KFC SuperCoach NRL 2021: The best premium and mid-range Fullbacks
No position provides KFC Supercoach NRL points quit elike fullback which is why you want to read our review of all the contenders.
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With their huge attacking upside and decent base, nailing your fullback selection is crucial. Make sure you load up here, at a minimum you will want one gun and midranger though there is plenty of merit in budgeting for two premium players at the position.
NB This is not an exhaustive list of every player available at FLB and if you think we missed any player worth considering please let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
GUNS
Name: James Tedesco
Position(s): FLB
2020 avg.: 95.2
Price: $843,100
Analysis: What can be said about James Tedesco that we don’t already know? When he’s on the field he’s the best player in KFC SuperCoach and at some point this season he will be an absolute must own. The only question is whether you start with him, or if you can wait for him to possibly fall in price before jumping on? While Teddy has started slow in the past he saw just one early price drop in 2020 before four 100s in five games (including a 199 and 178) saw him peak at an incredible $953,700, before dropping back down to a low of $620,900 in Round 15 and finishing the year with a five round average of 104. If those numbers are anything to go buy it’s pretty hard to justify not starting the year with him … but it is a lot of money.
Name: Kalyn Ponga
Position(s): FLB
2020 avg.: 79.9
Price: $708,200
Analysis: The Newcastle fullback is still rehabbing after off-season shoulder surgery and is not expected to play in the first few rounds of 2021. The Knights’ loss is our gain. Not because Ponga is not a KFC SuperCoach NRL stud, in fact it’s the very opposite. Ponga took his running game to a higher plane in 2020, averaging 45% more runs per game than in 2019 and enjoying a similar bump in tackle bust numbers. Top five at position for tries, try assists, tackle busts, linebreaks and linebreak assists, Ponga has one other arrow in his KFC SuperCoach quiver and that’s goalkicking. Ponga added an average of 7PPG in goals (goals made less goals missed) and that was despite him slotting them at a rather poor 65%, a rate history suggests will improve. All this adds up to make Ponga a genuine option even at $700K, so it’s kind of lucky that injury puts a line through him to start 2021.
Name: Alexander Brimson
Position(s): FLB
2020 avg.: 73.6
Price: $651,600
Analysis: Injury saw AJ Brimson sit out the first half of 2020 but he very quickly made up for lost time once on the field. In just nine games Brimson made as many linebreaks as Ponga (18 games) and scored as many tries as Papenhuyzen (17 games). The Titans have added some real class in the forwards in the off season and Brimson, a tremendous support runner, will love popping off the hip of linebreakers David Fifita and Tino Fa’asuamaleaui. There were concerns that Brimson, who injured his foot while playing for Queensland, would miss the start of the 2021 season but recent updates from the Titans suggest the fullback should be ready to play by round one. Despite the positive news on the injury front, Brimson is still a brave selection considering his relatively small sample of elite output.
Name: Ryan Papenhuyzen
Position(s): FLB
2020 avg.: 71.0
Price: $629,000
Analysis: The Storm star started 2020 slowly (averaging 55.9PPG over his first eight games) and finished with a flurry of big scores punching out four 100+ efforts and averaging 84.4PPG over his final nine games of the season. ‘Paps’ kicked on in the finals and won the Clive Churchill Medal for best on ground in Melbourne’s grand final victory over the Panthers. So established in the conversation of the game’s best fullbacks is Papenhuyzen that it is easy to overlook the fact that he has just 23 regular season starts at the position. Still improving, I rate him a bit of a bargain thanks to that slow start to 2020 and thus a solid buy.
Name: Clint Gutherson
Position(s): FLB
2020 avg.: 69.7
Price: $617,400
Analysis: King Gutho rode an increase in hit-ups, tackle busts, linebreaks and try assists to a career-high season average of just under 70PPG. The general consensus with Gutho is that he’s always sat just below the elite at his position in terms of KFC SuperCoach output. However, there was a lot to like about how Gutherson took charge of Parramatta’s attack at times in 2020. If the Parramatta skipper’s evolution as a playmaker continues then he could certainly once again finish in the top-five at position and thus be worth consideration as a selection.
Name: Dylan Edwards
Position(s): FLB
2020 avg.: 68.7
Price: $608,800
Analysis: To my professional shame I was a bit shocked to see Edwards rank so high in this list. I mean, I was aware Edwards was playing well, but not top-six well. The Penrith fullback was limited to just 11 games by injury but still finished fifth at the position for total tackle busts with the second-best average rate of TB per game (just over six for 12.36PPG) behind only James Tedesco. A prodigious worker bringing the ball back (in round 18 against the Eels Edwards scored 54 in base thanks in no small part to 30 hit-ups) Edwards will miss having Josh Mansour lugging the ball back from kicks so may be asked to do even more in 2021. Guns above, and fallen guns below, make more appeal than Edwards to start 2021, but should the Panthers find their 2020 form then I expect Edwards to be in the thick of it scoring well again.
