, new for this year, waves a white flag on a top-fifty name they think is badly overpriced. Whoever's fade finishes highest come May has to answer for it.  Draft still to come, or want the in-season tools? Everything runs through draftacademical.com and the Discord: 👉 https://discord.gg/FAuaGADgEA

  4. 13 Aug

    Mailbag: Reaches, Avoids and Your Draft-Day Questions

    The first mailbag of the season lands fresh off the back of twenty club episodes and the best part of twenty hours in the recording chair. Fifteen listener questions, answered raw with no prep, as the lads and the community count down to draft weekend. They dig into the questions that matter before you draft. How to play the turn and whether you sweat positional balance early, the Nico O'Reilly versus Ait-Nouri debate and a genuinely useful tangent on how multipositional eligibility can swing a player's value by ninety points. Then the fun ones: each host's biggest reaches versus ADP and their absolute avoids, the "is Palmer over Saka at three actually insane" question, and everyone's single most underrated, under-drafted name. There's the zero-defenders-early philosophy put under proper scrutiny, the case for taking a forward early to avoid the positional run, and a closing question on how your whole strategy shifts in smaller leagues. Plenty of names get a round attached and a few get a warning, all filtered through the hard-won lesson that draft day is still, in the end, a bit of a vibe. Recorded the week before the season, so good luck to everyone drafting this weekend. Join the community and the listener leagues through the Discord: 👉 https://discord.gg/FAuaGADgEA

  5. 13 Aug

    Club x Club: Tottenham Hotspur

    The Club x Club series takes on the summer's second-biggest spenders, Tottenham, and it's a minefield: a raft of new signings, a pile of injuries and returning players, and a stack of transfer rumours the lads have no answers to yet. Lots of question marks, and a De Zerbi side that could go either way. They work the board. The one defender all three would break their rules for and take in the second round, the returning winger the group is buying on vibes and one-game-a-week appeal despite the ghost-point worries, and the most polarizing name of the episode, a former star with no recent data whose entire value rides on getting fit and staying fit. There's a proper breakdown of the crowded, unsettled centre-back picture and who actually starts, the run on Spurs players the hosts predict and pinpoint to a specific round, and the striker question, a rental-priced option versus an injured higher pick. Plus the left-wing sleeper the lads love if no winger arrives, and a couple of late fliers. It closes honestly: more questions than answers, one elite asset, one high-upside gamble, and one potential steal if the stars align. Recorded on August 12th, so expect the rumours to resolve fast. Join the community and the listener leagues through the Discord: 👉 https://discord.gg/FAuaGADgEA

  6. 13 Aug

    Club x Club: Nottingham Forest

    The Club x Club series turns to Nottingham Forest, and Karl, who volunteered for this one, thinks their assets are about to be badly undervalued. Glasner ball at Forest, with better players than he had at Palace, sets up a wing-back-and-defender goldmine that the lads reckon most drafters will sleep on. They map it out. Where the first-round midfielder lands and the live debate over whether a deeper role dents his value, the wing-back the group would happily reach for and rates as the best of the rest at the back, and a run of centre-backs going almost undrafted that could all return value under a sit-deep, whip-it-in system. There's the Palace blueprint applied throughout, you want the defenders and the number tens, not the strikers, plus the eternal "who starts up front" question that all three would rather just avoid. Deep sleepers get their moment too: the World Cup breakout with numbers that don't back the hype, the returning loanees, and a couple of last-round fliers worth a watch-list slot. The takeaway: any Forest defender is value this year, and the smart money is buried late in the draft. Timestamped to August 12th. Join the community and the listener leagues through the Discord: 👉 https://discord.gg/FAuaGADgEA

  7. 13 Aug

    Club x Club: Fulham

    The Club x Club series gets to Fulham, and Tim doesn't hide the sarcasm: this is a squad he fancies for the drop, now run by a rookie manager fresh off a rough Real Madrid stint, having lost their set-piece taker, their striker and more. Not a lot to work with, but the lads go hunting for value anyway. They run the handful of names actually being drafted. The unproven Real Madrid striker who could be a Michu-level bargain or a total bust, and exactly when you'd gamble on him. The former Mr Reliable creator whose position under the new boss is a genuine mystery, the two "first-name" wingers going late that split the room, and the returning full-back the group rates highly on his best form but can't trust to hold down a starting spot. Plus the late-round dart throws worth a punt only if the price is basically free, and a running theme of Tim's about why the real value at these rounds sits with defenders, not Fulham's forwards. It closes on a blunt hot take: the new manager is gone by Christmas and Fulham join two of the promoted sides on the way down. Everything's timestamped to August 10th. Join the community and the listener leagues through the Discord: 👉 https://discord.gg/FAuaGADgEA

  8. 13 Aug

    Club x Club: Sunderland

    The Club x Club series reaches Sunderland, and with three Newcastle fans on the mic, Sean draws the short straw of researching the enemy. Last season's surprise package are back in the top flight and into Europe, and the big question hanging over the whole episode is whether a squad that punched miles above its weight can do it again with two games a week. The lads work through the assets that matter. The number ten the group would happily take if he keeps that role, weighed against the Europe risk and the same cluster of names that comes up every episode. Then the defenders that won people cup ties last season: Tim's beloved ghost-point machine, the more consistent alternative going a round or two later, and the deep-cut third option that carries the least risk of all. There's a genuine disagreement over the goal-dependent striker everyone will want to draft, a would-you-rather run on an aging set-piece midfielder, and the returning full-back the hosts can't quite decide on. It closes, as these Newcastle-heavy episodes tend to, with a full-blown rant about why you should never draft a big-club goalkeeper, plus the first proper plug for the newly launched Draft Academical portal and the save-percentage data behind the argument. Everything's timestamped to August 10th. Join the community and the listener leagues through the Discord: 👉 https://discord.gg/FAuaGADgEA

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Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
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About

Fantasy football. Banter. Questionable takes. No experts here — just lads chatting draft fantasy premier league and football.

Information

  • Creator
    Draft Academical
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    123
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Draft Academical
  • Show Website
    Fantrax and Football

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