How to win your H2H NRL Supercoach finals

Righto. We’re here. Time to claim bragging rights and win your league.

Depending on your league settings, your H2H finals will be starting this week or next.

You’ve spent the season building your team of guns, studying the draw and (hopefully) stock-piling some trades. Now’s the time to put all your prep into action.

This article will cover some H2H strategies designed to help you win your league. 

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The tactics to beat your opponent

1. Study your opponent and know your uniques

This goes without saying, but knowing your opponent’s team and which players between you are the uniques is the most important part of every H2H match-up.

If you’re reading this, you’re probably already consuming a lot of SC information, but what the podcasters will never have is the specific context of the match-up that you’ve got in that week.

The uniques between you and your opponents are the only thing that matters in that week – not some cheapie who’s on the bubble, not a 2RF who is overachieving with a new role – just the players in your and your opponent’s team.

2. Project the match-up before it unfolds

Once you’ve got a handle on the commons and uniques, it’s crucial to then project how your team is stacking up against your opponents.

The SuperCoach ‘gold’ package will give fairly decent score projections for each player, however you can also manage this yourself based on their averages and the strength of the opposing team.

Doing this should give you a rough idea on if you’re likely to be significantly ahead, behind or if it will be close.

The results of the projection should guide the strategies you choose for that match-up.

Pro-tip: do this before the first match of the round opens and watch what player names change to easily track their trade-ins.

It could help give away their strategy.

3. If you’re looking like a big win…

This puts you in a position to control the match-up. You may be able to win without trading and therefore help improve your position for the following weeks.

For a captain choice, choose the gun with the best match-up, or ‘match’ what your opponent does in order to negate any advantage they may gain from a different skipper having a great game.

If you fear one of their guns on a favourable match-up – for example, Brian To’o vs the Tigers – you could use a trade to bring in the same player and turn them into a ‘common’ player, therefore negating any advantage they’ve got.

If your opponent senses they’re behind, they may make last-minute trades or skipper choices, so watch the app like a hawk around the kick-off times. 

4. If it’s projected to be close…

This is always a risky position to be in.

You may consider looking to skipper a different player than your opposition just for a point of difference.

You could also trade to block one of their guns who frightens you or find a POD upside player of your own.

Keeping an eye on when match-ups occur during the week and developing a contingency plan for your trades is crucial.

For example, in round 20 I knew my H2H would be close. With a little bit of doubt of whether or not the Cowboys’ Origin stars would back-up, I was concerned with having to rely on Reece Robson given my opponent had Connor Watson at hooker who I thought could outscore Robson by at least 15 points.

Given Watson played in the fourth game of the round and Robson the last, I used a trade to bring Watson in and ‘block’ the advantage which I believed the opponent had in their favour.

As it turned out, Watson being sinbinned and playing extended minutes in the centres reduced his effectiveness, but knowing we both had the same player in common helped me manage the round.

5. If you’re projected to lose…

This is almost the most fun scenario to be in, and hopefully you’ve got some trades! If you’re projected to not be close to your opponent – either as you’re short on players or their guns have great match-ups – there’s still strategies you can use to try to turn the tables.

Firstly, consider a VC or C on a unique player to give you the biggest point of difference if that player comes off. If they’re in control they may try to match your moves, so a unique player is the best way to try to gain an advantage.

If it isn’t going to significantly weaken your team, opting for unique over players in common can also help give you a chance; especially at high upside positions like CTW or FLB.

And finally, don’t be afraid to trade for a one week match-up. Top 3 teams (Storm, Panthers, Storm)  against the bottom 4 (Tigers, Eels, Titans, Rabbits) sides in particular should be very juicy for the run home.

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How to use your trades

The same two questions always come up in the H2H thread in the subscriber WhatsApp – what trades do I make this week, and how many trades should I have for my H2H finals.

On the first point, the beauty of H2H is that you don’t have to be driven by what the pack is doing – the only person you need to beat each week is your opponent.

Before even looking at your own team, check out your opponents and gauge how you think the week will pan out.

Only then should you consider what moves you may need to make. If you are projecting to win comfortably and can do so without making changes to your side, that is a huge bonus

The perfect number of trades for H2H finals is probably eight, meaning you’ve got the opportunity to use two in every week.

Realistically, you can get by with a few less than that if you’re deliberate in how you use them.

Pending on how many you’ve got, as well as your team depth, you should view your trades as an investment that has a life span.

That life span might be anywhere between one – four weeks.

If you’re on the lower end of trades (four or less), you really need to make your trades go as far as possible so should be looking for longer life span trades – i.e. which players have the best runs for the next four weeks.

If you’ve got eight, you might be able to looking at shorter life spans on these trades – i.e. which players have the best match-ups this round.

In this sense, it all comes down to the draw and finding the match-ups and players who can go 100 plus that your opponent won’t own.

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The importance of nuffs

All season we stress the importance of depth, but in H2H Finals only your best 17 players will ultimately count so carrying a few nuffs is fine.

And while we’d all love nuffing to free up bulk cash, the reality is that removing an “AE Nightmare” – that is the worst player you own whose likely to become your auto-emergency if you ever run the VC loop – is a perfect reason to nuff.

If within your squad you can guarantee an AE score no worse than 40 each round, you’ve got a natural advantage over the other teams in your league because of your ability to VC loop with confidence.

And with the emergence of multiple captaincy options for H2H finals – Tedesco, Turbo, Cleary  to name a few – having the confidence to run a loop can help paper over the cracks of not having as many guns as your opposition.

Think of your worst players as dead wood. Dropping these tactically to allow you to loop with confidence can be a game changer.

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Whose got the best match-ups for H2H Finals

We dove into this in-depth a couple of weeks back. Read all about it for the various finals systems here: https://scplaybook.com.au/blog/2024/06/26/how-to-prepare-for-h2h-nrl-supercoach-finals 

Summary

The best part of H2H should be the banter amongst your mates. But the banter will be better if you’re the champion.

Remember you’re not in finals to make up the numbers – you’re there to win it. So plan hard and hopefully you bring home the cup!