NRL SuperCoach: What I learned from my mock draft

Mock drafting is key for your SuperCoach preparation to help you win your league! I made a huge mistake early in my draft which almost ruined my team, writes Wilson Smith.

While we still have just over a month before the start of the 2019 season, it is never too early to start preparing for your SuperCoach drafts, by taking part in a mock draft!

Mock drafting is an essential part of your preparation, as it helps get you in the drafting mindset, training you to scan ahead for players to target, as well as teaching who to pick while under the pressure of a 60-90 second timer.

There is nothing worse than panic picking the wrong player after the player you were waiting on is drafted. Practice makes perfect, that’s why we mock draft.

This way you can get a pretty good sense of when certain players are being drafted, so you know how long you can afford to wait on those sleepers. While some SuperCoaches might not have the time to do a mock draft that doesn’t really count, have no fear, I have gone ahead and done one to help you prepare for 2019.

Tom Trbojevic was a top pick.

The key to having a successful draft is picking the right guns early, filling those low depth positions early, while still getting reliable base point scorers and picking those players who either have high upside or are undervalued.

In this mock draft I was randomly selected to draft at fourth, which is my opinion is one of the ideal positions, since you can still get one of those “Tier One” guns but still not wait too long between picks. As can be expected, the draft did not go how I thought it would and so I made some mistakes, but better to mess up in a mock draft than the real thing!

Draft picks for first 2 rounds

1. Damien Cook 2. James Tedesco 3. Jake Trbojevic 4. Tom Trbojevic (me) 5. Kalyn Ponga 6. Jason Taumalolo 7. Angus Crichton 8. Andrew Fifita 9. Latrell Mitchell 10. Martin Taupau

11. Shaun Johnson 12. Blake Ferguson 13. Gareth Widdop 14. Jai Arrow 15. Cameron Smith 16. Matt Moylan 17. Josh Papalii (me) 18. Josh Hodgson 19. Nathan Cleary 20. Ryan James

Drafting at fourth I was fairly confident I could nab one of the ever reliable Trbojevic brothers, and luckily enough I was able to get Tom. This meant that with my first pick, not only had I drafted one of the best players in SuperCoach, but I was also able to fill one of the positions with the least amount of quality depth. With a fullback sorted, I then wanted to grab a super reliable base point forward and ended up picking Josh Papalii, but in hindsight not taking Nathan Cleary here was my biggest mistake of the draft.

Latrell Mitchell and Angus Crichton we’re probably the only odd ones out in the first round, and I would not have been interested in either that early in the draft. In the second round Shaun Johnson, Nathan Cleary and Cameron Smith were great value picks, while Blake Fergusson, Matt Moylan and Josh Hodgson all went too early in my opinion.

In the first few rounds you want to target the best players you can, and these were all players that you could have waited on, considering the quality that was still available and the draft capital needed to acquire them. And if you had missed out on these guys, the next best options at each position aren’t that much behind them, so you may as well draft the best players you can early. For example, Matt Moylan should not go before players like Cameron Munster, Cody Walker, Anthony Milford or Roger Tuivasa-Sheck, but he did! Mind boggling.

LISTEN! Resident SuperCoach experts Tom Sangster and Tim Williams have the lowdown on the players to target and avoid in 2019.

Draft Rounds 3-5

21. Daly Cherry-Evans 22. Sam Burgess 23. Rhyse Martin 24. Cameron Munster (me) 25. Michael Morgan 26. Viliame Kikau 27. Connor Watson 28. Cody Walker 29. Anthony Milford 30. Tevita Pangai 31. Roger Tuivasa-Sheck 32. Joseph Tapine 33. Andrew McCullough 34. Cameron McInnes 35. Esan Marsters 36. Victor Radley 37. Nathan Brown (me) 38. Manu Ma’u 39. Jake Friend 40. Felise Kaufusi 41. Tohu Harris 42. Paul Gallen 43. Lachlann Fitzgibbon 44. Apisai Koroisau (me) 45. Herman Ese’Ese 46. Waqa Blake 47. David Klemmer 48. Jesse Ramien 49. Nathan Peats 50. Jamayne Isaako

By the end of the 5th round nine Hookers, six fullbacks, 4 halfbacks and 4 five-eighths had been drafted, compared to 13 backrowers, 7 props (all but 1 were dual position), and 7 CTWs. Given the lack of quality options at the spine positions, this just goes to show the importance of getting in early. Take halfback for example, where the 4 best options were picked in the first 3 rounds. No one else drafted a halfback until 3 whole rounds later, because the options are that much worse.

Again, there were some outrageous picks in these rounds, with players like Michael Morgan, Victor Radley, and Nathan Peats going way too early given the options still on the board. Even if Victor Radley plays 60 plus minutes at lock, drafting him as a hooker over the likes of Jake Friend or Api Koroisau is baffling.

