SuperCoach NRL: Wilfred Zee’s Fearless Predictions for round 16
CAPTAIN: Damien Cook. STUD: Kalyn Ponga and Will Hopoate. FLOP: Tom Trbojevic. Former SuperCoach NRL champ Wilfred Zee has his say on round 16.
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- NRL Late Mail round 16: Team changes and club injury news
- Wilfred Zee’s wrap of the good, bad and ugly from Round 16
TWO weeks off and I’m feeling refreshed and ready to rip in for the back half of the season! What an experience this Super Trade week has turned out to be — how many times have you reverse traded? I haven’t bothered to keep count personally. This is really a make-or-break set of decisions — setting us up for Round 17 and the run home.
Throw in juggling players backing up from Origin, the Denver Test and all other representative games this week, and also the five trades … well, you’d want to make sure you’ve worked things out clearly!
Let’s have a look at Round 16.
1. Captain Pick — Damien Cook
Captain Cook was a little scary last week, whereas Taumalolo did as well as expected. This week it’s simple — Rabbitohs, Cowboys. It’s Captain Cook against the Cowboys for the second time this year. The Cowboys have still leaked the most points to hookers this year, and Cook scored 113 in Round 11 earlier this year against them. I’m going to stick with a “Keep It Simple Stupid” rule.
2. Stud of the Week — Kalyn Ponga/Will Hopoate
The fullbacks in the Knights and Bulldogs clash should enjoy a good day out. Both teams have been leaky in the past five rounds, conceding the third and fourth most points to opposition No.1s. This is on top of conceding the second and third most points to opposition fullbacks all season. They both seem like safe picks, with high floors and the ceiling … well, one of those two has a slightly higher ceiling than the other!
3. Flop of the Week — Tom Trbojevic
Am I crazy or just tempting fate? This will be the third consecutive week where I’ve thought that Tommy Turbo could flop. Sure, he snuck over the 50-point mark that I had arbitrarily set but, to be fair, Tommy Turbo flops if he isn’t scoring 60+ doesn’t he? Hah! This week, with the Panthers just rolling along and in relatively good health and the Sea Eagles having a somewhat disrupted preparation (especially featuring one key forward who may or may not play, but in any case his preparation must be heavily compromised). Plus, I mean, just look at the Sea Eagles team list … it’s hardly screaming “contender”. I can see the Panthers rolling the Sea Eagles comfortably and Tommy T will struggle for impact.
4. The SuperCoach Gold Mine
Wow, I almost could not have gotten this more wrong last round, as my selection scored the second-least SuperCoach points of all games. It was a high-scoring round, though, as the scoreline still lent itself to a decent score (almost 1500) points. However, we saw the highest-scoring SuperCoach game of this season with the Raiders and Tigers featuring a massive 1706 points scored. That’s an average of over 50 points per player in that game — even the bench! This week, I’m thinking that the Broncos and the Raiders could put on a pointscoring bonanza, with the potential a number of games this week to be weather-affected.
5. Upset of the Round — the Warriors
It’s another tough week as the form teams are firm favourites in most of their match-ups. I’m picking the Warriors — who are somehow outsiders at home against the Sharks — to steal the upset win as Cronulla are actually depleted as well, losing both of their edge backrowers to injury. Sorensen and Capewell are decent players but they aren’t Graham and Lewis, while the Warriors are missing Issac Luke, Peta Hiku and others, they still have SJ, Green, RTS and Tohu Harris to lift them to a strong win in front of their home crowd.
Bring on Round 16
Five trades, five potential decisions that could decide the outcome of the overall race, or the make-up of your final teams if you’re a head-to-head specialist. Good luck to everyone.