NRL Supercoach Round 6 Wrap: 10 Things We Learnt

We are so back!

Not even the sight of Rory putting on that Green jacket could dampen my Monday morning!

What an up and down weekend of football we had!

We had early captains failing, halfbacks bombing, new cheapies emerge and a Sunday afternoon delight.. until 4pm when Ponga ran on. 

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The Reapers bounced back with 1326, after a captaincy choice on our boy Paps and playing the great Purdue. I was toying with the idea of Tedesco and trading out Hynes, but in the end sanity prevailed, and I picked up the hottest commodity in Supercoach now.

This saw a massive jump of 26,067 spots to 36,598 overall.

Buzzing heading into the Easter weekend!

1. Lord Papenhuyzen and his paupers

Our saviour has a long blonde mullet, wears the number one and is known to be an odd cat.

Ryan Papenhuyzen we thank you! We thank you 136 times to be precise.

A Sunday afternoon masterclass put

Melbourne turned one on for the ages – well 40 minutes if your being technical, his 136 was somewhat unders if you were an owner, and if you were a non-owner you somehow got away with it!

Was credited with 3 TAs, he didn’t cross for himself despite being on the spot about 3 times and kicked 7 from 7.

If he scored a try or 2, or Melbourne came out of the sheds at half time were talking Turbo 2021 numbers.

Didn’t matter, as a popular captaincy choice it was the break that owners needed ot kick clear.

If you are a non-owner, your next few weeks might be best served by heading to a remote island.

2. Hughes can’t shoulder responsibility

Whilst all the talk was on Paps, Jahrome Hughes carried into the match a lot of new owners, and it all came crashing down as he failed to finish with a shoulder complaint.

He was caught in a tackle after 20 or so minutes but toughed it out until half time, where he and his headgear didn’t come out for the second half.

8,797 new owners just hung their head.

The Storm suit up again on Friday, meaning he has only 5 days to come good before a big ANZAC Day match up against the Bunnies.

Scans will determine how bad it is, but if its anything longer than a week or 2, its best to move him on.

To who? God I don’t know.. anyone? None of them are going any good.

It just piled on the woes for the halfbacks this weekend.

3. Egan, can‘t go wrong. Siua, can go Wong

The headline itself is worth the price of the subscription, but the weekend was all about a few second rowers and boy didn’t they deliver!

Thomas Cant was the closet thing to a must have with a BE of -66, another heavy base stat performance and he was set to skyrocket in price.

The only question was his job security, but he came out on Sunday and in 80 minutes, scored 53, all in base because Newcastle don’t have much attack in them.

Which means money for owners, but hopefully, a more permanent role in the starting side.

But the weekend belonged to the man from Gerringong, Dylan Egan!!

Found himself in the run on squad after a solid few weeks, he was in everything, bagged a try, made a thousand tackles, runs like he has somewhere to be and crossed to line all to become a fan favourite!

Finished with 99, and cries of jealousy against those who jumped on. Would be a perfect downgrade option for a misfiring 2RF but we need to suck up the fact we missed out on one almighty price rise.

In the other camp though was Sia Wong who left his attacking prowess in Sydney. His 42 was all base but in a positive sign, he was given the full 80. 

4. Half worries

Cleary v Dolphins, Hughes v Warriors, Hynes v Manly, Smith v Broncos, Reynolds v Roosters, DCE v Sharks , while we are at it let’s throw Dyl Brown into the mix.

Not one of them could find more than 75 points!

Plenty of owners would have moved heaven and earth to fit in a Cleary or a Hughes, and boy did they both bomb out.

Cleary looks like a lost captain at sea, with everything he is trying not working.

He was credited with the luckiest TA in years to help him scrape to 58 but he has now dropped 170k in price.

You won’t find a cheaper Cleary not named Jett in years

As for Hynes, well there is a lot of questions that need asking. Seems to have \lost that aura that had him the number one supercoach player only a year or 2 back.

Trindall has taken on a lot of the responsibility, but yeah.. looks a shell.

Maybe he can join Cleary out at sea and do some much-needed soul searching. 

5. Dragons put a training run on without Gutho

Cutting the great man out should be punishable by death!

What an emotional rollercoaster the Dragons put on for us on Friday!

It was like they trained all week and Gutho wasn’t there because he had work, like what happens in Country footy.

