Final word: Strategy, skippers, trades, Round 13

The first bye tound in Supercoach is usually a real opportunity for diligent planners to make a significant move up the rankings. 

Luck with Origin selections and injuries do play their part also and this year the luck certainly hasn’t been in my favour! 

Ryan Matterson was an integral part of my round 13 plan and had been scoring nicely for me before his calf injury on the weekend and Reece Walsh getting the call-up was not something I anticipated. 

Subsequently I’m going to run with 11 or 12 this weekend and hope I don’t lose too much ground on the leaders. 

This year the new major bye round scoring system will be interesting. Only scores for your top 13 players from the weekend count towards your weekly score, and as always with bye rounds it’s important Supercoaches nail their VC or C. 

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Strategy/Trades  

This is really the time of year that big decisions and trades have serious consequences. 

Hopefully your decisions have good consequences and not bad ones! Big questions loom like whether to trade marquee players like Munster, Grant, Cleary and/or Hynes? 

If you are going to trade these players out make sure you have a contingency plan including having enough trades to get them back in your team or your run home could go pear-shaped very quickly. 

If you have 25+ trades left coming into this round you are probably in pretty decent shape. 

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If you have 24 or less trades before completing your round 13 trades it is something you’re going to have to be very aware of. 

Trades can run out very quickly as the season injury toll rises and rep footy injuries and restings take their toll. 

I’m currently sitting at 17,420^th with 23 trades in hand before Rd 13 trading. 

It’s a good time of year with plenty of options for Supercoaches. In my position I’m going to go a bit outside the box to try and make up some ground over the bye period.  

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Best Value Propositions 

Luke Metcalf 

I’m so excited to see how Metcalf goes this weekend for the Warriors. 

Metcalf was an astute recruit for the Warriors as he was a player with much talent playing behind established halves in Moylan, Trindall and Hynes. 

All he needs is opportunity and some luck with injuries. Metcalf has a Supercoach friendly game and although his job security is questionable with the imminent return of Te Maire Martin he could just play that good he gives coach Andrew Webster no other choice but to play him at 6. 

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PODs & Super PODS (Rd 13 specific) 

Here’s the players I’ve identified as PODs (Point of Difference players – less than 10% owned) and Super PODS (less than 2% owned) that should be on your radar: 

PODs 

1.     Clint Gutherson – at 10% ownership he just barely sneaks into the POD category but must be considered. The Parra draw is as good as it gets in the next nine weeks, but make sure you take into account that they are on the bye in rounds 14 and 18. When he does play the match-ups are favourable with four out of the Eels next seven games at Commbank Stadium where they love to run up a score. 

2.    Connolly Lemuelu – still a POD at just over 8% ownership. Dolphins draw is kind and if opposition teams have defensive deficiencies on their right edges Lemuelu will exploit it!

3.    Kalyn Ponga – is there question marks? Absolutely! Question mark city …. but as they say …. no risk – no reward! Ponga plays a day game against a depleted Manly Sea Eagles team on Sunday and will be out to show the QLD selectors they’ve made a big mistake in leaving him out. Also gets to return to his best position at fullback. Could go huge ……. If he can avoid the head knocks. 

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Traps

1.     Scott Drinkwater – I know the landscape has changed at the FLB position with the big 4 selected in origin footy in Teddy, Turbo, Latrell and Walsh but please don’t do it to yourself. Avoid bringing Drinky in would be my advice. Sure the match-up this weekend v Parra Eels is not the worst, but following that he plays Storm, Panthers and Souths in the next three games. Statistically that is the 3 best defensive teams in the NRL. In a good Cowboys team maybe you could hope for Drinky to average 50 a game over those games against those teams. The problem is this Cowboys team is not that good. If you want to take your chances of maybe a 50-60 point average at best over the next four games go for it, but be aware he can go low also. 

CAPTAIN

It’s not a round with any stand-out captains to be honest which makes it so intriguing if you can find one that can go a lot bigger than the rest!

Consider any of the following: 

Mitch Moses, Dylan Brown, J’maine Hopgood, Greg Marzhew, Cody Walker, Tohu Harris, Kalyn Ponga and this one’s a bit left field but if you have him I feel like Bryce Cartwright could turn the clock back against the Cowboys on Friday night and put on a Supercoach masterclass. 

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BETR BETs of the WEEK

Please Gamble Responsibly

Multi – Dolphins, Parra, Warriors + Knights win @ $5.91

Kodi Nikorima Anytime Tryscorer @ $2.90

Wiremu Grieg First Tryscorer @ $51

Kalyn Ponga 2+ tries @ $7.50

SGM – Lemuelu, Nikorima, Isaako Anytime Tryscorers @ $12

SGM – Sivo 2+ tries, Cartwright, Moses + Gutho Anytime Tryscorers@ $81