Round 22 NRL Supercoach Wrap: 9 Things We Learnt

Soo.. How are those trades looking now?!

Round 22 dished up an absolute stinker with Haas, Young, Trindall and Isaako all picking up injuries with Haas, Trindall and Young are set to spend some time in the rehab room while we have to wait and see if that kicking boot of Isaako can back up next week

Not what we had planned for in these last 5 weeks!

We have all burnt through unnecessary trades throughout the year (Shoutout to Tino back in Round 3, Nicho in Round 18 and Paps in Round 16 – all in and out in one week) and now they are looking awfully skinny with a fair few fires to put out.

We have come this far, we might as well regroup, dig deep and get through these last few weeks together.

And when I say together, I’m including the likes of Sam Hughes, Jayden Brailey, Joe Chan and in a perfect world, Viliami Fifita.

Turbos Hamstrings just can’t string 2 good weeks in a row, failing to find any of the big scorers this weekend.

I finished with 1112, and I speculate that will see some red arrows.

Here are the 9 things we learnt from Round 22:

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1. Will you be my Valentine?

I’m sure he has never heard that before, but what a way to kick the weekend off for Val owners!

Plenty would have moved on Cowboys winger and for good reason!

He has been in brilliant form of late, the Cowboys are humming and heading to the open market has him putting on a show.

Finished Thursday night with 136 points, pipping his fullback teammate by 1.

He scored a try, set 2 up and kicked 7 goals in the 78-point game.

Did you jump on as one of the many who traded him in?

As a non-owner now, he looks like one I have missed and big time!

But that’s on me and me alone.. I traded him out a while ago and am too proud to trade them back in.

Once you are out, pack your bags you aint getting back in!

It’s probably the reason behind my poor score but if you stand for nothing, you’ll fall for anything!

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2. Haas-talavista

Gee it seems to have happened more this year than ever!

Players going down injured just as everyone hit the trade in button!

We have seen it with Cleary, I remember it vividly with Hynes now we are left to deal with the fallout of Haas getting Liz Franked!

He looks set to miss the season which is just downright cruel for those who brought him in. 

I was one of them, but did it last week so whilst it hurts, I know there are those out there who have owned for 11 minutes.

Biggg question marks now with the FRF spot.

AFB has a bye in Round 27, as does Mitch Barnett so unless you have a solid 3^rd FRF, id avoid.

Terrell May has the worst timed bye so put a line though him and Cotter too has a bye coming up so not what we would call spoiled for choice.

Tapine was huge for the Raiders nabbing a line break and updating to 97, so he’s a good shot, but is priced at 631K and Fainu had his best game to date, and will never get given FRF status again so if you want a piece of that id jump onto it now.

Ohh the things I would do for a 2016 Gallen.

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3. Sobering up with some water

The forgotten man in the Fullback chat has just reminded everyone to stay hydrated!

All the chat has been Tedesco and Trbojevic and when to bring Ponga in but where has the love been for Drinky!

It was a Drinkwater special on Thursday as he and the rest of the Cowboys scored points for fun, as he finished with 135, his highest score since Round 5.

Last weeks 89 looks really good coupled with Thursdays score, but preceding that it was a bit of an up and down ride for owners with 40s amongst some 80s.

But was Thursday the turning point?

His ownership is dropping rapidly, can you suck 2 really good games out of him before their Round 25 bye?

Non owners might have missed the bus with the Broncos and Raiders before their bye followed by Melbourne, but owners must be sitting there quietly smiling away counting their points.

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4. Young Hammies, Same old problems

Bad year to be a hamstring!

We have seen an explosion – pardon the pun – of hamstring injuries this year, and at the most inopportune time for owners!

Dom Young this time, joining the bulging list of superstars picking up hamstring injuries.

Not going to say Tommy Turbo was a pioneer, but a lot of players are now following in the footsteps.

Massive blow for the Roosters and Supercoach, as he was highly owned, and non-owners of last week, would have likely been owners this week.

Haven’t heard the severity, but hamstrings = time out. So Young is a trade.

But it’s that word again, trade, that gets our Step Ones in a knot.

