Dave Von Kotze’s Saturday NRL SuperCoach wrap: More injury dramas but cheapies also perform

SUPER Saturday left SuperCoaches and Shaun Fensom with a massive headache as a couple of big name players and cheapies joined the growing casualty list.

Raiders Josh Papalii. Canberra Raiders vs Sydney Rooster at GIO Stadium in Canberra. Picture Kym Smith

SUPER Saturday left SuperCoaches and Shaun Fensom with a massive headache as a couple of big name players and cheapies joined the growing round two casualty list.

However, there were plenty of positives to come from the three games including three players cracking the ton and the vast majority of cheapies aiming up and fattening very nicely as cash cows.

Josh Papalii (97) - took Perfect Eight honours and fell just short of a triple-figure score with a huge game.

Papalii’s haul came from two tries, 21 tackles, 10 hit-ups, four tackle busts and four offloads.

Josh Hodgson (62) - played a pivotal role in the Raiders’ second half comeback setting up a try, making 28 tackles and kicking a crucial 40-20 in the closing stages which laid the platform for Sam Williams’(32) match winning field goal.

Available at HOK for $340,700 and has averaged 52.5 for the first two games of the year.

Latrell Mitchell (55) - started at fullback to score his first NRL try in superb style and made five tackle-busts to repay the faith of those owners who wore his round one score of 13. Mitchell was sitting on 48 after 20 minutes but wasn’t as effective during the second half and lost eight points due to missed conversion attempts.

Sam Burgess (116) - Burgess is back. He played 77 minutes and left his owners who put the orange ‘C’ on him fist pumping after they watched him make 21 hit-ups, 21 tackles, five tackle-busts and two line-break assists which both came from the eight effective offloads he made. As if that wasn’t enough, he threw a cut-out pass that any half would be proud of for a try assist.

Aaron Gray (140) - ran riot with a monstrous score which included a first half hat-trick, with all three tries including line-breaks.

Bryson Goodwin (129) - a career high score here for the Rabbitohs CTW who had an afternoon packed full of attacking stats. Goodwin will start round three with an enormous negative break-even after scoring a double, setting up another, kicking six goals and adding another eighteen points to his total with a line-break and a line-break assist.

Cody Walker (76) - an explosion of natural talent, this $122,600 cheapie has averaged 65 for his first two NRL games. Walker has set himself up to be one of the bigger early season money makers after another outstanding SuperCoach performance which included two try assists, two effective offloads, a line-break assist and 24 tackles.

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Paul Carter (56) - only played 50 minutes which is 24 minutes less than round one. But he scored with a PPM of 1.12 setting up a try after breaking the line, making 19 tackles and running the ball on 13 occasions.

Pat Mata’utia (59) - locked himself in as a genuine cash cow next time he takes the field after another solid SuperCoach performance.

Sam Mataora (59) - notched an impressive 1.5 points per minute of game time to go into next round with a two game average of 51.5. A serious case of cha-ching coming the way of the owners of this $177,000 FRF cash cow.

Nathan Peats (75) - another outstanding game from the Parramatta hooker inflating his score with a well-earned try. Sent the blood pressure of his owners soaring to dangerous readings after leaving the field with 13 minutes left to play with what appeared to be a serious elbow injury. Early reports from the Eels camp suggest that it is a sprain, not a break, but owners will still have a nervous wait as they await further confirmation.

Ethan Lowe (80) - two tries in two games has seen Ethan Lowe fly out of the blocks for the second year running leaving potential owners with much to ponder due to the fact he will play two of the three big bye rounds.

Johnathan Thurston (64) - was well defended by the Eels and didn’t get his hands on the ball as much as usual but still delivered two try assists with line-break assists and two conversions to post a respectable 64.

Shaun Fensom (-1) - left the field in the first few minutes with concussion and one missed tackle. His 12 per cent of owners were using another word starting with ‘S’ other than ‘Super’ to describe their start to Super Saturday.

Lachlan Croker (4) - not the most memorable of starts for the cheapie half on debut. Failed to have much impact in the game and left the field with a shoulder injury just before halftime.

Vincent Leuluai (2) – looked as if he would receive more minutes than on his debut last week but only lasted 4 minutes after suffering a knee injury.

Kane Evans (46) - unbelievable work rate when on the field scoring at 1.15 points per minute, but not receiving the extra game time that owners had hoped for averaging 42 minutes for the first two rounds. Roosters FRF Dylan Napa (45) has been placed on report which could see changes to the bench rotation should he face suspension.

David Bhana (10) - only played 11 minutes due to an ankle injury and failed to return. A blow for the owners of this bottom dollar cheapie.

Jaelen Feeney (5) - rough start in the NRL for this bottom dollar cheapie who played the full game at fullback. One of the few Newcastle cheapies who has not delivered and will find his way out of many teams this week for juicier cash cows.

Greg Inglis (35) - always in and around the action throwing the last pass for two tries but struggled with what looked like a rib injury he sustained early in the match.

Semi Radradra (24) - plain and simply not getting anywhere near as much ball in attacking position as he did in 2015. Eels have faced tough opposition in the early rounds.

Michael Morgan (18) - Parramatta’s solid defensive structure also limited Morgan’s attacking stats with the $372,700 5/8/FLB set for a massive drop in value after averaging only 21 points for the first two games of the season.

Originally published as Dave Von Kotze’s Saturday NRL SuperCoach wrap: More injury dramas but cheapies also perform