NRL SuperCoach 2015 winner Mary K gives her top 10 tips for first-time coaches
Wondering what all this SuperCoach talk is about? Want to play but don’t know where to start? Last year’s winner Mary Konstantopoulos gives Swoop her 10 tips for those new to the game.
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INCREASINGLY during the past year, one of my conversation starters has become ‘do you know what NRL SuperCoach is?’
This time last year I found myself in a very similar position to what some of you may be in now — someone who had never played NRL SuperCoach. But I became engrossed in it and never looked back.
Season 2015 was a big learning experience, so I’m going to pass on some tips that may encourage some of you to get involved with it this year. It is a lot of fun and you will fall in love with players and teams in a way you never have before.
The aim of the game is to get as many points from 17 starting players in your 25 man roster. Your roster will change in value depending on the points each player gets above and below their break even (see below). As players’ value change, you gradually improve your roster to ideally have approximately 20 gun players by around Round 20.
If you haven’t already, check out the SuperCoach dictionary.
The first thing I noticed when I started playing was that everyone seemed to be using abbreviations and terminologies I had never heard before. I needed to learn quickly.
Mary’s 10 NRL SuperCoach tips for newbies
When starting out, NRL SuperCoach can seem a bit daunting. There is a lot going on and you do not have the luxury of being able to fall behind too much in the early rounds. Here are my top 10 tips to start well.
1. SuperCoach traps: Just because your selection is a good NRL player, does not necessarily mean they will be worthy of making it into your SuperCoach team. Players who tend not to score as well are ones who organise their teams and are solid but do not have a high enough work rate or do not have enough attacking statistics — players like Jamie Soward and Luke Brooks. Another is one who does not get involved enough, like Tony Williams. Avoid guys like this at all costs.
2. Keep up to date. You absolutely must be across team changes and late injuries. If your player is injured in the lead up to a game, there is a very small window to swap them for one of your reserves. Keep an eye on the SuperCoach page for all the latest news, or follow @SuperCoachNRL or @tomsangster.
3. Conserve your trades. Conserve your trades. Conserve your trades. This one is crucial. There are 26 rounds in the NRL competition and you are allowed 40 trades in total (two per week, with four during the bye rounds). That does not work out to two trades a week. A big mistake many players make is running out of trades well before the season ends, meaning that should they suffer an injury, they are in big trouble. I went from Round 21 to the end last year without any trades — it was a very risky strategy! So it is critical you pick some rounds in which you will not trade. The first five weeks are trade weeks as you tweak your team, thereafter start conserving. You should try to have one to two trades left in week 21.
4. Build your team’s value. Each coach has the same salary cap at the start — however as your players begin to increase and decrease in value your cap will too. If your team is full of players that increase value, so will your team (and vice versa, of course). When picking an initial team, be sure to select a mix of seasoned professionals who will get you points (Paul Gallen, Sam Burgess and Roger Tuivasa-Sheck) and rookies who will increase in value over the season (Jaelen Feeney, Jayden Nikorima and Jackson Hastings). Getting this mix right is tricky, but possible!
5. Rule changes. Keep them in mind because they will have an impact on the game. The reduced interchange and time limit on scrums and dropouts should increase the speed of the game. Look for players who are likely to play extra minutes and who will be worth including in your team. Also keep an eye on speedy playmakers who may be able to zip through the line of defence as the forwards begin to tire towards the end of each half — James ‘Teddy’ Tedesco is one of my favourite NRL SuperCoach players and I am expecting another big season from him.
6. Plan for bye rounds. These are generally the undoing for most coaches. Because trades are limited each week, if your team is stacked with players who do not play the bye round, it is unlikely you will have 17 players able to take the field. This is a sure way to watch your ranking plummet. Remember, you have four trades before each of the big bye rounds, which will help your planning if you have conserved your trades well.
7. Ask for help. There are plenty of very useful NRL SuperCoach resources online. Take advantage of them!
8. Captain is important. Think about this very carefully because your captain gets double points. In the past, the approach was always to pick a consistent forward to be captain because these were players who would make the metres, offload and have the odd try. Corey Parker was perfect because he also did the goal kicking. Last year I did see the emergence of picking an outside back as a strategy. I captained Semi Radradra multiple times and on other instances captained Roger Tuivasa-Sheck and ‘Teddy’ Tedesco.
9. Know when to trade cash cows. There will come a point when your cash cow has built value and started to stagnate. Keep an eye on their breakeven and start improving your squad when they have seemingly maximised their value.
10. Players who earn points. This might seem obvious, but NRL SuperCoach points are heavily weighted in the favour of attacking players with a try being worth 17 and a line-break worth 10 while a try assist is worth 12 points. Pick players in your 17 who play 80 minutes, or close to, and are likely to offload or make tackle-breaks. These are players who will earn you the points.
Bonus tip: The first two players you should pick in your 2016 team, and this is obvious and the one time you are allowed to go with the pack — you cannot go past Sam Burgess (South Sydney Rabbitohs) and Jackson Hastings (Sydney Roosters). Now you just have to pick another 23 players (after all we have to each find our PODs), a team name and a team logo and off you go toward the $50,000 prize.
Good luck — may the best and bravest Supercoach win!
Originally published as NRL SuperCoach 2015 winner Mary K gives her top 10 tips for first-time coaches
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