NRL Supercoach Round 2 Wrap: 10 Things We Learnt

250 more days until the Ashes starts.. And after my Supercoach weekend that can’t come quick enough!

We aren’t in the business of trying to create firsts here at SC Playbook, but yours truly here may have just found a way..

My captain was my lowest scorer, so he dropped out of my side. Oh great, that’s a small win.. Nope! I didn’t even get my VC as a captain.

Is there a glitch in the system or am I just really really bad at this?

Congratulations to the 95% of players who scored above 1250; I can’t wait to see how that feels.

Anyway if you feel like giving your thumb a workout, scroll as far down as you can and then some and you will find the Reapers of Mars, scoring only 1017.

I reckon I could have bettered that on NRL Fantasy..

My coaching job though may be safer than that of Jason Ryles though!

Here are the 10 things we learnt from Round 2 of NRL Supercoach

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1. A week is a long time in Supercoach 

What ever happened 7 days ago, wipe it from memory. Chooks are now good, Tigers are going to make the 4, Brisbane are just as they were in 2024 and Manly look beaten without Tom and Daly

The one common factor though was the Eels and Cowboys are destined for a spoon fight

Last week it was all about the Shibasakis, the Toias, the Gosiewski and the Sitilis.

This week, I don’t think they garnered a score over 50 between them.

I was about to pull the trade trigger in Jack Goz, but thankfully didn’t and that might have been the only good part of my weekend as he only played 48 minutes for his 19.

Even the big money buys in Ola and Keaon had quiet games with neither looking like grabbing an attacking stat. 

I really don’t know what to make of it but if we could make 12 trades this week I would take it!

2. Fullback highs..

Think it was only last weekend when I was lauding the strength of the Fullbacks for season 2025.

7 days later and I’m questioning if I know anything about Rugby League or Supercoach!

Ponga was simply brilliant on Thursday, and it came as no surprise as the week before he was a whisker away from 120+.

Was more dangerous to the Dolphins than a start-up Sea World exhibit.

Many VC’d the Knights fullback and by taking the loop, meant for a worry-free weekend as all captain options failed to make any significant ground up.

He looks a must taking on the Titans next week which won’t be pretty for non-owners, but with a bye looming in Round 4, is it worth bringing him in? 

And Gutho.. New lease on life! Might have been that western Sydney water that was holding him back but he looks an absolute star on that Dragons backline.

The focal point of their attack, he has already notched up 6 try assists and will come into plenty teams calculations when looking to move on some underperforming fullbacks.

The kicker? He has the bye now in Round 3 into Melbourne in Round 4

3. And Lows

And for the rest of the class you won’t be getting an early mark!

Absolute bludgers for the popular Fullbacks, headlined by none other than Reece Walsh who was my captain but enough about that.

Rocks and Diamonds is one way to describe him, but that would be a disservice to rocks.

Hammer was nowhere and that Dolphins attack is stagnant and doesn’t look like getting him involved.

Managed only 30 with no attacking stats

Turbo will be monitored, which is better than the usual “Hamstring injury 6-8 weeks” which is what we usually get so hold fire on that trade whilst Edwards will miss a large chunk of footy with a groin injury.

And those who were praising Iongi last weekend have gone very quiet with the Eels fullback only managing 21.

This will hurt his potential cash generation and with his side looking less and less likely to cross the line, it might stall quicker than originally hoped.

Owners may need to start thinking of a get out of jail plan if he doesn’t make as much cash. 

4. Cheapies galore

Enough of the negatives.. How many cheapies can we get our hands on next week!

With 2 games under our belts for most, we will see some big break evens staring at us as we look to make some trades on Monday.

Tamale leads the pack after his back up performance against Brisbane.

Many may have already moved on him, but he looks a very popular trade.

Questions as to whether he holds his spot with Savage back, but we will know by Tuesday whether he has jumped Hopoate in the pecking order.

Arthars found the line three times against the Raiders and now carries as BE of around -80. He does have one of the lowest floors in the game, so be wary.

His BE will look enticing, but with 3 tries and a score under 96, there’s reason to be cautious. 

Toia and Sandon Smith from the Chooks will see some big price rises, whilst Mamouzelous having a hand in 2 of the Bunnies’ tries, he found his way to 94 on Saturday.

Looks to have jagged an 80 minute gig at Souths with Havili in the middle.

It’s one I would love to get in but have many many other fires burning.

5. Metcalf, Sandon and the Duff

3 very polarising players in Round 1, and it seemed Duffy missed the bus and won’t be seen in many teams come Monday

Both Metcalf and Sandon were great for their respective sides, Metcalf shrugging off his Vegas woes with a standout performance against Manly.

Set a few up and bagged one late to soar past 100, with 117.

