Reposting this article Steve Nicholls just put on the Renegades page for our members not on there. It was a fantastic (/agonizing) trip down memory lane and extremely well written with its humerus elements. Very much worth the time to have a read, but the formatting looks much better on the original site (link provided below).
Original article is here: http://www.renegadesfs.com/index.php/nrl-fantasy/item/1964-worst-fantasy-scores?fbclid=IwAR2UHqAQAxEDRnDq7MOix0Mnxhw8yxr1T6xNgvnsoQ_uJIfMW7tDMfVJkEQ
WORST FANTASY SCORES
As we start to prepare for next week's launch of NRL Fantasy I thought it might be fun to look back at some of the fantasy disasters from the last five years because it is always funny to dwell on the misfortune of others, providing that none of these performances came in your fantasy side.
Note: A Maloney hat-trick is when a player has a missed tackle, error and penalty in the same game.
Brad Abbey -6, round 20 2018, Raiders v Storm
The worst fantasy score in the database comes from fantasy punching bag Brad Abbey. Most of us remember Abbey as the cash cow that stunk your team up back in 2017 when you could have got Ponga but never forget this -6 either. Three tackles and 34 run metres are the positive stats. Two missed tackles and four errors are the negative stats. -6. Disgusting.
Trent Hodkinson -6, round 22 2018, Sea Eagles v Bulldogs
Is this effort better or worse than Abbey on account of Hodkinson only playing 28 minutes? Hodkinson’s biggest failing in this game was penalties as he had three and a sin binning.
Euan Aitken -5, round 7 2016, Dragons v Titans
Aitken only played 17 minutes and got injured so it feels a little unkind to include him. However, the fact he was a fantasy relevant player unlike a lot of other people on this list make him an important inclusion. Josh Dugan had a -4 in 2017 with similar circumstances.
James Maloney -4, round 1 2018, Panthers v Eels
It seems impossible that a starting half can play 80 minutes and score a negative but this is a State of Origin winning half we are talking about. Maloney’s Maloney Hat-Trick included seven missed tackles, two errors and one penalty. This awful effort would have a silver lining a few weeks later when Maloney became a solid fantasy option thanks to Nathan Cleary getting injured and this score had helped drop his price tag significantly.
Chris Sandow -1, round 19 2015, Eels v Bulldogs
No list of crappy fantasy scores can be complete without Sandow. The only other 80 minute half to have a negative score had as many missed tackles as he did successful tackles.
Dale Copley 13, round 18 2014, Broncos v Panthers
The Roger Federer of crappy fantasy scores the hardest thing about Copley was deciding which one of his fantasy scores made the cut. Copley had four negative scores, more than anyone else. He managed to be crappy for three teams which is impressive. He has 32 sub 20 scores in 79 games so a quarter of his games are crappy. There was also that one time he scored back to back 50’s early in the season and some Renegade member with gang affiliations wouldn’t hear an unkind word against his decision to get Copley and then Copley scored 9, 16, 4 and -3 over the next four games. Never change Dale Copley. Anyway I have selected this game because scoring a try and only getting 13 points is a very Copley thing to do.
Joseph Manu 5, round 5 2018, Roosters v Sharks
Speaking of crap scores while scoring a try here is our leader. Manu scored a try and had a fantasy score of 5. Adding to his try Manu had two tackles and 15 run metres but he subtracted two missed tackles and an error in a stellar performance.
Anthony Don 21, round 23 2016, Titans v Tigers
Anthony Don was the Titans’ player of the season in 2017 and was just re-signed to a new contract amongst wild enthusiasm. Thing is he rivals Dale Copley in fantasy ability and that’s not a good thing. The Don has 46 games in which he has produced less than 20 fantasy points and just 48 games in which he has produced 20 or more fantasy points. 20 fantasy points is a pretty fucken low bar Anthony! So why have I selected a game in which Don scored 21 points? He scored two tries in this game! He even managed a line break! How do you only get 21 points!
Moses Mbye -1, round 4 2018, Bulldogs v Rabbitohs
This is pouring salt into a fresh wound I know. Mbye only lasted five minutes and knocked himself out while missing a tackle. The big thing was it came the week after he scored 101 meaning fantasy coaches had fallen over themselves getting him into their team. That’s enough to give anyone PTSD.
