NRL Supercoach Season Wrap: 8 Things We Learnt This Year

What started all the way back in Nevada under the bright lights of Vegas ended with watching the Knights dish up a defensive performance akin to an Under 8s game.

2025 is in the books, and we can now look back fondly and wonder where it all went wrong – or right.

Didn’t seem all that long ago we were talking up the potential of Tom Duffy and how quickly he was set to become Cleary 2.0.

One of many trades that didn’t come to fruition!

We all headed into the year with high hopes and dreams of claiming top spot, or even just winning your league, so hopefully, some of the SC Playbook contributors got you to where you wanted to be.

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The Reapers of Mars have stormed home with a massive 1731 thanks to a Cleary VC, a Brimson double, and Ryley Smith scoring a try for the first time since he bought his own headgear at Rebel Sport.

With no trades, it was set and forget for me until I had to make a mad dash to VC Cleary and work out who to drop for a loop. 

This saw me grab a final 2063 spots, into 8641 overall!

From a low of 26441 in Round 16, I’ve had quite the final 10 weeks.

Ironically, only 529 spots worse off than last year

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Lastly, thanks to all who have read, commented, reposted, liked, or shared the articles throughout the year.

I’ve always enjoyed looking back at the weekend that was and trying to put a light-hearted opinion on it just to remind us that it’s all a game, and we are watching grown men run around the football field accumulating make-believe points all for a bit of fun!

The Supercoach community is a brilliant community, and it’s only getting bigger and better with every year.

So again, thanks to all, and I hope Timmy forgets to schedule my performance review and re-signs me for 2026.

With that in mind, I wasn’t sure where to go with this article.

Best moments, best & worst trades, things we learnt over 2025, so here’s a mashup of everything I remember from Supercoach 2025!

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1. Lock in the guns

It’s easy to sit back and brood over a cheapie FRF like Royce Hunt who we think will turn into Terrell May or a cheapie CTW just to fill a spot, but the points to begin the year, but I think I’ll be turning to the tried and tested guns, despite what their price might be!

By round 3, everyone was scrambling to get Haas in after 104, 99 then 140 in the opening 3 weeks, abandoning any plan of plugging a couple mid-rangers there to do a job.

He and Tedesco finished the year as the top 2 averaging players, with Teddy being crowned the top scorer.

Teddy just didn’t put in too many bad shifts in 2025 either!

10 scores of 90 and above, he was the backbone of everything good the Chooks dished up in 2025.

Had 4 scores of under 50 all year, and 3 of those came post the Origin period, so a little speedbump in an otherwise standout year. 

Unfortunately for Teddy, he has set the bar so high that this is the norm and what we have come to expect!

Finding spots for these guys isn’t all that hard; it’s just who to sacrifice when trying to find the balance.

A side full of Teddys, Cleary’s, Haas’s and Mays might break the bank, but sets you up for points, which is the currency we all work in.

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2. Start first time, every time

Like a good Victa lawnmower, I need to start first time, every time. 

Looking back, it took a good 8 weeks to find my feet, and by then, I was so far off the main peloton, I had to do some funky things to get back. 

It really hit home in week 2 when everyone had Ponga, who started with an 84 to begin the year, then rolled that into a 129 in week 2!

Everyone had him and was able to VC him for that score, whereas I was stuck being stubborn, holding off.

I stuck with Walsh instead and captained him that week for a grand score of 9.

And that wasn’t an injury-affected 9, just a solid Rugby League 9.

My other Fullback at the time was Hamiso, who scored 30 that week too. 

So I can’t say I had the wrong players; they were the right players, just at the wrong end of the year!

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3. Flex for the Win

First year of Flex and boy, didn’t it make an impact! 

Knowing that your one spud score wasn’t going to count did make life easier, and with the increase in head knock concerns, made playing the game much more enjoyable.

Although being scorned with my captain in the flex spot, maybe they could look at the VC as the AE if your captain drops out?

Don’t get me wrong, the flex is a superb initiative from the propeller heads at NRL, and I hope they bring in 4 more.

But protecting your captain should also be considered.

Because it’s such a huge disadvantage when you don’t get double points.  

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4. Things that went well

I do a fair bit of complaining when things go awry, but it’s because I care!

