The Other AFL Draft

Drafting is a tactic well-known to cyclists and motor-racers and confers an advantage on the drafter by reducing the effort that he or she (or his or her vehicle) needs to expend in order to move. There's a similar concept in round-robin sports where it's called the carry-over effect, which relates to the effect on a team's performance in a particular game that's due to the team its current opponent played in the previous round. Often, for example, it's considered advantageous to play teams the week after they've faced a difficult opponent, the rationale being that they'll have been 'softened up', demoralised and generally made to feel blah by the previous match.
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