Captain’s Challenge: Round 20 skipper options

• DECISION TIME: Answering the week’s big questions
• SQUAD BREAKDOWN: Round 20 team insights

It’s the last week of SuperCoach for the year, which means we have to decide who will be given the final captain’s armband for 2020.

Last week was a shocking week for many including me, as I made the grave mistake of bringing in Turbo and captaining him.

That costly decision knocked me out of most of my head-to-heads and my overall ranking took a hammering, but we solider on for one more week.

With a bunch of players being rested, let’s have a look at the limited choices we have to end the year.

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Safety first

Payne Haas (FRF)

After a week off for personal reasons, Haas returns to play the Cowboys at Suncorp on Thursday night.

Haas should see 80 minutes and the last time he returned from a break, he scored 89 points including 85 in base points, against the Panthers.

The Cowboys defence is shot, but they are surprisingly only giving up the 7^th most SuperCoach points to front-row forwards.

With most of us running skeleton teams, Haas provides a safe VC option we could loop to win a head-to-head or consolidate your overall ranking.

Nathan Cleary (HFB)

Cleary will take on the Bulldogs at ANZ on Saturday, which is forecasted to be dry and windy.

He has a shocking average against the Bulldogs with 49 PPG, but with the form he is in, he should beat his highest score against them of 106 points.

Cleary should be number one on the list but there continues to be rumours he will be rested during the game and that is the only reason why he is second.

I don’t think it will happen and he could have a field day with the Bulldogs side, but in particular their left edge defenders.

James Tedesco (FLB)

Teddy returns for the Roosters grudge match against the Bunnies.

The Bunnies should be up for this game but I still can’t see them holding back Teddy with the form the Roosters are in.

He averages 72PPG against them and the last three times he has played them he has scored 23, 78 and 103 points.

NEXT BEST: Grant, Matterson

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Risk it for the biscuit

Kalyn Ponga (FLB)

Ponga takes on the in-form Titans who he averages 81PPG against and has scored 83, 54 and 98 points against in the last three times he played them.

Although the Titans are winning games, they are doing it on the back of their attack and are still leaking a decent amount of points in defence.

I still find it hard to trust Ponga, but with limited options this week and his good matchup, you could do far worse.

Daly Cherry-Evans (HFB)

It looks like Manly have decided just to give up defending for the back half of the year and try to out-score their opponents, it’s not working too well…

However, most of the points they are scoring are coming through DCE.

Without Turbo or any other attacking weapon, he will continue to play a heavy role in attacking the Warriors line this week.

He has a 3RA of 104 and 5RA of 80, which is just ridiculous.

NEXT BEST: Gutho, Nof

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Consensus

I have the luxury of having a free crack at the VC loop-hole this week as I’m only fielding 16 or 17.

Teddy and Cleary are the best options for high ceiling scores, although I will probably chase a POD in DCE!                                  

I will be cheering on Timmy Williams with all the SC Playbook followers as he goes for glory.

Whatever happens, it’s been a great ride in the first year the Playbook has been up.

Goodluck and see you next year!