NRL SuperCoach Last Word round 11: Reigning champion Sam Rohlf

REIGNING SuperCoach NRL champion Sam Rohlf is battling injuries and suspensions this week and turning to POD picks in order to make his move up the ladder.

Reigning SuperCoach NRL champion Sam Rohlf.

I’M calling it now, my team is going to struggle this week.

After making my two trades this week I’ll only have 19 players to pick from for the remainder of the SuperCoach NRL — presented by hipages — season.

It’s not a great spot to be in eleven weeks into the comp, but it is what it is with injuries ravaging my squad.

The depth of my squad is stretched to its limits with the unavailability of Cam Smith and Mahe Fonua as well.

Five of the players that will be on the pine this week that I can’t select are high percentage owned players Cam Smith (44%), Sione Katoa (37%), Lachlan Croker (29%), Mahe Fonua (26%) and Shaun Johnson (22%).

Katoa looks like he’s going to be that guy I hold all season in the hope he gets named again, but probably won’t. Going by his ownership percentage, I’m not rowing that boat alone. If things go to plan, Croker will be traded to A J Brimson next week, if I haven’t put a jinx on it already.

Reigning SuperCoach NRL champion Sam Rohlf.

Last week I posted a score of 1172. It was my second highest score for the season and a good enough score to win me 8 out of 10 league matches. I was happy with that until lockout on Monday when I realised that it was only good enough for a weekly rank of 11,341. My overall total now sits at 10,149 and my rank improved by 1270 spots to 10,578, still well off the pace.

The trades last week of Jai Arrow (DNP) to Andrew Fifita (89 points) went as well as could be expected and Mahe Fonua (71 points) out scored the guy he replaced Peter Hiku (52 points) so I’ll consider that a pass mark for the week.

The only real POD that plays each week for my team is Joseph Tapine (3%) who has been on a roll over the last three weeks with a three round average of 73 points and a five round average of 59 points.

If I’m to make up any ground this season, my future trades will have to come from guys that have less than 10% ownership, in fact the lower the better.

My first trade this week, Rhyse Martin, picks himself and again he will be the number one trade target for most coaches this week.

He has a huge negative break even of -74, and the only drawback is he won’t be playing in round 13.

Sam Rohlf is trading in Brisbane’s Anthony Milford.

I can cop that while we hopefully sit back and watch him make a boatload of money. Martin was traded in at the expense of Scott Sorensen who might not play the first bye even if he is fit and over his broken hand.

My second trade this week was the one that gave me the most angst since the teams came out on Tuesday.

With Shaun Johnson not putting the boots on again this week my only other option was Ryley Jacks.

With a combined three round tally of 82 points from his last two and a half games of football including two tries, I just didn’t want to be stuck playing him till SJ was fit.

I only had $481,700 to spend and at that price the only two options were Connor Watson at $416,600 (with a break even of -1 and so gives cover for the first bye or a bottomed out Anthony Milford at $481,400 but has the much higher break even of 57.

In the end I have gone with Milford. If I had to pick between the two, who I would prefer to be left with if I run out of trades (19 left), it would be Milford by a long way.

He may not be in vintage Milford form but his SuperCoach pedigree and his ownership being under 10% (Watson ownership 17%) gets him over the line in this one.

With only $300 left in the bank and a pre-planned trade next week of A J Brimson in for Lachlan Croker that should net $110,000, I’m hoping that my team can go through a weekend unscathed and I can maybe save a trade some time soon.

Good luck all this week.

Originally published as NRL SuperCoach Last Word round 11: Reigning champion Sam Rohlf