Champion’s advice: Trade priority, cash generation v points

• CHAMPION’S ADVICE: Early season trade strategy for success
• HEAD-TO-HEAD: Strategy for claiming grand final glory

Don’t get me wrong, making money over the first 8-12 weeks of the SuperCoach season is essential to set you up with a team full of certified guns for the back half of the year.

However, having the cheapies and mid-rangers who make the most money whilst squeezing every last dollar out of them isn’t the be-all and end-all.

Many people have suggested that they value one trade at $150k, i.e. they want their team value to increase by at least 150k from making the trade to make it a worthwhile move.

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This article will shine a different light on the value of a trade; looking at the points side of the game, which in essence is the aim of the game.

Take my team value at the end of last season for example, I was a whole $1 million less than the majority of those around me in the top 10.

Why was this the case?

My best guess is that a lot of people focus every single one of their trades on accumulating salary cap. Economically speaking this is a totally rationale strategy.

However, I consider SuperCoach to be a game of many irrationalities due to the amount of variables you’ll encounter over the course of a 25 week rugby league season.

My theory is that past the first bye round you should focus every single trade on what will get you the most points, with salary becoming borderline irrelevant.

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Once you have 17 guns (which you should have shortly after the first bye), your next few trades should be focused on having at least one 50+ averaging player as injury coverage in each position.

After you have your team set up like this, it’s not worth buying any more cheapies.

This is with the exception of absolute premium cheapies who may turn out to be keepers and nuffs who won’t become auto-emergency (AE) nightmares.

Now, how many points is one trade worth you ask? It obviously varies on the season, but I’ll value a trade at 15 points based on 2019.

By this I mean, in making the trade you’ll gain 15 points on the SuperCoach rival who opted out of making that particular trade.

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A prime example of people chasing money over points at the wrong time last season was the mass purchase of rookie Brisbane halfback Thomas Dearden.

Many jumped on Dearden before he got injured, however he was realistically never going to make much money in my eyes regardless of the injury ($150k-200k max).

Instead, I decided to bring in a Mawene Hiroti who would play the second bye and not play another game thereafter which prevents the AE nightmare scenario that SuperCoaches face every year.

The true value from this trade came from the cash injection that allowed me to purchase Tevita Pangai Jnr as a late season POD to chase points.

As voted by you, the fan. Round 2 player of the round.

Tevita Pangai Junior

pic.twitter.com/K2y2vb8GUg https://t.co/W8pXTiEBbW

— Woody & Slugs do League – RUGBY LEAGUE PODCAST (@woodyandslugs) March 25, 2019

TPJ rampaged home and easily made me 30+ overall points on my competitors who didn’t own him (2 trades to get him in). Remember, SuperCoach is not a stock exchange!

The aim of the game is to accumulate total points (rationally or irrationally). The team with the biggest salary cap will almost certainly never win this game.