2017 NRL.com Fantasy thread part 1

SoylentGreen wrote:If you don't go with Smith, who are the other viable captain options?

Manners, Fifita probably Surgess but none give me the same confidence as running captain Cam

White Lightning wrote:I see a lot of people going with Elgey:
He may well be eased in & come off the bench due to coming off an acl injury & having only played half a season in the nrl. Plus he will have a totally new spine around him in 2017 as opposed to 2015. Also Hayne has the potential to impact the fantasy scores of both A. Taylor & Elgey.
I've also seen A-Rey come up as a pick. Lets just call him glass jaw A-Rey & leave it at that. This is why I'm considering C. Walker even though he's pretty expensive. I can see A-Rey getting injured in the first 3 rounds & then C. Walker will become the dominant half & bust out 50's & 60's.

In the same vain I hope slater lasts the season but if he doesn't manage it, then Munster enters the elite conversion once more, barely a whiff of a mention for a WFB fantasy superstar. Is anyone considering Rapana?

SoylentGreen wrote:If you don't go with Smith, who are the other viable captain options?

I. Luke - if he retains the goal kicking & plays 80 mins
McInnes - if he plays 80 mins but they might go McCrone/Havili/Marketo off the bench
McCullough - an old favourite of mine but only if K-Nik isn't on the bench

To me Luke is the 2nd best hooker but there is daylight between Smith & the others. Some of you are probably thinking Hodgson but he relies more on attacking stats & with the first 2 games being cowboys (a) & sharks (h) I can't see him scoring that well. He'll crack in the third game though when the Raiders play west (h). With the broncos (a) & eels (h) in rounds 4 & 5 he should see good scores in those games as well. So by round 3 his price should be cheaper & you can jump on him then.

LOL - I thought you asked who the 2nd best hooker after Smith.

White Lightning wrote:. One player I've come across although he's a hooker is Zac Woolford who's made the move from the Raiders to the Bulldogs & is the son of Raiders great Simon Woolford. There's talk that Des will maybe go away from the usual 4 forward bench & run a utility. Also a lot of Bulldogs chat about Lichaa not really being up to it & not leading the team around. Also have you seen a photo of Kasiano at his wedding. He's lost a lot of weight & shaved his beard & looks really different. This plays into the theory of a bench utility as it looks like Kasiano is being primed for more minutes.

I would always take forum complaints and suggested team lineups with a grain of salt.
There are always multiple posters on team forums complaining that Johnny Reserve-Grade isn't getting a run in the team. There is almost always a good reason for this player not having been given a run in first grade. The other great one is forum posters that suggest moving key players into a random position - sometimes they are probably joking, I mean yesterday I was reading on the Broncos forum about a potential move for Milford to lock. The point is don' believe everything you read on a fan forum.

The kennel in particular is also full of excessive doom and gloom - fans are ready to slit their wrists over this seasons poor results before a ball has been kicked in anger - and for a team that made the 8 last year their pessimism is massively out of proportion.

Maybe they are correct and Hasler is about to change the essence of the game plan he's played for many years over multiple clubs. Its not something that tends to happen often though

White Lightning wrote:

I. Luke - if he retains the goal kicking & plays 80 mins
McInnes - if he plays 80 mins but they might go McCrone/Havili/Marketo off the bench
McCullough - an old favourite of mine but only if K-Nik isn't on the bench

To me Luke is the 2nd best hooker but there is daylight between Smith & the others. Some of you are probably thinking Hodgson but he relies more on attacking stats & with the first 2 games being cowboys (a) & sharks (h) I can't see him scoring that well. He'll crack in the third game though when the Raiders play west (h). With the broncos (a) & eels (h) in rounds 4 & 5 he should see good scores in those games as well. So by round 3 his price should be cheaper & you can jump on him then.

LOL - I thought you asked who the 2nd best hooker after Smith.

Wouldn't Friend be the next best hooker behind smith?

Welshy wrote:
In the same vain I hope slater lasts the season but if he doesn't manage it, then Munster enters the elite conversion once more, barely a whiff of a mention for a WFB fantasy superstar. Is anyone considering Rapana?

With Hayne, Slater, RTS all available cheap, plus the likelihood of having several playing rookies available , very few people want to splash the cash on someone that costs that much.

Those that do seem to be going for the more reliable Tedesco, or sometimes TTurbo on the assumption he gets the fulltime fullback gig.

Certainly there seem to be enough options at WFB that its easy to fill all 5 positions without going above $300k.

Personally if I go for a big money WFB it certainly will not be Rapana.

