In the race to complete your DreamTeam and SuperCoach sides, we can use our allocated trades quite quickly. Equally, when a premium starts to underperform continually, we quickly look to move them on. However, as many coaches are discovering this round sometimes, it pays to hold off on a trade.

Every year it happens. We get into the final few rounds of the season, and as a fantasy football coach, you finally complete your team. After battling all season, it’s a relief to have premiums filling every on-field position. And then it happens, an injury hits a player is out for the remaining games. Damn! It’ll cost you trade to fix that up, but it’s OK, it’s just one trade I can use my bench player to cover that.

Then it feels like only minutes pass and another piece of bad news hits your team. A player who’s been playing sore the last few weeks is sent in for season-ending surgery as the team they play for will fail to make finals. Damn, yet another premium goes missing.

On the verge of round 17 starting there several popular premiums who are borderline / in doubt for selection this week. Value pick Jack Redden has been ruled out of the rest of 2020. So has Hawthorn reigning best & fairest winner James Worpel. Blues pair Sam Docherty and Jack Martin have calf concerns and are no certainty to play. Jy Simpkin even on a seven-day break might be pushing an uphill battle to play off the back of a concussion. Add in GWS pair Josh Kelly (concussion) and Zach Williams (Achilles) who both look probable, but far from certain to play.

In short, this is the time of year coaches can have the most injury carnage and the least (if any) trades to do anything with it.

While the overall prize of winning your chosen format might be out of reach, some ground can still be made up in the next two rounds if you have some trades remaining. Additionally, that last one, two or even three trades remaining could make the difference to you winning your league finals.

If you have some trades left, you now have a serious advantage. While it’s nearly impossible to know what other coaches do/don’t have what having trades gives you is options. Any advantage you can take over your opposition is enormous and having trades up your sleeve is the most significant advantage you can get!