NOT the game we were looking for on Friday night, hopefully things will turn around this week. From an AFL Fantasy point of view a few of our guys stood up, Chad Wingard was the stand out with 125 points. Robbie had a quiet night whilst Brad did what Brad does and had another good score of 116.

In the AFL Fantasy world whilst we don’t like the bye rounds, they are the perfect time to be looking at trading for the future. This is all the more important this year with most leagues not playing through the byes.

If you aren’t playing through the bye rounds in your leagues then you can use the next two weeks to trade to get your team right for round 14 when you start playing your league games again.

However, if you are playing through the byes there is a tried and true formula that experienced players use. That is to trade out your rookies that are having or are yet to have their byes. What we then do is trade in either premiums or new rookies from the bye that has already past. So this week we should be looking to trade in guys from Adelaide, Brisbane, Carlton, Hawthorn, Richmond and the Western Bulldogs.

Some of the key players that you would be looking to trade out this week would include Adam Saad and Touk miller from the Gold Coast. One of the more interesting choices that you need to make will be in regards to Adam Oxley. He has been performing of late and also has a nice low break even meaning that when he comes back he will continue to rise in price. Coaches are divided on what they will do with Adam. Some are actually considering keeping him for the remainder of the season.

When you are looking for downgrade targets this week it is very hard to go past the rookies from the Western Bulldogs in Joel Hamling and Bailey Dale. One of the attractive things about them is that the Bulldogs have one of the best fixtures coming up as they come out of their bye. These guys are still cheap enough for to make some money from.

When looking at guys you could be upgrading to we have been blessed with talent. The teams that are coming off of the bye have some high scoring players in each of the positions.

Down back it is hard to go past Luke Hodge if you don’t already have him and thanks to the first round of positional changes we had after round six we also have Matthew Boyd that would be an option for you. Another you may consider would be Kade Simpson. In the midfield we are also blessed for talent with Jordan Lewis, Patrick Dangerfield, Rory Sloane, Trent Cotchin or Dayne Beams. In the forward line the one that I like most is Luke Dahlhaus, he has been fantastic for the Bulldogs this year. You also have players like Brett Deledio who would be able to score well for you.

The other thing that has happened this week has been the second round of positional changes. Make sure you check out AFLFantasy.com.au where you can find all the details.

This week we have a partial lockout which means that on Thursday night all of your Adelaide and Hawthorn players will be locked out. However, the remaining players you have will be able to move around as per normal right up until the regular Friday lockout. One of the things this enables you to do is put your vice captaincy on one of these players from Thursday night and if they get a score you would be happy with from your captain, then you can put your captaincy on a player having the bye. If they don’t score well then you would select a captain from one of your other remaining players as per normal.

Just lastly we have seen some players with long term injuries this week, the biggest one of these was Shane Mumford who is now out for the rest of the season, so you will need to trade him. The key guys you should look at who have had their bye already would be Sam Jacobs or Stefan Martin.

Good luck this week, hope you are negotiating the bye rounds comfortably and are rising in the rankings. Keep an eye out on Dreamteamatalk.com on Friday morning for my thoughts after the teams announced.