How will you use your trades?

[salver11]

Lots of talk about which players people are going to have which is great to keep footy on the mind but really you're just crystal balling as to where players are going to be going well come round 1. What im interested in is what tacticts people will use for trades and I really think how your planning to use your trades goes hand in hand with your starting squad. Do you have a set plan for trades? Are you a rip and burn type? When will you use your trades?

This year I succesfully went hard early with my downgrades and was rewarded with getting Cotchin and O'keefe in at there lowest points and them turning it on. It could have backfired of course if they didn't start to fire in which case I would have been better off trying to suck every bit of value out of my starting rookies before downgrade/ugrade.

For the last few years i've liked to start with about 7 players starting on the ground that I then need to upgrade, hoping of course that one of these might be a Grimes or a Broughton from a few years back or a Greene from this year. I think for my 7 upgrades last season I allowed 12 downgrades, with the rest of my trades being left for injuries. That being 19 trades all up.

I have no real maths behind this trade stucture other than just a bit in my head but my gut tells me that with 30 trades you probably need more than 7 upgrades in your on ground inital squad. Be intersting to look at how much value the av rookie adds in what amount of time to say how many downgraded rookies you'd need to get the cash to go up to a gun.

With that many trades if I still stuck with 7 upgrades it leaves the potential to go 15 downgrades, that would basically enable you to make each of those 7 the top guns. All you have to do then is find 15 guys worth downgrading to at the right time of the year. That still leaves you with 8 trades for injuries! That just makes me think you need to have more players that need upgrading to start with meaning your guns you start with are the best of the best.

Anyone else given this kind of thing any thought?

[Mr.Craig]

The extra trades give you more opportunity to go sideways in order to get the best 22 if need be. In 2012 I had 9 downgrades, 8 upgrades and 7 sideways due to injury or bad form.

I usually go hard early, now I can do that with a little less guilt.

[JBs-Hawks]

I'll be using my trades to improve my team

[Mr.Craig]

I'll be using my trades to improve my team

Bold strategy. ;D

[salver11]

I'll be using my trades to improve my team

Bold strategy. ;D

Thanks for that, good for a laugh before bed!

[monstrum]

To bring in players i dont have!

[monstrum]

Oh JB beat me to it!  ::)  :(

[nrich102]

I'll be using my trades to improve my team

lol

[POK252]

It all depends on how your mid-pricers go and if they can become keepers or not.
Atm I have 3 rookies on field. The priority would be to get these 3 rookies off the ground as soon as possible (unless a rookie is dominating) My starting side does not contain GAJ, Swan or Buddy atm so will be looking to upgrade to them by RD 8. Then there's a DEF premo to get in + Stevie J who has a dream run in Rd 8,9 & 10. That is potentially 5 upgrades (GAJ, Swan, Buddy, Stevie J & Grimes) in the first 10 weeks. This means I'll require seriously hard trading. Probably 5 upgrades and 6-7 downgrades (Knights and Ball will be traded out) Potential 22 after this:

DEF: Goddard Gibbs Hartlett Houli Grimes Pederson
MID: Swan GAJ Pendles Stanton Murphy Redden Fyfe Mundy
RUC: Goldstein Leuenberger
FWD: Buddy Stevie J Rockliff Ryder Cloke LeCras

This is what I'd call a partially complete team. This is when you start sideways trading/upgrading players (e.g Cloke - Thomas)
You could have 10 trades where you upgrade/sideways trade. Depending on how much your mid-pricers rise in value you could have 7 of those 10 trades being upgrades.

This is what my trading strategy will most likely be.

[ronl]

Provided you haven't gone too hard too early you should be able to easily trade your way out of donut trouble during the bye rounds and not be too seriously affected by it later on.

[The_Captain]

Going to trade hard and trade earlyyyyy

[AndyJ]

Burn baby burn DISCO INFERNO!

[T Dog]

Going to trade hard and trade earlyyyyy

Still able to "reverse" early in the week trades before lockout?

[The_Captain]

Going to trade hard and trade earlyyyyy

Still able to "reverse" early in the week trades before lockout?

Pretty sure ? That im aware of anyway..

[Andrew]

My plan: Definitely 2 trades after round 2 to grab the breakout players/cash cows missed, trade early to get Swan at a discount, but then try to save trades to get to a point where I can do 2 trades a week all the way until the end of the season. Better value on premiums mid-season than at the start of the year, big chance to cash in this year with 30 trades. And it'll be possible to trade in a premium who gets rested and then bring him straight back in if you've saved enough trades.

Will we only be able to do 2 trades a week? What about the 3 trades over the bye rounds?