First week trading… is it a no-no?

These first two weeks of AFL Dream Team can be very handy for us in setting our teams up for the upcoming season. Back in the day, we used to have 3 rounds before the head-to-head games and we were able to correct some mistakes. Most of us, however, are gunning for the car… and all mistakes will come at a bit of a cost.

So player prices change after a player plays three games, in most cases that will be after Round 3. Normally the advice is to hold trades… but there are some tactics in using them over the next two weeks. So we get a bit of a chance to use the 4 trades on offer to ‘fix’ some mistakes.

It might be a rookie you missed out on. Maybe jumping on Nick Lower, Luke Tapscott or Ed Curnow is a good thing if you missed them. Shaun Atley to Curnow could be a winner. If you have an injury like Jonathon Brown (8 weeks) or Mark LeCras (10 weeks) could get you to someone who smashed it last weekend – like Ryan O’Keefe.

I am all for this, but I also like to back my selections in. Nathan Foley made me tear out the last few remaining hairs on my head. But I’m not dumping him because he had the shits. I’m in for the long haul (or at least until Round 10 when he becomes Gary Ablett!).

Unless you have serious problems, hold your trades this week. Get an extra week of data to make your decisions with. What happens if Tapscott is the substitute this week, Curnow just knocks out a 30 or Lower gets injured. That takes me to my next point… DO NOT TRADE UNTIL FRIDAY!

There have been plenty of people who are trigger happy, like our mate Monday Mark who trades when he wakes up on Monday mornings and he is over DT after 10 weeks normally burning his 20 trades.  Think about your trades, plan them out… but don’t do it until Friday! Anything can happen. Back in 2007, there was the Ricky Petterd Rule (click here for that disaster). Who knows what is around the corner.

So, what trades are you considering to ‘fix’ your team? Or are you holding your trades? Or… have you already committed a DT sin and traded already this week?!