Croker’s Call: Hold or sell missing guns?

• BYE GUIDE: Who to target in make-or-break rounds
• STAT ANALYSIS: Vital numbers to beat the best

It’s been a crazy seven days in the NRL and SuperCoach world with many injuries across the game.

It changes the dynamic of Magic Round that promises to be extremely exciting this weekend.

I copped a few injuries last week, but I know others have had it far worse, so I’m not in a position to whinge. I’ll save that for the next section…

I didn’t own Tom Trbojevic for his big score. It set me back with a score of 1,243 which I thought was alright until Tom ended all hopes of a rise in rank.

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The Stockmen dropped to 7,248 overall which was disappointing. Jason Saab and Charlie Staines on my bench didn’t help the cause.

On the brighter side of things, captain David Fifita still went pretty well, as did Frizell, Haas, Brailey and Jake Trbojevic who looked good.

I also got knocked off in my SC Playbook head-to-head league clash with the Spy, bugger.

I did save two trades last week so that’s something I suppose.

Let’s see if we can get back on track in Round 10.

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TRADES

DAVID FIFITA to RYAN MATTERSON

Unfortunately Fifita is suspended for a few weeks and has to go.

I haven’t put much thought into the bye period which I haven’t experienced in my SuperCoach career yet due to the altered 2020 season.

I’ve been told to recruit some players for Round 13, so Ryan Matterson is coming on deck.

He’s a high quality footballer who works hard in big minutes and has plenty of potency in attack.

He’ll be an extra number for the early bye which should stand me in good stead.

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KALYN PONGA to TOM TRBOJEVIC

Ponga had a short stint in my side, and it was pretty painful as he did some damage to my men on the weekend.

Now missing a few weeks due to injury before an Origin call up, he has to go.

In comes Tom Trbojevic who fortunately for Manly and the game itself has returned from another injury lay off in style.

It’s daunting for the rest of the competition and it’s in the best interest of the game that he stays fit. Also more importantly for the Blues.

He’s a star in SuperCoach and it’ll be much better watching him as an owner in SuperCoach.

These trades leave me with $230,000 in the bank to use next week, hopefuly to upgrade my 5/8 position which I’ve been wanting to do for a long time but have struggled due to other concerns.

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CAPTAINS

My new man Tommy will be my captain this week, how could he not be on what he’s shown recently?

Let’s hope he can go big at Suncorp Stadium to put some ease to the pain he cause my side last week as a non-owner.

This limits my vice-captain options to the first game of the round between Newcastle and the Tigers.

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I’ll be going with Tyson Frizell who doesn’t seem to be talked about much in SuperCoach, but he’s been doing a great job for me this year.

Hopefully he can cross for a couple of tries this week as he appears to not be owned by too many others.

Good luck to everyone this week!