Welcome to Dream-Stats

Dream-Stats began in early 2010 as an experiment on a free webhost, where all it did was display live scores from live AFL matches. It steadily grew into a fully fledged website towards the latter part of the footy year and managed to accumulate over a thousand unique visitors in the remainder of the season. Now it's 2011 and Dream-Stats has officially relaunched, bringing not only a redesign, but a range of new features to benefit any fantasy football fanatic.

Dream-Stats.com is a site dedicated to providing AFL supporters and fantasy football fans a service which stands out above the crowd. This summer was all about refining already introduced features while working hard in integrating many new useful features. This includes user accounts with the ability to link your AFL Dream Team, a vastly improved live match viewer which now includes live chat and more live graphs, a more versatile live (and delayed) team view and even user avatars!

Using the navigation on the side, you'll be able to view the features currently offered by Dream-stats. Over the coming months, this space will be updated regularly as Dream-Stats grows and continues providing to what would hopefully be a flourishing community.

Dream-Stats Live Match Viewer

Perhaps the one thing which you will be using for most of your visit at Dream-Stats is the match viewer. Our match viewer, which has been built upon in all aspects from last year, provides users with the latest AFL data as well as many graphical representations of that data.

Our viewer in all its glory (click to enlarge):

The first noticeable difference is the look of the viewer. The old one, while it got the job done, wasn't very aesthetically pleasing, so a lot of time was taken to create a professional design for the page which will be visited the most.

Features of the match viewer:

• Live and Delayed scores and statistics
• Live price changes and breakevens
• Player progression graphs
• Team tracking
• Additional statistics
• Live chat

Live and Delayed scores and statistics

Dream-Stats offers the ability for users to view games live or delayed. Users have the choice to either delay by minutes or delay by quarter. Try it yourself with the following links, redirecting you to quarters of the first Grand Final of 2010:

Quarter One
Quarter Two
Quarter Three
Quarter Four

In some cases, the quarter start is off by half a minute. The quarter should begin within the next update (30 seconds)

Along with Dream Team scores, Dream-Stats also provides all other standard stats. All one has to do is hover their cursor over the player's name as shown in the following image:

Live price changes and breakevens

Whether you're viewing the match live or on a half hour delay, you'll always be able to view the player's price change and breakeven in real time. When this was implemented last year, the prices generally ranged from being spot on to a 10k difference.

This feature will be in effect starting round three.

Player progression graphs

A distinguishing feature of Dream-Stats is the player progression graph, made available during live and delayed games. These graphs basically show a timeline of a player's performance throughout the game. You can view when and how many points each player received throughout the quarter. To view the graph, all you need to do is click on the small icon to the left of the player's name.

Here are a few examples from matches in 2010 where players scored well above 100 dream team points:

These graphs also provide a good indicator of who's performing consistently throughout all four quarters and who's gathering all those points in junk time.

Team Tracking

Team tracking is a very straightforward concept. Players from your fantasy team are highlighted in a different colour to save you the trouble of searching for them! It may be a simple feature, but it was a popular one when first implemented in 2010. Below shows an example:

Additional Statistics

The additional statistics section, located at the bottom of the page, allows the users to view the top ranked players in several important areas. There are also live team comparison graphs which, for the first time, will be implemented into the match viewer for all to use. These graphs provide a direct comparison between both teams in a number of fields. Below are a few graphs from season 2010, showcasing score, disposal and free kick comparisons:

Live Chat

Dream-Stats live chat allows users to discuss matches in real time.

The above image is a preview of the chat system. Yes, those avatars are customizable by the user and no, that conversation never took place.

The chat system also creates a link between users, just by clicking their names. Upon clicking their name, a menu pops up containing some user information, as shown below.

This image is of someone clicking their own name. If you click on another user's name and they have the option enabled, you can view his or her current team and proceed onto viewing their team live. You can also report messages you find inappropriate and it's possible to even add a user as a 'Mate' (more on that on the 'Mates' page)

User Accounts

A much needed inclusion to Dream-Stats in 2011 is the introduction of user accounts, which is a necessity considering the direction being taken. Having a Dream-Stats account provides some benefits including, but not limited to:

• Participation in live chat
• Ability to view your fantasy team live
• Ability to view your fantasy team with particular matches delayed
• Ability to use the 'Mates' system.
• Ability to send messages to other users.

