Clem’s Captains: Finals Week 1 NRL Supercoach Skippers

Friends!

We are here. The Finals.

We made it through the Classic season!

(Although, I’m still recovering from not breathing for the entirety of Round 27, after I played some sort of Captaincy Roulette (also known as “panic stations”) and moved my Captain from Teddy to Cleary to Lomax (all within 5 minutes of their games starting). 

It was an emotional rollercoaster, and what a fitting way to end Classic Season 2025 with a Lomax ton and another burst blood vessel in my eye after I screamed at the TV harder than I’ve ever screamed before when Marzhew decided to foil Lomax’ certain try.

ROLLER. COASTER.

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Now, before we jump into some Captains for the Finals, I must first congratulate that dastardly Spy, my eternal nemesis, for beating me this year by 165 points.

I knew it was all over for me on Saturday afternoon, when big Royce Hunt barrelled his way over the line for his second try, turned to the camera, looked me straight in the eye and screamed through the TV:

“NOT ON MY WATCH!”

But I did manage to finish with a respectable 2808 overall placing, which I was absolutely stoked on, considering I spent most of the season up to Round 22 in some 10,000 to 20,000 place limbo hell.

And yes, I have built a shrine to Reece Walsh in my living room – he who netted us a neat 1,061 points in the final 4 rounds – it is right next to my broken Nicho bobble-head and the photo of me trying to casually gift him a tub of V05.

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Now let’s talk Finals Captains, and what in the glorious points-fest SuperCoach Gods-given gloriousness is this:

TRIPLE POINTS for your Captain and DOUBLE POINTS for your VC!

…we are feasting friends! It is raining points this SC Finals season! We are in points heave…

…but wait! What’s this?

What the SC Gods giveth, the SC Gods can take away… and with your lowest-scoring players’ points being wiped out of your total weekly score forevermore – it’s thoughts and prayers for your inaugural SC Finals season if you’ve called that player your Captain or your VC.

So, we need tactics.

Because even our new SC Prince and Local Plumber, Reece ‘Lightning’ Walsh, can throw up a 9 or two (in fact, he did just that back in Round 2 vs the very team he’s playing on Saturday…)

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So, let’s divide players into 3 groups for the Finals and choose from there. We have:

• The Safe as Haases

• The Classic High-Flyers

• The Poddy Rogues (I do love a rogue)

And before we jump in, with just 8 teams to choose from, we must say goodbye to some of this article’s regulars including Tommy T, Scotty D, Jayden Campbell, Herbie, and Lomax (god bless your final act for this article by coming through as a Captain of the Final Classic Round – we are forever grateful – who needs tries on the wing anyway, when you can simply tackle bust your way to ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-SEVEN POINTS?)

And so, let’s jump right in!

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The Safe as Haases

It speaks for itself.

Choose a player who plays big minutes, racks up the base, and can give you a nice safety net of 70 plus points – but could send you into points-heaven if they throw in an attacking stat or two.

This tactic works because you’re limiting the risk of putting it all on that high-flying player who can smash out the attacking stats when he’s on – but can also throw up a 9-pointer or two.

And your Captain Obvious here is the safest of the safe, the namesake of this section:

Payne Haas

An average of 87, a 5-round average of 92, a 3-round average of 91, the 4^th highest average in SC Classic this year, the 5^th highest total points – no matter what way you look at it, Payne Haas is one of the most consistent scorers in SC – and this is why you must have him in your team and at least consider him for the VC position, if not your Captain.

If you need more convincing – last time he played the Raiders, he scored 99 points… in 56 minutes.

This game on Saturday screams a big game for him.

He’s going to be more fired up than that time Ezra stood on his shoes…

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Your Classic High-Flyers

And boy did we have some high-flying superscorers in those last few weeks of Classic! 

These are the guys who made it rain tons in Classic.

