Potential Forward Sleepers For Your Preseason Watchlist
It doesn’t take much to realise that we are paper thin up forward this year for our draft teams. This year more than any we will need to find some forward gems as we are more than likely going to need to rely on someone outside the norm on our field each week.
As AFL teams welcome new coaches/players and adjust their strategies, new opportunities arise. This year offers a wealth of capable forward options who are already trending low on existing AFL Fantasy Draft rankings.
Let’s explore the players on our radar as the top potential forward sleepers heading into the 2025 preseason.
Connor MacDonald
2024 Games: 23
2024 Average: 78
Not your traditional sleeper as such, since every league will draft Connor MacDonald, but it is where he is being ranked that is getting our attention.
Last year there was plenty of preseason hype about Connor MacDonald as a forward option for our 2024 teams. Flash forward 12 months and you can understand why the buzz isn’t as big for Connor considering what he ended up producing at the start of the season for those who drafted him. By the time the bye had come for Hawthorn in Round 14, MacDonald had only put up an average of 69 and only one score of 90+.
MacDonald must have drunk some of “Michael’s Secret Stuff” during the bye as when he returned from the bye, playing a very similar role, he went at an average of 92 from 9 games with six scores of 90+.
If he maintains that post bye form in a team that is only going to improve in 2025, we are all of a sudden talking about a potential top 3 forward who is going outside the top 10.
A big watch for the preseason.
Josh Treacy
2024 Games: 20
2024 Average: 76
For those that haven’t heard, Garry Lyon visited Fremantle during the preseason break before Christmas. Garry Lyon than went on air and made it crystal clear of two things.
1) Josh Treacy has put on considerable size and was dominating training. Gary Lyon even went as far to quote that Treacy “can be the best forward in the game”.
2) He has a man crush on Josh Treacy,
It’s number 1 on that list that has us excited when no-one else in the community seems to be looking at drafting Josh Treacy inside the top 20 forwards.
We just need to see a couple of big clunks during the pre-season and we will be placing Treacy ahead of where many others are taking him. We suggest you do the same.
Mitch Owens
2024 Games: 23
2024 Average: 57
This potential sleeper option isn’t grounded in any preseason hype, a coach change or even a role change. This is grounded in pure talent alone as Mitch Owens is far too good of an athlete and footy mind to have another season without vast improvement. Owens was often a victim of St Kilda’s poor inside 50 forward craft in 2024. The watch for Owens becomes a watch for St Kilda across the preseason as any signs of them moving the ball more efficiently inside forward will result in Owens easily defaulting to his 74 average he had in 2023 and perhaps even more due to natural improvement.
If this turns out to be true, we could have an absolute draft steal on our hands that no one is talking about.
Riley Garcia
2024 Games: 11
2024 Average: 63
Riley Garcia is not a name you should expect to hear much of during the preseason, but if sources are to be believed, he’s been training with the midfield group during the preseason and is in line for more time through the midfield in 2025. Luckily we have time to work out how much truth there is behind this statement but the rumour mill is enough to put him on to our potential draft sleeper list for now.
Despite entering his fifth season this year, we do view Garcia as a large sub risk so will need a lot of convincing through the next couple of months to keep him on the forward sleeper list.
Nick Larkey
2024 Games: 23
2024 Average: 55
It is worth making it clear, that when speaking about Nick Larkey as a sleeper in our forward lines, we aren’t talking about someone who could be a top 10 forward in 2025. We are talking about someone who could win you multiple matchups due to his and his team’s improvement in 2024.
Now the improvement of Nick Larkey is dependent on really one thing, how impactful Jack Darling can be in 2025. Say what you want about Darling, he has proven season after season that he can play second fiddle really well and can support other forwards like Josh Kennedy and even Jake Waterman to have strong seasons.
It’s a stretch to expect Larkey to be able to reach those type of heights with Darling by his side, but there is definite scope for improvement. That’s why we are eager to see how the duo work together in the preseason.
Forward Sleepers in our 2025 Rankings
While these forwards might not be at the top of everyone’s draft board, their potential to provide significant value makes them players to watch closely this preseason. Identifying and securing these hidden gems early could be the key to elevating your AFL Fantasy season from good to great. If staying on top of all the players during the preseason feels like a challenge, let us do the heavy lifting for you here at AFL Draft Pros.
As more information becomes available, we’ll update our rankings for these forwards and many other sleepers in our 2025 Draft Ranking Spreadsheet.
Register below to access our latest 2025 Draft Rankings as soon as they’re released!