I have been looking at a few options and have come down to two conclusions: Trade now or hold no matter what for the finals. By trading now, I mean getting cheap stars (aka Bartel now, Fisher in 3 weeks time and a forward who has an off game) when they hit rock bottom to build up a D8, M7 and F8 who will be able to safely cover on their line. The downside of this is Bartel and Fisher aren't MPP while the guys I would have to trade out in Smith and Hibberd are. I only have 4 trades left currently. By waiting for the finals and waiting for General Soreness to strike I miss out on Bartel, Fisher & co. but can cover any season ending injuries along the way as well as getting rid of my finals bye players when the time comes. The disadvantage here is missing out on those 20-40ppg that I'll receive having a prem on the field instead of a rookie who I would currently put on. Thoughts? I believe option 1 is high risk and can easily backfire.. What would/are you going to do.
Sainterz, I went option 1, attempting to get deep bench cover now, preparing for finals. Brought in GAJ last week, making it 7 prems in my mids. Opted to bring him in as I anticipated he would go up and not come down below his pre round 16 price before I needed cover for Boyd in round 20. This obviously backfired bigtime. My mids now consist of Pendles, Swan, Judd, Priddis, Boyd, J Selwood & GAJ. Whilst it may seem like a luxury having 7 premium mids, or deep cover on any line in general for that matter, I now see last week's impulse trade as a weekly headache. If none have a bye or none are injured, who misses out? Only having premiums on the ground and semi premium bench cover would make decisions a lot easier. That being said, considering I traded out Higgins to pick up GAJ, I'd prefer Jr every day of the week I suppose it comes down to planning and not leaving things to chance, I've gone down the path of sorting out the coverage now
im leaning toward trading now and leaving say 2 for finals upgrades...no risk no reward! the key is to have a quality mpp cover player for guys like judd, murphy, chapman, s johnson, bartel, selwood should you have one, two or more of them. i have chappy and steviej only so will need a good cover in rd 21 (if i play) leaving only one rookie to get some game time...either heppell or mzungu/i smith. LTI will ruin this plan in a heartbeat.
no guts, no glory... There is no point having all these trades left over, and big plans, if your team doesn't even make it past the first week of finals. On the other hand, if you put everything into it, and just get beaten by poor form or LTI's, there's a lot less "what ifs". Besides, you don't want to have a grand plan that you can't even put into place because you don't make it to the finals! Upgrade now, get the best possible team you can, and just ride it through to the end!
I'd only back in option 1 if you’re in the hunt for overall and need every extra PPG as soon as possible or are sitting in a league that has 6-10th with the same win loss ratio backlog situation and need to get to the dance before you worry about how pretty you’ll look in your dress..but other than that it surely has to be the smarter option to hold the trades til finals, especially if you are only upgrading bench cover for depth -7 premiums mid’s or not, you can only play 6 on the park a week.. id hold off on pulling the trigger as rolling into the end of a longer season, injuries will start to factor more heavily (ahuh yes im speaking to your hamstrings chappie).. Who’s to say you get fisher in now to add depth and then he goes and pulls a GAJ next week and blows out a knee? Add to that every AFL coach looking to September suddenly deciding it would be fun to P’uck with every one of us supposed “Super Coaches†by resting guns it the worst possible time
I'm strongly considering option 1. Sitting 8th in my main league despite being the top scorer (500pt wins and 50pt losses!). I need to get some wins so I can compete in the finals. Only 5 trades left but I think I have to take a chance. The trouble is trying to decide which chance.
I think it is viable if the trades you make are ones you'd make later anyway. Eg trading out players who have a bye in the finals while trading in Collingwood, Saints, Eagles, Hawkes, Gaz. Unfortunately I cant think of players from Geelong, Blues that I'd offload. Only ones I can think of are Jobe and Boomer.
I just can’t see it being worth the risk. Your final couple of trades must be designed to put the best 22 on the park for finals, and with the next month being traditionally the highest injury prone month across the league as everyone’s body start to succumb to the long season, I’d hold up to make sure the guys you bring in are going to be fit when it counts. I do think with downgrades you should jump on them as they present themselves, as blokes are only on the bubble once though.. My ‘loose’ plan til the finals is getting in Talia and Callinan as final two downgrades. Leaves me with 5 trades and $350-400k for finals
It all comes down to what position you are on your league ladder ( assuming at this stage you are only going for league wins) if u are locked into the top 4 I would say hold 3-4 trades for the finals. On the otherhand if you need wins now then I'd say trade, trade, trade! There is no use having trades left if you do not make it the finals!!
Glad someone started a forum on this topic. As stated above it's either option 1 - go for 'supersubs' to cover your lines in the finals. or 2 - save trades for finals. The problem I see with option 2 is that you may be sideways trading premos (ie Gibbs) to other premos that you wouldn't need to get otherwise. I thought everyone on here awlways said avoid sideways trades??! Then if you don't make it to the prelim or whatever you've still got a trade sitting there and it's effectively wasted. Last year I got really burnt though as saved only a few trades for finals and then the general soreness epidemic set in which saw me make the GF but play 8 short! That's one big donut fest. So I'm torn what to do this year as I can see the value of having a supersub and feel this could be an option for some of my midrange players (ie JRoo and Adcock) who are let's face it are spudding it and rather than play them on the field each week they could be just played if needed. Does anyone see the value of me doing this? Moving Adcock to defence bench and JRoo to forward bench and spend by final 5 trades getting Newman and Fisher to finish my defenders and moving Petrie into forwards (need a trade to do this). This would use all my trades before finals but leave me with this team: Def - Gibbs, Goddard, Lids, Enright, Fisher, Newman, Shaw (Adcock, Poops, Toy) Mid - Pendles, Swan, Ablett, Selwood, Swallow, Boyd (I Smith, Mzungu, B.Jacobs) Ruck - Cox, Mumford (JTip, McCauley) Fwd- Pav, Fyfe, Goodes, Buddy, Petrie, Sylvia, N Roo (J Roo, Callinan, Richo) Sorry for length of post but any thoughts appreciated!