KFC SuperCoach NRL 2021: The best premium and mid-range playmakers
Huge KFC SuperCoach NRL points and some serious PODs are on offer at halfback and five-eighth to start 2021. We rate the field.
SuperCoach
Don't miss out on the headlines from SuperCoach. Followed categories will be added to My News.
It’s a field chock full of KFC SuperCoach NRL superstars featuring the game’s single game record scorer and a bloke named Nathan Cleary.
NB This is not an exhaustive list of every player available at HFB & 5/8, if you think we missed any player worth considering please let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
GUNS
Name: Nathan Cleary
Position(s): HFB
2020 avg.: 82.9
Price: $734,300
Analysis: The best part of $750,000 is a scarily large part of your starting salary cap to spend on a halfback, but Cleary may just be worth it. Coming in to 2020 Cleary’s past four season averages read 66, 70, 62 and 68, so a big 2020 was on the cards; but not even his most ardent fan probably expected the Penrith half to finish the season averaging 83PPG. From his 18 regular season games Cleary failed to score 60+ just four times, the same frequency with which he exceeded 100 points (and he scored 99 twice). Cleary’s run numbers declined in 2020, and with that his number of tries halved. But the Penrith half more than made up for that area of decline with a big jump in try assists, goals and forced drop outs. A reduction in assist numbers is possible but still not enough to put me off finding the cash for a player who has scored 80+ in 36% of games across the past two seasons.
Name: Cody Walker
Position(s): 5/8
2020 avg.: 74.1
Price: $656,000
Analysis: Cody Walker is often portrayed as a KFC SuperCoach rollercoaster’ but I’m not sure that’s fair. Take a look at his production over the course of the past five seasons:
That’s phenomenally consistent production at an elite level. As a non-goalkicking half Walker lacks the 60+ consistency of Cleary or Shaun Johnson. And he has not produced as consistent a PPG average over the past five seasons as Cameron Munster. But where Walker has outshone all of those guns is his durability and thus total points scored.
I do love a table, so see below showing the total points, games played, average score and rate of scoring 60+ for the best halves over the five seasons 2016-20:
Walker averages slightly less than Cleary, Johnson and Munster, and yet has scored far more points. He is also more reliable in terms of scoring 60+ than his fellow non-goalkicking five-eighth Munster.
That’s history I hear you say. And you, dear reader raise a valid point. So what should we expect in 2021? Well, I suppose that depends on two things.
Firstly, will Wayne Bennett stick to his late 2020 gameplan which gave Walker a roving licence and saw him swing from his favoured left side to right when he saw opportunity? Because if he does it means points. Walker was set loose over the back end of 2020 and he delivered averaging 92.3PPG from round 12-20 including a game record 203 in round 20 against the Roosters.
Secondly, how will Latrell Mitchell’s return affect Walker? Mitchell injured his hamstring mid-way through round 16. His absence saw Walker take full control of the attack (maybe not quite full, Adam Reynolds was still doing Adam Reynolds, but Walker was the dominant force) and the result was 10 try assists and three tries in four games.
I’ll move on, but you may have picked up that I’m a Walker fan and won’t be trying to talk anyone out of selecting him.
Name: Cameron Munster
Position(s): 70.0
2020 avg.: 5/8
Price: $620,100
Analysis: The table above shows that Munster has been elite for a while now, the ‘eye test’ suggests he may still be getting better. Laid low by knee injuries twice in 2020, Munster was limited to just 15 games. Boasting an excellent base (for a five-eighth) thanks to his willingness in defence, and a dangerous running game (third for tackle busts and second for offloads), Munster just needs to stay healthy to once again finish at or near the top of the position. He will miss the guiding hand of Cam Smith at hooker, but Smith’s replacement Harry Grant is no mug and Munster’s output may improve with him taking an even more dominant role in attack.
Name: Shaun Johnson
Position(s): HFB|5/8
2020 avg.: 68.1
Price: $603,500
Analysis: The OG of the current gun halves division, Shaun Johnson will not be available for selection for at least the first 6-8 rounds as he recovers from an Achilles injury suffered in round 19 and in the interests of brevity I’ll just jog on and cover SJ when he is fit.
Name: Daly Cherry-Evans
Position(s): HFB
2020 avg.: 64.4
Price: $570,500
Analysis: Mr Consistent, Daly Cherry-Evans’ past four year averages have run 62, 62, 62 and 64. DCE often ranks just below the top-tier halves, but over the back half of 2020 he produced elite scoring averaging 73.5PPG in the final 11 regular season games cracking triple figures three times in that span. Averaging better than a try assist/linebreak assist per game, DCE is also a damaging ball runner recording the most tackle busts and third most linebreaks of any HFB in 2020. There is some conjecture that the return of Tom Trbojevic will have a negative impact on Cherry-Evans’ output but I’m not buying it; Turbo helps Manly score points and the more points Manly score the better DCE’s SC output. If your budget does not quite stretch to one of the elite players above, and you don’t want to take a chance on a mid-ranger below then DCE is a safe if slightly less exciting alternative.
