Ultimate NRL SuperCoach planner: Top purchases for next big bye in round 16
The first big bye is out of the way and now our attention turns to the two remaining tough weeks in rounds 16 and 19. We rank the top purchases.
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As Round 13 comes to an end we’ve had our first taste of the major bye rounds for 2024... so it’s time to ramp up preparations for the next major bye in Round 16, which also has ‘best 13’ scoring.
First, we can’t forget about the sneakily difficult Round 14 though – with three teams (Roosters, Raiders and Dolphins) on the bye but we have to field a full 17 (13 starters and four reserves) as we don’t get the luxury of relying on ‘best 13’ this week!
On that note, it might be time to say bye to some Round 13 coverage players like Ethan Strange, Morgan Smithies, Blaize Talagi, and plenty others who may have done their job for our teams already.
Teams like the Titans, Rabbitohs and the Wests Tigers will have two of their three byes in their rearview mirror, so they loom as teams to target moving forward as they will not only help cover Round 16 and also Round 19 (the third and final major bye round), but effectively their players should only miss one more game for the rest of the season (barring injury, suspension, representative selection).
The Sea Eagles are also an attractive prospect as they also cover Rounds 16 and 19, but still have two remaining byes (Rounds 17 and 22) to navigate.
With all of that in mind, here are some of the best purchases for Round 14 onwards, keeping in mind their bye coverage moving forward and also their strength of schedule too.
David Fifita $884,100 BE 101; 12.1% rostered
Now just to be clear, this has the potential to backfire depending on a number of different factors including injury to other Maroons forwards, a big Maroons loss this Wednesday forcing team changes, or just irresistible performances from Fifita in the next two rounds.
However, the upside of David Fifita potentially being available for Rounds 16 and 19 is too high to not take the punt on him this week. He has also been head and shoulders above every other 2RF option in SuperCoach whether he has come off the bench or not (yes, even with Angus Crichton in sublime form himself), averaging almost 10 points per game above the next best option in the position. Don’t overthink this one, just get Fifita and if he ends up playing Origin, that’s a future drama to deal with.
Eliesa Katoa $765,100 BE 52; 15.6% rostered
The Storm have just had their second bye of the year, which means Katoa will miss just one more game for the rest of the season. Now that game may happen to be Round 19, but that means Katoa will help cover not only Round 16 but every other tricky round in between starting with Rounds 14, 17 and 20.
The Storm have started the year with some tough match-ups but their rest of season schedule features no more than five ‘tough’ match-ups, and with Jahrome Hughes starting to get healthier, that can only bode well for Katoa who is already sitting on a three round average of 93.
Latrell Mitchell $757,800 BE 44; 4.1% rostered
Yes we all know how good Latrell can be for SuperCoach when he’s on his game, but he’s always been fraught with danger because there’s the potential for injuries, there’s the potential for suspensions, and so far this year the Rabbitohs have largely looked in all sorts. Despite all that, and two sinbins in two separate games, Latrell has amassed an impressive SuperCoach resumé this season with only one dud score (36 in 70 minutes in Round 3), and otherwise his next lowest scores are 69, 70 and 73.
Like the David Fifita pick, he can potentially be selected for Origin at any stage, but again like the Fifita pick, the upside makes it worthwhile if he remains out of the Blues team, as he will cover both Round 16 and 19 moving forward, missing the sneakily tough Round 17 bye but otherwise being available for all other rounds for the rest of the season.
Reuben Garrick $728,300 BE 58; 38.8% rostered
Garrick is a very popular SuperCoach option already but with the Sea Eagles covering the next two major bye rounds, it’s hard to not see Garrick’s rostership rise further. Garrick has a season average of 73.5 points per game but that rises to 80.1 points per game if you adjust for his concussion-affected score of 1 in three minutes in Round 5.
Sometimes SuperCoach is simple, and getting Garrick in at some point before Round 16 is one of those decisions. You can basically copy paste the same sentiments to Addin Fonua-Blake ($748,900 BE 103; 38.6% rostered).
Nick Meaney $615,200 BE 23; 4.3% rostered
Meaney has gone under the radar somewhat this season, most likely due to his shift to the centres. Let’s be clear, this isn’t much of an upside pick due to the fact he’s at centre and not at fullback or on the wing. However, Meaney has retained the goalkicking duties and appears unlikely to relinquish them to the oft-injured Papenhuyzen, with the Storm happy to let Meaney keep goalkicking until Papenhuyzen feels like his body is fully ready to take on that extra responsibility again.
