NRL Fantasy 2024 Part 1 - Gates are open, come on in

Ponga GKing with a fairly soft draw is pretty enticing. Shame he was priced up on last year's average, but I am still pretty keen.

Flanagan may end up being a decent pick. Sounds like he may be the 7, with Hunt running at 6.

"If the Red V are to play finals for the first time since 2018, much will depend on how quickly the master and his new apprentice can gel in the key playmaking roles, with the new coach adamant they will bring out the best in each other.

“Kyle is a young half who had a lot of expectation on him at the Bulldogs - he had some good days and some not so good days, but he knows what I want from him,” Flanagan snr said.

“His combination with Ben, the influence Ben has had him, how they work together has been what I thought it would be [so far].

“Kyle’s style suits Ben, it frees Ben up to do a lot of things. Ben has been the organiser and had to come up with a lot of big plays but now he doesn’t have to do it all on his own.

“Kyle can just do his job. He is not the type of No.7 who can pull teams apart with his running game whereas Ben can... I think they complement each other a little bit and Kyle has really enjoyed his time working with Ben."

Hopgood playing 80 would be good for fantasy and bad for the Eels

Can’t really see a scenario where it helps them more than him playing with a short breather

It’s like Haas - just because he can, doesn’t mean he should.

mattnz wrote:Flanagan may end up being a decent pick. Sounds like he may be the 7, with Hunt running at 6.

"If the Red V are to play finals for the first time since 2018, much will depend on how quickly the master and his new apprentice can gel in the key playmaking roles, with the new coach adamant they will bring out the best in each other.

“Kyle is a young half who had a lot of expectation on him at the Bulldogs - he had some good days and some not so good days, but he knows what I want from him,” Flanagan snr said.

“His combination with Ben, the influence Ben has had him, how they work together has been what I thought it would be [so far].

“Kyle’s style suits Ben, it frees Ben up to do a lot of things. Ben has been the organiser and had to come up with a lot of big plays but now he doesn’t have to do it all on his own.


“Kyle can just do his job. He is not the type of No.7 who can pull teams apart with his running game whereas Ben can... I think they complement each other a little bit and Kyle has really enjoyed his time working with Ben."

Not a heck of a lot of upside but he should make money. Not someone I would trust in my 17, as he’s probably only hitting mid 30’s. No running game, likely won’t dominate kicking.
I think there are better cash cow options available for a cheaper starting price and higher upside.

robelgordo wrote:Hopgood playing 80 would be good for fantasy and bad for the Eels

Can’t really see a scenario where it helps them more than him playing with a short breather

It’s like Haas - just because he can, doesn’t mean he should.

My fantasy team doesn’t care about what’s good in real life (and I’m not sure BA does either)

GreenSchist wrote:

Not a heck of a lot of upside but he should make money. Not someone I would trust in my 17, as he’s probably only hitting mid 30’s. No running game, likely won’t dominate kicking.
I think there are better cash cow options available for a cheaper starting price and higher upside.

At half next to Burton, he averaged 33 last season, priced at 25. Priced down due to a few games off the bench for limited minutes.

Can't see him having a lesser role than he had next to Burton last year. Could easily end up as the first choice goal kicker.

If Hunt moves on mid-season, which is very possible and he gets to run the show, he becomes an auto-pick.

mattnz wrote:

Only marginal for origin selection too, while the other options for premium MID in Yeo, Haas and Murray are all certainties.

For EDG, Hopgood and Fifita have daylight 3rd in that position.

What I learnt from last year is Billy Slater highly values the 1%/off the ball stuff in picking Origin team after I thought Cotter wouldn’t be picked

If as BA is saying Hopgood is focussing more etc when playing when playing long mins I’d say he shoots into high contention ahead of Fotuaika/Gilbert/Arrow given he was 18th man G3

Carrigan, Tino, Collins, Grant, Hunt, Cotter are probably locks leaving 2 spots (granted bye schedule is pretty decent until Origin 2)

Camo123 wrote:

What I learnt from last year is Billy Slater highly values the 1%/off the ball stuff in picking Origin team after I thought Cotter wouldn’t be picked

If as BA is saying Hopgood is focussing more etc when playing when playing long mins I’d say he shoots into high contention ahead of Fotuaika/Gilbert/Arrow given he was 18th man G3

Carrigan, Tino, Collins, Grant, Hunt, Cotter are probably locks leaving 2 spots (granted bye schedule is pretty decent until Origin 2)

If Hopgood is playing great in big minutes, I wont be complaining (too much), if also selected for Origin. By then everyone would have jumped on him anyway.

