SuperCoach NRL: Wilfred Zee’s Fearless Predictions for round 17
(VICE) CAPTAIN: Cameron Smith. STUD: Rhyse Martin. FLOP: Panthers CTWs. Former SuperCoach NRL champ Wilfred Zee has his say on round 17.
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IT’S here at last, the final bye round of 2018, and it’s already looking like the week from hell. Not only are half the teams out on the bye, we’ve also lost plenty of SuperCoach-relevant players to Origin, suspension and non-selection. It’s downright disheartening when the best-laid plans are ruined by injury or other factors, but you know, when it goes well it really makes you feel pretty good!
This is the last “milestone” for those at the pointy end of the overall SuperCoach — presented by hipages — standings, so let’s have a look at Round 17.
1. (Vice) Captain Pick — Cameron Smith
This one is a no-brainer. There aren’t that many great options this week, so one of the all-time greats of SuperCoach, playing a weakened Dragons’ outfit (albeit with a weakened Storm team too), and sitting on a five-round average of 87.8 … yeah, he’s a very, very safe pick. I’m expecting a comfortable win for the Storm at home in Melbourne, with so many key outs for the Dragons, so Smith could get 20-30 points just in goal kicks as well as putting on a few attacking stats himself. We could very easily have a situation like Taumalolo in Round 13.
2. Stud of the Week — Anybody playing this week
It’s a tough round, so let’s again celebrate every single player who will contribute SuperCoach points to our teams this week. We appreciate every single SuperCoach point you add to our pitiful scores this week!
More seriously, I’m actually pretty keen on Rhyse Martin as the Stud of the Week. The Bulldogs aren’t going very well, admittedly, but he’s locked down 80 minutes on the edge, and also secured goalkicking duties. Well, we saw last week how suspect the Raiders’ right edge is, as Anthony Milford tore them apart in the second half and all of the left edge of Oates, Kahu and Glenn enjoyed some meat. Martin might fall in that category this week if we’re lucky.
3. Flop of the Week — Anybody not playing this week
This is probably one of the hardest weeks to get quality players that we’re happy to have stick around in our teams, so anybody who takes the field for our SuperCoach teams this week is automatically a Stud to be honest!
So, the Panthers have been rather unconvincing lately, with several losses in a row — and that was with all their representative players in the team!
Up against an almost-full strength Warriors team, missing at least four of their most important players, it’s going to be tough for the Panthers. In particular, I’m worried that their outside backs — the likes of DWZ, Dean Whare, Tyrone Phillips, Christian Crichton and the fresh-from-injury Waqa Blake — will flop. I worry that they won’t get much good attacking ball and, given none of them are workers, it means they could score quite low without major attacking stats.
4. The SuperCoach Gold Mine
Normally I would have suggested the Titans and Broncos derby as the highest-scoring game, however with so many of their SuperCoach stars missing I have to back the Bulldogs and Raiders to deliver the highest SC total this week. The Bulldogs have leaked points to plenty of teams and the Raiders, well, we know what they are capable of when they are on song. As someone who doesn’t own Hodgson, Tapine, Cotric, Croker or BJ Leilua, this match-up makes me very nervous.
5. Upset of the Round — None
I honestly cannot pick an outsider this week — I’m very confident that all the favourites win, starting with the Storm. If I absolutely had to pick one team to lose though … it would be the Raiders given their penchant for losing unlosable games.
Bring on Round 17
It’s a brutal round but, on the bright side, if we survive this week it’s the home straight! Let’s just get stuck into it!