TCT SuperCoach: Your Weekly Guide to Surviving the Season

Thankfully, the final major bye round of the season is behind us. It was also a week where many  popular captaincy options failed to deliver, making for a frustrating round for plenty of coaches. We now have one final mini bye round this week before Origin disruptions are finally behind us.

Congratulations to Phillip’s side, Parragong Spuds, who topped the TCT league this week with an outstanding 1,134 points. Unsurprisingly, Chris’ side, Senior Paulo, remains on top of the overall TCT standings. However, after scoring 874 points this week, he’ll be hoping for a stronger performance if he’s to continue his push towards the top 100 overall.

My Team

I scored a solid 1,010 points this round, which I’m pretty happy with considering it was a major bye round. More importantly, this continues my gradual climb back up the overall rankings.

My trades were Ativalu Lisati to Keaon Koloamatangi and Tom Chester to Tom Trbojevic. I was very pleased with what I saw from Keaon. Playing 80 minutes in the front row, he posted 89 points almost entirely through base, which is exactly the version of Keaon I was hoping would return. Unfortunately, Turbo was quite underwhelming with 68 points, although that can be attributed to his incredibly tough matchup against the premiership favourites, the Parramatta Eels.

I VC’d Nicho Hynes, who scored a respectable 86 points, but not enough for me to take the loop. My captaincy came down to Turbo or Herbie Farnworth. I originally had it on Turbo, but just before kick-off, the Fox League coverage showed him in the sheds taking his boots off, with reports suggesting he could be ruled out. I quickly switched the captaincy to Herbie. Moments later, Turbo ran out with the team, with Fox explaining he had simply been changing boots. In a way, I was thankful he didn’t go huge, because I would’ve been absolutely filthy if I had changed my captain based on a false alarm.

Unfortunately, Herbie produced his second-lowest score of the season with just 55 points, and Turbo’s 68 wasn’t much better. In hindsight, I should’ve just taken the free loop on Hynes’ 86 points.

Round 18 Review

Let’s break down the key SuperCoach takeaways from Round 18.

Mid-Range Movers

Liam Henry (FRF/2RF – $531.3k – 118 points):

Henry played his highest minutes of the season, but what really stood out was his incredible output. In just 59 minutes, he produced 71 points in base alone. If these minutes continue, he could become a genuine option with dual positioning. I’ll certainly be keeping an eye on him, although it’ll be important to see what his role looks like once Isaah Yeo returns to the middle rotation.

Henry also grabbed a try and two linebreaks to add to his outstanding base.

Paul Alamoti (CTW – $657.7k – 135 points):

After disappointing owners the week prior, Alamoti bounced back in style with a monster performance. He finished with two try assists, two linebreak assists, five tackle breaks, perfect goal-kicking (6/6) and an outstanding 47 points in base. While he’ll lose the goal-kicking duties once Cleary returns, he’s still an excellent CTW option for the run home if you can’t quite afford the premium options, such as teammate Tom Jenkins.

Kitione Kautoga (2RF – $617.2k – 92 points):

Another impressive performance saw Kautoga record a try assist, linebreak assist, linebreak and 54 points in base, lifting his three-round average to 83.3. The Eels do face a difficult stretch with the Roosters, a bye and Penrith, but the draw improves considerably afterwards with the Tigers, Rabbitohs and Cowboys to come. Kautoga is a serious POD, sitting in just 755 teams. I expect his ownership to remain relatively low, with many coaches at this stage of the season looking towards more proven premium second-rowers like Dylan Lucas, Haumole Olakau’atu and Hudson Young, who all cost around $200k more than Kautoga.

Kautoga could be a brilliant POD play from Round 22 onwards.

Valentine Holmes (CTW – $616.1k – 130 points):

After enduring arguably his worst SuperCoach start to a season in recent memory, Holmes has completely turned things around over his past five games, averaging 83.8 points per match. Two tries last week helped him record his highest score of the year. With many coaches selling him earlier in the season, Holmes is now owned by just 5% of teams, making him an excellent POD if you believe he can maintain this form. That said, I understand why many remain hesitant to invest in the Dragons’ attack.

Players of Concern

Herbie Farnworth (CTW – $854.4k – 55 points):

An ankle injury clearly hampered Herbie against Newcastle. He’s still the number one CTW in SuperCoach, so there’s no concern from a form perspective. The only question is his fitness, so I’d be slightly cautious about handing him the captaincy until we’re confident the ankle issue is behind him.

My Trades

I’m honestly a little stuck with my trades this week.

The first issue is Oliver Pascoe, who has lost his big-minute role. I see three options:

1. Downgrade to a nuff and bank the cash.

2. Bring in Owen Pattie, who’s around $100k more expensive than a nuff, but has recently been handed the starting role. In his first two starts, he’s played 55+ minutes and scored 60+ in both games.

3. Upgrade to Blayke Brailey.

I don’t really want to spend big on a second premium hooker, so option three is off the table. That leaves me choosing between banking the cash or bringing in Pattie. At the moment, I’m leaning towards taking the cash. Pattie’s role isn’t completely secure, and the main reason I’d buy him is simply to cover Harry Grant’s bye in Round 24. I’d rather have the extra money available for upgrades elsewhere and just use an AE that week, while also giving myself a free loop.

I also have to deal with the Tony Sukkar disaster. After trading him in two weeks ago, he’s already been pushed back to the bench, making it a pretty horrendous trade in hindsight. The upside is that I’ve now freed up roughly $500k, meaning I can upgrade him straight to any premium second-rower. At this stage, Haumole Olakau’atu is probably the frontrunner. While he is at an extremely premium price of $815k, I don’t think I can miss out on his next two games against the Cowboys and Titans.

If I make those moves, I’ll still have around $117k in the bank. With Marky Mark currently sitting in my flex spot, that gives me enough flexibility to upgrade any underperforming CTW to almost anyone in the game. Kalyn Ponga is certainly someone I’ll be targeting for the run home, although I’ll need to assess my priorities as the season progresses.

Captaincy

VC – Te Maire Martin vs Tigers (A)

TMM has been outstanding this season, averaging 80.5 points per game. Against a depleted Tigers side, I’m happy to take a bit of a POD VC play. I also have exactly 18 active players this week, meaning I can take a free captaincy loop if needed.

Captain – Sua Fa’alogo vs Titans (H)

Sua is absolutely flying, averaging 99.3 points across his past four games. Even more impressive was his last game, where he scored 86 points entirely through base and power despite Melbourne going down 30-4 to Manly. That shows just how high his floor is, and we already know how big his ceiling is. I’m expecting another massive score against the Titans.

Best of luck this week! Let me know your trades, captaincy calls and thoughts below.

SC Adrian

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