2018 NRL.com Fantasy thread part 60

Blain wrote:

Yeah agree, I think Wing is his best position anyway. Had a good game this week, helps that's he doesn't need to tackle. His attack is like an 8, but his defence is about 4.. No doubt Ken walks back in with his form this season.

SK will probably bench Beale and move Hiku to centre again

The thing with Hiku though is that he has the x factor. Sure he plays like a mug but he can make those clutch plays under pressure. He also has that uncanny knack of slipping out of tackles. I agree though Beale should get the nod over Hiku because he is more consistent especially on defense. Looking at all the games over the weekend I see plenty of players with pathetic defense & K-Nik immediately comes to mind. Some players in the nrl it seems have never learnt to tackle properly. Defense is easy too fix though because all you have to do is show some heart & determination instead of playing like a pussy. Look at L. Lewis & AJ Brimson as examples of small players tackling with heart & courage. Look at how RTS has improved his defense over a couple of years. When he first came to the Warriors he got knocked out twice because he got his head in the wrong place & look at him now he's like a brick wall.

Isaako having a stinker screws up my plans to bring Ponga in straight away so unless I piss off SJ for Ponga and move Mbye or Lewis to my HLFs I’m kind of in a holding pattern. Anyone care to have a look over my team?

2 trades 203k bank

Cook
Fifita James
Taumalolo Jurbo Brown
SJ ARey
Aitken Mitchell
Tedesco Mbye Isaako

Smith
McInnes
Farah
Arrow

Martin
Lewis
Hetherington
Fainu

danseels1985 wrote:Isaako having a stinker screws up my plans to bring Ponga in straight away so unless I piss off SJ for Ponga and move Mbye or Lewis to my HLFs I’m kind of in a holding pattern. Anyone care to have a look over my team?

2 trades 203k bank

Cook
Fifita James
Taumalolo Jurbo Brown
SJ ARey
Aitken Mitchell
Tedesco Mbye Isaako

Smith
McInnes
Farah
Arrow

Martin
Lewis
Hetherington
Fainu

The immediate problem is that with 2 trades left you should not be making any more trades & holding them for injuries. The other problem you have is your team balance is out of whack because you have Isaako playing in your 17 while you have Martin who is scoring 55+ in your emg's (I assume it's Rhys Martin). Compounding that is that you have no ctr/wfb cover in positions 14-21. You have purchased too many forwards & not enough outside backs. I think if you want to bring Ponga back in you will have to sacrifice one of your forwards.

Yep that’s true mate,I have misjudged it :-( which forward do you think makes way? Brown?

I think Isaakos score on the weekend shows that people playing him in their 13 up til now have been damn lucky.  Time to get him out and as a cover I reckon, unless its cover for Ponga I guess.

danseels1985 wrote:Yep that’s true mate,I have misjudged it :-( which forward do you think makes way? Brown?

I was going to suggest James or Fifita but if you do that you'll have no frf cover so it's either Brown or Taumalolo but that's a difficult decision. Brown plays 80 minutes & is more consistent whereas Taumalolo is a boom/bust type player who has a higher ceiling than Brown. I would lean towards selling Taumalolo.

White Lightning wrote:

I was going to suggest James or Fifita but if you do that you'll have no frf cover so it's either Brown or Taumalolo but that's a difficult decision. Brown plays 80 minutes & is more consistent whereas Taumalolo is a boom/bust type player who has a higher ceiling than Brown. I would lean towards selling Taumalolo.

Brown didn't play 80 last week.

wolfking wrote:

Brown didn't play 80 last week.

You're right & I notice he's only played 80 minutes once. I just assumed he was playing big minutes like last year. That makes Taumalolo v N. Brown a difficult call.

I realise N Brown has had a couple of good scores not too long ago (one was helped by a try), but I'm a little worried about him being anything more than a 50 at best player for the run home. He was also holding his sternum a bit in the game last week.

wolfking wrote:I think Isaakos score on the weekend shows that people playing him in their 13 up til now have been damn lucky.  Time to get him out and as a cover I reckon, unless its cover for Ponga I guess.

its winger lottery really, there are not many in the comp who can be consistent. we played like ass, and he's just not the type to score 40 on hard runs out of our own end.

my tv broke wrote:I realise N Brown has had a couple of good scores not too long ago (one was helped by a try), but I'm a little worried about him being anything more than a 50 at best player for the run home. He was also holding his sternum a bit in the game last week.

