NRL Supercoach Round 26 Wrap: 8 Things We Learnt

Ohh Head-to-Head finals, how cruel you can be!

Round 26 was the penultimate round of NRL, but for many saw the H2H finals in their own leagues.

It required everyone who was available to put a side together as mass restings, injuries, and no shows really tested our depth.

In the in-house SC Playbook league, I was the second winner!

Coming from 6th to tackle Timmy in the final.

He had Mr Nawaqanitawase and RTS, I had Lehi. 

Timmy won by plenty and it was never really a contest.

Well done, Overlord, another 12 months of listening to him spruik about himself.

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Another final I was in, well, what could I do!

He owned Preston, Nawaqanitawase and Ronaldo. I didn’t own any of them.

In our different players, his side had 11 tries, mine had 4!

Seemed whoever he played, just found the line.

Lost by 50 or so, so well done to Anthony, coach of Dogs 25, who took out the win. 

The Reapers thanks to Walsh scored 1482, seeing 1251 green arrows into 10704 overall.

One last push to get into the top 10k will be a massive effort for a guy who owns Bradley, Fletcher Hunt, and Tommy Talau.

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1. Reece lights it up again

Reece, no longer Australia’s leading supplier of bathroom and plumbing products, but Australia’s leading supplier of Supercoach points!

Another red-hot performance from the man who cannot be touched!

And when I say cannot be touched, even the touchies are sitting back and enjoying the show, because they were kind enough to keep their mouths shut on a few of those passes!

Writing about Reece Walsh is a hell of a lot easier when he features in your side.

I’m about 4 weeks too late, it seems, but I can now see what everyone has been talking about!

A huge 161 points to round out the H2H finals as he continues to put sides to the sword.

5RA of 124, which includes a low score of 26 in that time, but nothing sub 134 outside of that stinker against Melbourne.

His 161 on the weekend included only the one try, but an incredible 6 line break assists!

A couple of those were some silky offloads.

He was probably unlucky not to have a couple more.

He was on about 135 with still 18 or so minutes remaining, so what could have been had he been able to cross the line one or 2 more times

Hopefully, it was enough as a Captain or VC to propel you to win your H2H final.

Wasn’t for me, but that’s what you get for burning trades and holding onto hope for too long.

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2. Nawaqanitawase knows his wahsay to the line

Size him up for an Australian jumper now!

Really looking forward to watching him play when there aren’t Supercoach points on the line!

Couldn’t have had one of those 28 -35 type weeks.

Nope, just ruins both mine and Craig Bellamy’s weekend with 4 tries in a half on his way to a season high 158!

The resting’s form everyone probably forced many into playing him, with the usual Melbourne matchup not quite as daunting as it seemed.

Thankfully, for most, he featured in plenty of sides and would have catapulted you to a massive score.

More highlights to add to his ever-growing reel, and those who won their H2H final based solely on this guy will relish in each and every try he will continue to score.

Gets another great matchup against the Bunnies, who will be hell bent on trying to ruin the Chooks’ weekend.

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3. Ronaldo fires home a treble

Wish I was writing about Cristiano hattricks and not Mulitalo Ones.

Because the Mulitalo ones nearly made me throw my shoes through my TV!

As stated at the top, it seemed every time I had a H2H matchup, the opposing player just was tasked with the sole job of scoring tries!

Had a close eye on Mulitalo in my matchup, and when AFB went over early, I was cheering like our former PM!

I went awfully quiet when Ronaldo went over for his first.

One’s ok, I can deal with one.

Then came try number 2. Another afternoon stroll into the Knights ‘ goal area.

Ok, Ok, 2 isn’t as bad.

Then the third. This one really did me in!

Zipped, zagged, and broke away to claim his third, and allowed all owners to breathe easy, and count the points as they just rolled in for him.

Had 13 tackle busts, which is about on par for how the knights are defending of late. 

It would be easy to say he has had an up and down year, but a quick look at his scores in the harsh light of day show a much more consistent winger to end the season!

Last 5 scores were 91, 98, 59, 100 and now 125!

Before that 5-round run, he was a touch over 400k!

Great pickup to those who jumped on then.