MID — RANGERS
Name: Kurt Mann
Position(s): 5/8|HOK
2020 avg.: 64.4
Price: $570,200
Analysis: Kurt Mann was phenomenal in 2020 producing consistently well both at five-eighth and hooker. And yet I cannot recommend him as a buy for 2021 and detail why in our Hooker Deep Dive here.
Name: Dylan Brown
Position(s): 5/8
2020 avg.: 63.8
Price: $564,700
Analysis: Fun fact, Dylan Brown averaged more tackles per game than Storm prop Jesse Bromwich and Penrith powerhouse Viliame Kikau. Yes I know it’s not an apples and apples comparison, but I found it interesting so there you go. Now all that work in defence equals one thing in SC, base production and no half punched out base like Brown who averaged 37BPPG in 2020 which was 6PPG more than Cam Munster and four more than Ben Hunt (who spent a fair portion of the season defending at hooker). Brown also averaged better than eight runs per game and better than 11PPG in tackle busts and forced dropouts combined. He had too many quiet games in 2020 (six sub-50 point games) to be classified as elite in SC, but is also young and should only get better in 2021. I would prefer to pay slightly more for a true gun to start the season, and have a mid-ranger for $140K less that I really like, but Brown would certainly be worth a go in draft if you missed out on a gun and could get him late.
Name: Jarome Luai
Position(s): 5/8
2020 avg.: 62.3
Price: $551,400
Analysis: Luai was a cheapie who looked likely to make decent money at the halfway mark of 2020 but finished as a genuine keeper. Across rounds 1-10 Luai averaged 51.7, over the second half of the season he averaged 72.8 (91PPG over the final six weeks). To his solid base (24PPG), Luai added better than a try assist/linebreak assist per game and solid tackle bust, forced dropout and even offload numbers. I feel you are paying overs as a result of that sensational finish to the season and cannot recommend at the price.
Name: Jahrome Hughes
Position(s): HFB
2020 avg.: 61.1
Price: $540,900
Analysis: While his playmaking partner Cam Munster, fullback phenom Ryan Papenhuyzen and some bloke called Smith earned all the attacking plaudits at the Storm, Hughes just quietly went about his business scoring 80+ in 44% of his games. That’s the good, now the bad, in those games where he didn’t reach 80 points (nine games), Hughes averaged just 36.9PPG five times failing to reach 35PPG. While Cam Munster and the left are demanding so much of the ball, Hughes and his right are stuck playing the support role too often for him to be worth the SC risk.
Name: Adam Reynolds
Position(s): HFB
2020 avg.: 59.6
Price: $528,000
Analysis: Adam Reynolds had a pretty good year in 2020, good enough that he finished with a career high season average despite scoring -4 in round 12 (absent that game he actually averaged 63PPG). Another who falls short of the elite class, but his price never falls far enough to make him worth selecting unfortunately.
MORE SUPERCOACH:
KFC SuperCoach NRL: 21 players set to shine in 2021
SuperCoach club-by-club guide to transfer madness
KFC SuperCoach NRL transfer guide — Part 2
Strength of schedule: SuperCoach draw analysis
KFC SuperCoach NRL 2021 Cheapie Bible
CASUALTY WARD: Every club’s injury list revealed
Tom Sangster’s 2021 KFC SuperCoach NRL team
Rob Sutherland’s 2021 KFC SuperCoach NRL team
KFC SuperCoach 2021: Wilson Smith’s team revealed
Name: Kyle Flanagan
Position(s): HFB|5/8
2020 avg.: 59.2
Price: $524,600
Analysis: Despite starting 2020 with just nine games of NRL experience under his belt, Flanagan finished the season averaging 59PPG over 18 games. That was not enough to save his job though and the Roosters cut the young half. Now at the Bulldogs he has a major KFC SuperCoach problem — that he’s at the Bulldogs. Flanagan scored 336 points from goals in 2020, thanks to the high-scoring Roosters’ offence. He will not get that many shots at goal playing for the Bulldogs. Pass.
Name: Luke Keary
Position(s): HFB|5/8
2020 avg.: 58.8
Price: $521,200
Analysis: Luke Keary is a superstar player who will no doubt finish 2020 with a very good, though not great KFC SuperCoach PPG average. However, he is too erratic as he does not kick for goals nor have a big base via tackles like Dylan Brown. In 2020 Keary scored 25 or less in five 80 minute games, he also scored 80+ five times. Pass.