Taumalolo does seem much more durable than N. Brown who has struggled with injuries this year so maybe Danseels should sell N. Brown. In fact I can't even remember the last time Taumalolo had a serious injury that stopped him playing.

Thanks for your advice guys,decisions decisions

THink I might go Croker to Rapana via Cotric. Keep it in the family.

Will leave me with 300k and 2 trades. A couple of games out of Fainu and he will be upgraded to Arey or Big Papali

White Lightning wrote:On nrl physio they have a picture of Widdop's bloody mouth with a couple of smashed teeth that will require dental work & their last sentence is "good reminder to always wear your mouthguard."

I still can't believe wearing a mouthguard is optional in the nrl. The nrl harp on & on about making the game safer & that player welfare is their goal but they fail to make wearing a mouthguard compulsory.

I know people who wear mouthguards playing ultimate. Teeth are bloody expensive!

No way you'd catch me on a league field without a mouthguard.

Any thoughts on these possible trades? Isaako needs to go to complete my final 17. If I elect to trade him to someone other than a centre I will have no centre coverage, which probably isn't the way to go, so I need a centre. Or, I elect to go without a centre and pray Aitken/Hoppa stay injury free. With 3 trades left, I'm not sure that's the way to go.

Isaako > Hayne 103k left.
Isaako > Mitchell 47k left.
Isaako > Marsters 5k left.
Isaako > Blake 112k left.

Or

Isaako > any WFB under 597k and be left with no centre coverage.

Question for you WL.

Reckon we stand any chance of winning the Bulldogs League??

Currently 200 points behind the leader??

MilfordTheMagician wrote:Any thoughts on these possible trades? Isaako needs to go to complete my final 17. If I elect to trade him to someone other than a centre I will have no centre coverage, which probably isn't the way to go, so I need a centre. Or, I elect to go without a centre and pray Aitken/Hoppa stay injury free. With 3 trades left, I'm not sure that's the way to go.

Isaako > Hayne 103k left.
Isaako > Mitchell 47k left.
Isaako > Marsters 5k left.
Isaako > Blake 112k left.

Or

Isaako > any WFB under 597k and be left with no centre coverage.

Hayne is really tempting, aye

I actually dont have an answer though. I just cant commit any energy to the centre lottery.

I'd be tempted to keep Isaako if nothing seems to tick the boxes.

MilfordTheMagician wrote:Any thoughts on these possible trades? Isaako needs to go to complete my final 17. If I elect to trade him to someone other than a centre I will have no centre coverage, which probably isn't the way to go, so I need a centre. Or, I elect to go without a centre and pray Aitken/Hoppa stay injury free. With 3 trades left, I'm not sure that's the way to go.

Isaako > Hayne 103k left.
Isaako > Mitchell 47k left.
Isaako > Marsters 5k left.
Isaako > Blake 112k left.

Or

Isaako > any WFB under 597k and be left with no centre coverage.

That's hard. A case can be made for any of them. Id probably rule Marsters out, I have him but he has been average the last two games.

Mitchell should have a big run home, I hope. Hayne or Blake are both wildcards and Blake especially is looking great. 

Rapa or Nofo could be good PODs for the run home but you would probably want the cover

I know I haven't helped, but I would nail it down to Mitchell, Hayne or Blake.

Liverpool_Bulldog wrote:Question for you WL.

Reckon we stand any chance of winning the Bulldogs League??

Currently 200 points behind the leader??

Im 200 points ahead in my work league and wondering too if Im relatively safe and can go for a couple of PODs or keep cancelling other players out. 200 seems somewhat safe but a bit of luck you would think is catchable.

wolfking wrote:

Im 200 points ahead in my work league and wondering too if Im relatively safe and can go for a couple of PODs or keep cancelling other players out.

Id say (from no previous experience) that 200 is right on the cusp of being too far ahead. You'd assume they have a solid team already, other wise they wouldn't be No.1. Your only hope would have to be them running out of trades and going a few weeks with either super average, or no coverage.

By way of an example. Im in top 50, but my teams coverage sucks balls and I have two trades left. It would seem more likely that ill drop 200 points than make them up.