NRL SuperCoach: Wilfred Zee’s round 15 predictions

FORMER SuperCoach champion Wilfred Zee predicted Tom Trbojevic’s flop last week and he’s doubling down this week.

ROUND 14 was sneakily tough for plenty of SuperCoaches, and that was before kick-off in the first game of the round. Then the carnage started … BJ, Rapana, Kikau, Arrow (although he came back later) – and that was just the SuperCoach relevant players.

It ended up being a big moving week for some SuperCoaches, and we saw a change of leader up the top, so the battle for top spot is going to be really intriguing over the next few weeks.

Let’s have a look at Round 15.

1. Captain Pick – Cook / Taumalolo

Damien Cook is a captaincy option despite playing the first game.

So last week’s prediction felt pretty good, as the game went almost to script… if you’re sensing some déjà vu, you’d be right! Unfortunately, whilst 70 is a very respectable captain’s knock, it was so easily a 97 point score (if not higher) but for one of Sam Burgess’s lazy brothers running into a defender rather than through the line. An ‘innocent’ mistake that robbed Sam of his expected attacking stat – try plus linebreak and no penalty conceded!

This week is tough. Some of the better, safer captain options play early on in the week – think Thursday and Friday specifically. This might be one of those weeks where you play it safe, lock in the safe captain score early in the week and see how the rest of the week plays out. A throwback to the “captain Corey Parker on Friday night” days, if you will. It seems plenty are already thinking the same way, with Cook and Lolo the two most popular captain options. So I’m going to go along with the crowd on this one – I can’t see either of these two going sub-70 this week.

PODCAST! Tom Sangster and Tim Williams discuss the two cheapies to emerge in the round 15 teams.

2. Stud of the Week – Moses Mbye

Yeah, I’m going to stop picking JT. Lesson (finally) learnt – even if it wasn’t all his fault as refs and poor form from his teammates cruelled plenty of attacking chances and try assist/line break assists.

This week I like the Bulldogs to beat the Titans, and Mbye – rumoured to be playing his last game as a Bulldog – to have a blinder as he finishes up with the club before joining the Tigers over the representative break. Even if this isn’t true, he also happens to play fullback – the position where the Titans are weakest against (amongst many other positions that they are weak to!) and also takes the conversions.

3. Flop of the Week – Tom Trbojevic

The second prediction I nailed last week, and considering I was 50/50-ing between Teddy and Tommy Turbo, it turns out I would have got it right either way! I might be playing with fire this week but I’m going to double down on Tommy Turbo. The Dragons at WIN Stadium – that’s a daunting prospect for a Sea Eagles outfit that is in dire straits due to injury. The Dragons are in the bottom five for points conceded to opposition fullbacks, so I think Tommy Turbo is going to struggle to get over 50 points this week.

Wilfred says Tom Trbojevic will struggle to make 50.

4. The SuperCoach Gold Mine

I dodged a bullet last week as the weather scared me off my initial selection of the Raiders and Panthers game, and steered me towards the highest scoring game of the round – Sea Eagles and Warriors. They top-scored with 1601 points, with three games this week dishing out sub-1400 scores and the remaining games floating between 1480 to 1570. This week, I had originally looked at the Tigers and Raiders as the potential Gold Mine but missing Rapana and Nofo, I can see a few less points being scored. I’m going to lock in the Dragons and the Sea Eagles as the highest scoring game this week, with more of the high scores being well and truly on the Dragons’ side of the ledger! I mean, the Warriors were convincing winners and I can see the Dragons doing likewise this week.

5. Upset of the Round – the Broncos

It’s a tough week for upsets as there aren’t very many appealing options. The Panthers possibly but I have a sneaky suspicion this week is the week the Roosters finally deliver on some of their promise from the preseason, and maybe the Panthers are going to be a bit flat. The Sharks have been on a nice winning streak but they were stuck in second gear for most of the game against the Tigers. The Broncos were arguably the better team against the Storm for about 60 minutes of the contest, before an embarrassing collapse saw the score blowout. So this week, if the Sharks don’t turn up and the Broncos can showcase the same football they played for 60 minutes last week, we could see a sneaky little upset in the Shire this week! *cue derision and insults from passionate Sharks fans*

Bring on Round 15

Just the two trades this week, but you need to prepare for the representative break and the ensuing FIVE trade, Super Trade Week coming up. It would be advisable to have a bit of a bank balance sitting there to make sure you can make the trades you want to make to set up your team for round 16 and 17, as well as for the rest of the year! Count those trades wisely…