• Avatars
• Inbox

Avatars

An avatar system has been developed by Dream-Stats to allow users to create their own unique avatars, which will appear near their name during chat and in the 'Mates' section. Currently you can choose designs from all eighteen AFL teams, as well as basic overlays and shield types.

Here are some examples of the different design you can choose from:

You can also choose to place a number of your favourite player:

Further options will be added regularly throughout the year.

Inbox

Dream-Stats has also included an messaging platform which allows users to send private messages to each other. The features so far limited, but it does provides a means of establishing communications to users you don't know or don't already chat with on other footy forums.

Your Dream-Stats Team

The Dream-Stats team system has received a massive overhaul and completely outshines last year's barebone implementation. Below is a list of features which highlight the changes. Like last year, users can link their team using their AFL Dream Team login information or choose to enter it themselves using our team builder. Users can choose to share their team by setting it to public, meaning that anyone can view their team live or delayed.

• Live and Delayed Team viewer
• Team linking and customization
• Sharing your team

Live and Delayed Team Viewer

Last year, Dream-Stats offered a bare bones implementation of a team viewer, allowing users to view their starting 22 live while providing some extra information about their performance. This year however, you will be able to view all the statistics that you would normally get using the match viewer for all 33 players, along with some extra statistics such as real time average comparisons and team score projections. Player progression graphs will also be available through the live team viewer.

Another exciting feature is the delayed team viewer, giving users the ability to delay certain matches. For example, if you want to view your team's scores on a Sunday afternoon but are watching the delayed 2:10pm starter, you can simply set the delay for that match to an hour or so and receive the player scores from that match delayed, while receiving the latest scores from all other matches.

The live viewer won't be available to demo like the live match viewer until the season kicks off, since it's still under development. Rest assured that it should launch and be available to all Dream-Stats members either round one or two. In the mean time, expect one or two previews of what's been completed so far.

Team Linking and Customization

Members of Dream-Stats will have the ability to link their AFL Dream Team with their Dream-Stats team by simply entering their login information in the team settings window. Doing so will set your team as 'linked', letting other users know your team is synchronized with a real AFL Dream Team account. By linking your team, your team name, emergencies, vice captain and captain are automatically assigned.

Now, if you are reluctant in entering your AFL login information on a website you just heard about, you can always use the Dream-Stats team customizer to replicate your team from scratch or create your own 'dream team'. It's been created to allow users to enter their team with ease and quickness.

NOTE: your AFL login information is never stored on our servers. Once your team has been linked, the data is disposed of.

Sharing your Team

Users have the ability to set their team as public or friend's only, which allows others to view your current fantasy team on Dream-Stats. Either from the Mates page or from live chat, users can find a link to your fantasy team and view it in the below format

It gives the viewer the ability to see the team and how much the players have been averaging throughout the year. The cells containing the average will also change, similar to how the cells containing the dream team score change in the live match viewer. This is useful in determining where you're receiving most of your points from and where there needs to be improvement.

Through this page, users can than view the person's team live or delayed by matches, just as you would view your own team live or delayed.

Mates

Dream-Stats has included a Mates system, which helps users link together and share their fantasy teams. This isn't meant to be a Facebook style friend system, where you add whoever and garner hundreds of friends, but rather a portal to view other teams from your AFL Dream Team league or teams of people you know or met. On the Mates page, you can view information about the user and their fantasy team as well as send them messages. By adding a majority of users who are also apart of your Dream Team League, it will be much easier to view their teams live or delayed as it's all in one central location.

Even though its primary purpose is meant to be a portal to people in your AFL Dream Team league, there is no issue adding new people you've met. The Mates section will grow to include more social networking features for our users and become more than just a portal. Until then the maximum capacity of Mates an account can have is 24. Please note that this is only temporary and will surely increase through out the year, especially if such a features proves to be popular.

Feedback

Considering this is a one man team, it's always a struggle staying on top of everything so chances are there might have been some errors and bugs overlooked here and there. Another issue is I haven't had the chance to test my website across many browsers so if you find any bug whatsoever, no matter how minor it is, please use this Contact Form and explain the problem in detail.