Clem’s Captains: Round 8 NRL SuperCoach skippers

Is there anything less unideal than not owning Cleary when he’s on?

I think not. And as I watched Penrith tear the Chooks to shreds in a 40 – 12 bashing, I was reminded of that fact. I still haven’t come out from behind the couch. I am a glasshouse of pain and emotion. Especially as I traded out Alamoti too…

And what a round of footy Easter weekend was! From Cleary showing us why we should always own him, to Luke ‘Ice in his Veins’ Metcalf giving the finger to his four missed attempts at goal and booting the ball 50 metres to take the Wahs to victory in Golden Point…

…all leading to a crescendo – aka the Monday Miracle – Moses performing an early resurrection and parting that sea of Tigers as he started the quest to lead his band of merry Eels to the promised land of no wooden spoon.

And now we have another long weekend upon us, and another seven games of footy to look forward to, and then we have Magic Round, and how good! I think I’ll come out from behind the couch after all…

So, onto the Captains we go…

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Round 8 Captain Strategy

Your Friday Vice Captains who can be Captains

I’m skipping out on the Thursday night game because I honestly don’t know who you’d VC in this one apart from Haas who is a nice safe VC choice – and moving straight into our three Friday games where we can find a likely Captain or two.

Teddy v Gutho – Because this game vs the Dragons at home screams a Teddy-ton-up. With a 3-round average of 86 and a couple of tons to his name already this season – if you own Teddy, how can you not VC him especially as he’s still lurking in that POD territory? On the flip side there’s Gutho, who, despite a couple of lower scoring games coming into this one, has tonned up three times and boasts the third highest SC average this season. The battle of the fullbacks – which one will you VC?

Ponga vs the Warriors – *Disclaimer – I will be manifesting this not to happen vs my Warriors BUT just know it is absolute Murphey’s Law that 5 million SuperCoachers will trade out Kalyn Ponga this round, and he will bounce back into form and score 150 spite points…it is maths and also physics.

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Paper, Scissors, Rock

Those who read this article last year, will know that we basically took guesses on which Storm player would win the game of paper, scissors, rock in the sheds pre-game and win the keys to all the glorious attack points that round. 

But as the one who is commonly referred to as the Mathematician of our Generation it would be amiss of me not to turn to statistical probability to deliver you a conclusion. Therefore, I would like to put forward set-and-forget fullback, Lil Papi, who might go paper on Friday night, which according to the Reddit thread that took me down an absolute rabbit hole, is statistically one of the best moves to start with, because most people choose to go rock first-up.

With a 3-round average of 94, playing at home, it’s hard to pass Lil’ Papi for the armband – especially as he is looking so on! Of course you might like to take a punt on Munster –who is in some attacking form too with a bunch of try assists under his belt this season, or gun for a Hughes points-bounce-back – surely he’ll go paper soon (I traded out Cleary for him – I NEED him to go paper soon). 

Regardless of who you choose – after the second half demolition by the Dolphins last round – you just know the Storm coming out the sheds with a point to prove…I can feel Bellamy’s pre-game rev-up from here.

Scotty D

Here’s an interesting one. Do you take a punt on Scotty D yet? With thousands of SuperCoachers trading him in, do we get that performance we know he has in him vs the Titans?

The Cowboys attack is improving, the Titans aren’t shy of leaking a point or 50, Scotty D is goal kicking…does all this culminate in that elusive Scotty D ton for lucky owners?

One for the truly confident amongst us… the rest of us will either come out laughing… or severely dehydrated after losing our H2Hs because we did not Drinkwater.

Nathan Cleary vs Manly

And how can you not after the Panthers looked a thousand times more on than they have all season and he tore into the Chooks last week with 116 points? 

Captain with confidence vs Manly (even with Tommy T back). And please send your thoughts and prayers as I resume my position behind the couch. That is all.

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Verdict

It’s going to be a bloody great weekend!

And also, I am VCing Lil Papi and that is as far as I have got on this sunny Thursday afternoon…

Thank you for coming to my Captaincy Ted Talk.

Here’s to all of our Captains tonning up, the random winger who is going to go 150 plus, and to everyone having a lovely weekend…

See you at Magic Round!

Clementine xx

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