KFC SuperCoach NRL: 10 things we learned Round 8
10 things we learned Round 8: Former KFC SuperCoach champion Wilfred Zee wraps the weekend action and makes a strong case to sell Kalyn Ponga — and not because of this week’s concussion.
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This was a week of haves and have nots – did you have Teddy, Gutho or Sivo?
If you did, you had a great round.
If you didn’t, you may have still had a decent round, but there were only a few truly big scores to move you up the rankings this week! Let’s see what else we learned.
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1 The ‘winner’ out of the Radley/Verrills injuries is still unclear
KFC SuperCoaches were keen to see how the forward rotations shook out this week, given the season-ending injuries to Victor Radley and Sam Verrills. However, Radley’s immediate replacement in Nat Butcher played just 54 minutes including five minutes of extra time. That’s not enough for where KFC SuperCoaches were hoping he’d end up.
The 65 minutes played by Taukeiaho is extremely appealing – but then you look over and see that Waerea-Hargreaves played just 37 or so minutes this week, despite their being extra time, due to a head knock forcing him from the field for the final 12 minutes. All this indicates to me, is that there’s no clear winner here!
2 You’ve got a Friend in me… maybe?
The only standout winner seemed to be Jake Friend, who played the full game (85 minutes) with there being no specialist hooker on the bench. His score of 53 isn’t flash but that’s literally his floor given there are no attacking stats in that, not even any base attack stats. We’ve seen Friend be a creative outlet for the Roosters in the past and when healthy, he has always found attacking stats.
The issue however, is that the situation isn’t that clear-cut even for Friend. The potential respite for Friend on the bench last week was Mitch Aubusson, who was forced to take the field while JWH was off for a HIA… and then there’s that 85th minute, golden point penalty that he gave away – was that purely due to fatigue and if so, does that mean Trent Robinson has to think about not playing Friend for the full game to avoid another slip-up like that?
CASUALTY WARD: Late drama as three players downed long-term
EARLY MAIL: Predicted team changes for upcoming round
3 Euan Aitken’s return to the Dragons’ teamlist has gone very much under the radar
He’s been back as a starter at left centre for four weeks now, and is owned by just 440 teams prior to this week. In typical Aitken style, he has been a base stat beast in pumping out scores of 42, 38 and 39 – all in base and base attack. Again, that’s an incredible floor for any CTW option. This week’s score of 84 is a little more eye-catching, and we may see his ownership start to surge as he played a prominent role in sparking some aspects of the Dragons’ attack.
He did set up a try, and also had a line break in his score, but that still means he scored an impressive 62 points in base and base attack. That’s more work that some 80 minute edge backrowers get through! Word of warning though, Brayden Wiliame had that left centre spot until he was injured, and it remains to be seen what happens once he’s fit for selection again.
4 Left side, strong side
I can definitely say I saw this coming, but definitely not quite to this extent – and to the extent that I felt like I had to change my own team plans to suit. But the Eels without Mitchell Moses leaned EXTREMELY heavily on their left hand attack, steered around assuredly by Dylan Brown who has looked very strong in his sophomore year. The Eels just kept going left, as evidenced by Maika Sivo’s massive score featuring four tries.
Clint Gutherson also showed his increased involvement in attack, and as a former left-sided five-eighth for the Eels he also attacked down the left side a lot. Lastly, Jai Field’s Eels’ debut was solid but understandably, it meant much less ball for his right edge teammates as he chose to run more often than pass or kick to his outside men – unsurprisingly resulting in lower scores for Matterson, Blake and Ferguson.
5 Beau Fermor had a strong debut
For a young kid recovering from an ACL injury, having been signed from the Knights earlier this year, Fermor certainly didn’t look entirely out of place in first grade. He also ripped in and worked hard, and that showed up on the stats sheet with 56 points in base and base attack stats; 34 tackles is quite high for an edge backrower!
He only lasted 74 minutes before having to come off for a rest, but he showed that he might be a genuine option if he can hold his position in the team or even better, as a starting edge backrower. There were some shaky defensive decisions at times which doesn’t help his case, but his impact with ball in hand (running hard and some nice lines, resulting in two line breaks) need to be considered by Justin Holbrook too. Fingers crossed for Fermor!
6 Ken Maumalo says hi
The Warriors are the feel-good story of the 2020 season – not necessarily on the ladder, but any time they have something good happen to them, the whole NRL community can’t help by feel positive about it. And why not, with the Warriors sacrificing so much to keep the NRL competition running!
Maumalo was a beast last year and despite a slow start, and much uncertainty (he is one of the Warriors’ who may return home due to family reasons if they aren’t able to come to Australia), we saw a glimpse of exactly why he was a top 4 CTW last year – 58 points in base and base attack stats, plus two tries, both with line breaks attached. Beast!
7 James Fisher-Harris is settling in to his ‘new role’
JFH was another strong 2019 performer, but it was mostly off the back of massive minutes (almost 80 each week). In 2020, he has been playing as a prop rather than at lock, and despite many saying that there’s no difference between those positions, there definitely has been for JFH in terms of minutes and also his workrate.
Last year he was on the field for long periods of time and tackled anything that moved near him. He also made strong, impactful runs but they were less common. This year, as his game time has dropped, he hasn’t entirely figured out how balance his role, but I think he’s starting to get it as his minutes are lower, his runs are higher, and his tackle counts (on the whole) are lower than last year. 76 points in 57 minutes – what a beast!
8 DCE has had to step up
We saw what seemed like 90% of the Sea Eagles’ attack go via Tom Trbojevic in the early stages of the season, which allowed DCE and Dylan Walker to just chime in when needed. Obviously, Round 6 saw two of those three names go down injured, and now just DCE remains healthy.
He has since scored 59 and 99 (with a sinbin!) and this is mostly due to the Sea Eagles’ increased reliance on DCE for points. With the Dragons, Cowboys and Warriors in the next five rounds, sandwiching two tough games against the Eels and Panthers in the middle, he looms as an intriguing POD to those without Nathan Cleary at the halfback position.
9 The 2020 Kalyn Ponga is still human
Something that the 9.6% of Ponga owners who captained him this week are all too aware of, Ponga has hardly sighted this week on his way to just 19 points. This score is all the more shocking considering he hadn’t scored below 60 all year, and even without attacking stats his scores have featured a high floor.
The last two weeks however his run numbers have dropped significantly, and he also appeared to be almost solely spending time on the right edge rather than his favourite left side of the field. Whether this is injury-related, and/or coaching-related, it’s hard to know – but it’s very frustrating for sure! Owners will have to consider their options with his price tag and his likely break-even for the next two weeks…
10 Cameron Murray is teasing us
So far this year there have been a lot of subpar (for Murray) scores with a sprinkling of good ones. This week, his 85 did feature a try assist and a line break assist but he still produced 65 points in base and base attack stats – a very good floor if he can maintain the minutes required to score that each week. It does feel like the Rabbitohs, especially lead by Damien Cook and Cam Murray, are slowly figuring things out and there are going to be more attacking stats on the horizon… is it time to jump on?
Good luck for Round 9
One thing after another… but that’s the beauty of KFC SuperCoach isn’t it! It wouldn’t be anywhere near as fun or interesting if it wasn’t challenging! Good luck with your choices this week!