SuperCoach Stat Attack round 9: Key stats affecting the coming weekend’s matches

THIS week’s stat sheet points us in the direction of an up and coming superstar from the Storm, and some freakish numbers on the right edge for the Raiders.

STATS pointing to the likes of Ben Hunt, Paul Gallen and Semi Radradra resurgences have been on the money in recent weeks, and some plain obvious ones like the form of Jesse Bromwich and Kerrod Holland weren’t hard to find.

This week’s stat sheet points us in the direction of an up and coming superstar from the Storm, and some freakish numbers on the right edge for the Raiders among others.

Remember, if there are any stats you would love to know about or can’t find the answer to — hit us up on twitter @Copes9 or @SuperCoachNRL and I’ll do my best to get it in next week’s edition.

Here we go stats nerds …

Cameron Munster | 82

I spoke about this very stat on the LIVE Countdown Show last week, but for those that missed out on the show … Cameron Munster has averaged 71.3 points per game since his move to fullback with only the one try, but the most impressive stat is this; 82 points in tackle busts in 8 rounds! WOW. From round 4-8 he has registered tackle bust numbers of 16, 6, 10, 20 and 12. Those numbers are almost as many as my captain has scored in each of those weeks. In my opinion he will be the highest averaging CTW come season’s end, but at $418k and BE of 24 it may be a case of now or never …

Jordan Rapana & Joey Leilua | 67.6 & 64.2

Jarrod Croker was the ‘safe’ choice for your CTW to start the season with a career average sitting around the 60 mark, and the goalkicking duties in hand. However it has been these two Raiders that have taken the SuperCoach world by storm! Jordan Rapana is the HIGHEST point scoring CTW overall of any eligible player with 541 points (and that includes a 5 in round 1!), yes in front of Mansour, Munster, Semi and Tohu Harris. Amazingly, the impressive tackle bust numbers for Munster are matched (82) by Rapana from the wing, and after his 163 last round his average sits at 67.6. Leilua is equally as impressive averaging 64.2 PPG and along with the 66 points in tackle busts this year, Leilua ranks up there among all players for offloads with 68 points through 8 rounds (notably 16,12 & 12 in the past three games). The Raiders right edge is seemingly SuperCoach dynamite.

Jordan Rapana in action against the Tigers.

Semi Radradra | $142,900

Who loves Semi? We all do! Particularly now he’s been named on the wing for Australia, I’ve got no doubt he will stroll in for a few meat pies on debut up at Hunter Stadium against the Kiwis. For now though, we talk of this stat. $142,900 is the amount of money Semi Radradra has dropped since the start of the season, the most of ANY player in our game. The relevance of this? Semi has gone 81 & 78 the past two weeks, sits with a BE of 25 and notably plays the Knights in the big round 12 bye week. This is the week you have to decide … Is it a Semi charmed kinda life this year or not? Very punny, I know.

Anthony Milford | $600k

It seems as though I have a stat about Milf every week, well, its with good reason … This guy is just phenomenal! This stat isn’t a typo. Amazingly, Milf is now averaging 87.8 (the highest of any player) and SuperCoach GOLD projects that with two 100+ scores in the next two weeks he would become the only player in SuperCoach HISTORY to eclipse the $600k barrier. The 67% of teams who don’t own the Milf must cry themselves to sleep every night the Broncos play.

Anthony Milford is tackled by Tom Burgess in round 8. Picture: Darren England

Michael Ennis | 12

This will hardly come as a surprise to anyone, but Michael Ennis leads the NRL in the unwanted stat category of … Penalties conceded, with 12! The main relevance here are the next three names on the list, Shaun Fensom, Josh Jackson and Andrew Fifita all tied on 9 each and are very SuperCoach relevant. That is -18 points off all of these guys across the 8 regular rounds thus far. Ouch.

Nathan Peats | 43.3

Top quality bye coverage options are few and far between this year, particularly at the hooker position which is already super thin. Nathan Peats is a popular name that has been bandied about as a ‘must’ this season over that period. Well, since his return from injury (gee he’s missed some time over the past couple of seasons) Peats has averaged a disappointing 43.3 points, and possibly even more worryingly, Isaac DeGois has been stealing minutes from him — game time of 80, 75 and 64 minutes the last three rounds. Peats currently sits with a BE of 90 and could well be a straight swap for Matt Parcell owners come round 12, but I think Josh Hodgson and Jake Friend have certainly jumped him in the most wanted list.

Parramatta's Nathan Peats has been disappointing.

Bulldogs, Cowboys & Broncos | 81, 107 & 25.4

This one is relevant to match-ups. When looking at your HFB, 5/8, CTW and FLB starters each week it’s always important to know who they’re playing against. The Broncos have conceded a ridiculously small tally of 81 points across their 8 matches this season, the Cowboys second with 107 points. The Bulldogs have the best defence on their own tryline conceding a try for every 25.4 tackles made inside their own 20m line, the best of any team in the competition. So, if you have a 50-50 decision on a player who relies on attacking stats to score well, the stats are showing to choose the guys not playing against these three teams. Eels, Sea Eagles & Sharks players this week (Barba, M. Gordon etc).

Andrew Fifita | 39.

When you think captaincy in SuperCoach you always consider this man, however the stats say otherwise for this week at least. A career average of 39 PPG against the Broncos, almost 20 points below his average against all other opponents signifies the danger in whacking the orange armband on him this week. Will he break the trend?

Stay away from Andrew Fifita this week.

Ben Hunt | 104.7

Hunt has jumped up the leaderboard to second place in the NRL for try assists with 11, behind only the great man himself JT with 13. Remarkably, in the last three weeks Hunt has registered EIGHT of these try assists and as a result, is the highest averaging player in all of SuperCoach over that period with 104.7 points per game. That my friend, is a lot of points!

Te Maire Martin | 24,426

After rising $129,700 disastrously, Martin is out for the season with a shoulder injury. So, moving on … 24,436 SuperCoaches out there own the young kiwi prodigy and have to make a decision. At the time of writing, the two most popular trades are; Martin to Cameron Cullen, and Martin to Kodi Nikorima. I understand the need for cash, but surely this is a prime opportunity to bring in a gun. My suggestion would be to create cash through the Vunivalu trade elsewhere and look to mid-priced guns in the halves such as James Maloney ($318k if you can believe that!), Gareth Widdop ($277k) or Adam Reynolds ($345k) who are all well and truly under priced as the replacement for Martin. That’s it for this week from your resident Stats man. Here’s hoping the stats point us all in the right direction this weekend.