Wayne Hartas goes from ‘hating’ KFC SuperCoach to $50,000 champion

SuperCoach champion Wayne Hartas, 62, is old school. He doesn’t use spreadsheets, barely uses social media and only started playing SuperCoach after being pestered by his son.

Until recently, Wayne Hartas hated KFC SuperCoach and would “give it” to his son about playing.

Fast forward a few years and he’s $50,000 richer as SuperCoach champion for 2023.

“I only got into it because of my son,” says the 62-year-old from West Hoxton in Sydney’s west.

“His mates would come over after uni with their laptops and special spreadsheets and I hated it.

“I was like ‘come on, this is just a game. There is more to life than this, just let me watch the footy’.”

But in the words of his son’s best mate and league commissioner Alex Smith (pictured below): “We’d been playing SuperCoach for 10 years or so and needed a few extra numbers. We got Wayne on board and the rest is history.”

Wayne Hartas just won $50,000 as SuperCoach champion 2023. Picture: Julian Andrews

GOING OLD SCHOOL

Hartas is semi-retired and works two days a week for a plumbing company.

Before that he worked for 35 years as a fitter and machinist.

He’s the first to admit he’s not particularly digitally savvy.

“I was forced to join Facebook this year to keep up with the guys in my league,” says Hartas, who beat almost 160,000 SuperCoaches to the major prize.

“Before that I had nothing, no spreadsheets. I just studied the games and picked the players.

“I watch every game but at the end it got so nerve-racking I couldn’t watch anymore.”

RUTHLESS COMPETITION

Wayne plays in one of the more brutal competitions in SuperCoach.

There are three leagues and promotion and relegation for the top and bottom 10 teams.

“It’s pretty rough but it keeps people accountable,” says Smith.

“It keeps people on their toes, you’ve got to be playing for the entire year.

“We’ve got some by-laws drafted up. Everyone is accountable and we all know what’s going on.”

Wayne Hartas (right) with his $50,000 cheque for winning SuperCoach. Wayne is pictured with his mate Alex Smith who persuaded him to enter the comp. Picture: Julian Andrews

STRESSFUL FINAL ROUND

Wayne came into the final round in second spot but with only 14 players as NRL coaches rested their stars.

It was enough to get home but not without some stressful moments.

“I spoke to my son Mitch about tactics. I said I need a lot of things to go my way. Everything needed to fall into place.

“I needed the Storm to beat the Broncos because that meant Nathan Cleary and Brian To’o would need to play for the Panthers (as they chased the minor premiership).

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“I knew a lot of rivals had Joey Manu so I needed him not to play and that happened (he was ruled out with a hamstring injury).

“Then I thought I was done when Manly went large against the Tigers and I didn’t own Daly Cherry-Evans or Tolu Koula.

“Then I thought I was done again when Cody Walker didn’t go well.”

“On Sunday night we sat up for hours crunching numbers. I thought I was just going to get done.”

Wayne Hartas is $50,000 richer. Picture: Julian Andrews

THE WINNING MOVE

Wayne flip-flopped over the captaincy all of the final weekend — right until 30 seconds before eventual captain Nathan Cleary took the field.

“I had the VC on Isaako (who scored 96) so I was going to loop him. Then two minutes before lockout I changed to Cleary as captain. Then I switched it back to Isaako and finally switched back to Cleary with literally 30 seconds to go.”

Cleary went on to score 298 as captain, which proved the vital move as Wayne edged home by 60 points.

THE SECRET TACTIC

Hartas is a big proponent of going hard on trades.

“I traded to win,” he says.

“If you drop too far behind, you’re gone.

“I ran out of trades in round 23 when many others had trades up their sleeve.

“I only had a couple of trades left after round 20 (the final bye round).”

Originally published as Wayne Hartas goes from ‘hating’ KFC SuperCoach to $50,000 champion