The how-to guide of trading your way to SuperCoach glory

Picking a starting squad is only half the fun of playing SuperCoach. Every team has 30 trades and how you use them will determine the fate. FREE HOW-TO GUIDE.

Sydney ball magnet Jake Lloyd is a prime defensive premium target. Picture: Phil Hillyard.

Picking a starting squad is only half the fun of playing SuperCoach.

Every team has 30 trades for the season, and how you use them will determine the fate of your SuperCoach season.

Many players have already burned through trades trying to fix their team on the run, with out-of-form stars like Dustin Martin and Isaac Heeney on the chopping block.

But seasoned SuperCoach players will hold fire on the most impulsive moves and stick to a long-term strategy to improve their overall squad. If all goes to plan, they will have a “finished team” by the end of the bye rounds — that is, a side with no more cheap players on the field.

The likes of Matt Parker and Willem Drew will be replaced by topscoring premiums, or moved on to the bench to serve as backups in case of injury.

The result: a lot more points for your weekly score.

To get there you need to follow a steady downgrade, upgrade cycle with your two trades each week, resisting the impulse to “sideways” trade out frustrating players for others of similar value.

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Tom Atkins (right) is a rookie whose average and break even have matched. Picture: Glenn Ferguson.

PLAYING THE MARKET

Buy low, sell high is the mantra on Wall St, and it’s the same in SuperCoach.

Every player’s price is calculated on a three-game rolling average — score well and your price goes up, score badly and your price goes down.

Bottom-priced players don’t have to score much to increase in value and those cheapies we picked before Round 1 have now appreciated enough that you can use the profit to improve your squad.

Timing is crucial, and luckily we get an indication of when a player is ripe for trading through their break even — the score they need to maintain the current price.

When a player’s break even is equal to or higher than their season average, that’s the sign they have reached their maximum value and should be cashed in (Tom Atkins, for example, has a season average of 52.8 points a game and a break even this week of 53).

You have two trades each week and one up, one down double trades can steadily improve your overall scoring power.

Sydney ball magnet Jake Lloyd is a prime defensive premium target. Picture: Phil Hillyard.

HOW IT WORKS

Step 1 — trade out a rookie who has peaked in price to another rookie who is “on the bubble” — about to play his third match and go up in value. A classic example this week is trading Atkins to Liam Stocker, who is set to jump in value next week after playing his third game.

Step 2 — Using the cash you’ve just made (in this case $130,000), trade out a second fattened cash cow for a player you can rely on for premium-level scores every week.

You can grab the biggest-scoring players or save money by targeting a “fallen premium” — a proven star who is available at a discount price.

This week’s trade targets are headlined by Jack Macrae, who has dropped more than $115,000 in value since Round 1 but looks set to be one of the topscoring midfielders for the rest of the year. Clayton Oliver, Josh Kelly and Jake Lloyd fit in a similar category.

The best time to pick up these stars is when they “bottom out” in price (when their break even falls below their average), but the planets don’t always align that well.

And sometimes you just have to back your gut. Good luck!