NRL Fantasy 2018 Thread Part 23

Nice rant Pookus!

It's surprising to see the table turned upside down at the start of this season.

Siro early reports ACL
Tanginoa early reports ACL
Turbo 1-2 weeks
Via James Hooper on Triple M

is doueihi and merrin to matterson and another half (haven't decided yet, can get anyone below dce) silly or? Would leave me 100k or so itb

441/9 cap macca to come seems decent so far just need kennar to play since turbo was injured

manlybeaver wrote:441/9 cap macca to come seems decent so far just need kennar to play since turbo was injured

Well done MB you're definitely ahead of the pack.

Adrianoooo wrote:is doueihi and merrin to matterson and another half (haven't decided yet, can get anyone below dce) silly or? Would leave me 100k or so itb

Might want to see what Doueihi’s doing first.

Pookus McFly wrote:I am not a Raiders fan. I don't even have a soft spot for them. But I have been thinking about them this morning and perhaps a die hard fan that is more in the know can offer some further thoughts.

I remember when Wighton played centre and i really rated him highly there, moreso than as a fullback. Leipana clearly isnt working out like in 2016 and Leilua is the obvious weak link. Am i correct that Rapana played FB in his junior years? How is he not the kind of dynamic player you want to get more ball to? He is the exact kind of player you base a team around. People talk about Inglis needing more ball because hes wasted in the centres, how can an elusive TB machine like Rapana be still stuck on the wing? I completely get that their biggest problem is defence rather than scoring points, so changes to the forward pack is probably more important right now but it baffles me that Sticky has not toyed with Rapana to FB and Wighton to centre, punting Leilua for a younger winger along the way. Seems like an obvious shakeup to me. Is his defence really that much more of a liability than Wightons?

As far as the forward pack goes, I think they never really recovered from the loss of Vaughan. Should have thrown a blank cheque at him because they have so many big bodies but nobody with real agression. Papilii probably the closest thing to an enforcer and getting too tired playing a full game in the second row. Boyd, Tapine, Bateman, Whitehead, Paulo, Soli- its funny how many of these guys seem solid players (without being brilliant) and yet they just cant click as a defensive unit.

Perhaps Ricky really is cursed (/ just a terrible coach). Lets break it down- he had maybe 3 good seasons as a rookie coach with the premiership Roosters he inherrited from Gould and then ran down until they missed finals, and really has had very little success otherwise: One passable season at the Sharks in 2008 when they came 3rd but then crashed to 15th and 14th in subsequent years; a dismal season at the Eels; and one passable season at the Raiders (2016) but ultimately he makes finals once in four years (and once in five assuming they miss this year); a terrible record with NSW- albeit against an unbeatable Qld dynasty; and a tenure for Australia last decade which was successful but fell during a period when other countries offered little opposition.

I guess my overall point, is where do we draw the line of wondering why a team is underperforming when the coach has a rich history of similar capitulation with other sides? It's oh so easy to jump on the Ricky hating bandwagon, but I really think he has to be moved on for the good of that club

Sorry for the long rant guys, slow morning

Here is my rant with a player by player breakdown of the 17 and my "best" 17.
As mentioned the Raiders have plenty of talent but can't seem to gel. A career year from 3 or 4 players (Hodgson nearly won Dally M and failed to replicate it) pushed them to finals in 2016 and looked like real dark horses to take out the comp. It seems they are being overcoached and all have attitude problems. Ricky has to go this year as nothing seems to be working.

1. Jack Wighton - As mentioned above he was real quality at centre. Defensive reads were a strong point with the ability to pull of a bone rattling tackle every now and then. Passable at setting up his outside man and strong ball runner. On paper he could be a slightly better Euan Aitken depending on how combinations go. Has potential to be a rep level centre.

2. Nick Cotric - Plenty of talent to be a high quality outside back. Ceiling looks just short of rep player but still young so can improve. His best position is probably centre but should be given a shot at fullback. Dynamic ball runner and does all the tough stuff coming out of trouble. Safe as houses under the high ball. Haven't seen much of his play making game but can't be worse than Wighton.

3. Jarrod Croker - Locked in for one centre position. Defensively he has improved in recent year from his reputation. Will go close to breaking the record for first grade games. A tier under representative centre but every club needs some genuine first graders.

