NRL Supercoach Final Word | Finals Week 1

Welcome back, folks. SC Finals has arrived, and it’s looking like the perfect format for risk-taking anarchists such as myself.

With a Hilux on the line, you best believe that a plethora of elite SuperCoaches will come out of the woodwork and produce some phenomenal gameplay with such an amazing prize on the line for what is seemingly not much Supercoaching on the surface.

As far as I can see, there are three different approaches that players will take:

1. Safe and sound

2. Composed yet risky

3. Crazy and psychotic (my personal favourite)

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Let’s start with number 1.

The safe and sound approach will be picking (and captaining) the highest ownership players like Cleary (77%) and Farnworth (60%) who have shown that they are out and out the best SuperCoach players in their position during the regular season.

Highly durable and basically unstoppable for most defences in the competition.

Fading these guys is certainly a massive risk, but can put you miles ahead if they somehow don’t produce their regular 90-100 point scores.

However, if they do produce these sorts of scores and you don’t own them, then you can say goodbye to the Hilux quick smart.

I normally love going against the grain, but it feels like maybe a lot of elite SuperCoaches will possibly go against the grain and fade these guys, which in turn makes me want them.

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Approach number 2 consists of a more balanced team of highly owned and lowly owned players. Someone like Milky Jenkins falls into this category.

Currently just 4% ownership, yet only an average of 6 points less than Herbie for the season.

I can’t fathom how it’s such a catastrophic difference in ownership for someone who could easily produce 130+ on any given week if the cards fall his way.

Nicho Hynes also falls into this category at 30% ownership. He averaged more than Cleary for the season yet has 47% less ownership?

It doesn’t make sense and will only make sense if you think the Sharks don’t dust up the Cowboys on Saturday night.

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That’s a risk I’m personally not willing to take.

These guys are the top-scoring players for a reason, and just because it’s finals time and they’re unlikely to break any records, it doesn’t mean you should be fading them.

Finally, we get to approach number 3, going absolutely rogue and praying that an extremely risky and unique combination of low-ownership players all outperform their positional counterparts.

This would look like fading both Cleary and Hynes and opting for the 2% owned Tom Dearden in the hopes that the Cowboys turn up and shellshock the Sharks.

Extremely unlikely to happen, but if it does, and Dearden goes big, then you’ll be laughing your way into week 2 with an extremely high ranking.

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Instead of opting for the fullback mainstays like Tedesco, Ponga and Edwards set your sights on the elusive Taine Tuaupiki (2% ownership) who knocked out a 130 point hattrick in the final round of the season.

I’m not saying do this, but I’m not saying don’t do this.

Now let’s move to the most important aspect of this new format: Captaincy.

Captains’ points are tripled, and Vice Captains’ points are doubled.

Nailing these will be absolutely critical if you want even a sniff at ranking highly.

I can’t stress it enough; this will categorically decide who wins the car.

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You can either roll the dice on an outside back like Jamayne Isaako (4% ownership) and hope he bags a double with a bunch of goals to boot, or you can lock in a Cleary/Hynes/Latrell sort of player who very rarely scores below 80 points – banking yourself a decent 240-300 sort of score.

The third option is to look past all these amazing halves and outside backs with mega ceilings and instead set your sights on the 2RF/FRF try-scoring machines.

Tallis Duncan, David Fifita and Cameron Murray all come to mind.

South Sydney players look like an absolute goldmine, and I think most of us probably want 4-5 of them in our 8-man team.

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Alas, the 2-player cap from each team is problematic.

Cameron Murray in particular has been absolutely cooking to end the regular season.

He looks like prime 2019 Murray for the first time since, well, 2019.

Offloads galore, footwork, and passing at the line alongside 40 tackles a game.

6% ownership is diabolical for a guy coming in with a 3RA of 113.

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Team Reveal:

HOK – Blayke Brailey

FRF – Keaon Koloamatangi

2RF – Cameron Murray

HFB – Nicho Hynes

5/8 – Fletcher Sharpe

CTW – Herbie Farnworth

FLB – James Tedesco

Flex – Nathan Cleary

Captains:

VC: Nicho Hynes

C: Cameron Murray