Should you trade Max Gawn if he misses through injury? The tough call which could define your season
Could trading Max Gawn be the decisive move which defines you’re SuperCoach season? Thousands of coaches will have a huge call to make if the Demons ruckman misses Round 16.
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You can’t gain ground by following the field in SuperCoach.
Take the current top-two teams — Adam’s Ryder2Gray and Brayden’s Wet Bandits —
Brayden sits second, 77 points adrift of top spot, but with a 63-point advantage over third.
The two frontrunners had seven different players in Round 15, proof you can prosper without following the herd.
Adam has Reilly O’Brien, Jack Ziebell, Mitch Duncan and Harris Andrews in his team as points of difference, while Brayden has a more conventional side with popular picks such as Jack Macrae, Clayton Oliver and Zac Williams.
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Adam’s efforts to reach the top of the rankings provide credence to two important SuperCoach rules — following your gut and not being afraid to make a risk-reward trade.
That’s why if Max Gawn misses this week with an ankle injury, you should consider trading the star Demon.
Gawn has a break even of 212 after his ankle injury against Brisbane Lions caused him to score 46.
He might be the No. 2 scorer of the year, but at $689,800 and with trades running low, can you afford to be sitting his scoring power and Patrick Cripps on your bench this round?
Cripps will have to prove his fitness in coming days to face the Demons on Sunday after a foot injury, while Gawn has stated he expects to play despite significant swelling on his ankle.
If Gawn misses, you can compensate with a bold trade move like this — trade Gawn to Scott Lycett, pocket $121,200 and use it to turn a rookie such as Xavier Duursma into Shannon Hurn.
If Lycett averages 100 for the rest of the year and Hurn maintains his 110-point output, you would come out at least 15 points a week better off.
While trading based on a potential one-week injury can be fraught, if you need to make up ground in the rankings or win this round’s league fixture, you might have no choice but to be decisive.
Gawn was optimistic he would face the Blues when asked about his fitness on Tuesday, telling RSN: “I am not great at reading scans, but the doc reckons it’s nothing unbelievably serious. Obviously for it to be that big it has to something. I’ve watched the video of it as well and it did look pretty grim. But everyone around the club is saying it should be something, if I get the swelling down, back end the week (with) training and hopefully play Sunday.”
Lycett has monstered 180 and 165 in the past two weeks since Paddy Ryder was dropped and has a four-week average of 142.8.
The Port Adelaide ruckman is available as a Ruc-Fwd, which increases his value. If you have Patrick Bines as your R3, you could bring in Lycett as a forward, swing Bines into attack and hold Gawn if he misses this week.
There are eight weeks left in the AFL season and while you don’t want to run out of trades, if you don’t start making SuperCoach moves now you can kiss your hopes of success goodbye.
Is trading Max Gawn the right move should he be ruled out this week? Probably not.
But if it helps bolster your team in another area where others are already at full premium status, you might have no choice.
MAX GAWN TRADE SCENARIOS
1. HOLD
The preferable scenario. Gawn is averaging 125 points per game for the season, 22 points more than the third-best ruckman Todd Goldstein. If you can survive a week and avoid a donut, you’ll be miles ahead of those who trade Gawn based on the possibility of one week on the sidelines.
2. STRAIGHT SWAP
If you traded Gawn to Lycett ($121,200) or Goldstein ($161,500), you’re sacrificing points in the rucks but can use the money to bolster your team in another area.
3. FWD SWING WITH LYCETT/BINES
If you have West Coast rookie Patrick Bines on your ruck bench, you can trade in a ruck-forward such as Lycett, Justin Westhoff or Rory Lobb, you can swing them into your rucks and use Gawn as a captaincy loophole in Round 16.
Originally published as Should you trade Max Gawn if he misses through injury? The tough call which could define your season
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