The value of trades

[Slap]

Have a read if you are getting excited about trading your big guns in.
This isn't a one line question, but more some advice for every Dt'er out there - but take it with a grain of salt.


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OK, so it is approaching round 11 - that is not even half way through this season.  It is 24 rounds this year for those that forgot/didn't know, although I'm sure you all do. 

So, round 11 and people are talking about having 12,11 and 10 trades left.  Firstly, I'm not going to say that it is a bad thing to only have 12 trades remaining in the bank - I am one of those people.  I am all for using your trades to make your team, what you think is a better one.  What I am worried about is getting caught up in the player hype on this site.  Let me explain.

I'll give you my background, so you can apply context.  My team imo has a completed midfield and rucks and 65% completed forwards and backs (by completed, I mean keepers like Boyd/Selwood/Gibbs etc).  My non-keepers at the moment include the likes Darling, Krakouer, Heppell, Hibberd, Puopolo, Jacobs, Mzungu and Lynch. So I am in a reasonable position to make money, have job security, and have bench cover. 

My dilemma when it comes to my future trades is; "whether I'll need to trade them out come finals time in my leagues".  I am in a cash league so winning it is a priority for myself.  Obviously overall ranking is nice, but I have more chance to win some smaller cash than the car and number 1 ranking.  Anyway, with 12 trades left, it is essential you set up your team for finals, but also for injuries that cannot be foreseen.

If most upgrades require 2 trades (the downgrading of the cashed up rookie and the upgrade to a gun trade).  That about 6 upgrade left, disregarding any injuries to my team.  Scary stuff.  I could very well complete my team with these trades, I also have $200k in my bank which helps... But which players I target has been the main point for this message.

Main point of this message:
Its obvious to see that for those that have been trade happy, need to be wary with how they throw around trades from now on in AND the hype on this site.

It all well and good to want to bring in Stevie J, Joel Selwood, Chappy, Watson, Gibbs, Scotland etc..  Cos they are going well!  They are getting a lot of hype here on the forums, but you must beware!  If you have only 12 or less trades, you could be in trouble come finals time to get rid of them for that crucial match up.

Sure it sucks.  But this is just a notion, get them in if you want.  But if you already have Gibbs, Selwood, Heppel and Hibberd like I do, they are all players that will have a bye during the finals.  4 Potential trades of my 12 that I may have to use, just for straight swaps - and thats not even considering LTI's for round 11 onwards.

My question to you:
If you have 12 trades or less, should you be targeting players like Pavlich and Fyfe, rather than Stevie J and Chappy?  That way you have players without a bye during league games, and you do not have to worry about trading them out at all.  But is it worth the lower averages?  If you got in Stevie J ahead of Pav, you'd be wanting to finish in the top four and win the first final to get the week off when geelong have the bye.

Personally, I'm leaning towards Pav.  My cash competition is too strong to risk Stevie J.

[Memphistopheles]

My plan this year is to get two extra mid premiums who don't have a bye in finals - one a mid/def (Deledio) and one a mid/fwd (Sylvia/Fyfe/Goodes etc).

The when these byes come around in the finals I just mpp a premium who doesn't have a bye into their position instead of trading.

I.E. for Geelong's bye I mpp in Deledio to backs for Enright to sit on bench in mids and Sylvia to forwards for Chapman to sit on bench).

Then for Carlton's bye I mpp Deledio for Gibbs and straight swap Murphy for Sylvia in mids.

Most weeks the 'extra' premiums won't be on the bench as they will be covering for other . On the weeks there is no-one to cover (cough, cough Port Adelaide bye) i just drop off who I see as my weakest link in my def and/or forwards to ride the pine.

Key to this strategy is having a lot of mpp rookies (Hibberd, Jacobs, Heppell, Prestia, Mzungu, Tippett for Petrie already in my team with one more mpp rooke to come probably Callinan).

I will probably be down to 6-8 trades once I have completed my team with the extra two prems - at the moment i need one more mid prem (straight mid) and one more mid/def prem.

Of course a few mpp premium injuries would throw me off.

[Slap]

Do you mean extra premiums as in, you'll have 7 premiums.  Where only 6 are on the field?

Also, If you don't trade players like Gibbs etc in, you won't have to worry about them having byes. 
So what I'm asking, from here on in, are you better to bring in Pav rather than Stevie J? 

[lukedogg17]

nice write up man, hope people appreciate it and i agree. im also sitting on 11 trades but only 2 upgrades left being libba and swallow. and then maybe dawes if he continues his poor form. so ill have 5 minimum, but most likely 6 or 7 left with a full team, completed by round 13ish, which is troublesome lol.

for those going league like you said, multi-bye teams left are adelaide, freo, melbourne, brisbane, richmond and sydney. gold coast have no byes left so wack them in that category as well. basically go bananas on players from these teams because its only going to be beneficial for your league matches, and if you cop donuts in the multi-bye rounds yes itll hurt your overall but no real dramas. i should probably take this advice myself and bring in thompson/mundy instead of hodge this week but i really want hodge lol blasting out those scores its hard to go past him, plus on the positive side hawthorn play the gold coast two more times. too many things too consider lol

[Possumo]

Yep thanks a lot Slap, I myself am in pretty much the same position as you, with 12 trades left and plenty of upgrades still to do... I myself was considering Chapman until today, and then thinking perhaps Stevie J was the obvious second option... I am now thinking that especially with Libba out, I would probably prefer to play Krak/Darling over Harris, especially if I'm replacing Libba's 6th mid position with a Thompson or a Pendlebury. Sylvia is looking like a good option too, although for some reason I am vary about him, as I am with Fyfe and Pavilich (despite their MPP and their solid scores...).

Will definitely wait till tomorrow morning to make my trades (I'm living in Europe this year :P), but you've given me seconds thoughts about Chapman/Stevie J, and although I've only got Swallow/Selwood and Gibbs to worry about in terms of finals, and of course Heppell/Hibberd, and hence perhaps less vulnerable than other teams in my league, I'm thinking perhaps I should retain the advantage it look's like I will currently have during finals time, and stay away from any more of these players with finals byes (or at least only 1, which perhaps will still be Chappy).

Cheers, and good on you for putting in the effort and thought into a post that will likely be useful to lots of players like me who share your position.

[Memphistopheles]

Do you mean extra premiums as in, you'll have 7 premiums.  Where only 6 are on the field?

Also, If you don't trade players like Gibbs etc in, you won't have to worry about them having byes. 
So what I'm asking, from here on in, are you better to bring in Pav rather than Stevie J?

As in I will have bought 7 backline prems, 8 midfield prems (with two of them dpp to def and fwd respectively) and 7 forward prems.

Or you could look at it likes this - i will have 8 backline prems, 6 mid prems + all dpp rookies and 8 forward prems

The two extra prems won't be sit on the bench - the weakest forward and defender will be the ones riding the pine.
You could

Most people have players like Gibbs already - i have Murphy and Gibbs (Car), Enright and Chapman (Gee) and Rawlings and Petrie (Nth) and Heppell (ess) in my team.

However with the two extra dpp mid prems each finals week instead of trading to keep a full 22 of premiums I just use the mpp.

Trades will only be for injuries.