Round 0: Vegas takes + left-field Supercoach POD targets

How good is it to get footy back! 

The Las Vegas experiment looked like a raging success. 

The footy was great also despite the constraints of a smaller field and the rust of the early games of the season. 

Check out my takes from the first 2 games of the NRL season and six point of differences (POD’s) to consider bringing into your side.  

SUBSCRIBE TO SC PLAYBOOK IN 2024! Access extra premium articles during the pre-season and every round, access our subscriber only Whatsapp group with contributor feedback, late mail and other threads, our major unlimited group prize and plenty more. SIGN UP HERE!

Embed from Getty Images

Sea Eagles v Rabbitohs

Big Ticks 

Turbo (bit unlucky), Latrell Mitchell and Haumole Olakau’atu

Wait & See 

Brooks (61 with a try & LB), Davvy Moale 

Embed from Getty Images

Can he keep his spot?  

Ben Trbojevic – as long as Burbo staves off Josh Schuster he is going to give a lot of Supercoaches plenty of joy.

Overreaction Monday! 

Blow-up your team to get Garrick in! 

Supercoaches might be tempted to bring in Reuben Garrick off the back of a score of 99, but it’s important to remember he had a very favourable match-up against Richie Kennar who is not a noted NRL standard centre and has played most of his footy on the wing. 

Wait and see if Garrick can replicate that scoring performance before really considering the buy.

Embed from Getty Images

Broncos v Roosters 

Big Ticks 

Joey Manu, Reece Walsh, James Tedesco, Terrell May (strong and offloads), Jesse Arthars 

Wait & See 

Sam Walker, Siua Wong (bit unlucky with ankle injury costing him 10 mins) 

Just plain unlucky 

Brendan Piakura – owned by 41% of supercoaches and just unfortunately ran into the hip of Brandon Smith. 

If its any consolation he looked good in his one and only run and recorded a tackle break. 

Embed from Getty Images

Overreaction Monday! 

Manu must come in next week! 

Let’s be honest, we’d all love to have him in our side particularly after that display but many of us have built our side with maybe one or no CTW guns. 

Manu is only owned by 4.5% of Supercoaches. Well done to them for having him to start the season but stay calm and stick to your plan if you don’t.

Embed from Getty Images

5 PODs (Point of Difference players) to consider 

A POD is a point of difference player that is not owned by many other Supercoaches. 

I classify a player owned by 10% or less of Supercoaches as a POD player and if they are owned by 2% or less than they are a SUPER POD!

Shaun Johnson – owned by only 8.8% of Supercoaches, SJ provides a real alternative to the favoured combo of Nicho Hynes and Nathan Cleary. 

Penrith have a tough start to the season and SJ loves matching up against his old team the Sharks scoring 100+ Supercoach points in both games against them last year. 

Cameron Munster – owned by only 8.2% of Supercoaches, Australian 5/8 Munster is maybe a case of out-of-sight out of mind. 

No trials and not a lot of talk about Munster, plus a tough starting draw for the Storm are deterrents. 

However the fact Munster is basically fixture-proof and arguably the best in the world in his position are pretty decent advantages. 

He’s currently under an injury cloud so watch the space to make sure he’s good to go this week.

Embed from Getty Images

Scott Drinkwater – 8% of Supercoaches own Drinky. I’d hazard a guess that most of that 8% owned him last year when he went on an absolute tear and finished statistically as the best averaging player in Supercoach when goalkicking points were taken out of the equation. 

Terrell May – at 4.6% ownership I know there are question marks over his minutes in the rotation with the return of JWH, but I saw enough to pull the trigger and bring him in for Round 2. 

Big, strong, explosive and a great offloader of the footy May is set for a big season. SC Spy I think you’ve found one here old mate!

Griffin Neame – at less than 1% ownership Neame is a real SuperPOD. 

With the season-ending injury to Hess it’s hard to know who will benefit the most Supercoach wise from his absence. 

Maybe the middle forwards at the Cowboys collectively take up the slack. 

I’d say Neame could be the biggest beneficiary with an increase in minutes but I’m being purely speculative. Proceed with caution…