SuperCoach NRL: Wilfred Zee’s fearless predictions for round 14

CAPTAIN: Sam Burgess in clash with the Titans. FLOP: Origin stars like James Tedesco. UPSET: The Raiders to pillage top-of-the-table Panthers.

• NRL teams and Late Mail for Round 14
• SuperCoach NRL POD Watch Round 14

WITH Round 13 in the rearview mirror, hopefully your bye planning didn’t get absolutely hammered like some poor souls who lost up to five players due to injury, suspension or Origin selection.

It was a big moving week for some in SuperCoach — presented by hipages — whether that be up or down the rankings! Of course, the bye period is also challenging because of having to factor in who is going to back up after the game, if you’ve carried a few Origin players.

It’ll be another critical week for the overall standings, so let’s have a look at Round 14.

1. Captain Pick — Sam Burgess

So last week’s prediction felt pretty good, as the game went almost to script: Taumalolo played 80, high floor, scored a try = a great captain score! If only I took my own advice more often hah! This week, I’m liking Sam Burgess against the battling Titans. I’m not entirely sure that Sam will start the game at lock given Cam Murray being named on the right edge, nor am I that confident that Cook and Crichton even play (despite them being named on the bench), but Surgess seems a good chance of playing 80 minutes again. Whether he plays lock or right edge, I fancy his chances of some attacking stats this week. As a teaser, Angus Crichton scored 166 against the Titans from the right-edge backrower position just last year …

Sam Burgess should get the minutes to do some damage. Picture: Getty Images

2. Stud of the Week — Johnathan Thurston

I must be a glutton for punishment because I can’t stop myself from picking JT to score well. However, I like to think I balance the “eye test” and the “numbers don’t lie” narratives for SuperCoach purposes fairly well. The eye test — JT looked like himself last week, or at least an 80-90 per cent version of the JT we know and love. The numbers: a career average of 79.3 against the Eels (with his past two games against them netting 107 and 72 points) and his two games at TIO Stadium (in Darwin) including last year’s 107-point masterclass against the Eels (with his only other game at the stadium being a whopping 129 points against the Roosters in 2012 — back when try assists were only 10 points, line breaks only eight points and line break assists only six points!). Paul Green has finally made some subtle changes to the team and they looked better last week. And well, the Eels are struggling BIG TIME.

3. Flop of the Week — Players backing up from Origin/James Tedesco

A bit of a cop-out but this is still a valid point. Origin is such a massive game and the players always talk about the intensity and how it is levels above a club game. For the younger players, especially debutants, one can imagine how hard it is to adjust and to back up after such an intense game. Especially those who had absolute blinders at Origin — I’m looking at you Teddy. I suspect if you were to look up the SuperCoach scores for those guys who were instrumental in winning games for their state, that if they backed up the following week their performances were anything to write home about. The one exception to this would probably be Cameron Smith if there was one. So, my somewhat-bold nomination for Flop this week is going to be the Maroon-killer, James Tedesco. Surely after such a massive game, he’s not going to be able to deliver a performance even remotely close to what he dished out on Wednesday night!

James Tedesco will struggle to reproduce his Origin form. Picture: Getty Images

4. The SuperCoach Gold Mine

With only the four games on, you’d think it would be easier to pick the high-scoring games but the reality is that the form of teams without key players is incredibly hard to work out. My pick of the Knights and Eels game netted the second-highest points total of the week with 1526 but it was the Cowboys and Sea Eagles game that took the honours with a whopping 1619 points scored in that game. This week I like the potential of the Raiders and Panthers game, with both teams featuring a number of SuperCoach-relevant players and also with both teams having the ability to put on a score if they run away the game. However, the weather is concerning so I might actually nominate the Sea Eagles and Warriors game as being the Gold Mine for this round, with potential for some high scores for both teams.

LISTEN!!! Tom Sangster, Rob Sutherland and Tim Williams have the big news and views heading into round 14.

5. Upset of the Round — the Raiders

Nailed this one last week as the Roosters showed that they just have too much class in that team, even when missing their Origin stars. This week is tough, given the favourites in almost all the games are clear and well justified. The lineball game this week is the Raiders at home against the top-of-the-table Panthers, albeit with some troops backing up from Origin. If this was any other week I’d have to back the Panthers, but the timing of this one, plus the fact that it is in Canberra, means I must lean towards the Raiders.

Bring on Round 14

This round is sneakily difficult, so I hope we all have some depth to balance the potential outs or reduced minutes on offer from Origin players! Keep a close eye on late mail, and final team lists, as the twist and turns of this week are hardly over!

Originally published as SuperCoach NRL: Wilfred Zee’s fearless predictions for round 14