Supercoach Draft strategy: Tips and tricks for the big day

We are back for another season of draft for 2023 and we are kicking off the season with some strategy tips heading into a new season.

At the moment we are filled with hope and dreams as we have a clean slate to pick the perfect draft team.

This article is intended to give you some tips to make the best day of the year, draft day, even better.

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2023 strategy changes

The introduction of the Dolphins in the NRL is a major headache for draft.

Every week you are going to be having to bench players that have the bye, which means this year is all about having the right balance.

Any SuperCoach gun player that has a bye when your draft finals are scheduled has to slide massively down your draft list.

We play the whole season just for those four weeks of finals and if you can’t rely on your gun then, what use is he to you? This is even more so the case for guns that won’t play your SuperCoach final because of the bye.

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Your first three picks

I always think it’s valuable trying to pick two spine players in your first three picks.

In an ideal draft I would target an elite half and an elite fullback.

This allows you to secure players in positions that can be quite volatile as you get deeper into the draft.

It’s fairly easy to find a FRF, 2RF and CTW that can do a job for you and get 40-50 points each week, so don’t go too early on these positions.

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Finding a half and fullback option that can consistently get you over 50 points and isn’t going to crap the bed 50% of the time is a little trickier.

Having said that, you still have to be adaptable to what players are being picked by other coaches.

If 70% of the league has a fullback in the first two rounds then I would happily leave that position until later in the draft.

If all things were equal and I had a choice between an elite spine position or elite forward, I would take the spine player. For example, I would take DCE over most CTWs and 2RFs that had a better average than him last year.

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Prepping for draft, finding value

People do many things to help them on draft day, from a full-on spreadsheet of all the players, to the simple pre-draft list on the SuperCoach website, to scribbles on a piece of paper with a few select players.

Personally, I have a cheat sheet of players I want to get and what round I would target them. As long as you have some form of plan, I think any prep method could work.

The best thing you can do is be adaptable on draft day. Players you want are going to go really early and players you don’t want are going to sitting there later than you expected. You have to try find value wherever you can and not go early on players you could get a few rounds later.

I expect this will happen in the first few rounds this year with so many elite fullback options. If the majority of your league has a fullback in the first two rounds, they won’t need to fill that position and you can fill it much later.

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Position Depth

HOK, HFB and 5/8 are looking shallow this year, as they do most years. This is compounded by the lack of dual positions this year.

If you miss out on one of the top options you could really find yourself scrapping the barrel early in the draft.

FRF usually has the most depth of any position and this year is no exception.

You could fill your FRF position as your last two spots and wouldn’t be too disappointed with the quality left.

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Target good teams

We are still seeing the good teams put monster scores on the poor teams.

Players that should be average SuperCoach players are becoming great options simply for being in a good team.

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Targeting backline players in good teams should be a priority. Players in the Roosters, Storm, Panthers, Souths and Sharks will be my target this year.

This is a good rule of thumb you should apply when drafting and wavering through the season.