Players listed as emergencies are helpful if AFL clubs make last-minute team changes. A footballer who plays and scores zero, though, that's a big ugly duck egg and there's nothing you can do about it.

One zero is bad, but two is a disaster. Which leads to another point of discussion.

When a dream team coach checks his team on, say, Monday morning, and sees where everything has come undone, there must be the temptation to satisfy an itch or ease the pain by taking immediate remedial action.

The perfect time to complete trades and finalise teams, however, is Friday afternoon, not Monday or Tuesday morning.

Not all dream team coaches have that luxury (I don't) but those who do have a huge advantage.

On the topic of temptation and Tadhg Kennelly, it is necessary to resist immediately trading out players who have a low score, even those who may be injured and are likely to miss a couple of rounds of football.

Smart players retain enough trades to cover a 22-round season, including finals, keeping some in the bank for a rainy day.

If there is a player in reserve who is scoring each round, even if it is not as much as your injured player does, then it may be worth running with that for a week or two.

If, on the other hand, injuries mean a dream team is one scoring player short in one area of the ground, for example, that counts as a "rainy day".

If a trade must be made due to injury, there are two choices. Coaches can choose to spend up on a player of similar or higher value with a view to making an immediate, if small, improvement.

The other is to punt on a cheaper player who may or may not score at a similar rate (at least you know they will score more than the zero an injured players earns), but is cheap enough to be a reserve down the track.

That creates room in the salary cap to make a more substantial trade that will significantly strengthen a team.