SuperCoach 2018: Former champion Wilfred Zee’s top 10 mid-range buys
IT’S almost impossible to fill a season-opening squad with guns and rookies so here’s former champ Wilfred Zee’s list of mid-rangers who could propel you to SuperCoach glory in 2018.
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IT’S been well-established that generally, the best strategy to achieve overall greatness in SuperCoach (and also in head-to-head formats too) is the tried-and-tested “Guns and Rookies” method.
That is, fill your team with as many premium guns and as many cheap moneymakers as possible.
But inevitably there isn’t a perfect number of guns and rookies that fit our starting squad of 25 each year so all SuperCoaches end up taking a punt on at least one or two, if not more, mid-range players.
For the purposes of this article, I’ll be looking at a variety of players who sit priced at an average of between 30 to 60 — that is, above cheapie and below gun range.
So, here’s my list of the top 10 mid-rangers who could propel you to SuperCoach glory in 2018.
1. Josh Mansour (CTW, $451,900)
Fresh off his worst-averaging season (50.9ppg) of the past five years, Mansour should be back to full fitness after his ACL injury in the post-season of 2016. At times last year the Sauce appeared to lack confidence in his ACL, failing to contest bombs among other issues. Is this something that Mansour has worked on? If so, then perhaps we will see him back at full confidence, and we know that he definitely has room for improvement. Throw in the presence of James Maloney now on the left edge, and most likely Waqa Blake at left centre (or really, anybody but Tyrone Peachey), and Mansour is sure to see more ball in attacking areas for hopefully plenty more attacking stats.
2. Greg Inglis (FLB-5/8, $519,200)
GI needs no introduction as a SuperCoach commodity, but he starts the season priced below a 60 average for the first time in a long time, courtesy of a nasty ACL injury in Round 1 of last year and a sizeable discount. GI is priced at a 58 average (approximately) which is not cheap at all, but he has returned averages of 66, 64, 65 and 60 in the four seasons prior to his one-game 2016. With the fullback position guaranteed according to latest reports coming out of training, and possibly one of the best opening draws across the first four weeks of the season (he doesn’t leave Sydney at all and plays the Warriors, Panthers, Sea Eagles and Bulldogs), he could be one POD-alicious mid-ranger that you could take a punt on to start the season.
3. Hymel Hunt (CTW, $284,400)
He’s not guaranteed a spot in Round 1, but he’s in the mix for a centre or a wing spot in the new-look Rabbitohs backline. Hunt is practically priced as a cheapie, but what is appealing is the opening draw plus the fact that he only scored one try and registered one try assist all last year. He also had a first round concussion-affected score of 3, but therein lies the risk — Hunt has proven himself to be somewhat concussion and/or injury prone, missing a number of games. However, when he plays and he plays fit, he is a hard worker. In fact, despite his average of just 32 last year, the appealing aspect is that his scores (excluding Round 1’s three), exclusive of tries, try assists, line breaks and line break assists, resulted in an average of almost 29 points per game — a very solid baseline for a player of Hunt’s price.
4. Peta Hiku (CTW, $279,100)
Hiku returns to the NRL after a short stint with the Warrington Wolves in 2017 after falling out of favour at the Panthers. Hiku boasts averages of 47, 49, 49 and 46 in past seasons before multiple stints off the bench last year, mostly playing as a bench edge forward, saw him average 31.4ppg which is the reason for his cheap price. Hiku is a polarising figure in SuperCoach circles, mostly because he has the reputation of being a ball hog. He only earned the ire of SuperCoaches though due to his time as Panthers’ left centre, as his ballhogging ways saw him with a very high baseline for an outside back, but also the ability to kill many left-side attacking raids which probably sees one Josh Mansour cross untouched for a line break try. But that doesn’t matter when he’s the one that you might be interested in picking up …
5. Jai Arrow (2RF, $308,800)
2017 average: 34.8
It’s no surprise Arrow’s name shows up on the list but he has a very good chance of being the Jarrod Wallace of 2018. In other words, don’t start with him and you’ll be behind the leaders from day dot. In much the same narrative as Wallace’s 2017, Arrow has gone down the M1 in search of a starting spot in the Titans pack, and bigger minutes. There’s no doubting Arrow’s obvious talent and ability, nor is there any question over his workrate and fitness. It appears highly likely that Arrow will land the starting lock position and we should see him playing plenty of minutes in the middle, especially with Ryan James’ shift to the left-edge backrower position. He may not end up playing 60-plus minutes like Wallace did last year, but he’ll easily eclipse the 29 minutes per game from 2017.