4. BJ Leilua - To put it bluntly he has an attitude problem. Has been on the outer at every club he has played for and doesn't have the work ethic to match the talent. Some time on the wing or in reserve grade is in order. Defensively has poor lateral movement and offensively is a poor line runner who uses his strength to get out of trouble.

5. Jordan Rapana - One of the premier wingers in the comp. Strong out his own end, one of the top finishers in the comp and dynamic ball runner. He needs to touch the ball 20 times a game.

6. Aidan Sezer - Solid start to his career at the Titans but fell to pieces at the Raiders. Solid kicking game and defense but not much else on offer in terms of creativity. Needs to play next to a dominant ball runner/play maker.

7. Sam Williams - Fringe first grader for many years and not much has changed. Shows flashes every 5 games or so but has never really put it together. Good depth to cover for injuries. Good short kicking game but does not threaten with ball in hand. Is not the answer at 7.

8. Iosia Soliola - Best year are past him but can still hold his own as the squads 3rd best prop. Tough defensively making defenders not want to run his way. Ball carrying is not what it used to be but passable. Offloading game non existant. Prefer him starting so you can stager the prefered props.

9. Sivila Havili - Fringe first grader pushed into the start side due to injury. Not going to win you the game but will do his job tackling in the middle with the occasional dart from dummy half. Ideally he would be a 14.

10. Shannon Boyd - Big impact starting prop. Lateral movement is questionable in defense when he plays longer than 20 minute stints. Has very up and down form but makes plenty of metres.

11. Josh Papalii - Bigger hitter and probably their best forward. Seems to get gassed playing 80 and would be better served playing 60 minutes or so.

12. Joseph Tapine - Solid ball runner and offload game. Best served as an edge second rower due to his lateral quickness to cover defense on the edge.

13. Elliott Whitehead - Best defender and good offload game. Needs to be defending in the middle to cover lateral movement of the big boys late in their stint. Should be getting 60 odd minutes as the defensive anchor.

14. Luke Bateman - Can cover 20 minutes at lock and spend a bit of time in the front row rotation. Solid first grader that doesn't do much special.

15. Junior Paulo - The squads second best prop and needed off the bench for impact. Can turn a game coming on at the 25 minute mark. Can offload and start second phase play.

16. Dunamis Lui - No nonsense 4th prop who won't let you down playing 30-40 minutes a game.

17. Ata Hingano - Ideally he is just a reserve grade player but needs to cover Hodgson injury.

Ideal lineup

1.Cotric
2.Oldfield
3.Croker
4.Wighton
5.Rapana
6.Austin
7.Sezer
8.Soliola
9.Hodgson(Havili)
10.Boyd
11.Papalii
12.Tapine
13.Whitehead
14.Havili(Hingano)
15.Bateman
16.Paulo
17.Lui

Quality piece MS

Random thought but wasn’t there lots of complaints about the sand based field at brookvale causing injuries and then by coincidence we get to ACL injuries in one game.

Fortitude wrote:Sitting at 72nd with lodge, arrow, isaako, griffen and ponga to come. Very likely that most people have those players and a few with c on ponga. Reckon I’ll slip back to maybe 300s?  

Was fairly certain I’d be doing smith to friend next week, but friend didn’t look great. I still think his poor game was a lot more promising than smiths. Was fortunate he sucked, makes him more affordable. Other option is korisau. Although they won’t be playing the useless raiders every week

We have the same score (Hiku's included as an AE for me). I also have 5 to come and 3 are the same. These 5 are all very common in the top teams. You should end up in the top 100. I am estimating I will end up around 80th at the moment, probably slightly behind that for you depending on the scoring, but would expect somewhere around the 90-100 range for you as a guess.

Stinkbug wrote:553/11. currently sitting at rank of 3,059
with highly owned players playing today (Arrow Ponga Thompson Rowchow Lodge NBrown) I'd be happy to maintain rank thereabouts.

With 6 still to play you probably improve ranking the next 3 games.

Pookus McFly wrote:I am not a Raiders fan. I don't even have a soft spot for them. But I have been thinking about them this morning and perhaps a die hard fan that is more in the know can offer some further thoughts.

