Gorden Tallis: Time to double down on gambles in the SuperCoach grand final

I TOOK a massive punt last week with the captaincy, and it paid off, so its only natural to roll the dice again in the grand final.

Tallis: Doubling down on SuperCoach gambles

MY massive gamble paid off.

While many people thought it was crazy for me to take the captaincy from Johnathan Thurston and hand it to James Tedesco, it actually worked.

I trailed my preliminary final opponent for nearly all of Round 25 — and by quite a few points as well.

Then Tedesco took to the field, smashed his way through the Warriors and earned himself 125 SuperCoach points for a total of 250 as my skipper.

With some help from 90-point star Shaun Fensom, the GT’s Socialites then became NRL SuperCoach 2015 grand finalists.

It would be easy right now to let the celebrations begin early, but it’s time to focus harder than ever.

This week I have done in-depth research.

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Not only have I looked into my own players, but also my opponent’s team (Bleed Green) and it’s given me some early confidence.

While he does pack a punch by having Paul Gallen in his side, I think he might also have run out of trades for the season.

Andrew Fifita, Issac Luke and Greg Inglis are still in his team, while Ben Matulino has been useless for him until this round.

That gives me a slight advantage seeing as I have one trade left.

The area I am most concerned about is the edge his CTWs have over mine, including the fact he has SuperCoach gun Semi Radradra.

But that’s not where I am going to use my trade.

Instead, this week I am looking for a complete point of difference.

And that POD player is Canterbury’s Damien Cook.

The kid has played two games this year and scored an 88 and 89.

Given the Bulldogs are playing the luckless Warriors this week, and that Trent Hodkinson’s absence basically guarantees Cook 80 minutes, it could actually turn out to be the buy of the round.

Cameron McInnes is my current back up hooker — to starting rake Cameron Smith — and the man who will go for Cook.

Otherwise, my 17 will stay the same as it did last week, with Daly Cherry-Evans losing his bench spot for the Bulldogs No. 9.

As for who my captain is, well that is something I am not ready to decide.

It will be one of my two JTs again, but I am not sticking to one person until I know whether Thurston is definitely playing for the Cowboys this week.

I need the best of the best for this week’s grand final.

Now, bring it on.