Croker’s Call: Big names arrive to cease slide

• CAPTAIN’S CHALLENGE: Who to skipper in Round 11?
• STAT ANALYSIS: Vital numbers to beat the best

After our flying start to the season, the Stockmen are on a slow but gradual spiral down the rankings.

Between James Tedesco, Kalyn Ponga and Ryan Papenhuyzen the fullback position has caused some grief for my squad.

After patiently holding onto Papenhuyzen while injured, it was unfortunate to see him cop a nasty knock last week and play few minutes.

Hopefully he recovers well to put himself in the frame for an Origin debut if required.

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I scored 1,280 last week to drop to 10,000 overall, my worst ranking since round 2!

My centres and wingers struggled, but most importantly I didn’t place the captaincy on Nathan Cleary who had an outstanding game to end Magic Round.

My recruit Tom Trbojevic was terrific as captain, but not on Cleary’s level this week.

I’ve had enormous amounts of cash stored up for some time now, and I’ve struggled to spend it on upgrading cheap players as injuries continue to crop up.

It hasn’t changed this week as I have a staggering $325k in my bank after this week’s trades!

Here’s hoping to an injury free week in the NRL.

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TRADES

RYAN PAPENHUYZEN to JAMES TEDESCO

 A pretty obvious move this week with Papenhuyzen out indefinitely for the Storm.

Fortunate for my Raiders this week as he’s an exceptional footballer, but regardless, it’s never good to see a player from any side involved in an incident such as Papenhuyzen’s last week.

In comes James Tedesco who is extremely cheap this week and returned to form last week with a big score.

When I say ‘returned to form’, I’ve not exactly witnessed Teddy play many bad games in his career, it’s simply that he sets the bar so high week in, week out, that anything less than a masterclass is considered quiet for the star fullback.

For that price I’m very excited to recruit him back into my side after having to get rid of him a while back due to his earlier head knock.

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JOSH CURRAN to ANGUS CRICHTON

Curran has been strong for the Warriors this season on the edge since recently earning a start.

Unfortunately it’s another forced move due to his injury, so hopefully he comes good soon and it isn’t too serious.

He’s done a nice job earning me cash, now it’s time to move him on.

In comes another Rooster to my team this week in Angus Crichton.

Crichton is one of the most reliable back-rowers in the competition and it clearly translates to SuperCoach scoring as we’ve seen.

He really solidifies a strong back-row for my team, and can hopefully lead to a return inside the top 10,000.

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CAPTAINS

As I tend to do, the captaincy will go on a recruit, giving them a chance to repay the faith!

Due to that, Tedesco has the crucial role for me so I’ll be backing him to put a score on the Broncos this week.

It limits my vice-captaincy choices significantly as I don’t have too many players early in the round.

As such, I threw it on Tyson Frizell last night. Not ideal, but I also left Connor Watson out of my team who didn’t score too well, so it’s been an okay start to the week.

Good luck to everyone in Round 11!