GreenSchist wrote:

Not a heck of a lot of upside but he should make money. Not someone I would trust in my 17, as he’s probably only hitting mid 30’s. No running game, likely won’t dominate kicking.
I think there are better cash cow options available for a cheaper starting price and higher upside.

Reliable mid-30s is fine for your 16/17th man early in the season, if he's priced at mid -20s. If you can find five base price players who can score that or better than that then great, but normally not everyone on your bench is going to be scoring 40+ for the first couple of months.

That BA interview just screams to me that he doesn't know what he's doing and maybe I should avoid Moses who I was previously keen on because the Eels were going to be better this year. That four big middle bench with 80-minute hooker and lock looks insane, surely it can't turn out like that?

rhinoceroo wrote:That BA interview just screams to me that he doesn't know what he's doing and maybe I should avoid Moses who I was previously keen on because the Eels were going to be better this year. That four big middle bench with 80-minute hooker and lock looks insane, surely it can't turn out like that?

BA has shown regularly that he isn't afraid to leave a guy sitting on the bench all game.

The Dolphin Conspiracies wrote:Last year's averages in brackets

Paulo - 45 (54.3)
Lussick/Hands - 80 (68.6) Brad says (80)
Campbell Gillard - 45 (54.9)
Cartwright - 60 (75.0)
Lane - 60 (60.9) non-injury affected (78.9)
Hopgood - 80 (65.

Matterson - 60 (64.2)
Ofahengaue - 40 (32,6)
Tuilagi - 20 (58.3)
Grieg - 10 (27.3)

Are these predicted minutes? 20mins off if so. Can’t see Lane or Cartwright not playing 80 either. Coaches don’t waste interchanges on backrowers for the most part. They don’t go through as much work as middles and don’t carry as much weight. Arthur rarely strays from this modus operandi.

Camo123 wrote:

What I learnt from last year is Billy Slater highly values the 1%/off the ball stuff in picking Origin team after I thought Cotter wouldn’t be picked

If as BA is saying Hopgood is focussing more etc when playing when playing long mins I’d say he shoots into high contention ahead of Fotuaika/Gilbert/Arrow given he was 18th man G3

Carrigan, Tino, Collins, Grant, Hunt, Cotter are probably locks leaving 2 spots (granted bye schedule is pretty decent until Origin 2)

I dare say Gilbert’s a lock as well if fit

Carn the Demon!

BA has set a few pre season traps yet again

Hopgood keeping his edge tag is outrageous

Alfie wrote:

Are these predicted minutes? 20mins off if so. Can’t see Lane or Cartwright not playing 80 either. Coaches don’t waste interchanges on backrowers for the most part. They don’t go through as much work as middles and don’t carry as much weight. Arthur rarely strays from this modus operandi.

I will redo the prediction based on all the feedback.

Paulo - 50
Lussick/Hands - 80
Campbell Gillard - 50
Cartwright - 80
Lane - 70
Hopgood - 60

Matterson - 50
Ofahengaue - 20
Tuilagi - 20
Grieg - 0

If Ofahengaue, Tuilagi or Grieg are to spend any decent time on the field, someone is missing out on minutes on the EDG

GreenSchist wrote:

Not a heck of a lot of upside but he should make money. Not someone I would trust in my 17, as he’s probably only hitting mid 30’s. No running game, likely won’t dominate kicking.
I think there are better cash cow options available for a cheaper starting price and higher upside.

I think he’s a good 18th man. Sounds like could get close to 200 kick metres a game too. I think he will get into the high 400’s.

I am doubtful we get as many viable cheapies as last year

my tv broke wrote:BA has set a few pre season traps yet again

You don’t think he will just run 1 hooker?

Rabbits21 wrote:
You don’t think he will just run 1 hooker?

Who runs one hooker nowadays? Even Bellamy has a hooker on the bench to spell Grant. Only bottom 8 teams like Souths and the Cowboys use 80-minute hookers

Seriously though... there's been a bit of a change of philosophy around number 9s. The best two teams in the comp last year ran 9s and 14s who'd struggle to get in many other sides and it didn't do them much harm. A Lussick/Hands one-two punch would fit into that, only one of them playing out the game not so much. But who knows what BA is doing.