Captain’s Challenge: Round 12 skipper options

• STAT ANALYSIS: Vital numbers to beat the best
• CHAMPION PODS: Unique players to find an edge

There is something not right with the world when Teddy has scored under 100 points two weeks in a row, will he make amends this week or are people considering other options?

The forecasts are predicting dry footy for all the games this week, which leaves us with some high scoring alternative options from Teddy.

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Safety first

James Tedesco (FLB)

Teddy scored a miserable 53 points on the weekend, but at least we were all in the same boat and other popular options weren’t far off.

He still managed to score 39 base points which is amazing for a fullback.

This week he faces the Titans, who he averages 81PPG against and who he put 155 points on last year.

Hopefully people are scared off Teddy, but I really doubt it up against the Titans.

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Jason Taumalolo (2RF)

Lolo played 72 minutes last week under new coach Josh Hannay.

In that time he scored 79 points with 77 of those points coming from pure base, his highest base score for the season.

Maybe it was just me hoping, but it did look like he was getting used a little more effectively than just the standard one out hitups.

This week he faces the Raiders, who haven’t been giving up many points in the middle but they could potentially be missing Tapine and Papalii, who need clearance from QLD to play.

Even if Tapine and Papalii play, the Cowboys are missing a lot of players and Lolo will need to play big minutes.

Cameron Smith (HOK)

After coming off two back-to-back centuries, Smith comes up against a weakened Knights side.

Whilst I expect the Knights to put up a better fight than the Broncos and Titans, they are missing a few key players and have hit a bit of a form slump.

They played each other in round 5 and Smith put on 115 points and that was against a stronger side.

The Storm are in good form and although the Knights might have copped a razzing after last week’s loss, I expect Smith to take advantage of their inexperienced players.

NEXT BEST: Haas, Cook

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Risk it for the biscuit

David Nofoaluma (CTW)

Nof has been in great form this year and he comes up against the Warriors on Friday night.

The Warriors put together a great performance against the Roosters last week.

However, I expect them to be a much more deflated outfit after a number of their key players returned home to New Zealand.

This year he is averaging 97PPG against the bottom six teams and has Benji back in the side to give him some quality ball.

The best VC candidate for me.

Shaun Johnson (HFB-5/8)

SJ continues to impress and has a three round average of 90PPG and five round average of 86PPG.

This week he comes up against the Broncos but is missing his regular halves partner Chad Townsend.

He averages 57PPG against the Broncos and has a max score of 118 points back when he was playing for the Warriors.

On one hand I believe he can take advantage of the Broncos but on the other I think missing Townsend really hurts him.

Townsend does a lot of the organising for the Sharks and takes away that pressure so SJ can just play more of his natural game.

Connor Tracey is more of a running half and this might negatively impact SJ.

However, I can’t deny the form the Sharks and SJ are in against these weaker sides.

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Latrell Mitchell (CTW/FLB)

Latrell has had a bit of rollercoaster year and has proven without any attacking stats he can really put up some dud scores.

The stars are aligning for what I believe could be a huge game for Latrell.

He is coming off a two-week suspension and in that time the Bunnies have lost both games and fallen out of the top 8.

He also copped a bit of criticism for that suspension which normally gets him fired up.

It is indigenous round and he will want to lead by example for the Bunnies.

And if that’s not enough he is playing the Dragons, who have improved, but they are still very capable of leaking points.

NEXT BEST: Munster, Cleary, Flanagan

Consensus

I will be captaining Teddy for a monster game and putting the VC on Nof.

It will take a big score from Nof for me to loop, which probably means he needs to score two or three tries for me to consider it.

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