NRL Fantasy 2020 Part 1 - Offseason Edition

StormTrooper96 wrote:

SJ came into training camp a month early to work on his strength and conditioning. He said he is aware he has been plagued by injury in the past and he said he played most of last year at 80%. He said he wanted to come in early (something he said he has never done) to work on getting his body perfect for the season. Good signs! Plus Sharks squad this year looks poised for some attack. Williams, Xerri, Brailey, SJ, Moylan, Dugan, Graham, Fifita. Might be worth having a few of those blokes in ya squad.

Say no more. I'm sold

Iron Mike wrote:

I read that too, may have been nrlsupercoachtalk.com, but scans of knee showed bone on bone. In any case, Fifita doesn't fill me with confidence at all, the uptick of minutes for Uele and Williams, along with the emergence of Rudolph and Magoulias more than replaces the ability of two past it players (Gallen was great in his prime but the game has moved on). I don't see Fifita improving much at all, and his real life tackling technique is somewhat not textbook.

Think Rudolph is the real smokie:

Sharks coach John Morris has a high opinion of Rudolf and sees success on the horizon.

"I said to him, 'If you nail this next five or six weeks [of pre-season], it could be the start of a really long career for you'," Morris said.

"He's very physical, he's got a real big motor, can play big minutes. A rugged type of middle-edge forward.

"I'm expecting big things from him but he hasn't played a game yet, so I don't want to get too excited."

Fifita averaged 60.06 in games where he played 40+ minutes (which was 16/20 of his games)

rhinoceroo wrote:

SJ had a down year in real life last year and still averaged 58 in the last 8 games when half-injured. For highest-scoring half reckon it's likely between SJ, Cleary and DCE, and SJ has no Origin.

Will Ramien be outside SJ this year? If so SJ is a decent shout to go well.
I just feel Cleary is my guy this year from the get go and SJ maybe a round 13 pickup.

Cleary locked in, Ponga and SJ are maybe's.

Milchy wrote:

Can I predict the 60s and 20s? And put him in my NPRs for the low scores?

No but you can put him at 18 and loophole the shit out of him

my tv broke wrote:

He is an absolute lock to play game 1 unless injury occurs or something else incredibly drastic goes down.

He's played two origin series now, and NSW have won both.

Gut feel is that Panthers start of the season off much better than last year. Don't have the distractions of recent years, plus the addition of Koroisau should really help them.

I thought Keary was an absolute lock to play origin as well if it wasn't for his injury

In his 5 origin matches that Cleary has played he has 0 tries, 1 offload, 0 try assists, 1 FDO, 47 run metres per game, 0 line breaks, 0 LBA

I don't think Cleary is an absolute lock

Ben Marlin wrote:
Fifita averaged 60.06 in games where he played 40+ minutes (which was 16/20 of his games)

So taking out his lowest minute games (4) he averaged 60.06 in 55 minutes of which I don't see him getting anymore than that.

If I just exclude his highest minute games (4) that average drops to 48 from 43 mins.

In fairness - if we exclude all 8 games as outliers then he average 56 in 49 minutes.

Now we know his finish to the year was injury affected, but is he over those injuries if he has no cartilage in his knee, and he has bone on bone. He is now 30 years of age and could be on the downtrend instead of bouncing back. I am a little weary that's all.

Ben Marlin wrote:
I think Cleary will most likely average 60+ this year and I don't see SJ scoring that high.

I don't think Cleary is guaranteed to play origin either since he's competing against Brooks, Moses, Keary, Pearce, Reynolds, Wighton etc.

I think hes one of the blues first picked. I can't see him being even thought of being left out unless he's injured

StormTrooper96 wrote:QUESTION TIME!

Would you rather;

a) Have a player score 20's and 60's to average 40 for the year

OR

b) Have a player score 35's and 45's to average 40 for the year

My apologies, this questions is based off the psychological side of things, along with a little fantasy side of things.

My answer would be b) for the fact that I think I could take 35-45 scores week in week out more than I could take 20-60 point scores. Plus I would be more comfortable knowing that guy will score around 40 each week towards my weekly score rather than putting up with the 20 and hoping other guys fire.

Iron Mike wrote:

So taking out his lowest minute games (4) he averaged 60.06 in 55 minutes of which I don't see him getting anymore than that.

If I just exclude his highest minute games (4) that average drops to 48 from 43 mins.

In fairness - if we exclude all 8 games as outliers then he average 56 in 49 minutes.

Now we know his finish to the year was injury affected, but is he over those injuries if he has no cartilage in his knee, and he has bone on bone. He is now 30 years of age and could be on the downtrend instead of bouncing back. I am a little weary that's all.

In 2015 Fifita averaged 54 minutes
In 2016 Fifita averaged 55 minutes
In 2017 Fifita averaged 56 minutes
In 2018 Fifita averaged 57 minutes

I definitely think Fifita can still average 60 points in 55 minutes - he has had an off season to hopefully recover from his injuries and potentially more minutes up for grabs in the pack with the departure of Gallen and Prior.

