NRL SuperCoach Champion’s Choice: Agnatius Paasi

REIGNING NRL SuperCoach champion Sam Rohlf reveals some left-field options to survive the final bye.

Agnatius Paasi (FRF, 2RF $$427,500)

EACH week I will add a player to our Watch List, which is available in the My Team Tracker on the home page of SuperCoach NRL — presented by hipages.

The first bye round is in the rear view mirror and the focus shifts to adding numbers for the next bye in round 17.

While some teammates have been stood down because of representative commitments, this week I’ll continue to look for a left field option that provides cover for round 17 and who may also be the beneficiary of some extra game time for his club in round 16.

This week’s add to the Watch List is Tongan born Agnatius Passi from the New Zealand Warriors.

Agnatius is a Mengere East Hawks junior who found his way to Gold Coast High School powerhouse Keebra Park and won an ARL Schoolboy Cup Final in 2009. In 2010, Paasi was unable to take up an NYC contract with the West Tigers due to a visa issue, so he returned home to play for his junior club before he was signed by the New Zealand Warriors to play NYC in 2011.

Agnatius Paasi has a great PPM at the Warriors.

Paasi was a member of the Warriors’ NYC team that would go on to win the NYC grand final in extra time against the North Queensland Cowboys 31-30. He played in 21 games in his only season in the NYC competition. It was a season to remember for Agnatius as he was also a member of the victorious Junior Kiwi side that beat the Junior Kangaroos 28-16.

After spending 2012 and 2013 playing for the Vulcans, Paasi made his NRL debut for the Warriors in round 19 of the 2014 premiership.

Paasi played 25 minutes from the bench and scored 21 points in the loss to the Brisbane Broncos. Passi spent a majority of the season playing for the Warriors in the Intrust Super Premiership and went on to win the Warriors Player of the Year at that level.

A move to the Gold Coast Titans for the 2015 season saw Paasi rack up 18 games for the club with only eight of them coming from the bench. He had a high score for the season of 92 points against St George Illawarra in round 25. Overall, he scored a SuperCoach total of 695 points with a PPG average of 39 and he managed a game time average of 49MPG. He finished the season with a PPM of 0.80.

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In his second season at the Titans, Paasi played in 24 premiership matches for the club with half the total coming as a starter. His high score for the season was against the Roosters in round 10 where he scored 90 points. Paasi finished with a final total of 1119 points for the season at a PPG average of 47. Agnatius dropped his game time by five minutes a game but improved his PPM to a nice 1.07

In his last season at the Titans in 2017, Paasi was limited to only 11 games for the season due to injury. From those 11 games, he played from the bench on seven occasions. With a high score of 47 points against the Newcastle Knights in round 12, Agnatius would go on to finish with a SuperCoach season total of only 381 points.

With his season never really getting going, Paasi finished with a PPG average of 35. His MPG dropped down to 38 a game and his PPM slipped back down to 0.91

A change of clubs back to the New Zealand Warriors in 2018 has seen Paasi start in the 10 games he’s has been picked for. So far he has a total of 446 points at a PPG average of 45. Agnatius’s PPM has climbed again to 1.25. I like Paasi as a left field option as he has a current break even of 11, so there is a chance of some growth and also the chance to have a bigger role for his team in round 16, before hopefully moving him on to a gun who has finished Origin commitments after the bye in round 17.