NRL SuperCoach: Trent Copeland’s captaincy analysis Round 8
PICKING a captain in SuperCoach NRL has been a lottery this season. This week Trent Copeland advocates for two surging superstars and throws in a wildcard for good measure.
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JUST when you thought we were entering the realms of normality with captaincy choices, Cam Smith, Jake Turbo and Tom Turbo all dish up scores in the 40’s! I mean, seriously boys ...
Thankfully the likes of Damian Cook (102 points), Viliame Kikau (85 points) and Jason Taumalolo (84) who were all headline acts of the Captains section delivered! Did I pick one of them you ask? Not a chance.
Each week I will delve into the stats that stick out, the best match-ups, form and even sometimes a gut feel to find you the best skippers of the week. With all of these injuries around you should easily be able to pull off the captaincy loophole, if you aren’t sure how hit us up with a question on the live show and we can explain.
Without further ado …
VC options
James Tedesco FLB (Roosters) v Dragons
Anzac Day games bring out the best in superstar players, and that’s exactly what Teddy is. I feel like I say this every week … but 77 points last week in a dour 6-0 win over the Bulldogs when he “didn’t play that well” shows just how good Teddy can be. I mean, he’s averaging 64.43PPG and has barely scratched the surface of what he is capable of. Over eight career meetings with the Dragons he has an average of 71.9PPG with a high score of 95.
Ryan Matterson CTW | 2RF (Roosters) v Dragons
SuperCoach Stats has projected Matterson to be this week’s highest point scorer with a HUGE 94 points against the Dragons on Anzac Day. After his mammoth 57-tackle effort last Thursday against the Bulldogs, Matto’s base-stat average for the year is over 50PPG so you know he’s going to put up a solid game — throw in a try and that score goes huge. The masses will be on Teddy, so I love this as a POD option.
PODCAST! Injuries are causing havoc and the byes are just around the corner. Join Tom Sangster, Tim Williams and Dave Campbell.
Damian Cook HOK (Rabbitohs) v Broncos
You simply have to respect what Cook is doing, and to be honest he is very much in the equation for being my straight-up captain this week. It was a rollercoaster of a week after a MOM performance in real life … finishing the game on around 50, upgrading to 84 and then finally to 102 on final recount on Monday. Quite remarkable really, but he deserved every one of those points to take his season average to 73.86PPG. SuperCoach Stats projects Cook to score 83 points too …
Other options … Cameron Munster, Gareth Widdop, Cody Walker, Anthony Milford.
Copes’ Captains
Andrew Fifita FRF (Sharks) v Titans
My goodness, has Fifita found his mojo or what!? After the SEVEN-offload, 95-point bonanza against the Roosters two weeks ago Fifita delivered 80 points in a humungous 73 minutes this past weekend with another SIX offloads. All of that is after owners feared he had torn his ACL the week before! If you own Fifita, quite simply he’s the hottest player in the game alongside Cook right now and I’d be handing him the C if I were you.
Tom Trbojevic FLB (Sea Eagles) v Knights
I’m calling double or nothing here with Turbo. I captained the superstar fullback last week and while it was disappointing to watch the Sea Eagles lose, he still managed 47 points basically doing nothing! This weekend, a 6pm game at Lottoland against a Mitchell Pearce-less Knights outfit conceding 801 SuperCoach points per game on average. To put it in perspective, that’s second LAST behind only the Titans. Yeah, I’m on board again.
Jason Taumalolo 2RF (Cowboys) v Raiders
Taumalolo has found his mojo of late, scoring 100 points two weeks ago (and coming within a whisker of scoring a try) followed by 84 points this week with a try against the Titans in an impressive win. That’s an average of 92PPG in a much-improved 62 minutes of game time. The tackle busts are up to 18 and 8 over those two weeks which is a great sign and I think you can trust him every week again.
Jai Arrow 2RF (Titans) v Sharks
It’s time Arrow was respected at this level for his work rate. And while I’m at it, hearing Justin Hodges say at halftime during the Titans match against the Cowboys that Arrow “really needs to improve his work rate” when at the time he was leading not only the hit-ups, but also the tackle count for BOTH teams … Infuriating. More importantly, that work rate is seeing Arrow score consistently in the 60-75 range every week (barring injury) purely through base stats. I like it a lot against an injury-riddled Sharks pack.
Other options … Cameron Smith, Viliame Kikau, Simon Mannering, Jake Trbojevic.
Good luck everyone, may the Orange Armband fall on the right man this week!
Titans go from bad to worse as Drinkwater fires Cowboys
The Titans have endured a coastal capitulation at the hands of a Scott Drinkwater-inspired Cowboys to heap more misery on a Gold Coast team languishing at the bottom of the ladder.
Bronco avoids punishment for tackle that injured Warriors star
Brisbane forward Brendan Piakura has avoided charge for an incident in the Broncos’ win over the Warriors which forced star half Luke Metcalf from the field with a suspected ACL tear.