Weekly Wrap: Round 16 highs, lows and shocks

Round 16 is done and dusted and with it, the regular season for all head-to-head players.

I hope you managed to make the finals in your respective leagues and are in the running for some cash prizes within those leagues!

It was another mammoth week for SuperCoaches, headlined by Tedesco’s mauling of Brisbane.

It wouldn’t surprise me after that performance if the Queensland Premier bars him from ever entering Queensland.

The way the Broncos defend it was inevitable he was going to go large. Well done to those who went straight captain on him and finished with the 352 points.

And for those like me who went the VC option, I hope your AE scored well. Me? Well I worked out another loophole when using the VC. You can’t have a bad AE score when you only field 16 players…

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Eels v Rabbitohs

There’ll be some soul searching and hill sprints out at Parramatta during the week after that performance.

They were awful at times, but hats off to the Rabbitohs, they were impressive!

Their backline movement is as fast as any teams in the NRL and the halves are arguably the form pair of the competition.

Reynolds and Walker were on fire scoring 123 and 102 respectively. Reynolds deserves serious consideration as a trade target for these final four weeks. He has started to take the line on well as seen the other night and he has a golden boot.

The only downer for Souths was the injury to Latrell Mitchell who is set to miss the rest of the season and Origin.

It’s a massive blow for owners as he was shaping up to finish the year with a bang and be a major POD for owners.

For the blue and gold it’s a video review that should come with an R18+ rating.

Gutho, Moses, Paulo and the Spy’s mate Maika Sivo were all very disappointing.

The Spy even reached out to me on Twitter wondering if Sivo gets a forced dropout after a failed catch hit him in the head and Souths were forced to bat it dead.

They take on the Warriors and Panthers in the next two weeks, so there’s some decisions to be made for owners.

Popular trade target for the week Ryan Matterson was strong and finished the night with 66. He’s a lock for the run home.

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Dragons v Titans

Another week, another big performance from AJ Brimson. I applaud any owners for what appeared to be a gutsy move a few weeks back to trade him in.

Trading in anyone playing for the Titans is a big move, but it’s paid off handsomely. A late linebreak and try-assist to seal the game boosted him to 88 by the final whistle making him a near number one target come end of lockout.

Zac Lomax was kept pretty quiet on his right edge a godsend for non-owners who feared he could go 100+ in this matchup.

At this time of the year you’re either death riding him or cheering him on. I can’t see any point in bringing him in for the final four matches.

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Roosters v Broncos

I’m not sure what Brisbane does at training week in week out.

You would think you’d spend a bit of time doing some defence work? Maybe they are just doing the Ressies type of training, calling in sore on a Tuesday then spending 40 minutes on a Thursday banging goals over from the sideline before a quick 15 minute training run.

David Fifita and Pat Carrigan are the only two that can hold their head high with Fifita tackle busting his way to an impressive 94 in a very well beaten side. A nice POD option in a stacked 2RF position.

For the Chooks it was line-up and bag a try. There were seven different try-scorers including the man of the week James Tedesco who scored his first try since Round 5 and finished with 176, his third highest score of the year!

They seem to have found some form the Chooks, so I’d be very surprised if he didn’t average 80+ for the final four games.

Flanagan too seems to have bounced back well after he was given the old, ‘Nick, I need you to play reserve grade this weekend’ treatment, scoring 92 and kicking 9/10 in the process. A straight swap for SJ possibly?

The big concern out of the match was Taukeiaho who only got through 25 minutes due to a HIA. It remains to be seen whether this affects his minutes with the impending arrival of SBW.

However Trent Robinson did say afterwards he was given the spell after playing big minutes in recent weeks. Expect him to get good time for the crunch game with Canberra this week.

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Warriors v Knights

The Warriors aren’t the easy beat side we all thought they would be at this time of year.

It’s no surprise that since Jazz Tevaga has returned they have been a lot better. He was enormous again, near taking on the Knights pack on his own.

His late try was a godsend for owners as he hit his highest score of the year with 92.