Care about beating the Spy and Timmy.. Anyway, some things went well this year. 

I started the year with Keaon, and whilst it didn’t explode to begin with, come the middle part of the year, everyone was scrambling to get him in their side.

He was one I went early on as opposed to Haumole, and it ended up paying off very well.

Despite his injury setbac,k he came back in the final 2 games and posted a handy 80-odd against the Chooks.

Other guys like Couchman, May and Lucas came into my side early and only left when injury forced them to.

Was able to enjoy the fruits of a Lucas hat-trick around Origin, but also some hot early-season form.

I was able to move cheapies at the right time too, which helped foster some bigger moves.

It was tough to cut ties with Purdue, but I and many others had sucked enough points out of him 

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5. Things that didnt.. 

Just missing out on some big scoring guns!

Waiting far too long to bring in Drinky, only getting Walsh with 2 rounds to go (Although that still netted me 435 points), and expecting Teddy to get named in Blue, so held off owning him for too long also!

Chasing cheapies too.

I think next year, I don’t think I need to get any and every cheapie that scores 45 and has a BE of –30.

Spend far too long chasing cheapies, and missing out on the big points, all to tend the year with 300k in the bank!

Sangster said though, because I have been good, I can roll that into next year’s Salary cap.

Oh, and captains.

For some reason, I have this “Jayden Campbell will score 150 this weekend” in my head for far too many weekends.

Inevitably, in chasing some massive upside, I miss out on captaining a Haas, May or even Katoa to bank a solid 80 and be done with it.

Through 16 Rounds, I had 5 captain scores under 50.

Must have come good after that, but it still rings true.

When there is no solid option, the solid option is in the forwards!

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6. Get them while they are hot

This is really just a PSA, but isn’t it just a matter now of grabbing a player while they are on a heater!

Saw this when the likes of Walsh, Haas, May, Drinky, and Herbie just continue a hot run of form.

No matter price rises, BEs, etc, it appears that going against a guy in the form of their life is not advisable.

Herbie was a perfect example.

A lot of players thought it couldn’t go on; he won’t continue this run, and thought he was the perfect foil to fade.

Unfortunate for those non-owners, he just continued to amass points at will, scoring try after try after try.

His season culminated in a 5-round stretch where he scored 552 points at an average of 110.

A leg injury cruelled his end to the season, but by then he was about 850k and couldn’t get moved to anybody.

Drinky too was another who shone through when he got running.

Had a solid start to the year, then went bang over rounds 8, 9, and 10 where he scored 376.

Plenty went after him then, so he turned in a 14 against Manly, but the damage to non-owners was done.

Marky Mark has the benefit of recency bias, but hey, when we have a flex option, who really cares if they score 30-40 when at any one time, he could go 140+.

Having some nous and foresight to see where someone might go big could be the difference between an 8k finish and an 800th.

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7. Worst Trade

Where do we start?

Looking at my side now, I’ve come to wonder how Tommy Talau and Fletcher Hunt have ended up in my side, but there must be good reasoning for them being there.

There are those trades throughout the year you can look back on and think what was I thinking there!

The players that come in for 1 week and go again really stick the knife in, but whenever I think of bad trades, I keep going back to Ponga.

I went against him to start the year, and he proceeded to bang out a score of 82 to start the year, then followed that up with 129.

Most owners there captained him, so I felt like I was missing out.

Grabbed him the next week and saw an average of 50 with 6 scores under 50.

My pigheadedness stopped me from getting a Teddy or Drinky or anyone else not named Ponga.

Oh, and it wouldn’t be an article without a mention of Turbo.

Like the Hokey Pokey he was in and out then in and out again.

Forgot to shake it all about because when he was out, he was scoring points, and when he was in, he wasn’t doing much at all..

See you again in Round 1 Tommy!

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8. Best trade

With 46 of them to choose from, it wasn’t a trade, but one guy who stuck with me the whole season, AJ Brimson!

Pegged at the FLB spot for the Titans, despite their horror year, he was the one shining light for them, playing each and every week.

He did an amicable job for me in the early parts, and being able to chop between CTW and 5/8 meant I could bring Munster in for Herbie, but his last 10 rounds averaged a tick under 80, ending with a 2 try 121-point performance!

No Origin now, so I’ll be seeking his services for season 2026 again!