These rounds, starting from this week, are the first of the infamous “multiple bye” rounds, where three teams have the bye all at once, enabling the competition to come out sort-of equal by season’s end. That’s the theory anyway, and Andrew is sticking to it.
So, what does it mean for us Super coaches? Well, you have to put yourself in one of two schools – and, to be honest, you pretty much had to have done this prior to round 1. You have to decide whether you are in the competition to win your league, or you are in it to try and take home the major prize and win the entire comp. Well, I guess someone has to!
If you are in it to win the entire competition and take home the $50,000 – and are somewhere near ‘in contention’, which I would take to mean ranked at least in the top thousand or two – then the next three weeks are no different to any other. If you have under-performing players, trade them out – look at rookies who are going to have a sharp price rise and generally continue to monitor and improve your side within reason, keeping a steady eye on the number of trades you are using up. In other words, nothing changes EXCEPT that you may need to consider sideways superstars trades in order to keep your score at a reasonable level (e.g. If you have two or three key forwards out from the bye teams this week, consider trading one of them sideways to lessen the impact on your total score). That’s a big call though, and does waste a trade – however, in the big scheme of things it could make all the difference.
On the other hand, if you are just looking to take out the competition with a few mates like most of us, then the decision becomes a little bit tougher. Some seem to think the best course of action is to completely ‘shut up shop’ trade-wise for the next 3 weeks, ignoring everything that happens because it doesn’t affect anything anyway as you are not playing “against” anyone else in your league. This argument has some merit, as there would be nothing more frustrating that trading in a superstar or even trading down to a rookie, only to see them go down with a season ending injury this week or next. Now THAT would hurt.
I don’t quite believe in the “no trade” scenario – I think you have to be cautious but you still should be open to possible trades during the next three weeks, but only if things are desperate. For instance, if you have someone who gets injured long term, get them out – no point hanging on to them at all. Similarly, if you had someone like Cameron BRUCE who is dropping in value and he then had another bad game next week, you would need to seriously consider how far you let his value drop, and how that affects the calibre of player you can get for him. Every dollar lost ultimately hurts in SC, that is for sure.
The other desperate situation that might call for a trade is if a rookie or cheaper player is flying and is going to have his first rise in the next few weeks. Some of the Gold Coast players are classic examples of this, with their prices going up after this week or next. If you have had your eye on someone and they have performed pretty well, don’t miss the chance to get them into your side just because it was a multiple bye round – that simple decision may come back to haunt you later on.
In the end it comes down to your own teams set of circumstances – how is your team travelling? Where are you on your ladder? Do you need to keep moulding your side to make it competitive come round 7, when things return to normal? The answers to these questions are different for all of us, but personally, I will be erring on the side of caution and holding back my trades unless the situation is diabolically urgent.
Every year, come the end of the season, we all wish we had more trades up our sleeves, especially with players getting rested in the run to the Finals. When you combine this with 2011’s substitutes AND byes, trades this year could be even more golden than usual at the business end of the season. The way I see it, the next three rounds give us some sort of respite, and a chance to bank some trades that we might otherwise use – and that can never be a bad thing.