2018 NRL.com Fantasy thread part 1

Rumours gaining momentum that Crichton will sign for the Roosters with J-Nik getting fired for a 2nd failed drugs test.
Angus Crichton has removed the Rabbitoh emoji from his instgram profile.

White Lightning wrote:Rumours gaining momentum that Crichton will sign for the Roosters with J-Nik getting fired for a 2nd failed drugs test.
Angus Crichton has removed the Rabbitoh emoji from his instgram profile.

He better not go the way of grevsmul or whatever his name was. Bench to starting second rower with the bunnies, then a benchie and into obscurity.

Further re Crichton. Source Supercoach Addicts.

A poster's father is doing some work with Souths atm & had a meeting with Blake Solly (Souths ceo). Solly said they threw every possible incentive, etc at Crichton & have basically given up & they think he won't re-sign. Solly also said he saw a Roosters recruiter at the gym who said they've gone off Crichton. Also senior players at Souths are pissed off at him for taking so long to make a decision either way. Obviously this drama could go in any direction.

My understanding was Crichton plays 2018 with Souths and then is off to Roosters/Sharks after that as he's been offered a 3-year deal at each club which Souths can't/won't match.

As long as Angus plays I'm happy, he is nrl fantasy gold

On a side note... I do need to refresh my GIF selection for this coming season...
The Last Jedi is a welcome source of new material

Chewie wrote:On a side note... I do need to refresh my GIF selection for this coming season...
The Last Jedi is a welcome source of new material

making me hungry with that new avatar

When the Nikorama stuff first come out me and my mates had a good laugh. The Roosters needed to clear his 400k overpriced contract to get Cronk and the only one interested was the Broncos but the Roosters still had to cover 300k which they wouldnt do, 2 days later he is busted for drugs and will be off the books for nothing haha. Its amazing what the Roosters get away with.

First draft minus Smith
Happens every year and always finds his way back in.

WFB James Tedesco 761000
WFB Greg Inglis 267000
WFB Brett Morris 423000
WFB Peta Hiku 282000
WFB Rookie 212000
CTR Joseph Leilua 486000
CTR Hymel Hunt 310000
CTR Rookie 212000
HLF Cameron Munster 714000
HLF Josh Reynolds 493000
HLF Josh Cleeland 212000
HK Craig Garvey 228000
HK Jake Friend 735000
FR Jesse Bromwich 534000
FR Andrew Fifita 798000
FR Rookie 212000
2RF Nat Butcher 228000
2RF Bryce Cartwright 325000
2RF Cameron Murray 533000
2RF Tohu Harris 615000
2RF Nathan Brown 760000

rhinoceroo wrote:

rhinoceroo wrote:Based on Milchy's prices put together team 1/362 of the year thinking it would be over cap but, unless I've added up wrong it's 250k under (which could be taken up with GI price rise, but anyway.)

CS9, 228k (Raiders hooker)
MScott, RCG, Evans
NBrown, Tohu, Arrow, Cartwright, 212k
Munster, Thurston, 212k (Manly 5/8th)
Croker, Hiku, 212k
Tedesco, Moylan, Inglis, 212k, 212k

Incidentally, I did it the old-fashioned way. On a flyer from a Christmas card from an Indian takeaway. None of your Excel nonsense.

I was cleaning out my old computer desk a few weeks ago and found drafts of old DT teams from 10 years ago written on scrap paper and work documents and all sorts of shit.

Shanbon wrote:When the Nikorama stuff first come out me and my mates had a good laugh. The Roosters needed to clear his 400k overpriced contract to get Cronk and the only one interested was the Broncos but the Roosters still had to cover 300k which they wouldnt do, 2 days later he is busted for drugs and will be off the books for nothing haha. Its amazing what the Roosters get away with.

Did the same thing wiith carter and skd.. did they not?

Welshy wrote:First draft minus Smith
Happens every year and always finds his way back in.

WFB James Tedesco 761000
WFB Greg Inglis 267000
WFB Brett Morris 423000
WFB Peta Hiku 282000
WFB Rookie 212000
CTR Joseph Leilua 486000
CTR Hymel Hunt 310000
CTR Rookie 212000
HLF Cameron Munster 714000
HLF Josh Reynolds 493000
HLF Josh Cleeland 212000
HK Craig Garvey 228000
HK Jake Friend 735000
FR Jesse Bromwich 534000
FR Andrew Fifita 798000
FR Rookie 212000
2RF Nat Butcher 228000
2RF Bryce Cartwright 325000
2RF Cameron Murray 533000
2RF Tohu Harris 615000
2RF Nathan Brown 760000

Jeez decent looking team

Especially for Cam Murray if rumours are true that Angus is on the outer with officials and regulated to the bench or what not

Shanbon wrote:When the Nikorama stuff first come out me and my mates had a good laugh. The Roosters needed to clear his 400k overpriced contract to get Cronk and the only one interested was the Broncos but the Roosters still had to cover 300k which they wouldnt do, 2 days later he is busted for drugs and will be off the books for nothing haha. Its amazing what the Roosters get away with.

