Round 23 NRL Supercoach Wrap: 8 Things We Learnt

That’s week 1 of Head to Head finals done and for me, much like Raygun, I came into the weekend with so much promise, hype and a few moves up my sleeve.

But like our latest Olympian, I have left empty handed. 

Round 23 didn’t quite lift us to the heights we have had on the past few weeks, but with some big scores from a few popular Fullbacks, and getting your sit v starts right, you might have seen some green arrows, or a crucial H2H win

For Turbos Hamstrings, it wasn’t a bad week all round, and with the inclusions of Ponga and Lomax, I was able to post a respectable 1245.

It didn’t give me the huge green arrows like I was expecting, but green nonetheless.

11 of them to be precise. Moved up 11 spots.

Barely worth mentioning. 

So now with my outlook firmly on overall and 4 trades left, I might start having a bit of fun and seeing if I can jag a Super POD. 

Here are the 8 things we learnt from Round 23 of NRL Supercoach:

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1. H2H Finals 

It’s taken 23 rounds but we made it to H2H finals! And by the skin of our teeth, it seems!

How did we all fare?

This guy? Not so good.

Updates/Down dates were not kind to me which I will touch on next. 

It’s a tricky week, trying to find your best 17, sit v starts then maybe playing a few silly buggers to throw your opponent off.

I hope they weren’t any horror stories out there.

Someone I know was trying to be too cute and in the end, forgot to put a reserve on Turbo!

Thankfully for those that made it into next week’s fixtures, will have some big Rooster inclusions as you head into sudden death.

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2. Updates and Downdates

I don’t know what the propeller heads at StatHQ were up to on the weekend, maybe they were at the same bar that Tim and I were at on Saturday night/Early Sunday morning and left around the same time?

Might be the only explanation to some of the numbers being bandied about when updates were finalized!

I was victim of a double update, after Val found an extra 10 points at around 10pm last night. N

Nothing suss there as a non-owner. I’m sure those 10 points got you the win or loss like it did for me!

And according to the Spy, there were also some “contentious” awarding of some TAs and LBs.

They have been pretty consistent all year and sometimes it’s a genuine 50-50 call. Inevitably they have to give it to someone, and when that’s the case, it likely goes to the most owned player – my thoughts not anyone else’s ha!

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3. It’s a FLB world

What a weekend to be FLB!

And getting the right pair would have rocketed you to a win or plenty of green arrows.

Although having 2 playing FLBs meant you now don’t own Teddy.

Bold play and a very interesting Anti Pod – frees up a stack of cash for any 2 FLBs, but you have to go through 80 minutes of a Tedesco-less Rooster side coming off a bye against the Eels. 

The same side Daine Laurie put 136 points on!

Well done to owners for holding, it’s been a tough 2 weeks as he went down with a HIA and didn’t return against the Dragons, despite being on track for 150 then missed last week’s Newcastle game.

He would have been a massive POD for any matchups and did not disappoint.

BIG matchup this Thursday, but it seems he has already done a job for you owners.

Turbo, coming off 45 points then a bye, repaid the faith scoring 121 in his usual demolition job of Canberra.

They must have hurt him as a child, because he averages a tick under 110 in his last 5 games against them.

It’s now turning into Teddy v Turbo v Ponga show with Walsh, Edwards, Drinky the outliers.

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4. FRF do some heavy lifting.. for once

The ugly duckling of the Supercoach world, the FRF spot where no one wants to pay up big for delivered for all comers on the weekend.. Which has me worried for the next 4 weeks!

With Haas out, plenty were looking to the sky for answers. There were plenty of names thrown out and it seemed most of them were right!

Tapine, despite being sin binned, managed 87 setting up 2 tries in the 45 minutes he was on the field.

Great signs for those who jumped on the Canberra enforcer.

If he can find at least one of those for the next few weeks or a few more minutes, it will be one less headache to worry about.

AFB was busy but didn’t find an attacking stat, despite this he still managed 68.

