NRL Fantasy 2023 Part 80 - Oprah level red dots

Curious question from someone who hasn't played Fantasy in recent years.

Is this level of resting's and final round shit housing the norm for seasons past? Really does undo a lot of the hard work fantasy managers have done over the past 26 weeks but I guess everyone is in the same boat so will suffer similar fates. Does just seem like final rankings will be luck of the draw rather than good management.

In saying that, well played to anyone that allowed for using max trades in the final round.

It's becoming more common, but this is probably the worst ever season for final round chaos. Just a combination of niggling injuries, and a lot of positions in the 8 being just about locked in, so for many teams there is not much to play for

This year seems particularly bad but I think the impact of having to use more trades & set up your team to cover for byes, a slightly longer season encouraging resting players, Origin & quite a few injuries to highly owned players in the final rounds has all contributed to this.

It's completely understandable from a rugby league point of view but from a fantasy point of view it feels like mismanaging your team is going to be rewarded in the final standings.
It's also likely that everyone in the top 1,000 is going to have 75% of the same players and 0-2 trades so it may just shake out the same.

There will be people who get hit with every stick this week (think I'm copping quite a few but not all)

Milchcow wrote:
To be honest, it's not just fantasy players that miss out this week, but NRL fans in general.

Should be the exciting climax to the season, but instead we get to see a bunch of reserve graders and nobody cares if they win or not. Some of this is forced by injury, but it's a bit disappointing, and they really need to consider a week off before finals

They gave the Eels the week off before finals and look where that that got them. I agree there should be an entire week off before finals to help stop the "restings"

Scenes when we all get an extra 4 trades at TLT later.

mrbrownstone wrote:Scenes when we all get an extra 4 trades at TLT later.

Where would the riots take place?

Aardvark wrote:This year seems particularly bad but I think the impact of having to use more trades & set up your team to cover for byes, a slightly longer season encouraging resting players, Origin & quite a few injuries to highly owned players in the final rounds has all contributed to this.

It's completely understandable from a rugby league point of view but from a fantasy point of view it feels like mismanaging your team is going to be rewarded in the final standings.
It's also likely that everyone in the top 1,000 is going to have 75% of the same players and 0-2 trades so it may just shake out the same.

There will be people who get hit with every stick this week (think I'm copping quite a few but not all)

I don't have a problem with what is happening, and I ran out of trades weeks ago and I am freefalling down the rankings.

It just means next year (if it remains the same) people are going to have to be smarter with their trading. People will think twice trading out keepers on a bye and/or with a short term injury or suspension and depth will be rewarded.

I will be gutted if they increase trades next year because of this, it isn't needed. People will adapt next season.

Weiland wrote:

I don't have a problem with what is happening, and I ran out of trades weeks ago and I am freefalling down the rankings.

It just means next year (if it remains the same) people are going to have to be smarter with their trading. People will think twice trading out keepers on a bye and/or with a short term injury or suspension and depth will be rewarded.

I will be gutted if they increase trades next year because of this, it isn't needed. People will adapt next season.

I'm not devastated either but it does point to how to better manage trades next year. I think we probably have enough.

A couple of extra bench spots would be much more useful if anything changes.

Aardvark wrote:

I'm not devastated either but it does point to how to better manage trades next year. I think we probably have enough.

A couple of extra bench spots would be much more useful if anything changes.

An extra bench spot or two would be ideal

More players in squad would just mean more trades used, by most.

I think with the new format this year there's not much point in changing it all again after just one year. I think leave as it with the number of trades and we'll all just have to adapt our strategies moving forward. I think the 8 extra trades really put people in a more casual mindset in relation to burning trades they normally wouldn't do.

Weiland wrote:

I don't have a problem with what is happening, and I ran out of trades weeks ago and I am freefalling down the rankings.

It just means next year (if it remains the same) people are going to have to be smarter with their trading. People will think twice trading out keepers on a bye and/or with a short term injury or suspension and depth will be rewarded.