I remember when Wighton played centre and i really rated him highly there, moreso than as a fullback. Leipana clearly isnt working out like in 2016 and Leilua is the obvious weak link. Am i correct that Rapana played FB in his junior years? How is he not the kind of dynamic player you want to get more ball to? He is the exact kind of player you base a team around. People talk about Inglis needing more ball because hes wasted in the centres, how can an elusive TB machine like Rapana be still stuck on the wing? I completely get that their biggest problem is defence rather than scoring points, so changes to the forward pack is probably more important right now but it baffles me that Sticky has not toyed with Rapana to FB and Wighton to centre, punting Leilua for a younger winger along the way. Seems like an obvious shakeup to me. Is his defence really that much more of a liability than Wightons?

As far as the forward pack goes, I think they never really recovered from the loss of Vaughan. Should have thrown a blank cheque at him because they have so many big bodies but nobody with real aggression. Papilii probably the closest thing to an enforcer and getting too tired playing a full game in the second row. Boyd, Tapine, Bateman, Whitehead, Paulo, Soli- its funny how many of these guys seem solid players (without being brilliant) and yet they just cant click as a defensive unit.

Perhaps Ricky really is cursed (/ just a terrible coach). Lets break it down- he had maybe 3 good seasons as a rookie coach with the premiership Roosters he inherrited from Gould and then ran down until they missed finals, and really has had very little success otherwise: One passable season at the Sharks in 2008 when they came 3rd but then crashed to 15th and 14th in subsequent years; a dismal season at the Eels; and one passable season at the Raiders (2016) but ultimately he makes finals once in four years (and once in five assuming they miss this year); a terrible record with NSW- albeit against an unbeatable Qld dynasty; and a tenure for Australia last decade which was successful but fell during a period when other countries offered little opposition. But his coaching at club level will be 5 finals series in 15 years if he falls short in 2018. Take out those first three years at the Roosters and he is two finals series in 12 years- of which hes won one of four finals games. How is he still getting gigs?

I guess my overall point, is where do we draw the line of wondering why a team is underperforming when the coach has a rich history of similar capitulation with other sides? It's oh so easy to jump on the Ricky hating bandwagon, but I really think he has to be moved on for the good of that club

Sorry for the long rant guys, slow morning

I have always thought that Rapana should be at fullback to be more involved. Would even make a great Hooker with their current woes there, get him running out of dummy half often and is a good tackler. In fantasy he would go huge there. I sold Rapana this week and really pleased I did.

Given Ricky seems to be able to inherit a team and they do well, but within 2-3 years they are crap, perhaps he can coach but has no idea when it comes to recruiting players.

@mattnz did you end up bringing Peachey in this week?

WT2K wrote:Siro early reports ACL
Tanginoa early reports ACL
Turbo 1-2 weeks
Via James Hooper on Triple M

Do they still have Lussick available? They only had 1 prop on the bench 2 weeks ago and it was Tanginoa.

Boozecluez wrote:@mattnz did you end up bringing Peachey in this week?

No, decided there was no hurry, could wait a week to see how he went and saved the trade that ended up getting DCE in for SJ.

Won't be getting Peachy in, but Maloney is interesting as a cash cow.

Lolohea looks like playing FB this week. Big call to make. Him at FB, or Thompson on the wing. Or...I could play them both and drop Carty before tonight, but then you know what happens. Carty scores 55 with two meaties in 5 minutes while hammering Lodge’s puss-filled blurter. I can see the Titans belting the Bonzos

Rabbit wrote:Lolohea looks like playing FB this week. Big call to make. Him at FB, or Thompson on the wing. Or...I could play them both and drop Carty before tonight, but then you know what happens. Carty scores 55 with two meaties in 5 minutes while hammering Lodge’s puss-filled blurter. I can see the Titans belting the Bonzos

Thompson is on the wing?

Hope Jack Gosiewski gets a start for Manly next week on the edge

Had Shaun Lane before and he can feel like a bit of a Roller coaster, averages 46 points from when he plays in the back row (excluding one game for injury)
He would be priced around 490k with a high BE so if he did start you could wait a week

Then you have Frank Winterstein, Lewis Brown, Toafofoa Sipley and Joey Lussick as options too

Boozecluez wrote:Hope Jack Gosiewski gets a start for Manly next week on the edge

Might be a good pickup, would Lewis Brown get a crack first tho?
Anyone thinking of bringing Maloney in? I know he’s not normally fantasy relevant but with Cleary out he nearly made 500 kick metres, 8 goals and 16 tackles which works out about 57 points alone.
Was thinking a straight for Doueihi if Reynolds is back next week