Name: Jack Wighton
Position(s): 5/8
2020 avg.: 58.3
Price: $516,100
Analysis: Another player who is capable of big scores on his good games but those big scores are interspersed with too many sub-50 scores (10 scores of 50 points or less from 19 games played in 2020). Another pass.
Name: Mitchell Moses
Position(s): HFB
2020 avg.: 54.3
Price: $481,000
Analysis: After an impressive 2019, Moses failed to really kick on in 2020. One glaring area of decline was try assists with Moses averaging better than one a game in 2019, an output which declined by over half in 2020. To put numbers to that, Moses averaged just shy of 20PPG in try assists/linebreak assists in 2019 but just 8PPG in 2020. I expect some boune back but until that happens the safest approach is to consider 2019 an outlier and make Moses a watchlist player at best.
Name: Ben Hunt
Position(s): HFB/HOK
2020 avg.: 51.2
Price: $453,200
Analysis: Ben Hunt’s SuperCoach value lies entirely on whether he plays halfback or hooker in 2020.Hunt started nine games at hooker in 2020 averaging 59.5 which is not elite - but his BPPG average of 37.3 is a rather tasty round one proposition as a ‘play it safe’ half selection. Unfortunately new Dragons coach Anthony Griffin has indicated that Hunt will most likely start 2020 at halfback and therefore he’s a no from me.
Name: Chanel Harris-Tavita
Position(s): HFB|5/8
2020 avg.: 48.1
Price: $425,900
Analysis: I’m think Harris-Tavita is a gamble worth taking in the halves, so much so that I selected him in the first draft of my 2021 team. Here’s what I wrote then: Having been flipped and flopped between half, five-eighth and bench utility in 2019 and early 2020, Harris-Tavita was given the chance to show his halfback chops from round 13 2020. And in the seven games he played (he missed round 15 due to concussion) at halfback CHT averaged a stellar 65PPG. A handy goal kicker who has a decent base, Harris-Tavita averaged almost an offload and a forced dropout per game over said seven-game span. The young Warriors is my (now not so) sneaky POD pick of the pre-season.
Name: Michael Morgan
Position(s): HFB|5/8
2020 avg.: 48.5
Price: $386,700
Analysis: Back in 2017, Rob weighed 8kg less and Michael Morgan was a legitimate SuperCoach selection, sadly (in both cases) time waits for no man. A hard pass.
Name: Jake Averillo
Position(s): 5/8|CTW
2020 avg.: 37.4
Price: $331,200
Analysis: Kyle Flanagan has been brought to the Bulldogs as the new midfield general and coach Trent Barrett recently gave the biggest clue as to who he plans to partner Flanagan in the halves. I’ll save you a click - though the article is well worth a read as Barrett gives plenty of insight into how he sees the Bulldogs in 2021 - Barrett says he sees the running of Averillo complementing Flanagan. Averillo played 13 games in his debut season, four off the bench, seven at centre and most pertinently his final two games at five-eight. Now two games is not a big sample size, but there was plenty to like in what we saw. Averillo scored in multiple stat areas with try assists, offloads, a linebreak, forced drop out and solid base all combining for a very tempting average of 63.5PPG over the two games. Now, that did include 16 points in one game from goalkicking and Flanagan will take the tee, but even removing those points, 55.5PPG is not too shabby at the price. Many are big fans, I’m a moderate fan largely because two games is an awfully small sample size, but I won’t try to talk you out of him too hard.
Name: Anthony Milford
Position(s): 5/8
2020 avg.: 34.4
Price: $304,600
Analysis: Remember what I said about Morgan and 2017 (and barring a history of heavy canabis use you really should as it was just 100 words ago), well you can rinse and repeat it here. Or can you? Milford was pretty horrible last year, but he had plenty of mates in an annus horribillis at Red Hill. Kevvie Walters is back at the Broncos and that’s good for Milford because 1) he was a mentor to Milford in 2016 (a year Milford averaged 67PPG) and 2) Walters has committed to giving Milford the support and game structure needed to make him shine again. I have Milford on my never again list. But the talent at the price is beguiling. I must confess, I still believe, Kev’s given me a sign to pick the Milf just one more time.
Originally published as KFC SuperCoach NRL 2021: The best premium and mid-range playmakers
$50K richer: SuperCoach champ’s first expense is shouting Kyle Flanagan
SuperCoach winner Blake Gentle is a groomsman at the wedding of Dragons five-eighth Kyle Flanagan and he knows exactly how he’ll have to spend the first part of his $50,000 winnings.
‘We’ve got to deliver’: No excuses as Sharks ready for finals charge
Craig Fitzgibbon knows few are giving his Sharks much hope in a week one NRL finals match-up with Melbourne, but the Cronulla coach is relishing the opportunity.