Croker’s Call: Rookie season comes to a close

• FINAL WORD: SuperCoach awards for 2020 season
• STAT ANALYSIS: Vital decisions to beat the best

It was another rise for Croker’s Stockmen as the strong finish to the season continued.

The boys put together 1,132 points to jump into 17,263 position on the SuperCoach ladder.

Hopefully we can get up for another strong week to climb into the top 15k, and it looks possible with lots of teams seemingly short with all the players rested in Round 20.

Embed from Getty Images

Jarome Luai and Kalyn Ponga were the pick of my side, with very few low scores, but no big ones.

It looks like I can field a full team pretty comfortably this week so that’s promising.

On a sour note I was knocked out of my public league in the prelim final by just 20 points.

My little mate Sammy Williams snuck home in his clash to advance to the SC Playbook decider against brother Tim who is in the hunt to win SuperCoach, so good luck to him!

I’ll be sitting out this week for a rest, so Sammy will skipper the Raiders.

He’s been a long time servant of this club and I’d struggle to think of anyone who deserves it more.

Go get em mate…

I have one trade spare this week, so let’s have a look at Round 20.

Embed from Getty Images

TINO FA’ASUAMALEAUI – DANIEL TUPOU

Tino has done a nice job for me, punching out some big scores off the back of his threatening attacking raids on the opposition line.

Melbourne have given him a rest to peak for finals, so in comes Daniel Tupou.

I’ve got Ben Trbojevic in my centres, so I’ll switch him up to the back-row to make this happen.

As they tend to do, the Roosters are hitting their straps at the business end of the season.

Tupou is an incredible aerial threat that Luke Keary and Kyle Flanagan target over and over again, so hopefully he latches onto a few this week.

Embed from Getty Images

CAPTAINS

My skipper for this week will be on Kalyn Ponga who is in devastating form.

He gets the twilight game against a vastly improved Titans outfit on Friday night and can continue his form and hopefully record some big points for me in the process.

My vice-captain will be on Payne Haas who returns from a week off and will be desperate to help his club off the bottom of the ladder, so I’m hoping for a big performance there.

My debut SuperCoach season has been a blast. I’m in a respectable position and made the finals, so it was a positive start to my career.

Hopefully next year with a season under the belt I can push a spot in the decider.

Good luck to everyone this week in their grand finals!