SuperCoach NRL: Best SuperCoach moves following Payne Haas suspension
The Brisbane Broncos have suspended boom youngster Payne Haas for four weeks, and the move has big SuperCoach implications.
The Brisbane Broncos have suspended boom youngster Payne Haas for four weeks, and here’s what that means for SuperCoaches.
In a word - change.
Prior to the suspension, Haas was the most owned FRF in the game and had been selected in 48% of teams.
Within minutes of the news breaking that was down to 46% and heading south for good reason.
With the big man missing the first four weeks his price will not move for six rounds and that is too long to have a guy sitting on your bench.
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SO WHAT TO DO
Well, the ‘Captain Obvious’ advice is replace Haas with a player who is named to play in round one.
But it goes a little further than that.
What we need to find is a player whose price is set to increase as quickly as possible and then could be cycled over for Haas ahead of round seven (the first round in which Haas’ price can increase).
As far as I can see you have two options.
OPTION 1: LIKE FOR LIKE
A spot on the Broncos bench has just opened up and the best result for SuperCoaches would be if one of Patrick Carrigan (2RF/FRF $168,100) or Thomas Flegler (2RF $168,100) performed well in the upcoming trial against Souths Logan and pushed their case for round one selection.
Sadly for SuperCoaches, but not my colleague Nick ‘I love Fenno’ Campton, Shaun Fensom (2RF/FRF $237,900) is likely ahead of the two bottom-priced cheapies.
No love for Fenno I hear you ask? Sure, but SuperCoach is no place for sentiment.
Fensom is a SuperCoach gun of years gone by and as much as I would love to see him come back into the NRL with a starting role his price coming off the bench is not what we need here.
Fensom’s workrate is superb but his price, and the fact he would receive limited minutes coming off the bench, means we are unlikely to see much in the way of price increase before Haas is back and eligible for selection.
Far better would be if one of the two bottom-dollar Broncos forwards played and then were traded for Haas ahead of round seven.
Even better would be the second option below.
OPTION 2: SWING FOR THE FENCES
Bench forwards are slow-burn money makers. They are safer than CTW but very rarely make cash quickly.
For that you need to pick a cheapie CTW and hope they can jag a try within the first two rounds of the season.
Examples from 2018 are Richie Kennar at the Rabbitohs, Phillip Sami at the Titans and George Jennings at the Eels. All three got off to strong starts to start the season (albeit Jennings did not start till round 4) with profits after their first five games of $172,600, $203,800 and $115,100.
Of those three only Jennings was a true cheapie, but if you are looking to replace Haas ($181,000) and can free up about $100-80K then you could reach for Jordan Kahu (CTW $278,700) or likely Raiders fullback Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad (CTW/FLB $265,500). If you only have $40K then Scott Drinkwater (FLB $219,400) would be a superb replacement - though if named as the Storm’s starting fullback I would expect Drinkwater to be in pretty much every team anyway!
I know that’s a big chunk of change to find, but as we can see from the trio above, outside backs who click can click in a big way and other than the obvious cheapies at the position who I would expect you already have (Zac Lomax, Albert Hopoate, Morgan Harper, Briton Nikora and Bronson Xerri etc) these are the next cabs off the rank.
Thankfully the likes of dual 2RF/CTW eligible players with high ownership rates like John Bateman, Kurt Capewell and Nikora should make the trade of Haas relatively easy.
That’s my first thoughts on the matter, I’d be keen to hear what everyone else is doing now that Haas has caused us all such Payne.
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