TCT SuperCoach: Your Weekly Guide to Surviving the Season

The second major bye round of the season is now behind us, and many coaches, like myself, struggled to field a full 13 players.

Congratulations to Terry’s side, wollies warriors, who topped the TCT round with an impressive 1,198 points. Meanwhile, Chris’ side, Senior Paulo, continues to dominate the overall TCT standings as he pushes towards a place inside the top 100 globally.

My Team

I finished Round 15 with 855 points. It wasn’t pretty, but it was largely expected. The result saw me fall almost 1,500 places in the rankings, though I’m still sitting inside the top 2% overall. As stated in last week’s article, I was happy to sacrifice one week of scoring in order to preserve trades for the run home, where I’m hoping to make a significant charge up the rankings.

My first trade was bringing in Kai Pearce-Paul for Heilum Luki. On paper, I was happy with the move as it helped set my side up for the back end of the season. Unfortunately, it couldn’t have gone much worse. KPP lasted just 10 minutes before suffering a season-ending pec injury.

As for my second trade, I brought in Zac Hosking for Reece Walsh via the flex position. Hosking punched out a respectable 66 points without setting the world on fire. I’m hopeful he can retain his 80-minute role for at least another month while Simi Sasagi remains sidelined.

To make matters worse, Makasini was a late omission from the Tigers side, leaving me with just 10 active players (nine excluding KPP).

Thankfully, I vice-captained Herbie Farnworth, who delivered a massive 137 points. That score was an easy loop decision and saved what could have been an even uglier round. Without Herbie’s heroics, my score would have looked far worse.

Attention now turns to this week’s mini-bye round, where I thankfully have more than enough numbers available.

Round 15 Review

Let’s break down the key SuperCoach takeaways from Round 15:

Premium Guns

Herbie Farnworth (CTW – $858.2k – 137 points):

As many expected, Herbie carved up the Roosters’ inexperienced backline, producing a try, two try assists, a try contribution, two line breaks and two line break assists. That performance pushes his three-round average to an incredible 119 points per game. With such a reliable floor and enormous ceiling, he’s one of the top captaincy candidates for the remainder of the season.

Herbie is the number one CTW in the game at the moment

Alex Johnston (CTW – $718.3k – 124 points):

We’ve reached the point where a four-try game from Johnston barely raises an eyebrow. The Rabbitohs have their final bye of the season this week before entering a favourable run home. Their toughest remaining fixture is against the Panthers in Round 18, though Penrith will be without their Origin stars. Johnston shapes as a terrific target for the run home and should continue to score tries for fun, particularly with Latrell Mitchell expected to return to his edge in the coming weeks.

Mid-Range Movers

Jarome Luai (5/8 – $509.1k – 139 points):

Three tries, two line breaks, five offloads and six tackle busts helped Luai record the second-highest SuperCoach score of his career. While his bye coverage is excellent, I’m still not convinced Luai is a buy. Luai has shown throughout his entire career that he has a very low floor, and I expect that to continue. He won’t be playing the Titans every week.

Isaiah Iongi (FLB – $603.2k – 97 points):

Since returning from injury, Iongi hasn’t missed a beat, averaging 84.7 points across his last three games. Against Canberra, he produced two try assists, three line break assists, a try saver and strong base stats. Iongi is a central part of Parra’s attack and, as the Eels continue to find form, I expect the attacking stats to keep coming. At just 2% ownership, and with coverage for the third major bye round, he’s shaping as a fascinating POD option.

Iongi is the backbone of this Parra attack

Keano Kini (FLB – $600.3k – 140 points):

Kini hasn’t quite been the slam-dunk SuperCoach pick many expected this season, but he continues to remind us of his enormous upside. His 140-point effort against the Tigers follows a 157-point performance against Parra earlier in the year. The concern, however, is the inconsistency between those huge scores. Across the six games in between, Kini averaged just 58.8 points. While he could prove a useful cash play, the Titans also face a brutal stretch of fixtures: Panthers, Bulldogs, a bye, Storm and Manly over the next five rounds.

My Trades

At this stage, I’m planning on making the following move:

• Scott Drinkwater >>> Mark Nawaqanitawase

Marky Mark has looked outstanding since returning from injury, scoring a hat-trick against Canberra and following it up with a double on his State of Origin debut. I’m backing him to have a huge finish to the season, especially given it will be his last before returning to rugby union. While I expect him to retain his spot for Origin III, the Roosters already miss Round 18 anyway, so the only potential concern is backing up in Round 19 against Parra. With Origin being played on Wednesday and the Roosters not kicking off until Saturday night, I’d still expect him to back up.

As for Drinkwater, he started brilliantly after I brought him in, producing a 119-point performance. However, he has since followed it up with scores of 29 and 60. With a breakeven of 143 and a difficult run of fixtures ahead, I’m comfortable moving him on.

Captaincy

VC – Greg Marzhew vs Dragons (H)

I’m clinging to the hope that Greg can recreate his Round 10 demolition of the Dragons, where he scored five tries and posted the fifth-highest SuperCoach score of all time (207 points).

Captaincy – Herbie Farnworth vs Tigers (A)

At this stage, Herbie gets the captaincy. After last week’s performance, I’m backing him to take advantage of a Tigers defence that has looked vulnerable.

Of course, the likes of Nathan Cleary against the Titans and Kalyn Ponga against the Dragons also loom as elite captaincy options. However, after both being involved in Origin II, their availability is uncertain at this stage. If you’re considering captaining either of them, make sure you monitor any late changes to team lists.

Best of luck everyone. Drop your thoughts, trades and captaincy calls below!

SC Adrian

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