We barley have any left to get us home now! Which is tricky, because you can’t really carry a 700k player on your bench.

But if you do have some spare, it frees up a highly owned player and this is where you can make a move on the others.

And there are some good PODs whose draw is opening up nicely!

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5. Harry grants owners some stability 

The man knows when to put on a show for owners!

Harry has thundered into many plans for the remaining 5 rounds with a superb 119 points on Saturday night.

Despite being in the losing side, he crossed for a double and did some damage to those non-owners thinking they could outsmart the room.

He remined all of us Non Grant players who the number 1 HOK is.

It seemed that the Api, Robson, Cook and Watson brigade were starting to believe of a world where you could not own Grant for the run home and it pay off. Not to be it seems. 

5 more games to play, providing he isn’t rested and some very good attacking opportunities in those as well.

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6. Munster returns strong, but no love for Papi

Plenty of Munster owners out there now hoping for a big run home!

And things got off to a flying start!

He was in everything early, and looked like he had put that groin complaint well in the rearview mirror. 

Despite the strong start, he couldn’t really go on with it and finished on the losing side with 63.

Failed to match his huge BE so will be bottom dollar next week against the Rabbitohs who after going down to the Sharks, look like they will be lining up at Flight Centre on Monday.

I don’t advise going into Melbourne’s next match without him. His ears will still be ringing when next week kicks off

And what has Tim Williams done to Papi!?

Max Bryden pointed this out but has Tim broken the once great fullback?

He appears to be at 70% and that’s being generous.

It seems that foot injury is hampering more than it seems, but even so, I don’t think that is an excuse for only 11 points on Saturday!

Hasn’t had the greatest of returns and we can forgive him for that but missed a great opportunity to put a score on the Dragons.

With Fa’alogo lurking, does Bellamy give him a spell again before finals??

Owners need to make a call that isn’t going to be pretty.

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7. Just Captain Nath each week

The purpose of the article is to work out what we learnt.

And Round 22 just re-enforced the fact that captaining Cleary each week is the smart play.

Bit of word around again to loop or not for those who had Drinky or Holmes as a VC, but like a good local Australia Post worker, he delivered when you needed him to.

Depending on who your AE was, the loop might have been the play, but it wouldn’t have made much difference either way

It wasn’t obviously the same as last week where he posted 175, but he willed his way to the line when his side (And us) needed him too to and ended with 90.

The up(down)dates weren’t kind to him, which is unusual because they usually find 20 or so points just for putting his boots on the right feet but Parramatta next week, its one less decision for us all to make.

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8. Defence has checked out 

It seems apparent that a few teams have their bags packed for the end of season trip and are going through the motions.

I don’t blame them, February in Vegas seems sooo long ago!

But it has opened the game up and a few teams that have checked out are going to start to leak some points.

We saw it on Thursday with 78 points scored between 2 sides that don’t seem to own tackling bags into Fridays 2 games that had 124 scored over the 2 matches.

Then the Titans put 46 on the Broncos and we were looking at some big, big wins.

It tightened up after that, but it showed enough to me that there is going to be some blowouts, and this means good things for Supercoach

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9. Minute Watch

Tigers v Cowboys
Fainu 80, Porter 80, Da Silva 62, Luki 52, Robson 80, Nanai 80, 

Warriors v Eels
AFB 58, Barnett 71, Lane 80, Carty 80, Matto 59, Hands 59

Dolphins v Roosters
Lemuelu 80, Plath 80, Watson 73, Crichton 80, May 64

Titans v Broncos
Fermor 80, Fifita 80, Randall 75, Haas 10, Willison 52

Storm v Dragons
Grant 80, Wishart 24, JDB 47, Liddle 80, Su’A 80

Sharks v Rabbitohs
Wilton 80, Nikora 80, McInnes 55, Keaon 55, Cook 80

Panthers v Knights
Yeo 80, Henry 33, Sorensen 51, KPP 80, Brailey 80

Bulldogs v Raiders
Mahoney 80, Kiks, 80, Preston 80, Hughes 36, Curran 48, Young 80, Smithies 70, Taps 54