NRL SuperCoach winner Wilfred Zee reveals his 10 fearless predictions for 2017 season

IF you only read one SuperCoach article in the off-season, this is it. Newly-crowned champ Wilfred Zee reveals his 10 fearless predictions for 2017.

WHAT a year 2016 turned out to be in the NRL SuperCoach world. We witnessed the end of an era with Corey Parker’s retirement, the unexpected (albeit underwhelming) return of one of the greatest SuperCoach backs in Jarryd Hayne, as well as the emergence of some of the most impressive SuperCoach rookies of all time (and bona fide future SuperCoach guns) in Cody Walker and Nathan Cleary.

Yet after a season full of twists and turns all year, I’m already looking forward to next year! I know I’m not the only one who is already thinking about 2017 with much excitement and anticipation and it’s to all you fellow SuperCoach junkies that I now present my 10 fearless predictions for the 2017 NRL SuperCoach season.

MEET WILFRED: Father’s Day, $50K, new bub all on same day

SuperCoach winner Wilfred Zee with new born son Noah and wife Janice. Noah arrived the same day as Wilfred won NRL SuperCoach. Picture: Jono Searle

1. Anthony Milford will reign undisputed as the best half option in SuperCoach (excluding DPP options)

I had to start with something Broncos related, obviously. The ‘Milf’ finished 2015 as the ninth highest points scorer overall, and third highest points scorer in the halves, behind only Carty and SJ. Playing every minute of every game this year and absolutely dominating the competition over the first 10 rounds of the year (averaged 89), it’s easy to forget that he has only just completed his second full season at five-eighth. In his first two seasons of transitioning from fullback to five-eighth, he has finished with a 65 and 67 average respectively – I expect the upwards trend to continue as he develops more consistency and as a more mature playmaker.

In addition, with Parker’s retirement he has now become the second choice goalkicker at the Broncos behind Jordan Kahu. It seems likely (unfortunately, given Kahu’s injury history, only playing and/or playing the full 80 mins in 14/24 games this year) that Milford will be lining up for some goalkicks throughout the year and boosting his scores as a result. Anything below a 70 average in 2017 will be a disappointment.

Wilfred is backing Anthony Milford to average over 70. Picture: Peter Wallis

2. Cameron Smith will again be the premium option at hooker

The story of 2015 was that Cameron Smith was the number one hooker option, followed by daylight. Smith averaged 69 points per game, five points ahead of the next best averaging hooker on 64 (Seggy – remember him?) and 150 points more than the second highest total points scorer in McCullough (despite playing one less game).

2016 saw this gap multiply exponentially. Check these figures out – Smith finished a whopping 300+ points clear (again, despite playing one less game) and averaged 15 points per game more than the next best hooker option in Jake Friend (78 average vs 63 average). Basically, if you didn’t have Smith you didn’t have a chance this year. Will you make that mistake again next year?

As a smokey, Issac Luke only took up the goalkicking midway through the season this year after SJ picked up his lingering quad injury. This, coupled with increased minutes generally, saw him average 72 from his last 9 games, a significant increase on his season average of 63. Of particular interest was that he did extremely well as SJ’s back-up, kicking at over 82% for the rest of the season compared to SJ’s 74% accuracy. Watch this space.

Cameron Smith is the best hooker in SuperCoach.

3. Tom Trbojevic will be the highest-averaging CTW in 2017

That is, assuming he retains his CTW/FLB dual position status (which, given he played fullback, centre and wing, he should!). Tommy Turbo managed to average 65 points per game this year despite being shunted to various positions throughout the season, and playing on one leg for most of it as well. This is on top of the lack of continuity for the Sea Eagles, with the halves, hooker, his centre partner, his wing partner, all chopping and changing throughout the year.

We saw a snapshot of what TTurbo could score at fullback in a four-week period where the spine was settled, and he and DCE started to strike up a combination. If his troublesome ankle is fixed in the off-season, and the Sea Eagles can settle on their best possible spine and line-up, then look out!

Tom Trbojevic soars high against the Panthers in the final round. Picture: Mark Evans

4. The emergence of a new ‘God’

Let’s take a moment to remember with fondness the contributions of the great man himself, Mr Corey Parker. Long gone are the days of locking Parker in as captain on a Friday night, knowing that you’ll be rolling into Super Saturday with the foundations of a solid SC score.

So who will assume Parker’s spot in the upper echelon of FRF/2RF options? I’m excluding Paul Gallen and Sam Burgess from this, given they are already the other two recognised premium options.

The obvious answer appears to be Ryan James, this year’s third highest overall points scorer, sixth highest averaging player with 72.9 (of players who have played more than two games) and highest FRF/2RF dual position player. However, he had to equal the record for most tries scored by a prop in a season (11 in the regular season, most if not all with linebreaks accompanying them) in order to log those numbers.

I would suggest therefore that the heir apparent is actually Trent Merrin, the sixth highest overall points scorer for this year and fifth highest averaging player with 73.7 (of players who have played more than three games). In fact, if Mez didn’t miss that one game with “suspected glandular fever” and hit his average, he would have ended up as the third highest overall points scorer for the year. He did also score five tries himself, solid numbers for a lock.

Honourable mention goes to Jack De Belin, who also had an impressive year.

SuperCoach ‘God’ Corey Parker will retire at the end of the year.

5. Make sure you get invited to the Carty Party in 2017

Don’t worry if you didn’t receive any invitations to the Carty Party this year – there will be plenty more in 2017. Carty’s emergence as a premium SuperCoach option, as boldly predicted by Tommy Sangster himself at the end of 2015, was every bit as good as it was hyped up to be. The Penrith Panthers are only going to get better (smokey pick for top four next year), especially if Te Maire Martin continues to develop and he forms a young and exciting halves combination with Cleary.

