In Dozen Deals we use BUY, SELL, HOLD, ADD, or DROP. This is based on a 10 team 22 player roster. BUY, SELL, HOLD, and DROP will apply to players that are generally owned, while ADD will cover players you may find on the waiver wire or as a free agent.

Back to business as usual after the chaos of the bye rounds this week, and it was great to have a full squad of players to choose from in all formats. As is the case every season, it’s now a bit of a sprint to the finish line, with only a few weeks left for home and away matches in most leagues. Just as relevant for this article is the dreaded (for me anyway) trade deadlines that a lot of leagues impose. If yours is coming up, here are a few (hopefully) helpful tips to get your deals over the line.

  1. Don’t waste time with outrageous offers. While these can get trade conversations (and league banter) going early in the season, at this point, you’re wasting everyone’s time and potentially costing yourself a valuable trade.
  2. Tailor trades to the ladder position of your opponents. Top teams are unlikely to give up gun players for speculative picks. They may however be willing to offload inconsistent or injury prone players like Prestia, Butters, or Toby Greene for more consistent scorers. Likewise, you may be able to get a consistent if unremarkable scorer like Isaac Smith, Pendles, or Tom Atkins, by giving up a player with greater variance.
  3. Think of who you’re trading with. If you’re at the top end of the ladder, don’t strengthen your direct competition.
  4. The old adage, ‘you’re only as good as your worst player’ is very often true. The most important trades at this time of year are ones that strengthen the bottom end of your on-field list (depending on league setup, your D5, F5, and M7). Look to give up your bench depth to bolster on field players. You can always top up your bench from the waiver wire and free agent list.
  5. Keep favorable finals matchups in mind, but don’t base all your trades on them. Yes, forwards score well against the dogs, defenders score well against Melbourne, and everyone scores well against North, but even when playing a group of witch’s hats, not every player is guaranteed to put up banger numbers. Use matchups as a tie breaker or to help you find value in your trades, but don’t recruit the entire Sydney squad because they play North in round 21.

Buy: Aaron Hall

After a bumper year last year averaging 109 AF and 105 SC, Hall was nervously drafted in the first few rounds by coaches hoping for a repeat of 2020. Unfortunately, this year has been business as usual for Aaron, spending half the season to date on the sidelines. Luckily, he went back to his piggish ways this week which should give you some confidence that he’ll pump out some big scores to finish the year. It’s a move that comes with risk, as at any time his hamstring could pop like a balloon landing on a thumb tack. Getting one of the top 3 defenders in the game for the run home however, could be a premiership winning move!

Buy: Jack Billings

To date his season has been horrendous, however this member of of St Kilda’s galaxy of Jacks could be the missing piece in a struggling midfield. While it’s a small sample size, if you take out his injury affected 39, Billings has scored 3 x 90s for an average of 91.67. He’ll come cheap, so well worth a look.

Buy: Todd Goldstein

Someone who should be super cheap and getable in AF (he’ll cost more in supercoach), big Todd’s season has been a tale of two halves as he’s adjusted to sharing the role of number one banana in the Kangaroos’ ruck department. He averaged 50 in his first 6 games, and 82 from his last 8…as a ruck forward DPP. In Supercoach he has averaged 72 in the first 6 and a monster 113 from his last 8. He’s still scoring well with Xerri in the team, so I’d be picking him up as a back up ruck option and someone you can field each week in your forward line!

Buy: Brayden Maynard

I’ve included him here as someone who you could get for almost nothing. He’s been on the waiver wire until recently in a lot of leagues but has a history of decent scoring and could be a very handy D5 if you’re looking for someone to round out your team. While he averages 69 AF for the season, he’s going at 86 in the last three (in SC he’s averaging 79 for the year and 94 in the last 3). This one will not make your season but could be a boost for finals.

Hold: Tim Taranto

Timmy Time started the year on fire but returned from 5 weeks off with a disappointing 56. It’s easy to forget, he averaged 99 before this week, making him the 4th highest averaging forward in the game. Don’t even think about letting him go!

Hold: Nick Daicos

This goes against conventional wisdom, which is to offload rookies before the end of the season as generally they get weary and lose their early year momentum. Despite a low score of 66 this week, the younger Daicos still had 25 possessions, which suggests that he’s capable of decent scoring and maintaining his 83 average.

Sell: Luke Jackson

This week Action Jackson showed what he’s capable of with a massive 125! Unfortunately for owners, Gawn will be back in a few weeks, which means it’s unlikely that he’ll deliver monster scores for your finals. Sell him while his stocks are at an all time high. There may well be coaches who need a boost over the next few rounds to make a finals push and could be keen for his services.

Note: If you own him in a keeper league, hold on tight, it looks like you’ve got some awesome years of ownership ahead of you!

Sell: Zak Butters

I was all in on Butters at the start of the season and hold him in most of my leagues. I still rate him massively, but it’s looking increasingly likely that this won’t be his breakout year.  Despite some big scores, he continues to be injury prone, inconsistent and is now sharing midfield time with Connor ‘I can’t believe he’s not Butters’ Rozee. You should still be able to get some good value for him if you sell now, especially if he’s selected this week.

Add: Kyle Langford

Due to injury, Langford is floating around the waivers in a lot of leagues. He averaged 86.6 last year including 5 tons. If he can find some of that form for the end of the season, he’ll be more than handy as an M5-7. Well worth a pickup if he’s available.

Add: Zac Bailey

Despite a string of 90s, Zac Bailey hasn’t scored a ton this year in AF (he’s been inconsistent but had a few big hundreds in SC). I saw him dropped in a few leagues recently, which was a bit of a surprise. He will make a fantastic F5 if you see him on the free agent or waiver list. He’s not going to suddenly become a 90 guy but will be better than most forwards there.

Drop: Jake Soligo

Picked up off the free agent list by a lot of coaches recently, it’s more than time to kick this salary cap cash cow to the curb. He averages in the 50s and his upside is to pump out a passable 70. Pass.

Drop: Tarryn Thomas

It’s hard to drop fallen premiums, but now’s the time. He’s been dropped, has only 2 scores above 70 for the year and is struggling to even be ball adjacent let alone fantasy relevant. Still a great stash for keeper leagues, but in any single season draft league, Tarryn is now completely irrelevant and shouldn’t even be considered. Hard to do given that he was an exciting F2 for many, but dump him and don’t look back.