I thought I should get this up before it goes really quiet around here, although it might be too late for that already.

I'm interested to hear from everybody.

For me

Best trades:
Round 3, essentially Wingard to Adams. Adams a must have all season. This was actually a double trade, also included Mitch Hibberd out for Dan Butler in.
Round 4, O'Meara to Newman. Cut ties with JOM early and Newman was spectacular for a rookie
Round 6, WHE to McRae. Couldve waited for WHE to grow more in price, but was good opportunity to jump on McRae who pumped out good scores all season.
Round 9, Houston to Greenwood, for his 100 on debut, saved a donut
Round 12, Sandi to Kruezer. Got Krueze at $525 right after his bye

Worst trades:
Round 8. Hampton to Heater Shaw. Shaw immediately spudded it up after I brought him in. Plus, I ended up with Newman on the bench that week with his 151 when he probably would've been onfield if I hadnt have traded in a 6th prem def that week.
Round 13. Shaw to Lloyd. Lloyd struggled ever since i brought him in. I didnt even get him at his cheapest.

Major mistakes: 3 of these...
1. Round 5. I had my team set and then decided to set up a bench loophole so I put Hampton on the bench for Stewart and after Hampton tonned up, I forgot to swap stewart off field before he locked. I was literally making the swap as the game started so only just missed out. Lost 33 points.
2. Round 16. Was all set to trade Scooter Selwood to Lynch but missed my chance because the M/F I needed to move had locked out by the time I was ready to do the trade. stupid mistake. I ended up doing the same trade the following week, but Lynch had gone up in price by $8k in the meantime.
3. Round 21. Had my team set as Danger VC and Kreuzer C, then reversed trades with less than an hour to go before lockout. Danger auto VC from previous week, and I reset my C to Kreuze. I then played around with my trades again and made the trade I wanted (Lynch to Ryder). Not long before lockout, I decided to reverse trades so I could hold off until last possible minute to make the trade (in case any late injuries etc). But I forgot to reset my cap. All week I had been aware that I would have to make a call on my VC score very soon after Danger's game due to fixtures of my other players. So, half way through his game, he is doing well and I go to get ready to set up the loophole and realise the cap is locked on Dusty! I couldnt believe it and then I started rooting for Dusty for the rest of the game, but alas it was to no avail and I lost another 33 points here... Also, I ended up making the same trade so I could have just left it the way it was prior to lockout

Poor judgement:
Starting with JOM (seemed like a good idea at the time haha)
Decided to start with Adams and went to put him in my team but Coll game had already started. was very annoyed at the time and then traded him in before r3.
Round 3, doubled up VC Pendles' 125 when Danger then scored 138 (I can live with that)
Round 8, really wanted to bring in Heeney, but decided to prioritise bringing in Shaw. Shaw was no good all round. I brought in Heeney a week later at $38k more and missed his 130! This same decision also caused me to hold off on Dusty a week more than I'd wanted to (bad planning), I'd been aiming to get Dusty after he bottomed out after his early season run of 4 poor scores. After he initially started on fire Id thought I would grab him as soon as he scored a hundred again, but that came the same week I wanted Heeney and I picked Heeney because he was rising in price quicker than Dusty, but Dusty went and scored 144 that week and went up $16k. Wish I'd not bothered on Shaw, grabbed Heeney and Dusty each a week earlier and also may have had Newman onfield in r8 for his 151 too haha. Lots of what-ifs but they are reasonable possibilities if I hadnt have prioritised Shaw.
Was very close to trading in Ryder for the 3 bye rounds and wish I had've. I decided on Laird instead at the time. Laird was only up and down for me.
Round 12, choosing Rocky (92) as captain, after VC Titchell (113). (Danger on bye)

Good judgement:
Starting with: Docherty, Tuohy, MMurphy, Titchell, Beams (wish I hadve kept him longer though), Witts, Nank, Dahl, Roughie (also wish I hadve kept him)
Round 11, trading out Steele at $470k (I was particularly happy with this as I was tossing up keeping him all season)

Lucky breaks:
Very lucky I avoided some of the big injuries that happened early in games, such as Gawn, Lloyd, Beams, Jelwood etc.

Learnings: I think one thing that worked particularly well for me was to start with an extra rookie with a fair bit of $ in the bank. It allowed me a lot of flexibility with my early trades, including having enough money to bring in Adams as a fixup and Rockliff at his most expensive haha, not long before his injury... Ok ok that didnt work out so well, but it was great to have the $ to be able to do something like that, and I did get a couple of nice scores out of him early. I also think the extra rookie allowed me some extra cash generation throughout the year that helped too.
Another thing that worked well was trading aggressively, especially not waiting for rookies to completely max out, i traded many of my rookies early and started getting premium scores earlier.


Anyway, Ive written way more than I thought I would...

I'm really curious to hear from others and hopefully we can learn some things from each other.

What killed me this year was banking on old favourites.

Shaw, Ablett, Selwood, Hanners, Rockliff, Pendles. Guns of years past which caused me to miss those young guys that stepped up this year and took their spot- Titch, Oliver, Crouch, Kelly. That ilk.

@graeme ill respond with my thoughts to your questions.

Yep, i reckon aim for overall rank and you could give yourself a good shot at leagues anyway. If you save trades, the main way they will be beneficial is covering a donut. If you use your trades early, they have more time to earn points for you, except when you're covering a zero cause you can make up big pts just in that week. So i reckon trade early and take the risk your players will stay on the park.
I ended the season with Jelwood and Witts out, but still had enough flexibility and decent-enough players to cover them. in saying that though, i was playing defenders in my mids near the end and if i had trades i couldve brought in premium mids.
And also, you beat me in 1 grand final with your league strategy!

Definitely agree with this. However i still think you need a rough balance of rookies and "premiums". The more rookies you have the better chance you have to get the players you want who you think are most likely to perform.

I dont think you should worry too much about players' prices at the end of season. Prices fluxuate so much throughout the season. 1 bad/big game will usually send a price dramatically down/up over the next few weeks, so its not really a true indicator of season-long form.

100% my plan too, though it's been my plan the last 2 years and I keep falsely feeling I know better

ICYMI, an article about this season's OA winner: http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/a...s/news-story/584b9e1f22316a2043de2d7867406ce3

Great story