A great win by the Power boys this week and for those of you that have a few of them in your Fantasy team you would have been happy too. We saw five guys score over 100 and another three over 90.
I just wanted to make a special mention of Jasper Pittard who is putting together a great season. He scored a nice 103. Last year was his best average ever of 66 and he is currently averaging 79.7 for the season. His role as the set up man across the backline is certainly lifting that average. If he continues this form in his scoring he could be an excellent trade in target for you.
While I am on Power trade targets. Tom Clurey was a popular pick up, but just be careful. In his post match press conference last week Ken mentioned that Jackson Trengove isn’t too far away from returning which could be in the next week or two. This would more than likely put an end to Clurey in the team. So if you do have him, be prepared for him to be out of the team soon.
Last week we saw Nathan Krakouer sent back to the Rookie List. Before you pull the trigger and trade him straight out of your side. Just hold for a week or two if you can. Clubs can bring a player off the rookie list in round 12 for the rest of the year and Ken did suggest that Krak would be one of the first in line for that position, so unless you really need to trade Nathan out, you could hold him just to see what happens.
As we head into the bye rounds now, remember that I have spoken about whether your league is playing byes or not. Even if you are not, you can still use this period of the season to build your team. You can bring in guys that aren’t going to score brilliantly but will make you money. For example, a popular move will be to bring in Keegan Brooksby* from Gold Coast (ex South Adelaide) and trade out Tom Bellchambers. This trade will bank you $165k. Keegan won’t score high, but he will make you money. He only costs $161k but has a break even of negative six. Then you could use the money in the bank and the price rises and upgrade him after round 13.
One of the areas that I will be targeting as a part of my upgrades will be to improve my rucks. AboveI gave one example of what to do with Tom Bellchambers, the other option would be to upgrade him directly. He has been very disappointing this year and he has had more than enough chances. He has a bye in round 12, so at least hold him for cover in round 11 and then hopefully you have enough cash to upgrade him to a round 11 bye player, and it would be very hard to go past Stefan Martin from Brisbane or Sam Jacobs from Adelaide. Last week we also saw Matty Kreuzer have his first game back. He is only $258k and he did score a 78. Personally I would be having another look at him yet before I pick him up, I would recommend Stefan Martin if you can scrape together the cash.
Round 11 should be all about downgrades. Downgrade a couple of your rookies that have maxed out to some of the guys who are cheap and playing, but have had their bye in R11 like Joel Hamling. Then you will have the cash to do your upgrades next week. Andrew Boston is another great downgrade option, but beware that he does have the round 12 bye, so you would be best served downgrading a round 12 bye rookie to him. One of the round 11 bye players that you should be trading out is Cam Ellis-Yolmen from the Crows. His BE is now a bit too high and his red vesting along with B Crouch having a great game in the SANFL means it is time to go for Cam.
Throughout the bye rounds we have only 18 of the players on the field for us that will count so you don’t need to panic if you have a couple of non-scoring player on the ground.
Next week I will look at some of the fallen premiums and some of the rookies you could use to trade to them to maximise their value. Our plan should be to have a fully upgraded team by the end of the byes, or at least be very close to it.
Check out my weekly article on www.dreamteamtalk.com on Friday morning for my thoughts on the ins and outs for the weekend’s round of footy. You can also catch me on twitter @pkd73. Best of luck for your teams and go Power!
*Editor's note: With Brooksby not named and Bellchambers omitted, you should still be upgrading Bellchambers, it simply becomes a priority now. If you can match someone with the same bye round then go for it, if not, then pick someone from the bye round that you have the most players playing in.
Fantasy Focus: Bye week trades
Resident AFL Fantasy expert Dunny gives some hints and tips for AFL Fantasy trades leading into the bye weeks