This goalkicking boost gives him an average of 14 points per game, on top of his usual base and base attack stats of 36.8 points per game. Effectively, Meaney is delivering a floor of 50.8 points per game – about as safe as it gets in the volatile CTW position for SuperCoach.
Api Koroisau $515,800 BE 17; 24.6% rostered
Koroisau is already quite a popular option however as noted above, the Wests Tigers will be available for basically every round left this season – all but for Round 26 when they are scheduled to have their third and final bye. That availability is invaluable as we navigate the remaining major bye rounds and the sneaky little byes in between.
His price has dipped due to injury-affected games, but his minutes and scores have solidified recently as his health has improved. That makes him a bargain at his current price, and the next three teams on their schedule have not been defensive powerhouses so he could easily find some attacking stats to not only score well, but to put himself into a much higher price bracket.
Jahrome Hughes $682,900 BE 115; 5.2% rostered
Hughes has been a popular option over the representative/major bye round periods for many seasons, mostly due to the Storm’s draw and his ineligibility for Origin selection (being from New Zealand has its benefits for SuperCoach). His averages over Rounds 11 to 18 in the past few seasons have been 76, 72, 65 and 78.
Now that Munster is injured, and Papenhuyzen’s return is uncertain, Hughes has to be the man alongside Captain Grant, and we have definitely seen glimpses of his dominating best this season albeit in interrupted bursts due to his ongoing calf issues. That remains the biggest concern for many SuperCoaches, his long storied history of calf issues – but if he can stay healthy he looms as a great bye period option yet again.
Shaun Johnson $710,500 BE 142; 7.9% rostered
So this more of a ‘watch’ scenario, but if SJ’s price dips nicely over the next two weeks he could be hard to ignore in the difficult halfback position this year. With Cleary not an option for a few more weeks yet, and Nicho having to navigate the Origin period and his own byes, there’s a chance that Hughes, Johnson and several other halfback options could play up to six games in the same time that Nicho might only play two.
SJ’s five round average of 88.6 points per game earlier this season shows he’s not a spent force, and health permitting he remains one of the most elusive and dynamic ballrunners in the game. The only tricky part for Warriors players to navigate remains their Round 27 bye – in a round where plenty of other SuperCoach players may be looking at restings and other issues, it’s less than ideal to intentionally set yourself up for some players to be unavailable.
Damien Cook $589,700 BE 2; 2.4% rostered
This is where we start getting ‘into the weeds’ with some lower ownership options. Naturally, all of these names come with some level of risk, but also some decent upside. Now at first glance we are turned off by the fact that Peter Mamouzelous has been on the bench each week, taking minutes at hooker. However, Cook has been staying on the field in various other ways, including most often as a ballplaying middle.
This may be only while Cam Murray is out but he is missing until at least Round 16, and possibly Round 18 as well, plus a fit Cam Murray is a walk up start in the Blues squad so at the very least, Cook will be playing big minutes in Rounds 16 and 19. There is a slim chance of him being recalled to the Blues squad himself but that would require a few injuries to other candidates.
Cody Walker $543,400 BE 28; 2.1% rostered
It feels wild that Cody Walker is being disregarded to this extent by SuperCoaches in 2024, but when you look back at how things have travelled for the Rabbitohs, it’s also quite understandable. Walker has averaged more than one try assist per game for the season, but has only made it past 50 SuperCoach points on four occasions.
The encouraging part of this is that three of these occasions have been in the past four games he has played; the pertinent question here is whether or not we believe Cody Walker can even get back to being 75% of what he has been in the past two seasons? If so, then Walker is tremendous value and could be one of those bye round POD moves that can rocket you up the rankings.
The flip side? He could easily plod along like earlier in the year and it would be an incredibly frustrating ride! He could throw Alex Johnston ($498,200 BE 73; 1.2% rostered) into basically the same bucket, as his fortunes will be very dependent on Cody and Latrell moving forward.
Brian Kelly $644,400 BE 57; 0.3% rostered
Yeah this is super-POD territory but Kelly has been on the fringe of SuperCoach relevance every year, with injury and/or lack of trust from his coach often cruelling his ability to really crack the upper tier of CTW keepers.
With a three round average of 69.0, a five round average of 66.4 and a season average of 62.7, Kelly has been quietly putting together a seriously good season after a slow start (coinciding with the Titans’ slow start generally).
Aside from a Round 1 score of 30, Kelly hasn’t gone under 45 since then and in fact has only four scores under 63 all season. He’s currently one of their two goalkickers (alternating with Kini it seems) but despite having no NRL goalkicking experience before this year, he’s sitting on 10 goals from 13 attempts in the past few games. This one’s for the real risktakers!
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