NRL Supercoach | Clem’s Captains, Round 26 Skippers

Petition to give Jock Madden instant New Zealand citizenship.

Because the sound you heard on Sunday night around 6pm was the sound of around 6.28 million Kiwis (give or take) rejoicing as he nonchalantly struck a field goal in the closing minutes of the Tigers’ devouring of the Roosters, leaving the Warriors top of the table heading into Round 26.

To be fair, a Tiger would definitely beat a Rooster in a fight, so really, we should have all seen it coming.

Hindsight is a beautiful thing. And it would’ve been particularly beautiful if we’d all given an armband to the Sir Captain of the Round, Herbie Farnworth.

And a round of applause to those who gave him the VC or the Captaincy – 155 points no less.

And special mention to those who captained Sammy Walker, who came through for SuperCoachers on 135 points.

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H2H finals won, and rankings climbed.

On the flipside, there were us Nicho Captainers who somehow managed to get to 80 points by the time the final whistle blew.

And while it wasn’t enough for the Friday Beers to see a climb in the rankings – with 2 weeks to go, we’re still aiming for a top 100 finish.

Some small red arrows in Round 24 saw us fall to 109th place overall. We’ve definitely had better, but we’ve definitely had way worse, so onwards and upwards, and we made some H2H Grand Finals too, which is nice.

Including the SC Playbook League Grand Final for the FIRST TIME EVER!

Vs the Physio.

The battle is on.

But I am scared.

Now let’s try and win these finals and climb these ranks by jumping straight into the Captains for the Round, and let’s start off with tonight’s game, which has the infamous notoriety of having The Thursday Night Curse but also quite possibly features The Vice Captain of the Round:

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Sua Fa’alogo

The Storm are playing the Broncos, and while the Broncos managed to upset Josh Papali’is farewell party in Canberra last week, you’d be a braver man than me betting against the Storm and betting against Sua Fa’alogo getting about a thousand touches of the ball and racking up about a thousand points while he does it.

The top-scoring player for SuperCoach 2026 with just two rounds to go, Sua has been Mr Consistent for the season, and take it from someone who traded him out not once, but twice, I am so regretful of my actions.

A season average of 86, a 3-round average of 98, 3 tons in his last 4 games including 3 tries, 5 try assists, 3 line-breaks, and 5 line-break assists – Sua is a bona fide VC this round, even WITH the Thursday night curse.

Pair all that with the fact that the Broncos have given up 74 points to the last 4 fullbacks to face them, and you’ll quickly understand why owners are flocking to VC him and non-owners are preparing for a nice couple of hours behind the couch from 7.50pm.

VC with confidence. Captain only if you don’t believe in curses.

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Nathan Cleary

It’s not going to be a walk in the park against the Bulldogs on Friday night at all, but you’d think the Panthers would want to make some sort of statement in their run-up to the finals after suffering a couple of losses to the Roosters and the Wahs.

And while the Bulldogs have only given up 4 scores of 70+ to halfbacks since Round 6, when Cleary managed just 56 points against them – do we really do a Captaincy article without Nathan Cleary, even if he and the Panthers aren’t quite hitting their normal highs the last couple of games?

Cleary has 3 tons in his last 5 games, including a mammoth 147. The pedigree for a decent VC option is there, so if you are a non-Sua owner, by all means give Nathan a go.

But I’m on the fence with this one… 

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Scotty D

A 5-round average of 58 definitely does not scream “give me an armband!” But mathematically, Scotty D is due a ton. 

His scores in the last 7 games have broken his pattern of going low, low, low, ton, low, low etc etc. Because where is the elusive ton in your last 7 games, please, sir!

And at only 12% owned – doesn’t the enticing call of a poddy VC option get you excited?

Now, we can’t really say, ‘the Cowboys are playing the Tigers so load up on Cowboys and give them the VC AND the Captaincy etc etc’ – because as we ascertained earlier in the piece, the Tigers have that secret weapon, newly crowned NZ citizen, Jock Madden. No team is safe playing the Tigers anymore.

But teams vs the Tigers have managed a fair bit of attack, and if there’s one thing Scotty D thrives on, it is attack (hence the cries of joy of Dragons fans at his signing).

Plus, he’s coming off a bye, and they’re playing up in Townsville, if such facts add weight to your choosing.

Therefore, you may give him a nice armband of some colour on Saturday night. It is allowable. Let’s see if my maths maths for the first time ever.

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Nicho Hynes

Well. Here we are. 

The final game of the round, which sees the Sharks take on the Eels.

And while 80 points isn’t exactly the 185 points of Round 21 – we go One. More. Time.

Because it’s Nicho, and while his 3-round average is 66, his 5-round average screams 103.

Plus, it’s the Eels, and there may be some scores being wracked up left, right, and through the middle in this one, on both ends of the field. The Dolphins managed 6 tries against them last week; the Cowboys managed 5. 

And while there were a bunch of points scored by the Eels themselves, it’s the attack that gets the points in SuperCoach, and if there’s attack, you’d like to think Nicho will have a hand in it.

Captain, and if you’re one of us with the Nicho x Cleary combo in the halfback spot – save your armband for Nicho and VC someone else. 

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Verdict

There is literally a plethora of pod options this week that we haven’t even touched on.

Will Sammy Walker put on a show vs the Dolphins? Or will Herbie repeat his heroics of last week?

Or will some other pod rise above the rest in the form of a Tallis Duncan or an Alex Johnston vs the Titans and make it rain points for the lucky few who take a risky VC or Captaincy?

For the Friday Beers, we have absolutely no idea, but should we bring back in Sua, he’ll be getting the VC with a Captaincy on Nicho. If not, we might take a look at a Scotty D VC should we bring him in instead…

For now, after a slammed week, we have some serious catching up on the SuperCoach front to do to try and beat the Physio…

But first, I must run to the Community Hall for the ceremonial demolishing of the Dom Young statue…

And on that note, I hope your Captain scores you a ton, and you win your H2Hs…

See you at the Playbook Day at the Footy Saturday!

Clementine xxx