Heya all,

So I thought I would post my first topic for the year and now that the lockout is finished and teams are locked in, what better subject to talk about that trading. This article was originally written for the Herald Sun but never made it to press for one reason or another. Some of the content is a bit late now that Round 1 has completed but most of it is relevant. Rather than edit it out, I thought I would give it to you in its original format and all its glory. Please keep in mind that the target audience of this article is not seasoned veterans, but those who are new to SC/DT.

Without further ado...

A wise man once told me the most important rule of SuperCoach and that is ‘trades are like GOLD and should be treated as such”.

There are 4 key principals behind this rule and to this day, I still find it difficult to follow some of them. I will go through them now for you and give some advice on how to maximise your trades, set your trading goal and strategy, and avoid making critical trading errors. Follow me over the break...<!--more-->

The first and most crucial principal of an effective trading strategy is to never trade before the team sheets are released and if possible, wait until the Sunday teams have been released on Friday afternoon. I have been guilty of not following this rule many times in the past and have been burnt by it just as many times because anything can happen during the week, be it injuries on the training track, tweaks to game plan or changes by the selection panel, brain explosions elsewhere in the football world (a certain Collingwood player burnt me big time a few years ago), etc.

I call this problem the ‘itchy trade finger’ syndrome and for me, the only way to avoid it if you suffer from this syndrome is to resist logging into SuperCoach during the week. By all means, do your homework and go on the fantasy forums, check in with the media to get the latest info, decide on who’s out and shortlist your potential in’s, but once you have checked your results for the week, get out and stay out until Friday.

The second principal is to ensure you are planning for injuries as there is nothing worse than getting into the finals and running out of trades, then one or more of your players are out and you have no coverage (remember the Saints flu in 2009). As a rule of thumb, I plan for 6 trades to be used for injuries throughout the season and 2 throughout the finals. Any leftovers can be used as luxury upgrades should you make the prelim or the granny. If your team gets struck down with more than 8 injuries throughout the season, it’s plain old bad luck and it was not meant to be this year.

The third principal in trading is when you upgrade your rookies or cash cows as they are known, you should try to maximise the value you gain out of these trades. This year we are blessed with one of the most talented pool of rookies in SuperCoach history and on top of that we have a new team, the <a href="http://tooserious.net/stats.php?steam=GCS">Gold Coast Suns[/url], where over 80% of their players are valued under $200,000. They key is to pick the right rookies and you should look for high draft picks from this year’s draft as well as high draft picks who have only played a handful of games from previous years drafts, and also mature aged recruits.

<a href="http://tooserious.net/player.php?id=806&amp;pcid=13480&amp;name=Michael BARLOW">Michael Barlow[/url] was a perfect example last year and the likes of <a href="http://tooserious.net/player.php?id=1038&amp;pcid=13574&amp;name=David SWALLOW">David Swallow[/url], <a href="http://tooserious.net/player.php?id=1037&amp;pcid=13573&amp;name=Andrew KRAKOUER">Andrew Krakour[/url] and <a href="http://tooserious.net/player.php?id=1047&amp;pcid=13583&amp;name=Dyson HEPPELL">Dyson Heppell[/url] are great examples of cash cows those who you can expect to play almost every game for their clubs and rise rapidly in the process. If you pick your rookies wisely and upgrade them at the right time, you can expect to make small fortune to help upgrade your team. You can expect to sell 2 cash cows and buy one premium and one rookie who has not yet had a price increase – just try to make sure that rookie will play games during the season so as to provide you with some cover.

The last key trading principal is that you never sideways trade, that is trading a premium for a premium, unless you have no other option. One bad game is not a reason to swap a hundred plus points per game player for another. I find this rule much easier to follow as if you have set yourself up with a good team structure and trade strategy, this will not be an issue.

A sub-rule in trading strategy is to only make 2 trades before the prices go up in Round 3 (unless you completely stuffed your team up and the trades are essential). I usually bank on 2 trades pre Round 3 – 1 to scrap the rookie that didn’t work out for the gun rookie no-one picked (Curnow, Peterson, etc) and another to ditch the mid-pricer that didn’t work out (Yarran, Seaby, etc) for a player that is firing, but remember to check the <a href="http://tooserious.net/stats.php">stats here[/url] at TooSerious.net for the players break even and score history against the team they are up against.

So now let’s talk about good trading strategy.

The key differences in this year’s competition compared with the previous years is that you have 24 trades instead on 20 (which works out to be a trade per round on average), 3 extra spots to fill in your team, and every AFL team has 2 byes this year. There are byes in each round of the season and the byes should be considered carefully when determining your trade strategy and goals. These league format changes should affect your trade strategy but the underlying principals remain the same.

If your goal is to win the overall prize, then you might consider how to get maximum points out of your team. An example of this would be to note that <a href="http://tooserious.net/stats.php?steam=PTA">Port Adelaide[/url], <a href="http://tooserious.net/stats.php?steam=RIC">Richmond[/url] and <a href="http://tooserious.net/stats.php?steam=ESS">Essendon[/url] don’t have their first byes until after <a href="http://tooserious.net/stats.php?steam=GCS">Gold Coast[/url] have had their second bye in Round 9. So if you start with players from these teams, you can trade them out for <a href="http://tooserious.net/stats.php?steam=GCS">Gold Coast[/url] players after Round 9 and get a full 24 games out of your premium players in your SuperCoach squad.

If your goal for the season is to win your grand final and hold the bragging rights over your mates, then it is worthwhile considering that there are five rounds throughout the season that have 3 teams sharing the bye, and there are no league fixtures during these rounds. There are 4 teams who have both their byes fall in these rounds; <a href="http://tooserious.net/stats.php?steam=MEL">Melbourne[/url], <a href="http://tooserious.net/stats.php?steam=FRE">Fremantle[/url], <a href="http://tooserious.net/stats.php?steam=SYD">Sydney[/url] and <a href="http://tooserious.net/stats.php?steam=BRL">Brisbane[/url]; and this means that players in those teams will play every league game for your SuperCoach team this year, so you want these guys in from the start rather than looking to upgrade them during the season. The other important consideration is to remember that <a href="http://tooserious.net/stats.php?steam=GEE">Geelong[/url], <a href="http://tooserious.net/stats.php?steam=KAN">Kangaroos[/url], <a href="http://tooserious.net/stats.php?steam=CAR">Carlton[/url] and <a href="http://tooserious.net/stats.php?steam=ESS">Essendon[/url] have a bye each during the SuperCoach finals and you must keep some trades up your sleeve if you are going to have these players in your team.

You can plan for bye rounds effectively by the using the world famous TooSerious.net Ticker found by <a href="http://tooserious.net/ticker.php">clicking here[/url]

In summary:

•,Never trade before the teams are released on Friday afternoon
•,Hold 8 trades for injuries/finals
•,Look to make at least $200K from a rookie upgrade
•,Never ‘sideways’ trade unless you absolutely have to
•,Try to only use 2 trades before the start of Round 3
•,Consider your goals and the byes when selecting your team and trade targets

So that’s it guys...keep your eye out for <a href="http://tooserious.net/profile?u=Lucas">Lucas[/url] and his popular <a href="http://tooserious.net/category/bestbuys">Best Buys[/url] article due after Round 2; bought to you this year by A Premiership Cup, Emirates, Lexus, CGU, and everyone else who sponsors the Collingwood Football Club :mrgreen:

Until next time, happy trading.