To make matters worse, he was on my bench. Hope someone else out there felt my pain.

Another bloke on my bench was Sandon, who summonsed Cronk and set some nice tries up and grabbed one for himself to finish a remarkable night for the Roosters with 76. 

It was good timing for the duo as many teams will have plenty of other fires to put out.

Duffy though looks the trade.

Cowboys are on a downward trajectory, and he may be the one to take the blame

6. FRF love in

We mentioned it last week, but now we have laid eyes on Tino what a luxury position it has turned into in just 2 weeks!

Horsburgh was brilliant on Saturday night, seemingly with a point to prove against a Broncos pack that was described as the best in the league.

He managed a classy try assist and punched out 84 in his 52 minute stint. 

Terrell May just powered his way to a 90 on Sunday afternoon in the heat.

With every meter and offload he made, further questioned the Chooks motive on getting rid of him.

Theres 48% that don’t own. That should be close to 4%

Haas did most of his damage through offloads – 7 in total as he finished a Bradman like 99.

Just do what you can to get him in. 

And Tino was welcomed to boos by the Belmore faithful but somewhat had the last laugh scoring a try and managing a weekend high 100 pre updates in the position.

Those 34% of patient Supercoaches were well rewarded. 

So Haas, Tino, Big Red and May in my FRF. Doesn’t seem all that hard

7. Forget Brown, someone give Fletcher Sharpe $1.3 mill a year

What a find this bloke is turning out to be for the red and blue!

Glencore mining could spend another 30 years in the Hunter and not find something as impressive as the number 6!

Bit of Lachie Galvin about him, but on another level and without any self-preservation.

He and Ponga will have some absolute field days in the years to come if they stick solid.

Bounced around on Thursday night like a pinball scoring 82, but he isn’t available at 5/8 which is a big blue from Supercoach HQ.

At the moment is he definite POD territory and with Newcastle’s bye in 2 weeks, might not be so pressing, but after that its move whoever you can to accommodate him.

Seems to be playing some five-eighth/Fullback role which just screams Supercoach points.

8. Sitting and Starting

If there’s one sure fire way for this game to hurt you in more ways than one, it’s getting your sit v starts wrong – and when I say wrong, I mean I the vicinity of 200 odd points wrong. 

Seeing Metcalf dish up that game against Manly. Was just further nails in my coffin, as my last thought was, “Cant have him playing well against my team”.

Well he did, and playing Duffy over him was further salt to gaping wound

Sandon Smith another that sat unused but that was a decision that had some merit to it.

No-one saw that coming

It’s tricky at this stage of the year because our last guys just need a 30 or 40 to justify it, but when you see a big 90+ it’s what ifs.

I mean if I played Metcalf I would probably be ranked somewhere in the 80,000ths instead of the 90,000ths.

9. Sweeps and try assists

If there’s is something we have all learnt this weekend, it’s what a sweep play is and who gets the Try assist!

Thanks to the Spy’s explanation, I can sleep tightly at night knowing the TA will likely go to the sweeper in the first instance.

Confused over the awarding of try-assists?

In this week's show, the @SCSpy1 breaks down how the TA is awarded in different scenarios.#NRL #NRLSupercoach pic.twitter.com/HXF0tZ6y7Z

— SC Playbook – NRL (@scplaybook1) March 14, 2025

Then after that, if the centre or someone does enough to set the try up then they will get it. 

I’m still trying though to work out how Bradman Best was never awarded a TA or TC for offloading to Marzhew last weekend. @Spy Reach out

Despite this, I know have some nightmare fuel to keep me tossing and turning at night, and that was the Spy’s live explanation on WhatsApp with him running the world’s worst block.

Looked like something Trent Barrett drew up. 

10. Minute Watch

Knights v Dolphins
Crossland 67, Lucas 80, Plath 80, JMK 80, Gilbert 50

Warriors v Sea Eagles
Egan 80, Barnett 62, JFH 58, Clark 45, Vaimauga 17, Ola 80, Tevaga 49

Panthers v Roosters
Soreensen 62, Smith 49, Yeo 80, Whyte 58, Watson 80, Wong 80 

Dragons v Rabbitohs
Couchman 62, Su’A 80, Liddle 30, Stewart 32, Guler 48, Hubner 51, Keaon 80

Cowboys v Sharks
Bateman 80, Nikora 80, AFB 49

Raiders v Broncos
Big Red 52, Starling 70, Hosking 71, Nicholson 65, Haas 57, Gosiewski 48, Paix 48, 

Eels v Tigers
Smith 55, Hopgood 64, Williams 75, May 64, Hunt 31, Api 58

Bulldogs v Titans
Preston 80, Kikau 73 , Sitili 73, Mahoney 80, Tino 54, Fermor 80, D. Fifita 31