- EPISODE 12: SC Playbook podcast ft Adam Elliott
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Each week across the course of the year we’ll track down the biggest names in SuperCoach to get their views on the game.
In this week’s SuperCoach Fan Focus, 2014 champion Dave Von Kotze chats about his passion for the game, including his highs, lows, predictions for 2020 on resumption and everything in between.
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Embed from Getty Images1. What do you enjoy about SuperCoach?
I signed up in 2013 to have a crack with a few boys from work in a head-to-head league and initially loved how it gave me interest in a game I wouldn’t usually give two hoots about.
However, over the years it has just become something that takes over for eight months of the year.
I love the whole problem solving aspect of it, making predictions (that are usually wrong) and tactics (sometimes dirty) to steal a H2H win.
Until about two years ago, I used to hate the ‘glass case of emotion’ it puts you in but you can’t say it doesn’t build resilience when in the first game of Super Saturday, three of your players go nuts and ton up and then in the second game, your captain gets knocked out early and you kick the cat.
2. Who is your favourite SuperCoach player of all-time and why?
This question is like picking my favourite ACDC song. Until mid-way through 2018 it was the original and best SC Rollercoaster Shaun Johnson. SJ on a good day is just glooooorious to watch.
Honourable mentions go to both JT’s and even Milf circa 2014-16.
Although since 2018, it’s Teddy by a country mile. He was always outstanding, but he has been unstoppable since joining the Chookies from a SuperCoach point of view.
Regardless of the score or the game, he always has a red hot crack for the full-eighty and never stops looking to get involved either through the middle or out wide.
He’s one of those players who looks like he is having a quiet game but still somehow manages to punch out a 60. I absolutely feel sick that I don’t currently own him.
Embed from Getty Images3. What was your best SuperCoach moment of all-time?
There are two Shaun Johnson games, both in 2014 that are hard to split. In Round 18, I had a free shot at the VC loophole and he ripped out a 131 which put me into first at the end of that round.
The second was Round 25 of that year when he put on a clinic against the Titans, scoring a try and setting up three for 141 points which stretched my overall lead out to around 220 points making the last week a lot more enjoyable.
Kurt Capewell with less than ten percent ownership ripping out 156 in the second bye round of 2017 also deserves a shout out.
Embed from Getty Images4. And the worst moment?
It’s happening right now, we are nudging the middle of April and there is no SuperCoach.
Prior to this though was a little doosy that occurred in 2018. The once all-powerful Gal-Bot was no longer the SuperCoach animal he had been in previous years and a lack of minutes saw him catch a case of SuperCoach Syphilis with ownership well under five per cent.
Until round five, he had only averaged 52-minutes a game for a stinky four-game average of 47.
However in Round 5, without any injuries or HIA to the Sharks pack, he knocked out a vintage 84 points in 71-minutes.
In my mind Gal was back and I was all in so not only did I bring him in for round six, after a signature slow overall start to the season, the Velociraptors were going to hit back with Gal as a sneaky POD captain leading the charge.
Little did I know the SuperCoach gods had other plans and on Friday 13th, PG13 left the field with a knee injury………….for 10 points (insert vomit emoji here).
After being served that S&%# sandwich with stale bread for dinner, dessert came in the form of Andrew Fifita also leaving the field after 34-minutes with a knee injury which left the Sharks to get pumped by the Dragons costing me my Friday night multi in the process.
5. What was the best trade you’ve ever made?
The most enjoyable trade I’ve ever made was James Segeyaro in 2014. It’s pretty rare to jump on a low percentage POD and have it pay off in such a big way but Seggy was that man for me.
Most people playing the game at the time knew how good he could be, but he was irrelevant as he was a low-minute, reserve hooker at the time.
When regular starting hooker Kevin Kingston went down in a warm up with a calf injury, a few confidence building Tooheys Olds made me have a crack knowing that calf muscles can sometimes take longer to heal.
The gamble paid off and it took a month before the pack finally were left no choice but to jump on, by which time he was killing it with a four-game average of 86.
Embed from Getty Images6. And the worst trade?
Jarryd Hayne in 2017, but about 70,000 other SuperCoaches went down in flames with the Hayne Plane too that year.
7. Is there any player on your ‘never again’ purchase list?
Matt Moylan and that’s all I want to say about that. Ever.
8. Who’s the player you keep going back to that burns you every time?
Andrew Fifita. You sit there bewildered as he gives away his fourth consecutive penalty and then ten minutes later he makes three effective offloads and eight tackle busts in five minutes to win you right back.
Embed from Getty Images9. Any decent SuperCoach advice you’ve picked up over time?
Firstly, always make sure you double check that you haven’t put the C on a winger in the first game of the year and secondly, when a player is having a career year, particularly a CTW, regardless of their history, get on them EARLY.
Look at Semi Radradra in 2015, Lei-pana combination in 2016, Val Holmes or even Blake Ferguson in the back half of 2018, a case could have been made for all those blokes to steer clear but taking a punt early on them before the masses jumped on proved the difference for many.
10. After a particularly satisfying head-to-head win over a mate, are you humble or do you rub it in?
Humble all the way. Less is more, unless of course they are a real scum bag who deserves to be peppered like Luke who coaches the Central Coast Cows or the resident bridesmaid Charles, who can never seem to get across the line in the Sledgers League with his consistently choking Jannali Pugs.
Embed from Getty Images2020 SEASON: ROUND 3 ONWARDS
11. Your first player picked on resumption and why?
Very easy to say now that he is the leading scorer in the game but Kotoni Staggs with 13 per cent ownership has gone to a new level this year and will be my first picked.
This bloke is the full package, making defensive lines look like amateurs and he is the exact example I was talking about earlier getting these guys who look like they could be having a career best year before too many players jump on.
12. Your best smokey buy and why?
Alex Twal with just 3 per cent ownership may be the perfect replacement for Fifita owners looking to jump ship and pocket $60,000.
The very small sample size and inconsistent minutes are a little worrying playing 53 and 66 minutes in the first two games, but he has been a ‘base stat beast’ with scores of 78 and 72 to put him just five points behind Payne Haas overall.
Embed from Getty Images13) Who will be the biggest flop?
Latrell Mitchell if he stays at fullback. There’s too much running for the big unit back there. He needs to just sit idle in the centres and then do something freakish to win the game.
14) Who will be the top averaging player?
It’s got to be Haas if he continues to play big minutes. If he plays 80 for majority of year there is no bigger ‘must have’ in the game.
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