FOR Toyota AFL Dream Team, coaches the final few weeks before the season are a bit like the Boxing Day sales: everyone goes looking for a bargain, and once they find it they secretly hope they alone found it.

And even if you were too full of turkey to make it down to Pitt Street before New Year's Eve, there's still time to scour the AFL ranks for some gems. And with the salary cap pegged at $8.225 million - just like in real life - you'll have more than enough room to find some steals.

Of course, take one look at the Gold Coast Suns and you'll realise there's more than enough on the Glitter Strip to satisfy your bargain craze, but we'll run the rule over Guy McKenna's boys next week. This time, we're looking at everyone else.

The definition of a bargain in this game is a player who will accumulate as many points as those players who cost much more. And while everybody will be scoring well with their blue-chip selections, which we looked at in the previous column, the bargains will be much harder to find.

Universally acclaimed as one of the best pick-ups during trade week, Collingwood were able to secure the rights to Andrew Krakouer from Gold Coast in exchange for a draft pick and appear to have landed a big coup. His pre-season form has been sparkling.

One player greatly undervalued is Mark Williams. He was terrible for Essendon last year but his NAB Cup campaign showed he wants to get back to his best. At $162,000, he's cheap enough to come off the bench but more likely to start.

Fellow Bomber Stewart Crameri certainly pricks some interest. He's come through the rookie system but made his senior debut late last year and should kick on. A real ball-magnet, could he be this season's Michael Barlow?

Plenty of others will emerge through the year, but the key is to grab them before their price rises. Get hunting.