So because of that they just decided to cut him out of every play because he wasn’t there!

My word, on any other day that’s 150 for him.

He has been the go-to man for the Dragons since round one, and Friday night was set for some points which delivered, problem was Gutherson wasn’t needed.

Owners missed out big time, and early captainers were very hard done by as he only managed 54 points.

Still, not all bad as it shows the Dragons can still score points at will. 

6. Purdue you do?

Jaxon my friend, make yourself comfortable you are going nowhere son!

A 2 try performance which wasn’t all that unexpected after the last few outings, he was outstanding again for owners, scoring a season high 121 points on Saturday afternoon over in the West.

His first 2 weeks, where he didn’t pass 36, seem an age ago as he has gone on a run to average 81 in the last 4 weeks.

The question begs though, did you play him? For those savvy enough who did, cha ching.. but I saw plenty who left him on the bench unused which would have been tear jerking seeing those 3 figures in grey. 

But if it is in grey, it does mean you own him, and he is looking at another $100k increase and another negative BE.

Will be $600k+ in no time so that’s something. 

7. Do we go crawling back to David Fifita 

I’m willing to get my knees and hands dirty and do whatever it takes to bring him in.

Finally got promoted to the starting side, he set up 2 tries and had 22 points in tackle busts alone in his 128 point performance on Friday night against the Dragons.

Was the Fifita of old, shrugging off defenders at will, offloading and accumulating points with every run.

He will be priced around 680 and it’s about as cheap as we may see him.

Question though is does Billy think he is good enough to pull on a Maroon jersey?

I’m leaning towards no, which is music to any Supercoaches’ ear.

He has the pedigree and more importantly, is an absolute POD of PODs being owned by around 1% of teams.

Might be worth my 5^th boost… they reset after you have used them all yeah?

8. How many Storm players is too many?

I think we have worked out the answer and it might be 2?

And that’s because it seems one of their guns likes to be a greedy, greedy piglet!

In all seriousness it’s probably 5, but we saw on Sunday that in a game where 42 points are scored, one man took them all for himself. 

Are we going to see this storm side run rampant, but only one of the big 3 (or 4 or 5 or 6) take the reigns and kick on? 

Amongst the others, Grant scored 76, Katoa 71, Munster 61 and Hughes 16. Grant scored a try and nearly had a double, Munster set an early one up then checked out and Katoa run a lot of lead runs but didn’t see much open space.

They take on the Dolphins at a fast Suncorp next Friday night. Good Friday might be apt.

9. Ponga-sized problem

What do we do with our boy Kalyn?!

Ponga and his Knights have scored 2 tries in their past 3 matches it has been an almighty fall since his Round 2 129 v the Dolphins.

I bought him in 2 weeks ago for scores of 35 and 34, both of which dropped out as my lowest scorer.

A lobotomy would have been a better decision. Or a Will Kennedy trade.

He had a BE of 156 so is set to lose around 115k and with no sign of the Knights side clicking, its sell at an almighty loss, or hold onto the hope that he can find some form – or football and stem the bleeding.

He takes on the Sharks who can suffocate a team like the best of them.

10. Minute Watch

Dolphins v Panthers
Plath 57, Gilbert 55, Finefeuiaki 59, Smith 60, Yeo 77 

Dragons v Titans
Egan 80, Couchman 51, Cook 80, Liddle 30, Fifita 74, Fermor 80, Verrills 71

Broncos v Roosters
Haas 68, Gosiewski 71, Paix 54, Arthars 58, Carrigan 55, Wong 80, Watson 80, Whyte 54, Crichton 80

Sharks v Sea Eagles
AFB 44, Nikora 80, Olakau’atu 80

Rabbitohs v Cowboys
Keaon 80, Hubner 48, Mamouzelos 80, Robson 80, Cotter 65

Eels v Raiders
Smith 62, Kautoga 80, Guymer 38, Hopgood 47, Young 80, Starling 64, Horsburgh 48, Nicholson 67, Tapine 55

Storm v Warriors
Hughes 40, Katoa 80, Grant 73, Wishart 40, Barnett 62, JFH 11, Vaimauga 43

Knights v Tigers
Cant 80, Pole 54, May 67, Hunt 36, Seyfarth 80, Api 58