SuperCoach Investor: Expert guide to the rising and falling trade stocks after Round 2

TRADING underperforming premiums this early in the season is often fraught with danger but some season-defining decisions need to be made this week. Your expert guide to rising and falling SuperCoach stocks.

IT’S market mover week at the SuperCoach Stock Exchange with prices set to soar (and plummet) at the conclusion of Round 3.

This week — more than any other week — is most pivotal in your quest for league and rankings glory.

SuperCoach, much like the stock market, is all about information and it’s integral that you become entrenched in it.

THE PHANTOM: THE MOVES YOU NEED TO MAKE

CASHING IN: THE FOUR ROOKIES YOU MUST HAVE

We’ve only had a brief snapshot with two rounds of football, but for the well-trained investors, this can generally be enough to make informed and astute trade decisions.

Our resident expert, Daniel Begala, shares his insights on how to best tackle the season-defining moment that is Week 3 of AFL action.

ROOKIE ROYALTY

The most important tenet of SuperCoach is to ensure you have the appropriate allocation and composition of high-class rookie players.

Buy low. Sell high. That’s the motto.

These are your building blocks and the catalyst for every enhancement you’ll make to your side.

Most, if not all coaches, will boast the services of rookie revelations Tim Kelly ($117K, mid), Tom Doedee ($124K, def), Nick Holman ($102K, mid) and Jeremy Finalyson ($124K, mid/def).

These players have kicked off proceedings in emphatic fashion and loom as lucrative cash cows for the initial stages of Season 2018 and potentially, beyond.

Gold Coast rookie Nick Holman has had a great start to the season

The issue affecting coaches, however, has been the underperformance of a breadth of high-priced rookies (Rayner, Dow and Naughton) who have failed to challenge the scorers at Champion Data across Rounds 1 and 2.

Unless you foresee upside, it’s time to exercise aggression and trade these players to the bargain-basement rookies that you may have overlooked in your initial squad.

The SuperCoach Investor will be waving goodbye to his most expensive bench warmer, Cameron Rayner, and welcoming the services of Lachlan Fogarty ($117K, mid) or Dom Barry ($117K, mid).

DECISIONS, DECISIONS, DECISIONS

There’s no worse feeling in SuperCoach (and investing) than paying full-tote odds for a premium player who fails to live up to their lofty price tag.

They’re the blue chip stock that you expect to yield weekly dividends, but more importantly, fire from the get go.

The issue, however, is that many top-dollar stocks have failed to live up to the scoring standards that have become synonymous with their names.

Michael Hibberd ($541K, Average: 73), Dayne Zorko ($609K, 69), Luke Dahlhaus ($498K, 70) and the list goes on.

They’re guns, no doubt, but they’re sabotaging our rankings pursuit one week at a time.

SuperCoach is a high-performance environment.

We do not, and should not, accept underperformance.

That is why coaches, like yours truly, have some season-defining decisions to make this week.

Trading sideways, or premiums for that matter, has always been fraught with danger.

With no realised “loss” (in price), there’s no better time to part ways with an underperforming star than when they’re on the verge of plummeting.

Can Michael Hibberd — the quarterback of the Melbourne Demons — turn the tide or are we witnessing history repeat itself (Heath Shaw, 2017) with a change of role and personnel (Jordan Lewis and Bernie Vince) tapering his output indefinitely?

It sounds harsh, I know, but being clinical may enable you to preserve the capital required to acquire the likes of Patrick Dangerfield and other premiums down the track.

Michael Hibberd is yet to hit the ton. Picture: David Caird

TAKING THE PUNT

They’re the new kids of the block, awkwardly priced but have exploded onto the scene in the opening stanza of Season 2018.

Riley Bonner ($257K, def), Charlie Curnow ($408K, fwd), Tim Taranto ($366K, mid/fwd).

If you’re experiencing the headache that is an underperforming premium, well guess what, you’re in luck with a breadth of youngsters hammering down the door for selection in your side.

Cast your eyes back to Season 2015 when the young Marcus Bontempelli, a second-year player, burst onto the scene with a sequence of scores including 131, 126 and 142.

Many, including yours truly, overlooked the future star with doubts about his sustained scoring potential as a thinly-framed nineteen year-old.

Taranto, more than any of the above, seems a player destined to recreate this feat with a top-billing draft selection and two games, 113 and 100, that suggest he’s already become a vital cog of the GWS engine room.

It takes a bold decision, but you won’t win SuperCoach sitting on your hands.