Trading for Finals

With the chance to win the car all but gone for most coaches we find ourselves looking at our league finals as the road to DT glory for 2011.

I’d like to think DT’ers will have a few trades up their sleeves to cover finals byes and possibly one or two more for LTI’s. Conventional thinking has us saving these precious trades until the final few weeks of the season to relieve players with the bye week to week during finals.

The Problem

This is the scenario I’m looking at for finals, I assume most teams will have a similar dilemma.

• Week 1 – North Melbourne bye – Rawlings & Petrie
• Week 2 – Geelong bye – Chapman
• Week 3 – Carlton bye – Murphy and Gibbs
• Week 4 – Essendon bye  – nil

This means at least 5 trades to cover during finals to get the best team out on the park.

Sounds plausible and I’ve got a couple more trades in the locker for LTI’s, happy days…. But – what happens if the General strikes in Week 1? Or in a Prelim final? A cruel end to the 2011 season.

In two of my finals weeks I will need to be using both trades to relieve the bye so I have no flexibility to assist a niggling corkie, a SMJ knee or the dreaded General that may occur in what could be the most important week of my season.

The Solution ?!

Maybe we trade out our finals bye players now, get our teams set allowing us to use what little trades we have left during finals to put out spotfires as and when they occur.

I’m the first to admit I don’t really want to trade out Marc Murphy with the form he is in but at $443,900, I can get a Boyd/Pendles or Redden, free up some cash to spend on my next trade.

Listed below are some “underpriced premiums” and  it doesn’t really matter whether we think all of these players are underpriced or not – the point is there are some bargains to be had.

• Riewoldt ($291,100)
• Boyd ($419,300)
• Slyvia ($304,700)
• Shaw ($325,500)
• Goodes ($337,700)
• Pendles ($417,100)
• Montagna ($317,300)

It’s not an ideal situation I know, but I think I’d rather trade on my terms now and get this issue out of the way as I’m sure the DT gods will dish up some unexpected worries come finals time which will need my full attention…

– Article submitted by Clem.