Captain’s Challenge: Round 7 skipper options

• CHAMPION PODS: Unique players to find you an edge
• SQUAD BREAKDOWN: Round 7 team insights

This week we have a few juicy matchups and it’s a good week to target a high ceiling option for the captain’s armband.

Last week I made the ordinary choice of captaining Cam McInnes.

Luckily, none of the other popular captaincy options went too well.

Here’s a breakdown of the major Round 7 targets.

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Safety first

Payne Haas (FRF)

Haas was disappointing last week, getting only 54 points in 59 minutes.

This week he comes up against the Titans and has scored 74 and 72 against them previously.

Last week’s score should be an outlier, but with other matchups, he won’t be getting the armband from me this week.

Jason Taumalolo (2RF)

Lolo played 72 minutes last week for 76 points.

The bone bruising looks to be well behind him and he should see decent minutes this week up against the Knights.

Lolo’s highest score against the Knights over nine games is only 61 points.

The Knights have turned into defensive powerhouses, so it’s hard to see him going massive this game.

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Ryan Matterson (2RF)

Last week Matto scored 91 points with 67BPG against the Roosters, wow!

He was also inches away from scoring a try and he could better that score this week against the Raiders.

However, the Raiders right hand side is leaking like a sieve and Parra should take advantage of that through Lane, Jennings and Sivo – so there may be limited attacking opportunities for Matto.

Cameron Smith (HOK)

Smith only produced 59 points against the Panthers last week.

This week he faces the Warriors which he has a decent 73 average against, having scored 81 and 84 against them last year.

After a Storm loss last week and the Warriors lack of defence this season, this game should be a blow out.

However, there’s so many unknowns about this game.

The Warriors have a weird history of performing against the Storm.

They have also just lost their coach, which the players seem genuinely distraught by and I am not sure how they respond.

On the other hand, Bellamy has described the Storm’s performances this year as being a yo-yo and they haven’t clicked into gear yet.

If it is a blow out, Smith could easily crack a ton with the goal kicking duty alone.

Cameron McInnes (HOK/2RF)

McInnes produced an underwhelming 58 points last week against the Titans.

It looked like he didn’t get through much work due to the stoppages in play and the Dragons scoring.

Against the Roosters this week he may spend a fair amount of time under the goalposts and should probably be avoided.

Damien Cook (HOK)

Cook scored an impressive 108 points last week against Penrith.

It’s no coincidence he produced this score and looked great with Walker back in the side, they enhance each other’s game so much.

The Penrith pack dominated the Storm forwards last week and should do the same to the Bunnies undersized pack – meaning Cook may not get much ruck speed for his attacking plays.

Last year he scored 52 and 55 against Penrith and this game should be a similar score.

🔥🔥🔥NEW RECORD🔥🔥🔥

James Tedesco's 199 against the Bulldogs is the obvious choice for our KFC SuperCoach Play of the Week! pic.twitter.com/P70ieA3RTs

— SuperCoach NRL (@SuperCoachNRL) June 16, 2020

Risk it for the biscuit

James Tedesco (FLB)

Two weeks ago Teddy broke the SuperCoach record and he could break it again this week against the Dragons.

There is a big question mark over whether he plays, as he has to get through the HIA protocol without any hiccups and the Roosters play the Storm the following week.

Last year he scored 57 and 134 against the Dragons.

Interesting that the Dragons are surprisingly not giving up many points to fullbacks this year.

Out of all the NRL teams, the Dragons have conceded the 8^th highest amount of SuperCoach points to fullbacks and 9^th amount of SuperCoach points overall.

However, they have not come up against some of the elite fullbacks and I’m confident if Teddy plays he easily gets over 90.

Kalyn Ponga (FLB)

Ponga scored 78 last week with only one linebreak.

This week he is up against his old club, playing in North Queensland.

The Cowboys have some of the worse defence in the league.

Last year he played the Cowboys and scored 105 and with the form he is in this year, he should beat that score.

He is an obvious captain choice for me if you don’t have Teddy.

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Cameron Munster (5/8)

Last week I said ‘Munster will crack the century randomly against someone’, I didn’t expect it to be that week against a tough Penrith side.

It goes to show you how hard Munster is to predict.

As mentioned with Cameron Smith, everything is pointing to the Storm blowing the Warriors away this week.

I remember last year being so excited to captain Munster against the Titans only for him to scrape together a 55 point game.

I am getting slight flashback to that game and am worried if Munster gets up for this one.

However, it’s hard to ignore Munster’s form and he has been carrying the Storm, with most their tries going through him.

Last week he played both sides of the ruck and if he continues to do that, he will be a top 4 captain choice each week.

Over the last two years Munster has scored 78, 59 and most recently 40 against the Warriors.

Nathan Cleary (HFB)

Probably only a VC option but I do like his matchup this week against Souths.

He is lining up against the poor defensive side of Cody Walker and Braidon Burns, which they will surely target.

There may be a slight concern about how much petrol the Storm game took out of the Penrith boys, with tough games prior to that.

Cleary scored 74 and 65 against Souths last year.

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David Nofaluma (CTW)

Nof is on fire averaging 80PPG.

This week he faces up against the Bulldogs left side, which every team has been targeting and Katoa scored three tries against last week.

It’s worth noting that Josh Reynolds doesn’t create as many opportunities for Nof as Benji did, as Benji was always looking for the grubber or cut out pass.

He scored 51 against the Bulldogs at the back end of last year.

It’s a great matchup and great POD captain choice late in the round.

Consensus

If Teddy plays he is the clear number one captain choice, but I will be riding Ponga home with the captain’s armband.

This isn’t the week to play it safe with so many high ceiling players having great matchups.

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