SuperCoach: Daley Vs Lockyer

LAURIE Daley and Darren Lockyer review their round two NRL SuperCoach efforts and outline their strategy for round three.

Darren Lockyer and Laurie Daley

LAURIE DALEY: THIS is the biggest year of Paul Gallen's career - 26 rounds of NRL, three Origins and a World Cup, not to mention the stress of the ongoing Cronulla drugs drama.

And given player welfare is a key plank of our mission statement at the mighty Daley Telegraphs, I've taken the executive decision as a SuperCoach to limit the workload on my star player. With the help of acting Sharks coach Peter Sharp and Shane Flanagan before him, we've devised a plan to limit Gallen's minutes to about 65-70 per week, instead of his usual 80 minutes.

And although he remains captain of the Sharks, I've taken the massive step of introducing a rotating captaincy policy at the Daley Telegraphs. Most people thought South Sydney coach Michael Maguire was loopy when he named five captains last year.

I must admit Madge's decision turned a few eyebrows in our sheds.

But just like NRL coaches, Nissan SuperCoaches are always out to steal the latest strategy.

And with South Sydney producing their best season in decades last year, I've jumped on Maguire's bandwagon, deciding to avoid a regular captain and instead picking my SuperCoach skipper each week depending on form, opposition and gut feel. The tactic is working a treat. New age coaching at it's very best.

After two rounds, the Daley Telegraphs currently sit in the top 3.5 per cent of all SuperCoaches.

I decided to get Gal's captaincy burden out of the way early, naming him captain for round one, thinking he'd be fired up following the Sharks drug drama. 184 points. Thanks very much. Last week I captained Robbie Farah, believing the Tigers would be desperate to respond to a horrid round one loss to the Panthers. He promptly banged out 230.

But Robbie's turn as team leader won't last long. Greg Inglis will get his turn as captain this week given he is playing the Panthers and will be looking to bounce back after being well-contained against the Sharks.

Johnathan Thurston, Feleti Mateo and Trent Merrin will all get the "C" at some stage depending on the situation. Let's just hope my rotation policy doesn't go the way of the Aussie cricket team.

My squad for round three (with round two scores): Greg Inglis (48), Matt Gillett (55), Darius Boyd (29), Roger Tuivasa-Sheck (27), Gerard Beale (29), Johnathan Thurston (61), Adam Reynolds (62), Trent Merrin (79), Robbie Farah (115x2), George Burgess (34), Paul Gallen (77), Feleti Mateo (47), Jeremy Smith (52). Reserves: Kurt Gidley (38), Tohu Harris (71), Dale Finucane (9), Justin Horo (50)

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Round three: NRL SuperCoach Last Word

DARREN LOCKYER: IT seems I missed out on the "must have" player.

Despite all the time I spent scrutinising the player pool, and all the efforts I made to cram the likes of Johnathan Thurston, Billy Slater and Cam Smith into my side, I just didn't see the early standout for this year's NRL SuperCoach competition would be Tigers captain Robbie Farah.

While I have spent the first two rounds scratching my head over what was going wrong with The Darrels, other SuperCoach players were laughing it up as Farah - and their teams - climbed to the top of the leaderboard.

With Brisbane prop Josh McGuire's calf injury sidelining him for up to a month, however, I've now taken my chance to play catch up and boosted my forward pack with Farah.

I am surprised he's the leading player after the opening rounds but I feel it has to do with the new system complimenting attacking players. Farah has always been very involved in the Tigers' attack and I can see why this system suits him.

I just have to work to stay on top of who is benefiting from the new system. The inclusion of Farah has led me to make another swap.

Even though I was completely confident at the start of the season that Cam Smith would be the best captain for my team, I'm now having second thoughts.

He is averaging a fairly solid 63 points a game but in the grand scheme of things it's not enough.

I've decided to take the risk and make Farah my captain.

I can't ignore what he's been scoring and while I reckon the Storm will play well against the Dogs tonight , I have to try to take advantage of Farah's SuperCoach purple patch.

Picking a captain is really a week-to-week proposition as some players are going to come up against stiff opposition and it's going to restrict our chances of grabbing some top-notch points.

Maybe that's why Smith hasn't been reaching his usual heights lately, but the Tigers should do well at Leichhardt and hopefully Farah doesn't make me regret my captaincy switch.

My squad for round 3 (with round two scores): Billy Slater (48), Greg Inglis (48), Chris McQueen (44), Michael Gordon (97), Jacob Loko (37), Johnathan Thurston (61), Cooper Cronk (130), Jamie Buhrer (48), Cameron Smith (54 x 2), Robbie Farah (115), Greg Bird (87), Ben Te'o (65), Justin Horo (50). Interchange: George Burgess (34), Albert Kelly (78), Tohu Harris (71), Jason Taumalolo (32).