Milchcow wrote:

With Hayne, Slater, RTS all available cheap, plus the likelihood of having several playing rookies available , very few people want to splash the cash on someone that costs that much.

Those that do seem to be going for the more reliable Tedesco, or sometimes TTurbo on the assumption he gets the fulltime fullback gig.

Certainly there seem to be enough options at WFB that its easy to fill all 5 positions without going above $300k.

Personally if I go for a big money WFB it certainly will not be Rapana.

I feel the same with Rapana but I don't know why, must be the wing not usually scoring in the same bracket as a FB but Rapa was a beast last year! Teddy all day for me currently with RTS and Hayne

If I go with a big money fullback it will be Tedesco or Munster rather than Rapana. Munster had surprisingly low tries for a gun fullback in a winning side (4 from 21 games) so could see some improvement in that area but nothing that can be relied on

SoylentGreen wrote:

Wouldn't Friend be the next best hooker behind smith?

When Pearce is on the field Friend is not an option as Pearce takes over attacking wise. In early 2016 Friend smashed it & made huge tackle counts as Cordner, JWH weren't there. When Pearce & Cordner came back Friends scores dropped as he made less tackles & less attack. I think other hooking options can match Friend's scores.

multiple.scoregasms wrote:If I go with a big money fullback it will be Tedesco or Munster rather than Rapana. Munster had surprisingly low tries for a gun fullback in a winning side (4 from 21 games) so could see some improvement in that area but nothing that can be relied on

Tedesco always starts the season on fire but do you think with the emergence of Moses with no Farah could dent Tedesco's points with less tries plus after going through 2015 with no injuries in 2016 Tedesco had injuries.
I can see the appeal of Munster but only if he's f/b but if he starts in the halves he's a no go for me. He relies on run metres/tb's for his points but at half he won't get the run metres & he won't get his hands on the ball enough.

Gonna go with the herd with my FB,s if I have to sacrifice early points in that area so be it as it allows for a more balanced side all round which suits my conservative nature and I will have ARey as my POD so it seems

White Lightning wrote:

Tedesco always starts the season on fire but do you think with the emergence of Moses with no Farah could dent Tedesco's points with less tries plus after going through 2015 with no injuries in 2016 Tedesco had injuries.
I can see the appeal of Munster but only if he's f/b but if he starts in the halves he's a no go for me. He relies on run metres/tb's for his points but at half he won't get the run metres & he won't get his hands on the ball enough.

Well Tedesco either starts the season on fire or does a season ending injury 10 minutes in.  

More accurately this is how Tedesco has started the past 4 seasons.

2013 first 5 rounds averaged 20 (only played twice in first 5 rounds) Season average 27.5

2014 first 5 avg 45, season avg 41 (after round 5 he then missed the next 7 weeks)

2015 first 5 avg 47, season avg 54

2016 first 5 avg 58, season avg 48


So to say he always starts the season on fire, is really saying he started last year on fire. This is generally the case whenever anybody says that a certain player/team always starts on fire (or is a slow starter).
Generally they are referring to 1, maybe 2 seasons. And there are so many other things at play that its hard to be confident to attribute good form to the start of the season, rather than other stuff like quality of opponent, who else was injured in the team etc

ATM have a bench of Peats,Musgrove, Hess and Sione Mata'utia not much after that sadly.

With how stacked centre is and how lacking 2rf is I wouldn't mind starting the year with Sione at 2rf then moving him as a centre keeper later. Just between 350k and 250k at centre you have Dylan Walker, Konrad Hurrell, Aaron Gray(if centre), Michael Jennings, Will Chambers and then the likes of Dean Whare and Jamaal Idris around 200k. Could take advantage of the early cash cows then cash out/move for a keeper in 2rf

Does anyone rate Frank Pritchard at $190k as a cash cow? or am I dreaming

Who are the titans wingers this year? They've lost a few players and Don was dropped a bit last season. If Haynw finds form the left winger could be in for a good year

Feline wrote:Does anyone rate Frank Pritchard at $190k as a cash cow? or am I dreaming

I'm not sure where he fits in, he will be a middle forward but Parra bought a heap of those this year. Brown Matagi Vave Pritchard and really only lost Wicks

I keep coming back to Robbie Farah at that bargain basement price its like " come on ya know ya want it" even though its not good for you it keeps luring me back in.

Some good info here guys. I thought Sua from the Broncs showed good fantasy potential last year and figured he would be looking at a regular spot this year, but no ones talking about him. Am I missing something? I thought he and Arrow were at least on par.

Really surprised at Kas losing all that weight. Surely he is in for bigger minutes? Unless he did it for health reasons, not footy reasons.