Despite his age, Paul Gallen is still a decent value pick in the fourth round, after finishing 2018 with an average of 58 points at a PPM of 0.98. In the interest of a normal word count, I won’t go through the full 17 rounds of the draft, otherwise we’d be here all day.

Sam Burgess went at pick 22.

Round 6-17 highlights

Round 6 was all about halves, with Mitch Pearce, Adam Reynolds, Ben Hunt, Luke Keary and Alexander Brimson all being drafted in quick succession. It was my intention to grab one of these guys after missing out on a halfback earlier so I was pretty gutted, but changed my strategy. Rather than wasting a pick on mediocre option, I decided to start going hard on high-upside CTW’s and drafted Jarrod Croker.

This is why mock drafts are so important, as you can see how quickly some of the players you thought you could wait on get taken. By this logic, if you haven’t filled all of your low depth key positions by the 6th round, you’ll probably be stuck with someone you didn’t plan on having.

Almost everyone who went in round 7 was probably taken too early. I took Coen Hess to sure up my 2RF base, before some mad man took Broncos youngster David Fifita. Either this person knows something we don’t, or they’re just crazy, since he probably won’t start. Given 8 teams already had a fullback by this point, Dylan Edwards could have been slept on, and Jazz Tevaga also went way too early considering Robbie Farah and Isaac Luke were both still available. Will Hopoate was a great value pick in the 7th round, considering he was the fourth best CTW player in 2018.

Before I got to make another pick, Luke Brooks, and Moses Mbye were both taken, so my options at halfback were looking pretty gross. SuperCoaches should make sure that if they’re waiting on a sleeper, they don’t wait too long!

After missing out on one of these guys, I stuck with my 2RF/CTW strategy, picking Aidan Guerra, Corey Oates and Josh Addo-Carr and David Nofoaluma with my next four picks. Given the low ceiling and floor of the remaining HFB options, I thought it best to target high base forwards and high upside CTW’s.

In the 9th round, someone must have not been paying attention to their pick, because they auto drafted Manase Fainu at hooker, a shame given the quality at hooker still available. When you’re drafting, make sure you pay attention to when it’s your turn, since there is no sound or obvious indicator when it’s your turn.

This is also why it’s also important to have a list of pre-draft players selected, so that if you do accidentally auto draft you don’t end up with someone like Fainu, who probably won’t see much game time in 2019.

There were some great value picks in the next few rounds, with the waiting paying off for some SuperCoaches. James Roberts just escaped me in the 11th round, while Jack de Belin is a great sleeper if his off-field incidents don’t keep him off the field in 2019.

Greg Inglis and Matt Gillett both went in the 12th round, and are some of the best value picks of the whole draft if they can shake off injury. With my next two picks I went with Dale Finucane to round off my forward pack base, before picking up Robbie Farah as a backup hooker and HFB combination of Kodi Nikorima and Ash Taylor. Unfortunately these are the kind of players you might be stuck with if you don’t take a gun HFB early.

Despite being the 5th highest scoring hooker in 2018, Isaac Luke amazingly did not go until the 14th round of the draft, and was drafted by the same person who took Andrew McCullough in the 4th round. How other people drafting overlooked him is beyond me. Jack Bird, Tim Lafai and Jordan Rapana were good pick-ups in the 15th and 16th rounds, and Rapana is well worth holding onto over his injury absence.

To finish off my bench I went with Jared Waerea-Hargreaves, and devastatingly, Suliasi Vunivalu went just before my final pick. This will probably happen to SuperCoaches at some stage in your draft, and if you have a certain player in mind, you need to have a backup pick in mind so that you aren’t left panic picking when the player you wanted is taken just before you.

Not even the last rounds were free from crazy draft picks, with players jumping on the likes of Bronson Xerri, Briton Nikora and even Ben Barba. Rookies and cheapies are usually not great options in draft, so it’s probably not worth spending draft capital on them. And Ben Barba will probably never play NRL again, so should definitely be avoided!

My Team drafting at 4

1.4 Tom Trbojevic (FLB), 2.7 Josh Papalii (FRF/2RF), 3.4 Cameron Munster (5/8, FLB), 4.7 Nathan Brown (2RF), 5.4 Apisai Koroisau (HOK), 6.7 Jarrod Croker (CTW), 7.4 Coen Hess (2RF), 8.7 Aiden Guerra (2RF), 9.4 Corey Oates (CTW), 10.7 Josh Addo-Carr (CTW), 11.4 David Nofoaluma (CTW), 12.7 Dale Finucane (FRF/2RF), 13.4 Robbie Farah (HOK), 14.7 Kodi Nikorima (HFB), 15.4 Ashley Taylor (HFB), 16.7 Jared Waerea-Hargreaves (FRF), 17.4 Kyle Feldt (CTW)

MORE SUPERCOACH:

Full SuperCoach News section / Cheapie Bible / Predicted round one teams / Sangster’s team / Champ’s team / Wilfred’s team / Tallis’s team / Copes’ team / Huge rule change / Top 10 rookies in NRL