NRL Fantasy 2023 Part 1 - Just open up already

TheWeapon wrote:Being the bye planning pest that I am, I decided to have a quick look and write it down in a way that made the most sense to me:

- Big bye rounds still exist rd 13, 16, and 19 (so origin players as well as the bye teams will miss those rounds).

Team bye rounds below:

Dragons: 1, 16 (pre origin), 20
Manly: 2, 14, 19 (pre-origin)
Panthers: 3, 13 (pre origin), 19 (pre origin)
Roosters: 4, 13 (pre origin), 19 (pre origin)
Titans: 5, 13 (pre origin), 16 (pre origin)
Sharks: 6, 13 (pre origin), 17
Tigers: 7, 13 (pre origin), 17
Raiders: 8, 16 (pre origin), 20
Storm: 9, 13 (pre origin), 19 (pre origin)
Knights: 10, 14, 19 (pre origin)
Dolphins: 11, 16 (pre origin), 21
Warriors: 12, 16 (pre origin), 22
Dogs: 13 (pre origin), 17, 23
Eels: 14, 18, 27
Cowboys: 15, 19 (pre origin), 24
Broncos: 16 (pre origin), 19 (pre origin), 25
Rabbits: 16 (pre origin), 20, 26

My takeaways:

Non-origin Eels players play all the origin bye rounds
Origin players from Storm, Broncos, Titans, Roosters, Panthers will only miss 1 more round due to origin relative to their non-origin players (assuming they don't get rested)
Titans are the first team to finish their byes (rd 16) and will be good purchases for the run home
Eels, Cowboys, Broncos and Rabbits players don't have any byes until the second half of the season, so should be good players to start with.

Milchcow wrote:
I'm considering Hynes over Cleary

No origin, better byes, and has a very good scoring base. Only a touch more expensive.

Partly depends on how well the Panthers are going to do this year. Do they have another year of dominance in them? Want to get in on those prime Cleary junk time points

rhinoceroo wrote:

I don't know, it might be that last year was a "down" year for Cleary, certainly compared to a 73 average in 2020 and *91* in 2021. While the PVL-ball scores are likely not repeatable, he does have a higher proven ceiling than Hynes and also, with no Kikau, Penrith's attack might be a little more right-focused this year.

There are arguments for Hynes but for me, Cleary is too scary to miss out on because of a marginally earlier bye. Probably a sell (to Hynes) over Origin though.

Cantbeatwinners wrote:Will Penrith be as dominant as a team without Kikau and Api, 2 big holes to fill. Will clearys fantasy points therefore be affected? Unsure who replaces those 2 players yet, but kikau on the edge was a big go to

Welshy wrote:

As some have already pointed to, without Kikau whose LB/TA points usually went to Luai anyway, Cleary might even have some extra ball on the right. I'd imagine anything potentially less dominant form Penrith in terms of team scoring he will level out in term of additonal self involvement.

Cantbeatwinners wrote:

Yeah, so Luais points could be down, which were scratchy from week to week anyway, cheers Welshy for that

Milchcow wrote:

I suspect that people will have to play with less than 17 at various (non-origin) times this year. All it takes is an injury and a bye to coincide at the wrong time, even if you theoretically have cover.

Hooker is still a pretty key position though, so I think you'd want cover for it, even if you ignore byes.
Losing BSmith and playing with 16 will likely be a lot worse for your score than losing Averillo

Rabbits21 wrote:Thing with Cotter is though look at the Cows easy draw first 10-12 rounds. He could be doing less tackling and might get some early showers when they’re well ahead?

Holy Moly wrote:I've read that Woolford is likely to be the raiders starting hooker. Does anyone expect him to get more minutes than last year?

mattnz wrote:

Not with Starling on the bench.

Weird that they also just signed Levi. 3 NRL standard hookers in a squad seems to be a lot.

L-Jimmy wrote:

Calling Levi an NRL standard hooker is quite a lot too.

my tv broke wrote:https://www.nrl.com/news/2023/01/12/no-new-rules-for-2023-season/

This first one is sure to go down well lol

Grounding the Ball
Tries will now be awarded if the ball rotates from the hand to the wrist or forearm provided there is no obvious separation between the ball and the hand or arm. The new interpretation will allow further clarity for officials when adjudicating grounding."


Operation of the 18th player rule
The number of failed head injury assessments will be reduced from three (3) to two (2) to trigger the activation of the 18th player.

Intervention of Bunker in Foul Play
The Bunker may only intervene for acts of foul play which it deems to be reportable.

Few other minor things in the link.