KFC SuperCoach: 2021 winner Emily Challis’s trade advice for round 3

Emily Challis learnt some crucial lessons on her way to the $50,000 KFC SuperCoach grand prize in 2021. See her trade plans and tips for this week.

This time last year I made zero correction trades leading into round 3.

My structure was looking good, I had all the must-have rookies and most players were performing well.

One of the lessons I learnt last year was I almost traded Tim Taranto to Taylor Walker, who had pumped out scores of 146 and 143 in the first two rounds and lots of people jumped on.

Taranto scored 67 in round 2, but I decided to keep him because he did score 107 in round 1 and I was happy enough with my team structure and didn’t need the money. I let the urge of that trade button pass me by and Taranto scored 114 in round 3. I did end up trading Taranto later, after the byes. If I had traded him earlier, I would have felt tempted to bring in someone else with the $190k in the bank. Who knows what could have happened?

Unfortunately, I am not in the same situation as last year and feel that there are some structure “adjustments” I could do on my team. I personally am quite heavy in the forward line with Tristan Xerri ($208,200 FWD) at F6, and quite light in the midfield with Jarrod Berry ($268,500 MID) at M5.

Patrick Cripps ($454,800 MID) is on most people’s minds after a brilliant two weeks of scoring. Carlton teammate George Hewett ($399,000 DEF/MID) is also having a great start, after he left my team a week before round 1 lockout. I wish I could have seen Hewett play in a full Carlton midfield, but admittedly he looks good. I am considering both players, however are they keepers? I probably would need at least one to be a keeper, but I am probably rolling the dice and hoping they are.

It’s not as simple as trading in the topscoring players, they need to fit in your team structure. I had one SuperCoach player ask me if he could fit in Patrick Cripps into his side, and I asked to see his whole team. With a packed midfield already and Matt Rowell ($342,900 MID) at M5, there was no room.

Patrick Cripps has made a flying start to the season. Picture: Quinn Rooney/Getty Images

I highly recommended that he didn’t trade any of his premium midfielders, including Jack Steele ($685,800 MID), who will be a top-eight midfielder by the end of the year. Looking at his team there was no is restructuring required, and he had most of the must-have rookies.

Make sure you’re not doing corrective trades just for the sake of it. If you are downgrading Mitch McGovern ($256,000 FWD), for example, make sure you are using that money to upgrade your team somewhere else. It’s too early to be having too much in your bank – reinvest the money to get points on field.

We have five trade boosts available during the season, which you can chose to activate any time right up to the last match of each week. This allows for a third trade (or a fourth trade during the byes). Only one can be activated per week and if you don’t use it, you don’t lose it. Remember, you don’t have to you use your trade boost this week if you don’t want to, just because lots of people are.

Personally, I am looking at downgrading McGovern to Nic Martin ($102,400 FWD) and possibly upgrading Berry to Cripps. Martin does have one more week until his price changes, so you can wait on him. Berry seems to be playing a defensive mid role, seems to have a trouble with that shoulder and ultimately is not going to make as much money as we hoped.

As we predicted, Luke Jackson is eating into Max Gawn’s points at the moment and Gawn is going to lose money. However, I am unwilling to trade him because these trades do add up and you may regret them in the future. I am still unsure who the best R2 is and I am currently holding Gawn and hoping he bounces back.

Lachie Whitfield is on thin ice in many KFC SuperCoach teams. Picture: Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images

I am also considering downgrading Lachie Whitfield ($502,600 DEF), who is currently underperforming and only averaging 71.5, either to Hewett or upgrading him to Aaron Hall ($572,900 DEF), who looks back to his best.

I’m still unsure if I am going to use all three trades but I’m going to try to find the right balance between keepers and cash cows.

TIPS FOR THIS WEEK

DON’T break your back trying to get players in your team. Not trading is OK, too.

IF YOU trade players like Gawn, Whitfield or McGovern, make sure you reinvest your money and upgrade your team somewhere else.

DON’T copy other people’s trades, because they may have a different structure than you! The same trades don’t work for everyone.

TRY to avoid making too many trades that ultimately mean more trades in the future – for example swapping a keeper in Gawn for a stepping stone player that you will have to trade out again later on.