The Mastermind looks at the NRL players who score the most negative points in SuperCoach

In this week’s analysis, resident SuperCoach expert The Mastermind looks at the players who scored the most negative points in 2018 – the coach-killers of the NRL.

James Maloney during Penrith Panthers rugby league training.

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Say hello to the biggest losers in SuperCoach.

Today the Mastermind lab is going to focus on the negatives.

We’ve crunched the numbers to find the leading coach killers that have us pulling our hair out with missed tackles, errors, penalties conceded, sin bins, send-offs, missed goal, missed field goals and kicks that go dead.

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The Mastermind remembers pre-SuperCoach days of fantasy footy having the captain’s armband on Sonny Bill Williams when the Bulldogs played the Knights in the 2007 season opener.

One swinging left arm into Andrew Johns’ jaw just three minutes into the game and SBW was done for the day. Clocking off with a send-off and a penalty conceded for what would be in today’s scoring -18 x 2 = -36.

Trent Hodkinson’s effort last year was something to behold.

Last year Manly’s Trent Hodkinson produced the worst recorded SuperCoach score of all time with -12 points in a forgettable 40 minutes. He came on at the 26th minute was penalised twice, sent to the sin bin, penalised again, then missed two conversions and two tackles. On the plus side he did make 8 tackles.

But for the past decade there’s one player who’s been the true king of the coach killers – James Maloney. He’s consistently been among the top ranked players for missed tackles and penalties conceded and delivered again last season with a league topping -250 SuperCoach points lost.

James Maloney was a coach killer last year, losing 250 points to errors.

Don’t expect anything to change for Maloney, he’ll continue to rush out of the defensive line and miss tackles, lounge around in the ruck giving away penalties and take risky options in attack leaking points at a rate of -12.5ppg.

Naturally this naughty list is loaded with attacking players that have their hands on the ball more than other teammates, players that take risks and are kicking goals. These are all areas for improvement and you can definitely find some value here.

Ashley Taylor topped the league for try assists last year, but was just behind Maloney with -238 points (-10.3ppg) lost, -102 of those just from errors.

With a bit more discipline, Latrell Mitchell will see a decent spike in points this season.

Compare Taylor to Nathan Cleary and you see why the Panthers halfback is the premier halfback option in SuperCoach dropping just 99 points from 15 games. (-6.6ppg).

Latrell Mitchell’s name pops up in two areas of note. Topping the league with -24 for sin bins and second most missed goals with -44. A little more discipline and a bit more kicking practice after training and the 32% of SuperCoaches with him locked in will be laughing.

When I asked fellow SuperCoaches who might top the list below, the response was a resounding Andrew Fifita (-5ppg). While he’s topping the penalties conceded, the rest of his game is pretty tidy compared to Sam Burgess who leaked points (-8ppg) at a rate comparable to some halves.

Ashley Taylor loses a concerning 10.3 points per game.

NOTABLE LOSERS IN SUPERCOACH 2018

James Maloney -250, (-12.5ppg)

Ashley Taylor -238 (-10.3ppg)

Luke Brooks -219 (-9.1ppg)

Mitchell Moses -219 (-9.9ppg)

Chad Townsend -217 (-9ppg)

Ben Hunt -198 (-8.6ppg)

Adam Reynolds -196 (9.3ppg)

Daly Cherry Evans -189 (-7.8ppg)

Gareth Widdop -186 (-8.8ppg)

Anthony Milford -182 (-7.6ppg)

Latrell Mitchell -174 (-7.9ppg)

Matt Moylan -167 (-7.9ppg)

Shaun Johnson -164 (-9.1ppg)

Sam Burgess -161 (-8ppg)

Cameron Munster -156 (-7.4ppg)

Cameron Smith -146 (-6.3ppg)

Angus Crichton -137 (-6.2ppg)

Isaac Luke -137 (-6.2ppg)

Jake Trbojevic -118 (-5.1ppg)

Andrew Fifita -117 (-5ppg)

Ben Hunt was second only to James Maloney for missed tackles.

TOP POINTS LOST IN EACH NEGATIVE CATEGORY

Missed tackle (-1 point)

Little guys missing tackles as opposition coaches run big men at them. Take note if you think Kalyn Ponga will do it easy defending in the front line.

James Maloney -122

Ben Hunt -91

Luke Brooks -90

Errors (-2 points)

The Titans have added Tyrone Roberts and Ryley Jacks in the mix as half options for this year on top of AJ Brimson. Taylor should feel less pressure to try do it all himself. Expect his error count to drop back to the pack.

Ashley Taylor -102

Luke Brooks -72

James Maloney -64

Adam Reynolds would hit the target more if he took the ball out of the basket.

Missed goals (-2 points)

The thing to factor in here is the 6 point swing if those goals start going between the posts. Turning just 8 of those -2s into +4s over the course of the season would pump up a player’s average by 2 points per game.

Adam Reynolds -56

Latrell Mitchell -44

Cameron Smith -38

Shaun Johnson -38

Missed Field Goal (-1 points)

Not a massive factor in SuperCoach, but landing one is worth 5 points. Shaun Johnson didn’t miss a shot last year and added +20 for the season.

Ashley Taylor -5

Adam Reynolds -3

Daly Cherry-Evans -3

Kick that goes dead (-3 points)

Anthony Milford -30

Ashley Taylor -27

Benji Marshall -24

Andrew Fifita is the penalty king.

Penalty conceded (-2 points)

No concern here for SuperCoaches you want Fifita playing angry and aggressive.

Andrew Fifita -58

Jake Trbojevic -54

Isaac Luke -52

Send-offs/sin bins (-8/-16 points)

Dylan Napa probably longs for the days when his tackling technique was facing more scrutiny than his off-field technique in certain videos.

Dylan Napa -24

Latrell Mitchell -24

Jake Trbojevic -16

There’s plenty of buzz around John Bateman.

EXPERIMENT OF THE WEEK

John Bateman, $400,000, 15% owned

There’s plenty of buzz around the latest Super League Raiders recruit. Bateman is listed as a CTW/2RF dual position player. His 2018 work rate with Wigan was impressive and 15% of SuperCoaches are jumping on at a seemingly undervalued price. But will he get minutes in a stacked Raiders pack? I’m not sure where he fits with Elliott Whitehead, Josh Papalii and Joseph Tapine locked in to start. He could follow in the successful footsteps of teammates Josh Hodgson and Whitehead or be the next Dan Sarginson.

Josh Mansour could see an uptick without Tyrone Peachey alongside him.

CHEMISTRY COMBINATIONS

Josh Mansour $459,200 6% owned

His high work rate and tackle-busting style made him a SuperCoach favourite with a 2014 average of 65.7 and 63.1 in 2016. He’s failed to reach those heights since, averaging about 50, with injury and perhaps most importantly Tyrone Peachey playing inside him. Peachey developed a reputation for dummying to Mansour and going himself. With a more generous centre inside him and a good run of fitness he could easily reach a 60 average again.