Draft Breakdown: Round 13, waiver-wire, trade targets

This week the format of the article is a little different due to the bye round.

I know a number of leagues don’t play byes but if your league does, it is an important week.

If you are desperate for wins, you may need to consider what sacrifices you need to make to win this round.

If you are sitting well inside the top 4 of your league you don’t need to try to find points this round. On the other hand, if you are sitting outside the top 8 or finals contention you may need to make some hard sacrifices of decent players not playing this round to get the win.

Obviously, you need to be aware of how many players your opponent will be fielding and base your decisions on how possible it is to win, and how desperately you need the win.

Below are some players that are owned in less than 35% of leagues that you can bring in to steal a win.

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Helium Luki

Luki is my pick of the round this week.

He has a good work ethic and ability to for attacking stats.

He likely plays 80 minutes this week, which he has only done once this season for a score of 90 points against the Raiders and with a try.

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Sean O’Sullivan

O’Sullivan steps into a depleted Panthers side against the luckless Bulldogs.

This will be an interesting game and although the Panthers are missing their stars, they do have a few things going for them.

The NSW cup Panthers side are sitting on top of the table, killings oppositions and will be bringing the same halves combination into Friday nights game.

They also have Api Korisau who could break the game by himself and just needs Sean O’Sullivan to support him.

Sean O’Sullivan is averaging 1.3 try assists, 1.6 forced drop outs and 93 running metres per game in NSW cup.

I expect he will continue to run the football on Friday and could easily score.

Kurt Falls

Falls will play 5/8 for Penrith Friday night and for the same reasons as O’Sullivan is a handy pickup.

He will also likely kick goals for Penrith but is more of a playmaker than a running 5/8.

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Max King

King scored 63 points in 57 minutes last week against the Dragons and looks set to get another big minute game with TPJ missing.

A bankable 50+ score in a bye round is gold.

Matt Eisenhuth

Eisenhuth steps into the lock roll at Panthers and they will have a lot of trust in Eisenhuth, who consistently fills in.

Last year in the bye round Eisenhuth played 51 minutes for a score of 42 points.

Whilst 42 points isn’t amazing, it’s the minutes I am interested in and is another that can produce 50+ with those kinds of minutes.

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Billy Smith

Full disclosure, I am a Billy Smith apologist who has had a very unlucky injury run and was clearly affecting his confidence earlier in the year.

He returned from injury via NSW cup a few weeks back and gets another chance to impress on the left wing of the Roosters.

Despite the poor scores from Billy this week, he will be playing on Sam Walker’s side and may just need to fall over the try line to break 50 points.

Watch out for the game day swap as Billy is a good chance to play centre and Naiqama to play wing.

Tolutau Koula

On paper Koula has been going like a busted, averaging 32 points for the season.

He hasn’t been given many opportunities and I am looking forward to seeing how he goes without DCE.

If it wasn’t for the matchup against the Warriors, I wouldn’t consider him but I do like his chances to score well against them and perhaps be given a crack by his half.