Jazz’s form has impacted Tohu Harris though it seems. He only managed 49 which was his lowest score of the year and he only played the 61 minutes. He is still a hold so I wouldn’t be too concerned if I was an owner.

I wish I still had RTS in my side! 123 points in a throwback performance. Eating that three day old Chinese meal and trading him out a few weeks ago are two of the poorer decisions I have made in the last month.

This is a guy who finished last year as the fourth highest scorer for the season. I like him for the run home and will be angling to bring him back into my side.

It appeared Newcastle expected to just turn up and win this one. David Klemmer was the side’s highest scorer and he only finished with 58. The less said about Ponga the better. It appears to be the pattern for him this year.

One massive score followed by a couple of okay scores then he knocks out a 30 odd. And I seem to be copping the 30 odds and missing the big scores.

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Sharks v Cowboys

With the late withdrawal – again – of Shaun Johnson, this match ended any SuperCoach relevance it had going for it. Any owners who brought in Siosifa Talakai would have been pleased as he found the line and finished with 76.

For the Cowboys it’s lights out for 2020. Without Taumalolo and now Morgan there isn’t a player in their side worth trading in.

They can head down to Flight Centre and book their end of season trip to Magnetic Island or book the upstairs function room at the Mad Cow.

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Panthers v Tigers

For the first 20 minutes I thought this might have been the match the Panthers slip up in. Nope. They just took a little bit longer to get going.

The return of Brian To’o and his glorious rat’s tail was superb! A try and what seemed like 60 odd tackle busts for 97, he is a somewhat cheap option with high ceiling in the CTW area.

Mansour did a Cleary and got a late try to finish with 76 giving himself a three game average of a tick under 90, whilst the form of Luai can’t be ignored. I’m sure there is a lot of you out there who have held onto him just because and are now reaping the rewards.

The head knock to the man with more vowels than consonants in his name, Isaah Yeo, is a real concern.

I’d be surprised if he even gets named this week or even the week after for that matter which is a massive blow to near 100% of active SuperCoaches.

Harry Grant’s return didn’t spark the Tigers like a few thought it might. He did only play 57 minutes for his 40 points but there are much better options in the hooking position for the final four games.

Nofoaluma continues to prove he is fixture proof with his 71. He is a lock for the run home and is giving lazy wingers a bad name by the amount of work he gets through.

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Storm v Sea Eagles

The return of Munster, Smith and Hughes meant Melbourne started favourites for this matchup.

Not by much I might add though, but the trio proved too good for a Manly side boasting a backline that unfortunately wouldn’t look out of place at a family Christmas run around.

Both Munster and Smith scored okay without going big, but both looked like they will be better for the run in the coming weeks.

Papenhuyzen continues to be the forgotten fullback in the discussion, tearing the Sea Eagles edge apart for 124 points.

He has a five round average of 88 and with the return of the Camerons could do some damage to some head-to-head matchups.

For my wounded Sea Eagles, AFB scored a try and was good for his 93 but his stop-start back end of the season due to injuries and suspensions meant his ownership has plummeted, much like my expectation of Manly winning.

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Raiders v Bulldogs

I don’t know what Jack Wighton had in his Canberra milk yesterday, but ASADA might want to check it out! What a performance! Two tries in five minutes all but ended the chances of Canterbury scoring a major upset as he cracked a ton with 109 points.

The Green Machine seem to get better and better every week and take on the Chooks next week in what appears to be the match of the year.

Josh Papalii started on the bench again this week but that didn’t do much to hinder his output in his 57 minutes on the field.

With a huge 87 points including a try-assist, it appears he is warming up for a massive game next week and is peaking for the finals. As an owner I’m thrilled.

Bateman was kept pretty quiet with the Raiders favouring their left edge as he finished with only 60 points. He’s going to be one I’ll be hoping I don’t come up against in my head-to-head finals.

I’m not afraid to admit to my mistakes having spruiked Hopoate last week in my wrap up. He scored 24 this week. But hey, after his 85 last week that’s an average of 53…