Spy Talk | Responding to NRL Supercoach Catastrophe

The Derailment 

Ahhh 1 week ago… I was into 180^th, 16 straight weeks of green arrow (which I’ll never do again), 7 trades in hand, and the boys just cruising along with confidence, seeing if we could go Top 10 or perhaps Top 1 overall.

What could go wrong?

Well, at first, Nikora got knocked out in the early Friday game.

Not a big deal, I thought.

Annoying, yes. But these things happen all the time, and we have a flex spot now so his score can drop out and I’ll cover him next week with squad depth.

Enter Dylan Edwards.

I considered getting him and even told the little bro T. Williams on the podcast that I thought Papenhuyzen to Edwards was the move and he should do it (he didn’t listen!).

But, I had an eye on Cleary and wanted to see if Papi may get cleared to play and goal-kick for Melbourne the week after.

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Well, didn’t that backfire spectacularly when Edwards knocked out 173 with many in the top ranks having him as skipper!

Add in Tino lasting 10 minutes, meaning I had to take his score.

4 of my 6 backrowers went down hurt, and even swapped captain to Kiraz to see if he could muster a hat-trick.

Let’s just say Terrell May scored about 110 and the train had officially left the tracks.

But hey, I’m still around the 400 rank mark and this show is a long way from over, even if I now can’t win it all.

So the question is: how do I respond?

Do I double down, do I accept defeat on Edwards, do I do something completely different altogether? 

Let’s dive into options:

How will I respond?

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Option 1 – Buy Edwards 

I can bite the bullet and accept that Edwards has come back from Origin fit, firing and essentially on a tear.

Add in the goalkicking, which he could potentially hold for a few weeks, and matchups against the Wests Tigers, and more importantly, the GC Titans next week, and he could continue doing what he is doing.

I don’t want to be left behind, and with a personal goal of beating my top finish of 91st, he might be a must.

Add in that his current ownership within the top1% of managers is 75% we have someone capable of going 175-200+ that a quarter of the top dogs don’t own.

Captaincy is also currently at 36% which is even more enticing.

The Edwards play makes sense given I can no longer win the title and just want to finish as high as possible, but it does go against everything I believe in by succumbing and trading in a player whose big score I have missed the week before.

Typically, I would try and figure out a way to get these points back over time rather than accept they are gone.

Add in the fact that Cleary returns, who could take back the goalkicking at any moment, and he may take a lot of touches away from Edwards, and we have a discussion. 

Personally, the style of play Penrith are running this season, with Cleary in tight first receiver and the try assists coming from wider men, I still believe it means Edwards should continue on his merry way but it’s something to consider, and sometimes we need to just cop the hit and bring in the player who can continue to hurt us.

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Option 2 – Get Nathan Cleary instead

This would typically be the path I would take.

However, given he has been carrying an injury, may not be goalkicking and has played a slightly different role this year leading to less try assists, I’m not so sure.

It does give me the best chance to catch up on the points missed from last week, but it could also see me fall further behind.

Like anyone carrying a known injury, I tend to be a little bit tentative.

If we got word that Nathan was goalkicking, this would tell me he is back to full fitness, and I will pull the trigger.

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For now, I’m not sure.

Luckily, I have until kickoff in the Penrith game to decide, so I’ll see how everything goes and where my head lands before making a call.

If I don’t get Cleary now and he does come back in sublime touch, then I will have the option to get him next week or in coming weeks, but trades will start to run low.

So ideally I will pick and stick now.

In fact, I could get both of the Penrith lads this week if I were willing to sacrifice J Hughes.

But this is another trade down, and ideally, I will make three in the next fortnight to leave me with four up the sleeve.

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Option 3 – Miss them both

Either way in the above scenarios, I would be selling Papenhuyzen to one of the Penrith boys. 

But I could just totally forego both of them and see if I can make it through the next two rounds (Tigers into Titans) before the run stiffens right up.

The Tigers did compete well with Penrith only 5 weeks ago, but the Titans are the major concern!

The problem is that we don’t know how Papi is tracking and how he will come back, and I don’t know how many other options there are to try and match/outscore the Penrith duo.

I could look to get Payne Haas this week as my only trade and totally reassess heading into next week.

This does seem a little conservative, and given Edwards ownership isn’t at 95%+ levels, he looks a good target who could be flipped to someone else in a few weeks if I want (Cleary).

But someone else may emerge, and the trade saved could open up an avenue to a back-end of the season blitz.

It’s just a shame we don’t know when Papi will be back and kicking because with him not there we are wasting a flex spot.

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Side notes – Ramifications

One thing to note is that getting Edwards and then Payne Haas next week would means I need to downgrade Dylan Lucas to someone like Teig Wilton, who would be a depth number.

In saying that, he does have an incredible run over the next month. But how often would I play him?

At his price I am happy enough to have him there if ever required.

If, however, Payne Haas goes sub-90 on Friday night, then I will know the exact money I need next week in order to afford him.

I could therefore afford both Edwards and Yeo this week as the Panthers play after Brisbane, so Haas’ price for next week will be essentially set.

Yeo could be set to play bulk minutes in the run to finals and would be a great option in 2RF.

Either way, getting Edwards means no Haas this week, so I’ll be praying that whoever I get instead can somewhat offset him.

What have you done to me DYLAN!

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The Sum Up

Let me know where you personally stand on things.

Currently in 420-odd, I absolutely do not want to fall back out of the top 1000, or even top 500 really, but I do want to push into the top 100 and try to beat me best rank of 91^st.

I’m not trying to go crazy rogue, and beating Max Bryden is a MUST!

What would you do?

Cheers,

Spy