Without details and stretching the friendship, I can put hand on heart and say I know of another club who set up a drug sting on player to free up cap space, but in addition caught someone else as well who just happened to partake on the night.

It's not unusual, clubs know which players to present to random drug tests, and the druggies know when not to answer the door


We are talking recreational, not performance enhancing

Plenty of value in the under 30 average range presenting itself. Under priced mid rangers will be the key to a good squad given the smaller squad size and less chance to make up ground over byes. The start is crucial.

Hayne 30.59
BMoz 28.89
Arrow 27.9
Maloney 27.63
Watson 27.4
Matt Scott(priced at 27 average based on discount system)
Gurgess 26.44
Stimson 24.93
Aaron Gray 25.33
Latu 22.37
Cartwright 22.17
Hymel Hunt 21.17
Whare 19.63
Hiku 19.89
Inglis (priced at 18 based on discount system)

Oh NRL Fantasy, how I've missed thee.

Anyone looking at not putting Smith in? I haven't looked at many prices or done any drafts yet but a Cook/Lichaa combo could be killer if Cook can keep Farah away.

wolfking wrote:Anyone looking at not putting Smith in?  I haven't looked at many prices or done any drafts yet but a Cook/Lichaa combo could be killer if Cook can keep Farah away.

Every damn year, pretty sure I did it this year. Pretty sure I regretted it this year.

But another year older, perhaps an option to move him on now.

Also thoughts on Cronk? I know he is priced high, but with Friend there instead of Smith it could impact his scores, and feeding the ball to Tedesco could rack up more LBA's and TA's. Especially considering I see that as the main line of Roosters attack as Cronk will be the centrepiece instead of 1/3rd piece of the team.

Thinking about it a little more in regards to Smith... It goes two ways..

Smith continues to be the best scoring player in the game.

You took Smith - You are in the same boat as everyone else.
You didn't take Smith - You are behind 90% of the competition. (Losing out on a consistent score, and having to get the funds in most cases to bring him in result in more than one trade.)

Smith drops in form and/or gets rested throughout the season.

You took Smith - You are in the same boat as everyone else.
You didn't take Smith - You are ahead of 90% of the competition by a negligible amount. (Smith's drop in score/rest throughout the season wont be massive, or will just force 1 trade.)

The more Smith's career evolves, the more I suspect he is actually a sentient machine sent from the future to play NRL. He does not age and he does not wear. In fact, even more than other years when I toy with leaving him out and innevitably don't, I think this is the year to stick with Smitty: losing Cronk and some key forwards, I think he will be needing to step up in defense with the loss of McLean and Tohu and also in his general kicking to lighten the pressure from Croft. Smith is such a lock in my team every year, and in 2018 this is even more the case than ever.

I am actually a little disappointed in you guys for contemplating running without him.
Go to your rooms!

Smith got a lot of rests over origin this year. It was worthwhile dropping him for the origin period.

Will almost certainly start with him, and then reevaluate around origin whether its worth trading him out.

This year there are no such thing as good bye players. Only origin (miss 2 games) and non-origin (miss 1 game) players. So the only bye planning is around trade timing to get a full team on the oark.

With only 21 players next year its going to be pretty hard to get 17 on the field both weeks, unless we get some sort of trade wildcard.

Milchcow wrote:
Smith got a lot of rests over origin this year. It was worthwhile dropping him for the origin period.

Will almost certainly start with him, and then reevaluate around origin whether its worth trading him out.

This year there are no such thing as good bye players. Only origin (miss 2 games) and non-origin (miss 1 game) players. So the only bye planning is around trade timing to get a full team on the oark.

With only 21 players next year its going to be pretty hard to get 17 on the field both weeks, unless we get some sort of trade wildcard.

It will definitely be tough to field 17 in the bye rounds. Having 4 less depth players will make it nearly impossible. Having to turn over 13 players in 4 weeks seems like it can't be done unless the trade system changes