I think the trade boosts are more useful used proactively but your team should be set up well enough using those boosts to cover all but the unluckiest scenarios.
I don't disagree but given the talk about AFL SC learning from the BBL season, I have a feeling it would take something significant for additional changes to be made. Given bench sizes and the potential for 2 teams to be impacted if a game is shifted (or one team if they have to replace players from a top up pool) I think it makes sense to be a bit more conservative with the boost trades. My understanding of the rules is you can only use 5 trades outside of the normal maximum for a round, meaning once you've done it 5 times then you lose that flexibility for the rest of the season.
Also reckon it's worth keeping in mind the respective benefits of a sideways trade vs avoiding donuts/replacing them with rookies.
let's say you use your bonus trades at the following times:
Round 3
Round 6
Round 9
Round 13/14 (byes)
Ignoring the bye trades (as that gets a lot harder to quantify benefits), then the way I see it if you get +5 points per week from that trade, then:
Round 3 = +100 points
Round 6 = +85 points
Round 9 = +70 points
Depending on the value of players missing, you could argue that each of these total scores can be justified as cover for a future donut but if you get anything less than a +5 points per week increase you're in strife. So you'd want to nail those trades!
I know this isn't very sophisticated but just wanted to highlight that the value of these trades can be seen in a few different ways.
2 last thoughts on this one..
1. I can see people using these trades to "stretch" their upgrades by doing 2 downgrades for one upgrade. Might lead to better ins over the first few rounds but once the cash dries up that could be an issue!
2. There could be value in keeping one of the bonus trades up your sleeve to keep the trade loophole alive late in the round.