LAST WEEK Fantasy coaches found it tough going with six teams taking in the first of the multi-bye rounds. Plenty of popular players from the teams having a spell in round 11 meant that racking up a big score was a hard task.

Things get easier in round 12.

Just four teams are on the bye and there shouldn’t be too much trouble for coaches to put together a competitive squad this week. Once again the best 18 players from the 22 selected on field will count toward your weekly total and coaches have three trades to use. 

In most cases, coaches will already have 18 players to field before trades. If not, they’ll be pretty close.

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Keep in mind round 13 when making your moves. This might be an easy round, but you need to keep an eye on how many players you have available next week. An important thing is not just how many players, it’s the quality of players as well.

Andy Otten, Nat Fyfe and Will Hoskin-Elliott have the round 13 bye, yet are among the most traded out players for this week. The most traded in include the returning Tom Rockliff, new DPP Jack Newnes and premium defender Sam Docherty.

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Bringing in players off their bye is the way to navigate these rounds. Look out for Sydney Swans’ Josh Kennedy and new Demon Michael Hibberd to also be highly selected players as lockout approaches.

The Swans and Bulldogs play on Thursday night at the SCG and when the ball bounces at 7:20pm AEST - all players from the two clubs will be locked in the partial lockout.

2017 bye rounds

Note: Gold Coast and Port Adelaide had their bye in round nine

Full lockout will come into effect at 7:50pm AEST on Friday night.

The Traders will be chatting all things Fantasy from 6pm AEST. Roy, Calvin and Warnie discuss the ins and outs ahead of tonight’s lockout.