This should allow Carty to shift back to his natural and preferred position on the right edge, so we should see less crab-walking across the field and hopefully plenty more damaging runs and effective offloads. Higher base stats, still the same high ceiling, it is scary to think that this should mean his current average of 74 is still a bit low for him … I’m looking forward to 2017 already!

Bryce Cartwright is a must for 2017. Picture: Gregg Porteous

6. Paul Gallen will play less than 15 games, but average above 75 points per game

Gal managed to get on the field 18 times this year (not including the time he was a post-lockout late withdrawal!), the highest number of games he has played for the past five years. He also turned 35 in August, yet his manager has somehow managed to convince the Sharks to pay him to go around one more time. His minutes have dropped to 64 per game (down from 76 minutes per game in 2015) as his ageing body is managed by Flanno, but his work rate remains as high as ever.

Even Gal cannot stop Father Time though, and his ongoing battles with various body parts being bruised/battered/strained/torn or injured in one way or another will keep him off the field for at least a third of the season, and infuriate SuperCoaches everywhere. Still, it’ll be another sad day for SuperCoaches everywhere when one more former staple of our past teams departs for good.

Paul Gallen is too injury-prone for SuperCoach. Picture: Mark Evans

7. Fullback will be the hardest position to pick at the start of 2017

Where do I start? Take your pick of two options from:

• Jarryd Hayne, who should be priced at an average of 37 from his five games (possibly even less, given that players who play less than seven games in a season are usually given a bit of an extra discount), which should see him comfortably under $250,000. Assuming that’s his starting price, if he’s not in at least 70% of teams, then some SuperCoaches just aren’t trying!

• Roger Tuivasa-Sheck averaged 54 from his seven games this year, but started slow and was really warming to the task before an ACL injury cut his season short. An average of 54 should see him start the year priced around the $330,000 mark, which should actually be very close to where he started 2015. Juicy. 54 is also 23 points below his 2015 average of 77, and with the news that Stephen Kearney is off across the ‘dutch’ to take the reins, I’m personally seeing an improved culture and at least a top eight finish for them, which should mean plenty of good scores for RTS (as well as Luke, SJ… possibly even Foz?)

• Billy Slater (assuming he survives pre-season), who was already discounted to start with in 2016 only to go down after a solitary score of 50 – will get another discount and be priced around $250,000 to $300,000.

• Insert bottom dollar rookie sensation (Kalyn Ponga? Matt Dufty?) who for some reason is locked in at FLB only.

• The “saving a trade” option – locking in James Tedesco or any other premium option for the long haul.

One can only hope that one (or a few) of these guys get a kind DPP (FLB/FE for Hayne, or even FLB/CTW would be nice) to help us get them all in to our teams.

Jarryd Hayne is set to be the most popular player in 2017.

8. 2017 will be the Year of the Burgess

Sam Burgess has come back after a brief flirtation with ‘that other code’ / a holiday for his body battered by the constant and rougher contact of league (depends on how you look at it) to post an underwhelming season averaging 75 points per game this year – underwhelming when you compare it to his premiership-winning 2014 where he averaged 89 across 23 games that year. 2016’s 75 average is nothing to sneeze at as he smashed his way to being the fifth highest overall point scorer for the year despite two injury-interrupted games (averaged over 78 if you take out those two games).

I expect improvement in 2017 (even if the only thing he fixes is his butterhands in order to make at least one less error per game!), so if he stays fit, expect an average comfortably north of 75 and a solid captain option each week.

Sam Burgess is set for a resurgence. Picture: Mark Evans

9. 2017 will be the Year of the Burgess

No it’s not an echo or an editing fail, my ninth fearless prediction is an expected return to form for “Gorgeous George” Burgess. After exploding on to the SuperCoach scene in 2013 with an average of 65 points per game, injury, off-field distractions and subsequently indifferent form has seen him slowly slide away from SC-relevance. An average of 36 from his 17 games this year is a pittance for someone of his ability, and assuming he is able to overcome the niggling hip/other injuries that have hindered him all season, and he can return to his playing weight and fitness level of the 2013 and 2014 seasons, he will be a bargain for the start of 2017 at somewhere in the low $200,000s. Keep an eye on his off-season!

George Burgess has plenty of room for improvement. Picture: Mark Evans

10. NRL coaches can no longer “cut and paste” their team lists from Monday night games … but still do.

Every SuperCoachs’ nightmare in 2016 has been the blatantly obvious and inaccurate Team List Tuesday (TLT) announcements and constant final team list shenanigans, especially from the teams who have just played on the Monday night. The rhetoric from most of the coaches were that it was “too soon” after the Monday night game to then have their players assessed and confirmed as available or not for the Tuesday 5pm deadline.

Well, that excuse will be gone as of 2017 with the demise of Monday Night Football. Unfortunately, I don’t expect the team list shenanigans to stop though, not until there are some changes enacted from up top requiring more transparency and accountability regarding player injuries and last-minute changes.

Until then, us poor SuperCoaches will have to stay on our toes, keeping our ear to the ground with late mail and of course, monitoring final team lists when released in the hour prior to kick-off of each game. A tip from me personally, get on Twitter and follow the right people. I made that call halfway through this season and it saved me a lot of time and stress when I wasn’t always able to easily check final team lists and only had time to glance at Twitter.

Craig Bellamy is the most paranoid coach in the NRL when it comes to team lists.

Bring on 2017

Well there you have it, my 10 fearless predictions for NRL SuperCoach in 2017. For now, let’s enjoy the rest of the finals series as there are some cracking games lined up for this week. Then it’s only four more months before SuperCoach 2017 will be open again, I can’t wait!