THE final round before we start our AFL Fantasy finals campaign is upon us! It is time to make sure that you are aware of where you stand in your league and do everything you can to ensure success. Some of you will probably be in a number of leagues and you will be in different spots on the ladder in each of those leagues. You need to work out what your strategy is this week based on the league that is most important for you to win.

Obviously, just like in the AFL, the idea is to get yourself into that top four. Failing that, the top eight is where you want to be. So your trading strategy will be a little different based upon where you stand. Here are my suggestions based on where you stand.

• Locked in top four and can’t move. In this circumstance you should be trading this week with a view to making your team stronger next week. That means you may even do a double downgrade this week as it won’t matter what happens in your matchup. You would then have heaps of cash for two big upgrades next week.
• Top four but could be dislodged. Trade with a view to next week, but don’t hurt your team to the point where you may actually lose your matchup this week. Top four is far better than fifth to eighth.
• Top eight locked. If you are in reach of the top four then go for it, if you can’t get up that high then as with those locked in the top four, trade to make your team better for the first final as that will be an elimination final that you can’t afford to lose.
• Just outside the eight. Go for broke! You can’t win it if you aren’t in the eight! So trade to do what you can to get the advantage on your opponent. You might want to look for a unique premium that your opponent doesn’t have that might just tip the scales in your direction.
• Outside the eight and can’t get in. Well not much you can do here, but you can win the bottom half of the league, so go for it!

This week we have another couple of forced trades that we need to make. Dayne Beams is the biggest name (well in terms of fantasy anyway) that we need to trade out as we know he is done for the year. Ollie Wines is now also out for the rest of the year so you need to trade him out this week too.

In terms of options for these guys, you will all have very different structures and bank balances at this stage so my advice would really be to get the highest averaging player that you can afford at this point of the season. But importantly look at who they play over the last 5 weeks of the season as this could also be a factor. I would actually be looking to stay away from Fremantle as we just can’t trust Ross Lyon and his resting policies, he has hurt us before and nothing says he won’t do it to us again (remember that round 23 game two years ago when he sent the seconds side to play St Kilda?).

Best of luck for your run to the finals, hopefully you can get yourself into the top eight and go all the way to the title. I will be back next week with a look at that first week of the finals. Check out www.dreamteamtalk.com on Friday morning and see my final thoughts as we lead into the round and I have a look at all the ins and outs.