And to quote Dezzy, not sure if you caught the knives this weekend or let them drop, and I still don’t know if it’s better to grab them or let them hit the floor!

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4. Teddy fires a week too late

Whoever was in charge of counting SuperCoach points surely had their work cut out in the second half of the Storm Roosters match!

Wasn’t following it all that closely, but when Teddy punches out a lazy 131, and Nawaqanitawase a 156 with the chooks down 10-0 at the break, it would have been all hands on deck to keep up with the scoring!

And turns out they were a bit behind because Teddy found about 30 or so points in updates!

Big week for the leading Supercoach scorer of 2025 as he shrugged off last week’s disaster with 131.

Set up 2 classy tries and scored another, but was back to his tackle-busting and offloading best, picking up 26 points in these alone.

Leads the scoring with a week to go, might be one less headache we have to deal with next year if we just start the year with him and be done with it.

131 would have been a lot better last weekend for those in H2H semis but nonetheless, looks a juicy option against the Bunnies to round out the year. 

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5. Jacob from the Bulldogs scores 3 tries

On Thursday afternoon, I thought, wouldn’t it be good to write about Jacob scoring 3 tries.. 

Well I was right, just had the wrong last name!

Massive performance from Jacob of the Preston kind with 3 tries to kick off the weekend!

The Dogs looked ominous, shifting the ball to their right where Kiraz was stationed, but it didn’t get far from the backrower as he was the beneficiary of the running at the Penrith cubs.

His last try came from nothing, beating about 5 defenders really showed his class 

A welcome change for owners, with his 141 his highest score since a 90 way back in round 17.

And just at the right time for those 16% of owners.

And of course, my H2H opponent had him!

Kiraz though, picked up a lower leg injury to end the game and looks like we won’t be seeing him for the final round next weekend.

Another CTW injured on the bench. Hooray!

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6. Squad players to the rescue

It certainly was all hands on deck this weekend!

Sides heading into their final weren’t trying to play tricks and move players, swap out reserves, it came down to who was available and starting!

Depth was key this weekend, that or trades, but we have none of them, so no point talking about them!

Those squad players you picked up to fill a gap, or to downgrade elsewhere, might have been all you needed to take victory in your H2H final.

Those who had Kane Bradley between CTW and 2RF weren’t cheering quite as loudly, though at his inclusion, as he only managed 21, getting a lesson in Rugby League by Nawaqanitawase.

Royce Hunt was another who may have featured in teams begrudgingly.

A thorn in plenty of sides this year, the less we see of him in season 2026 the better. 

Note to self – avoid cheap FRFs to start the year i.e Hunt, Poasa, Va’a

Hopefully, though you had someone who did a job.

I brought in Tommy Talau for a laugh a couple of weeks ago, solely because I knew he was set to play 3 weeks of footy.

He is owned by 533 Supercoaches and was able to grab a try and a line break to finish with a clean 80.

The best ability is availability!

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7. Hold trades

I know what ill be doing next year… Holding about 5 trades and a boost for Round 26!

What a weekend that was, and maybe a prelude to what’s to come in Round 27!

No trades left, although the idea from Wallaby and now 7^th overall Nick Frost was a good one – Give everyone a trade in Round 27.

If you have 2 left, you get 3.

Give all of us who have suffered with little to no trades over the last month, one final crack at landing the POD to end all PODS.

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8. Minute Watch

Bulldogs v Panthers

Preston 80, Hayward 66, Kiraz 70, Soni Luke 39

Warriors v Eels

Egan 52, Clark 48, Halasima 46, Smith 64, Williams 80, Guymer 38

Storm v Roosters

Chan 80, Crichton 80, Whyte 53, Watson 56

Raiders v Tigers

Starlo 56, Taps 53, Hosking 80, Horse 54, Hudson 80, May 77, Hunt 18

Dragons v Sea Eagles

Cook 73, Liddle 35, SST 50, Tevaga 51

Cowboys v Broncos

Bateman 80, Robson 59, Nanai 80, Haas 64, Carrigan 64

Sharks v Knights

AFB 51, Brailey 80, Talakai 29, KPP 80, McEwan 80, Cant 19

Dolphins v Titans

Lemuelu 67, JMK 80, Tino 58, Crandell 80, Kini 30