6. Cam Murray (2RF, $394,400)
Rumour says that Murray will be starting lock for the Rabbitohs, with Sam Burgess shifting out wide beside Cody Walker to form what is a fairly scary combination in attack. I don’t need to say much about Murray if this is true, other than to point out that in his five games playing 50 or more minutes last year (including two 80-minute games), he averaged 63.2 points from an average of 69.6 minutes per game, compared to the 21 points from 27.5 minutes per game in the other four games where he came off the bench. Gun.
7. Ben Matulino (FRF, $459,800)
2017 average:
Matulino actually performed better than I thought in 2017 when I looked up his stats (51.8ppg). He’s always been an “okay” SuperCoach option aside from his one breakout year in 2016, when he averaged 62 from 58 minutes per game. A licence to offload and plenty of minutes is what Matulino needs to excel, and judging by what Aaron Woods did at the back end of 2017 (in terms of minutes and offloads), Matulino could very well step into a similar role. Throw in the fact that the likely top 17 will feature Benji Marshall in the utility role, two middle forwards (most likely Sue and Twal) and possibly an option like Esan Marsters who can play both edge forward and also in the centres, then you’ve got a perfect situation for Matulino to play big minutes.
8. Kalyn Ponga (FLB, $419,900)
2017 average: 52.6 (priced closer to a 47 average)
Another name I don’t need to say much about as plenty has been said about him. But as far as mid-rangers go, if he lands the goalkicking at the Knights on top of his slightly discounted price (on top of his injury-affected single-digit score pulling down his average too) then he has the potential to score far higher than his current price, ensuring that he both outscores his value and also makes you money so that you can upgrade him at the right time.
LISTEN!!! The podcast team dissect important pre-season news and reveal their early picks for 2018.
9. Mitchell Moses (HFB-5/8, $454,800)
To look at Moses’ 2017 average of 51.2ppg more realistically, you have to break it down a little bit. There’s the Tigers’ stint — first 10 games of the season at an average of 44.2 (with goalkicking too); then there’s the Eels — the last 14 games for an average of 56.3. That already looks good, right? BUT, then you take out the seven games where Gutherson took back the goalkicking … well, that leaves Moses with an average of 70.3 points per game in those seven games! So for 2018, Moses will start as the first-choice kicker as Gutho is unlikely to be ready for Round 1 — it means that he may spend at least the first month, if not longer (so as to not place as much pressure on Gutho to kick after returning from such a serious leg injury), which could see Moses really “kick on” and score substantially higher than his starting price.
10. Damien Cook (HOK, $378,100)
Some of you may remember that I took a bit of a gamble last year, choosing to not auto-start with Cam Smith and taking the punt on Macca. Well, the stars may have aligned to allow the risky punters among us the option of not starting with Smith again. The signs out of the Rabbitohs is that there is going to be just the single 80-minute hooker in the team, and my money would be that hooker being Damien Cook. Well, Cook averaged a tidy 63.1 points per game (against a season average of 42.6) in the seven games he played 60 minutes or more. That’s going to give you plenty of points above his current value. It just comes down to where you spend the almost $300,000 (!!!) that you save from not going with Smith …
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Originally published as SuperCoach 2018: Former champion Wilfred Zee’s top 10 mid-range buys
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