I will be gutted if they increase trades next year because of this, it isn't needed. People will adapt next season.

True but you can only have so much depth
Bula,Lem,Tboyd all averaging 40s covering 5 different positions you would think would be great

It hasnt just been this week either, for some the past 3 weeks has taken its toll with suspensions/injuries and slowly bleeding away
Rolling byes has only compounded the issue too

Trade quanity arent the issue, bench size is but thats another issue

No complaints with how things have been, I wouldn't do anything different
Its just a game end of the day so not going to live in the past and just have fun with it

Who knows what will happen this week, or next year but will still throw a team out there and hope for the best

Hopefully Garrick can needle up and they can give Skelton one last hit out

Snatchpato wrote:
No one, because it's not portrayed as important.

Exactly, look no further than the NFL, yes the Super Bowl is the ultimate prize, but winning your division is also held up as an achievement to strive for, the league puts out merch of every possible description for the winners, the franchises hang banners, the media talks about it constantly and keeps track of who is defending them the next year, and the players and personnel go crazy when they clinch them, and because everyone involved in the league from top to bottom cares about who wins the divisions, the fans also care. 

A quarter of the teams in the league win them every year and yet they are held up as more important by the NFL than being 1st place out of 17 teams is by the NRL.

It does seems a bit perfect storm-ish with a lot of positions wrapped up and the top 2 (or at least one of them) seemingly not giving a shit about a minor premiership and the prizemoney there. Plus the legit injuries beyond restings are unusually high.

I think NRL will have to act eventually because like Milch said, it's affecting everyone - fans get dudded, media coverage will probably be negative, the financial stakeholders (broadcasters, sponsors etc) won't like it

Maybe it makes sense to have 26 rounds, same total games across the season but only 2 byes, and the 3rd bye for every team is the week between R26 and finals. Do AFL do this?

In terms of fantasy, the most fantasy thing will be everyone delaying their final teams and foregoing points in 2024 to have 3-6 trades for the last 2 weeks... and then every game is high stakes with teams playing their best lineups.

GreenSchist wrote:Curious question from someone who hasn't played Fantasy in recent years.

Is this level of resting's and final round shit housing the norm for seasons past? Really does undo a lot of the hard work fantasy managers have done over the past 26 weeks but I guess everyone is in the same boat so will suffer similar fates. Does just seem like final rankings will be luck of the draw rather than good management.

In saying that, well played to anyone that allowed for using max trades in the final round.

With the HIA turnaround, why risk a headknock and miss R1 of the finals? I think that's the approach most clubs are playing. And of course, any niggles etc.

For a game like Broncos v Storm. Broncs came out and said they were resting literally everyone lol. So the storm then gets the permission to do so as well. It's a flow on!

Eliminator run and done! Congrats to WT Winfield

Final result details here: https://www.nrlfantasyfanatics.com/t2263p220-eliminator-2023#738392

Restings probably hurt a few Cup teams.

Eg Souths Logan Magpies have an elim final this weekend and now guys like Sailor etc wont be available for that game

my tv broke wrote:Restings probably hurt a few Cup teams.

Eg Souths Logan Magpies have an elim final this weekend and now guys like Sailor etc wont be available for that game

Funnily enough, Panthers NSW Cup team improved since the injuries/restings began, before last round loss to the Eels cost them a finals spot and they dropped to 7th.

NSW Cup finals surprisingly unaffected - Raiders v Sea Eagles, Rabbitohs v Warriors. Maybe Warriors I guess?

In general RL news, the field in Las Vegas is going to be 96m long lol. Also 5m less wide. May/may not be fantasy relevant. Less run metres, shorter 10 due to markings being 9.6m apart?

Munster Grant and Meaney all getting a rest too...

Milne dropped for Souths, Izaak Thompson back on right wing trained with firsts today.