Quantium stat analysis: Rd 20, vital numbers to beat the best

• SPY TALK: Deep dive into fullback, halves, CTW positions
• THE REPLACEMENTS: Why unique factor could decide overall race

Analysing the top 20,000 teams after Round 19

Carnage. There is no other word for it unfortunately. Between injuries and suspensions, many of the most popular players in Supercoach have gone down in the past fortnight and teams are scrambling to make up the numbers.

Last week I flagged that with trades running low, it’s increasingly likely that some teams could soon start running out of players as injuries and suspensions kick in.  This week it starts getting very real.

With most teams heading for overall glory down to just a handful of trades (I know I’ve only got three), I’ve focused this week’s article on the ownership of injured, suspended or otherwise unavailable players (e.g. nuffs). I’ve included the usual ownership tables at the end of the article for those interested.

Let’s look at the ownership levels of players in each position after round 19 to see how your squad stacks up.   

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Ownership of unavailable players

The first table below sets out the top 50 players currently unavailable this weekend. It makes for grim reading!

In total there are over 70 players unavailable who are each owned by at least 1% of teams.

The total at the bottom of the table shows the average number of players unavailable this weekend by ranking zone.  

So, on average, the top 10,000 teams have 7.6 players unavailable this week.  

Remembering that some players who are technically available may be the last sorts of guys you actually want to play, that is going to cause a lot of teams problems.

Sure, they can burn another trade or two, but they will then be completely screwed for the run home.

Another way to look at this is the distribution of unavailable players by ranking zone. The table below shows what proportion of teams in each ranking zone are missing a certain number of players. Again, it makes for an ugly read for a lot of teams.

As an example, I’ve highlighted the cell where my team falls. I’m just outside of the top 1,000 and have 8 players unavailable.  

My ‘17^th’ player is Talakai so hopefully he can deliver! So 22% of teams in the top 1,000 are in the same boat as me – i.e. they have exactly 17 players available prior to trades.  

26% of teams above me are short though – and 9 of those 26 are short 2 or 3 players. So just being able to field 17 decent players this week is a luxury.

Similarly, in the top 100, 19 of the top 100 teams are short players this week.  

Given the above, I’ll personally be saving my trades this week. Yes, I’ve got the likes of Brian To’o and SJ sitting there with their cash, but I’d hate to replace either of them with another player this week and then see that player go down.  

Similarly, if Tom Turbo went down this week, I’d be even more desperate to replace him with a gun next week so I’m seeing 17 available players as a great excuse to save the trades.

Fullback

CTW

Five-eighth

Halfback

2RF 

FRF 

HOK 

Round 19 Captaincy Choices

Best of luck to everyone in Round 20.  

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