THE OLD cliché is 'one week at a time' but AFL Fantasy coaches need to be looking past the upcoming round.

Most of the time it is to highlight when a cash cow is going to reach their peak price or when it's the right time to jump on a fallen premium.

Like winter, the byes are coming.

Following the Shanghai Showdown between the Suns and the Power, the two sides will have their bye earlier than the other clubs to help recover from their international travel.

Although we are accustomed to a rule tweak to help us get through the multi-bye rounds, round nine offers just the regular two trades and the regular 22 scores counting towards your weekly total.

If you have a premium Gold Coast or Port Adelaide player, you may like to trade them for the week so that you are maximising your points, or rely on bench cover to fill in for them.

Some coaches are already thinking about culling their Power cash cows in Dan Houston (FWD/DEF, $349,000) and Sam Powell-Pepper (MID, $332,000) who have hit their top dollar after seven money-earning games.

Houston, we have a problem: Port defender dropped

The multi-bye rounds occur from rounds 11-13.

Over these weeks, Fantasy Classic coaches have three trades each round to help manage their squad and only count their best 18 players toward their weekly score.

The simple strategy adopted over the years has been to trade out players with a bye coming up for players who are coming off the bye.

With the early 'China bye', grabbing the in-form Gary Ablett (MID, $668,000) will be a popular move ahead of round 11 as he will play across the three weeks while players from the other 16 clubs have a rest.

2017 bye rounds

If you have a Fantasy Coach subscription, you can keep an eye on how your players are spread over the bye rounds with the Bye Planner. It is usually better for your squad to be heavier with players having a later bye.

Keep in mind, though, that when you’re counting up how many players are on a bye in any given week how many premiums will be playing. The aim is to maximise your points in each round.

But isn’t that what we try to do every other week? We love this game!

.