NRL SuperCoach “It’s a Trap!” series – New Zealand Warriors

BEN Matulino is out until round five and SuperCoaches are, as always, looking to take advantage. But in this case, we should be very wary.

A NEW year and another fresh season which holds so much promise for the Warriors. Overall, they have a fairly kind draw all throughout the year, and they have (yet again) one of the stronger rosters on paper.

I mean, they officially have the New Zealand national team’s spine (now that Foran’s contract is registered), as well as the former New Zealand national team’s coach!

As per usual, that should bode well for the Warriors but as always, nothing ever goes to plan with them. The same few question marks will remain over their attitude and mental fortitude but it is hoped Stephen Kearney’s positive influence will fix that.

COMPLETE YOUR SUPERCOACH NRL DIPLOMA

There are plenty of good SuperCoach options at the Warriors, given the way they structure their attack and their rotations in the pack. However, as always there are a few traps lying around in every team, so let’s take a closer look at the Warriors.

Ben Matulino is currently injured and is not due back until Round 5. As expected, this opens a starting prop spot, as well as a bench prop spot. Matulino played 52 minutes per game, which will obviously open up some more minutes for his replacement.

Ben Matulino is out for the opening month. Picture: Mark Evans

The frontrunner for the starting spot is Albert Vete (FRF, $274,500) who averaged 34 minutes per game last year and is priced at a 41 points per game average, closely followed by Sam Lisone (FRF/2RF, $211,000) who averaged 31 minutes per game last year and is priced at a 32 points per game average.

On the surface, this means he has the scope to increase his minutes to somewhere above 40, maybe even 50, potentially scoring 50-55 points – but for how long? Five rounds is not a long time in SuperCoach terms for forwards, as they are usually slow to make money barring some big attacking stats (which Vete is not really one to do, scoring two tries in 15 games – the same game too).

Alternatively, as noted above there should also be a bench prop spot that becomes available. It is far less clear who will get this spot, as it could be anybody from Charlie Gubb (FRF, $172,800), Ligia Sao (FRF, $143,600), James Gavet (FRF, $184,500), Toafofoa Sipley (FRF, $150,400) or perhaps even a bolter from the Under 20s in Isaiah Papalii or Ofahiki Ogden (not yet in the SuperCoach database). The bench prop might get between 30 to 40 minutes (40 is pushing it).

Again, five rounds is nowhere near enough time for a bench prop to increase in price.

For context, Josh King from the Knights averaged 29.4 points per game from 37.4 minutes per game in his first five hit-outs, and only managed to increase in price from $113,800 to $155,400 by the end of the fifth round.

Long story short, in the absence of any further information about Ben Matulino’s injury and his recovery time, I would avoid trying to find some value and/or adding a Warriors bench prop to my team to take advantage of this particular preseason injury.

Originally published as NRL SuperCoach “It’s a Trap!” series – New Zealand Warriors