Suliasi Vunivalu is the NRL Round 14 SuperCoach spoiler

A bit like Sam Burgess or Jesse Bromwich this year, patience is an SuperCoach must-have. The case of Suliasi Vunivalu is the perfect example.

IN any given NRL round many players go large in terms of SuperCoach, scoring multiple tries, try assists and offloads.

Most of them are your standard SuperCoach superstars, owned by every team that’s not auto-selected. But others come out of nowhere or manage a huge jump in output.

These are our SuperCoach spoilers. The players whose success leads to the demise of countless SuperCoach teams.

Suliasi Vunivalu | Melbourne | CTW | $299,600

A bit like Sam Burgess or Jesse Bromwich this year, patience is an NRL SuperCoach must-have.

The case of electric Storm winger Suliasi Vunivalu is the perfect example.

The Fijian flyer was one of the most traded out players in Round 14 by coaches with dollar signs in their eyes and trade fingers twitching over a host of potential cheap keepers.

And didn’t he make his doubters pay.

The 20-year-old, who has only been playing league for two years, continued one of the best SuperCoach debuts in memory with his first career hat-trick.

Those coaches who cut ties were left cursing their haste, forgoing the 192cm, 99kg winger’s 82 points as the Storm scored their biggest ever win over the injury ravaged Roosters.

SuperCoach standout Suliasi Vunivalu scores his second try against the Roosters. Picture: Mark Evans

Vunivalu has now posted 11 tries from his seven NRL matches.

That’s the best of any winger in the comp bar Cronulla’s Valentine Holmes (12). And did I mention Vunivalu has only played in seven first-grade matches?

A former member of the Auckland Blues rugby union development squad, Vunivalu was spotted by Storm scout Paul Bunnand and entered the Storm system in 2014.

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“He’s only played about 20 games of rugby league in his life, but he makes hard things look easy sometimes,” Bellamy said earlier in the year. “He is a tremendous kid, he is very respectful and hardworking.”

Like many wingers, Vunivalu’s scores can be inconsistent and up until last week his base scoring average was just 20 points.

However, so far this season he’s strong scoring matches have far outweighed his poor ones and when he goes well he has a tendency to go big.

Since his debut against the Tigers in Round 7 he’s scored 72, 64, 76, 25, 99, 14 and Saturday’s 82. Not bad for a player who started at the basement price.

While the Storm won’t play a weak Roosters outfit every week they do play two bottom-eight teams in the next two matches and Vunivalu’s BE is back in the negative.

If you kept him, he’s definitely worth holding at least until Melbourne’s Round 18 bye.

Originally published as Suliasi Vunivalu is the NRL Round 14 SuperCoach spoiler