Name: Zac Lomax
Position(s): FLB/CTW
2020 avg.: 68.3
Price: $605,000
Analysis: Zac Lomax began 2020 as a mid-ranger with promise and ended it as a deadset gun having scored the fifth most points of any CTW eligible player and fourth most of any fullback at a very impressive average of 68.3PPG. The fullback position is loaded and thus the DPP Lomax is more likely to fill a CTW spot for you, Wilson Smith goes into more detail on Lomax in our CTW deep dive here.
Name: Tom Trbojevic
Position(s): FLB
2020 avg.: 67.0
Price: $593,500
Analysis: Using one of your uber-valuable fullback selections on a player who has managed just 19 games in the past two years is risky, but oh the reward … Tommy Turbo at his best is a thing of KFC SuperCoach beauty, capable of punching out triple-figure boomers with ease and possessing a floor of around 70 points. At his worst, he’s injured and you’re left watching those who took a safer less injury prone fullback pull away from you on the leaderboard. Trbojevic is cheap, priced at a 67PPG average. But over 2017-19 he averaged near enough 10PPG better and the faster game under the ‘six again’ rule application is custom built for the Manly fullback to lift his average.
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MID-RANGERS
Name: Matt Dufty
Position(s): FLB
2020 avg.: 65.0
Price: $575,800
Analysis: Matt Dufty began 2019 off the interchange bench and finished it there too so it’s fair to say 2020 was somewhat of a revelation for the St George fullback who started all of his 18 games that year. Not an elite worker, Dufty averaged barely 20PPG in base, he instead excelled in scoring tries (the most of any true fullback) and assisting others (equal third at position for try assists and fourth for linebreak assists) — achievements all the more impressive when you consider that Dufty’s team ranked 10th for points scored.
Name: Corey Allan
Position(s): FLB/CTW
2020 avg.: 61.6
Price: $545,400
Analysis: With Latrell Mitchell injured Allan played fullback for South Sydney in the final three regular season games of 2020 and it was an impressive cameo averaging 75.7PPG. Now at the Bulldogs, Allan appears to have first shot at the fullback job there as a major part of the Trent Barrett rebuild. The Bulldogs are a team on the improve, but they aren’t Souths and Allan joins a spine comprising himself and the talented but inexperienced Kyle Flanagan at half. As for fellow Bulldogs ‘spine’ members the only certainty regarding hooker and five-eighth is they won’t be of the calibre of South Sydney stars Damien Cook and Cody Walker. Therefore, while Allan’s job security has improved, his SC prospects have declined.
Name: Latrell Mitchell
Position(s): FLB
2020 avg.: 5 9.2
Price: $524,600
Analysis: What a rollercoaster 2020 was for Latrell Mitchell. At a new club, playing in a new position and without the goalkicking duties, Mitchell was always going to struggle early on – though even the most pessimistic would likely have expected better than the 17 and 23 he scored in the opening two weeks. However, Mitchell appeared to turn the corner in the month that followed scoring 51, 71, 112 and 71 in rounds 3-6. Plenty jumped on only to be bitterly disappointed when round seven saw a measly nine points scored, matching 40s in the following fortnight and then a two-week suspension for striking Josh Reynolds. On his return Mitchell went on a bit of a tear averaging 75.8 with a low of 43 and a high of 141. Sadly the click went clunk when in the 50th minute of round 16 Mitchell tore his hamstring and his season was over. So what to expect in 2021? Well in just 14 matches Mitchell managed 24 linebreak assists and 15 try assists. If you take out the first two rounds, which one might forgive as warm-ups for a player still finding his feet at fullback, Mitchell averaged 65.75. That’s good enough to see him ranked ninth at fullback (Charlie Staines, more of him below, and his two game stint aside). But is it good enough to pick him in 2021? Well that’s tricky. Mitchell was available at CTW/FLB last year and he’s not in 2021. The position is loaded and Mitchell’s lack of work, and thus odd shockingly low score, compared to other stars at the position will scare many off. But the reward is certainly there too – and Latrell will come at a fair price thanks to that quiet start.
Name: Roger Tuivasa-Sheck
Position(s): FLB
2020 avg.: 58.7
Price: $520,200
Analysis: The Warriors skipper did so much work keeping the team together during 2020 that it’s no shock to see his output on the filed took a hit. RTS’, already stellar, workload increased in 2020 with the fullback averaging 19 runs per game but his try assist and linebreak assist numbers plunged. The issue was not a lack of points by the team, the Warriors averaged 18PPG in 2019 and 17PPG in 2020 and clearly not a workrate issue at RTS’ end. Regardless, Tuivasa-Sheck’s season averages 2016-20 run 54, 60, 57, 71, 59. I think we need to accept that 2019 was an outlier and therefore he is not SC relevant.
Name: Valentine Holmes
Position(s): FLB/CTW
2020 avg.: 57.5
Price: $509,400
Analysis: For our analysis on Valentine Holmes please see the CTW deep diveHERE.
Name: Jamayne Isaako
Position(s): FLB/CTW
2020 avg.: 39.1
Price: $346,400
Analysis: For our analysis on Jamayne Isaako please see the CTW deep diveHERE.
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