The guys who could make or break your week with an attacking points-fest, the guys who boast massive 3 and 5-round averages coming into Finals…

Except Finals is a whole new different level, and can we really expect 22 tons in the first week, aka Round 27 just been?

No. No, we cannot.

But what we can do is look at a couple of high-flyers who could go big and who are worth the risk of the VC or Captaincy armband:

Nathan Cleary

Clearly speaks for himself, even if you just take into account last Saturday’s masterclass against the Dragons, where he basically ran around the field with the ball on a string.

A 3-round average of 95, a 5-round average of 99, 10 try-assists in his last 6 games, 9 try-contributions, 108 points in goal kicks… we could go on…

As much as I’m gunning for the Wahs to win – I think if you’re going to pick a high-flyer as your Captain, Cleary’s your man.

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Reece Walsh

Arguably the in-form fullback coming into the Finals series, and definitely the most fun to own – Reece can be a rollercoaster at times, but boy is he worth riding.

The only million-dollar man to come out of SC Classic 25 – Reece boasts a 3-round average of 148, a 5-round average of 125, 6 tries in his last 6 games, 10 try-assists, and 88-points in goals – all fuelled by that proven recovery and performance supplement – a quick gulp of water out of the toilet bowl.

Playing the Raiders at their stronghold (who he scored a 9 vs back in Round 2), you just know this is going to be a tough battle.

Whether he can carry his generational ton-fest into the finals remains to be seen. 

VC or Captain, but with caution.

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Your Poddy Rogues

Looking for a bit of a point of difference to the cookie-cutter Payne Haas x Nathan Clearly route?

A poddy-rogue could be just the thing to differentiate you from the rest and send you soaring up the rankings to Finals glory! 

Now, just a quick caution before we jump into a couple of options, and that is, unless you carry your balls around in a wheelbarrow – NEVER GO FULL ROGUE.

Match your pod with a Safe as Haases safety net – just in case…

But in defence of going rogue – imagine if we all jump on Cleary and he scores a 9 and you’ve gone rogue and put it all on black with a random winger who casually knocks you out a ton or two… 

And if that’s not enough of a seed…let me plant another – Tevita Naufahu scored 294 points in his last 2 games…

And obvs he’s not playing, but we can look elsewhere for some pods, and what about one of these two:

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Casey Mclean

Casey LOVES finding the line.

He just loves it. Scoring tries is what he does. 

He just gets that look in his eye and goes straight for the line (condolences to anyone who owns the player out on his wing). 

And there are potentially some tries to find against the Wahs on Saturday…

He’s scored 15 tries this season, 9 of those in his last 7 games. 

He could legitimately be the one to pop your VC on this round…

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Ethan Strange

And this is rogue. 

But how can we not consider Ethan – he who scored 114 points vs the Panthers in Round 25, and crossed the line THREE times vs Manly the round before?

We will take a 104-point 3-round average onboard as a VC consideration any day of the week!

Especially when he’s coming off a nice rest, and playing at home, and his entire team is in SOME FORM (if the Wahs don’t win, I’m jumping on the Raiders bandwagon…)

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Verdict

SuperCoach is the greatest game on earth and is the gift that just KEEPS ON GIVING!

And also, I’m leaning towards a Cleary Captaincy (please forgive me RTS) into a VC safety net of a nice, consistent Payne Haas score.

But please, a special note that if you have a special feeling about someone, DO IT! 

There are so many options, and I’m only choosing one or two of the above categories that look like goers – but anything can happen in Finals.

RTS could score 3 tries and win the game for the Warriors in front of the sold-out home crowd awash with Wah’s colours as the drum beats and the chant of “Warriors, Warriors!” rings out across Go Media Stadium …starting a magical run to the finals where …okay, I like to dream – it could come true.

And on that note, I hope you have the most beautiful weekend, I hope you soar up those Finals rankings, and I’ll see you all again next week, after which we will determine which of our three routes was the right one to go…

Clementine xxx