Shaun Fensom -1, round 2 2016, Raiders v Roosters
People captained Fensom in this game. He was coming off consecutive seasons averaging over 55 and scored 71 in round 1 so why wouldn’t you. When your captain gets a negative score it still doubles so this was worth -2. For many people this was the last time they’d log into their fantasy team all season. They probably never came back. The saddest thing is this probably marked the end of Fensom’s fantasy relevance after a stellar fantasy career. Fensom would average 43 over the rest of that season and has been in decline every year since.
William Zillman -1, round 9 2014, Titans v Rabbitohs
Zillman is another guy who has had almost half of his games produce less than 20 points which is exactly what I want to recognise in this space. It was a challenge to pick one game in which Zillman was suitably anonymous but in the end I decided on this: 80 minutes played at centre, two tackles, one missed tackle, one penalty. I seriously think I could lace up and produce a stat line as good as that. What exactly is it you’d say you do here William Zillman?
Brett Stewart 12, round 24 2014, Sea Eagles v Eels
Stewart used to be an excellent player but his last season he was a shell of a player. Over 11 games in 2016 he averaged 13.09 and after a barnstorming 24 in round 1 had 10 consecutive games with scores of less than 20. In the game I selected Stewart did a really good job of hitting a lot of stat categories. Try save, tackles, tackle breaks, missed tackles, offloads, metres gained, kick metres and kick defusals. He hits them all and it amounts to 12 points.
Steve Matai 2, round 26 2015, Sea Eagles v Sharks
Matai finished his career getting kudos for his bone jarring hits while people overlooked his shocking missed tackle count. It was difficult to choose which of the two games with two fantasy points, seven missed tackles, against the Sharks was the worst but I went with the 2015 vintage because the nuance of Matai getting 100 run metres was delightful.
Apisai Koroisau 23, round 7 2018, Sea Eagles v Eels
One thing that is really cool is when a player tanks a decent fantasy score with negative plays. Often this is James Maloney but in this case here’s Api Koroisau. Koroisau had 48 tackles in this game, normally that would trigger a great fantasy score. However, Koroisau racked up 11 missed tackles, 2 errors and 2 penalties to take a 53 point score and magic it into a 23. *Heart*
Coen Hess 19, round 23 2017, Cowboys v Panthers
Here’s an 18 from Ivan Drago. 12 missed tackles and three errors whittle down a 48 fantasy score real quick.
Paul Carter 19, round 4 2016, Rabbitohs v Bulldogs
Carter dumb arsed his way out of the NRL but long before that he’d dumb arsed his way out of our fantasy teams. Carter was an infuriating negative point machine who had an impressive 8 Maloney hat-tricks in 39 career games. Carter had a real flair for teasing fantasy coaches into thinking he’d changed and then whammy he’d hit you with the Paul Carter game. So, I guess my favourite Paul Carter game was after a 69 in round 3 Carter had two missed tackles, four errors and slapped us while screaming “I’m Paul Carter bitches”. He is Paul Carter. Bitches. In an interesting footnote this performance from Carter hastened the arrival of Angus Crichton who started in Carter’s spot the following week and never left.
Keegan Hipgrave 18, round 14 2018, Titans v Rabbitohs
Keegan Hipgrave is, on field at least, the new Paul Carter. Overrated by commentators and fans because he’s small and hits like an axe while overlooking the fact he plays like perhaps the dumbest player in the NRL. Hipgrave averages three missed tackles a game and a little under one error a game but where he really shines is penalties where he concedes more than one penalty a game. Oh and he only averages 47 minutes a game. Hipgrave’s coup de grace came when he had three missed tackles, three errors, two penalties and two sin bins for 18 fantasy points. But, you know, he hits hard so he’s got Origin written all over him.
Cameron Smith 23, round 4 2018, Storm v Sharks
Let’s finish it off with the greatest fantasy player of all time just to prove that everybody is mortal. This was the score that launched a thousand trades. CS9. The Greatest. 23 fantasy points. Smith had three penalties and was famously sin binned but the big problem was he did a fat lot of nothing in the rest of the game. Just 34 tackles, 1 metre gained and 7 kick metres. Yes I traded him out. Did he score 84 the next week? Yes he did. But in my defence I came 10th overall.