StormTrooper96 wrote:

My apologies, this questions is based off the psychological side of things, along with a little fantasy side of things.

My answer would be b) for the fact that I think I could take 35-45 scores week in week out more than I could take 20-60 point scores. Plus I would be more comfortable knowing that guy will score around 40 each week towards my weekly score rather than putting up with the 20 and hoping other guys fire.

Imagine copping 4-5 20's in a row watching them lose cash and not trade them out because they'll be good for 4-5 60's in a months time.

Raiders
John Bateman $870,000 2RF
Josh Papalii $742,000 FRF
Josh Hodgson $701,000 HOK
Jack Wighton $666,000 HLF
George Willams $635,000 HLF
Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad $631,000 WFB
Elliott Whitehead $572,000 2RF
Ryan Sutton $512,000 FRF, 2RF
Jarrod Croker $507,000 CTR
Joseph Leilua $500,000 CTR
Joseph Tapine $485,000 2RF
Hudson Young $478,000 2RF
Iosia Soliola $473,000 FRF
Sam Williams $471,000 HLF
Corey Horsburgh $465,000 FRF
Curtis Scott $432,000 CTR
Nick Cotric $431,000 WFB
Dunamis Lui $416,000 FRF
Michael Oldfield $377,000 WFB
Bailey Simonsson $375,000 WFB
Luke Bateman $375,000 2RF
Siliva Havili $373,000 HOK, 2RF
Sebastian Kris $297,000 CTR
Jack Murchie $296,000 FRF
Emre Guler $264,000 FRF
JJ Collins $246,000 FRF
Harley Smith-Shields $228,000 CTR
Tom Starling $228,000 HOK
Andre Niko $228,000 WFB

635K Fuck thats expensive

Canberra's star signing looms as an intriguing Fantasy prospect, assuming he beats Sam Williams to the No.7 jersey. He's already shown he can score well in Fantasy against NRL opposition – racking up 62 points in the 2019 World Club Challenge against the Roosters with 130 run metres and 330 kicking metres. His running game is strong – he scored 14 tries for Wigan last year, and made 122 tackle breaks (eighth among all Super League players, which is pretty stunning for a half).

His defensive record is also pretty strong (92% tackle efficiency) but the real question will be how he handles the step up in class. English forwards have made an instant impact in the NRL – including his new team-mates John Bateman, Elliott Whitehead and Josh Hodgson – but former Super League backline players have a poor recent record in the NRL and Williams will need to defy that to be a dominant scorer. Still, at his price tag he could at the very least prove to be good value.

Chewie wrote:Raiders Team

A lot of those Raiders players seem to be out of my budget.

StormTrooper96 wrote:635K Fuck thats expensive

Canberra's star signing looms as an intriguing Fantasy prospect, assuming he beats Sam Williams to the No.7 jersey. He's already shown he can score well in Fantasy against NRL opposition – racking up 62 points in the 2019 World Club Challenge against the Roosters with 130 run metres and 330 kicking metres. His running game is strong – he scored 14 tries for Wigan last year, and made 122 tackle breaks (eighth among all Super League players, which is pretty stunning for a half).

His defensive record is also pretty strong (92% tackle efficiency) but the real question will be how he handles the step up in class. English forwards have made an instant impact in the NRL – including his new team-mates John Bateman, Elliott Whitehead and Josh Hodgson – but former Super League backline players have a poor recent record in the NRL and Williams will need to defy that to be a dominant scorer. Still, at his price tag he could at the very least prove to be good value.

Yep, way too expensive

Little to no interest in any Raiders players this year. No value in a team that isn't changing much from last year.

I really just think the Fifiita scenario is as simple as looking at when Woods played last year with Fifita.

With Fifita and Woods both on field Fifita averaged 50 from 50 minutes (11 games).

Excluding the 6 minute game - when Woods didn't play Fifita averaged 62 from 54 minutes.

It might be just that when Woods starts at prop he is a hog and limits Fifita's carries. Or it could be just the fact that in the 8 games without woods Fifita had only 1 error, instead of 10 in 11 games with him. I don't know, just not banking on Fifita closing the gap on Hass.

my tv broke wrote:Little to no interest in any Raiders players this year. No value in a team that isn't changing much from last year.

Only one that interests me is Tapine, but I think Sutton's form negates any upside Tapine may have in terms of gaining minutes.

my tv broke wrote:Little to no interest in any Raiders players this year. No value in a team that isn't changing much from last year.

I agree, the only person of interest for me was George Williams, but he's priced close to a top 10 nrl half without any guarantee that he will score accordingly.

When was the last time an English back actually succeeded in the NRL? Hard pass for me.

robelgordo wrote:When was the last time an English back actually succeeded in the NRL? Hard pass for me.

Widdop??