Curran just continues to be the best thing to happen to FRF scoring 62 for owners.

Even Fainu was credited late with a TA on his way to 55, backing up last week’s monster effort.

And to my boy Paseka! The cheap 300k prop who could.

Straight through the middle to score and post a very pleasing 72.

Felt like Tim when that one came off for us!

Not often you get them right, but I suppose when you throw enough darts.

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5. Patience pays off for Iro owners

The tagline says it all but good things come to those who wait!

And it’s been a waiting game of note for Iro owners!

Each week it seemed there were questions as to whether to trade etc but his numbers were good, not great by very good.

The attack was bound to come and thankfully for those who held, it has come at the right time 

That has changed over the last 4 weeks and we have seen the best of Iro, fleet footed, strong and finding the line.

We all saw that in him, but it just took nigh on 20 rounds for it to come to fruition 

An average of 88 in his last 3 matches, he now takes on Newcastle, the Dragons and Warriors before finishing his year against Manly.

We as owners have toiled hard through a long winter, and now are reaping the fruits of our labor!

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6. Five-Eighth horrors or home runs

Its either very good, or very bad.  

In a position that has usually sprouted points from Round 1, 2024 is posing to be a bit of a tease, with no real consistency between weeks.

It likes to bring you in with some monster scores, only to leave you hanging the week later when you needed them the most.

Galvin though has been the rock solid “friend” we all have and the only real one we can rely on.

Funny that, the youngest of the lot!

Laurie, who we spoke about before was the weekends best but Max Plath gave him a run for his money, banging out a huge 114.

Hopefully he wasn’t left on your bench like a few others I saw. 

But it seems the ones we love the most are the ones that let us down the hardest.

Munster, Campbell, Cody and to a lesser degree, Brown.

Munster was heavily traded in for his matchup against the Rabbits, but was nowhere on the points scoring table, finishing the night with a disappointing 49.

He is now priced at 510k, which is just absurd.

Usually that just screams “trade me” but even at that price I’m happy to Anti-POD him.

Owners won’t want to move him on for fear of a big score.

And I’m led to believe Campbell tried to get a run for Forestville on Sunday with the Spy, as he was so starved of the ball on Friday night.

Even then I’m sure the Spy, like Foran, wouldn’t feed him the footy!

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7. Sharpe wingers, Dull wingers

Confession time.

I traded out Sharpe 3 minutes before kickoff.

It was to Ponga which was always happening, but to bang out 4 tries is something special!

Surely there is a few out there who still owned the now 4 try winger!

Shame he wasn’t available at CTW, because those 125 points would have come in very handy!

But in all the wash-up of the 4 try performance, was the quiet game from Marzhew who has not gotten out of 3^rd gear this year that grinded my gears

The matchup didn’t come much better for him on Sunday but even then he could only manage 38.

This is off the back of a 47, 76 and 14 in the past 4 weeks.

Not scores you want to be carrying into the back end of the finals.

I’m considering cutting ties, but at 530k, there isn’t much I want at that price range.

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8. Minute Watch

Rabbitohs v Storm
Keaon 54, Cook 80, Grant 80, NAS 68

Titans v Sharks
Randall 66, Fifita 80, Nikora 80, Williams 60, Hazelton 39

Eels v Panthers
Lane 80, Hands 80, Carty 80, Matto 73, Sorensen 7, Yeo 80

Raiders v Sea Eagles
Smithies 58, taps 45, Sasagi 22, Paseka 45, Ola 78, Burbo 17

Cowboys v Broncos
Robson 80, Cotter 80, Luki 68, Willison 49, Carrigan 80

Dragons v Bulldogs 
Liddle 80, Su’A 80, JDB 48, Kiks 80, Preston 80, Hughes 42, Curran 51

Dolphins v Warriors 
TPJ 39, Lemuelu 83, AFB 66, Barnett 61, Egan 83

Knights v Tigers
Brailey 73, KPP 80, Porter 51, Fainu 80, Pole 33