Captain's Challenge: Who to skipper in Round 16?

The injury to Nathan Cleary will shake-up the all-important captaincy decision each week until he’s back and firing, and that’s exciting for SuperCoach as we look to find an edge on our rivals.



Last round, which feels like an eternity ago, we successfully tipped SuperCoaches into Tom Trbojevic as skipper for his enormous 208 point outing against the Titans.



Unfortunately for this author I wasn’t an owner, sigh…



It looks like one way traffic again this week with Turbo being the clear pick, but plenty won’t own, while the risk of him being rested for what looms as a straight forward clash against the Bulldogs is possible.



People looking to climb ranks, or salvage head-to-head victories, will also be looking for more of a POD option in Round 16.



Let’s take a look at the main players to target this week.



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<h2 class="wp-block-heading">TIER ONE</h2>



TOM TRBOJEVIC



I can’t find a reason why you wouldn’t skipper Tommy T if you owned.



I’m very confident he goes 150+ against a depleted Bulldogs outfit this week.



The only reason he won’t is if he went off at halftime with Manly up by a strong margin, even so he’d probably be close to 100+ by that stage anyway.



This is possible, but with a six day turnaround from Origin you’d hope he gets even 60 minutes in the clash.



He has six tons in eight games this season for a 127PPG average, including 208 last round.



The Bulldogs concede the fifth most SuperCoach points to fullbacks.



I won’t add more details as his record speaks for itself.



As the standout pick, he’s the sole player in the tier one category this week.



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<h2 class="wp-block-heading">TIER TWO</h2>



DAVID FIFITA



David Fifita owners will have a very narrow window where they own him as a semi-POD before everyone else jumps on in Round 18/19.



That means he becomes a serious POD skipper option, already boasting two massive tons to his name this season.



The Titans have a six day turnaround from Origin and must beat the Raiders, so I expect Fifita to play at a minimum 60 minutes, but it should be 80.



The Raiders concede the second most points to second-rowers this season, and Fifita put 88 on them back in Round 4.



His 43BPG isn’t great for an 80 minute forward, but we know his power stats put his floor to a substantially higher amount than that.



He’s scored double digit points in tacklebreaks in all bar two games this season. He even had nine tacklebreaks in 34 minutes on field against the Roosters post Origin two starts back.



He’s also had 30 offloads this season, with all bar two being effective for four points.



CODY WALKER



For non-Turbo owners I quite like Cody Walker who is hitting his straps and will be fighting for Nathan Cleary’s vacant Origin position.



He produced his first ton of the season last round, and has a 3RA of 90PPG and 5RA of 80PPG.



The Tigers produced one of the most dismal defensive performances we’ve seen last start against the Storm where they conceded 66 points.



That left edge of the Bunnies, led by Cody, could have a field day.



As mentioned previously, Cody has been sweeping both sides of the field which is huge for his scoring output.



In one sense I fear that the Tigers (who lost 18-14 to the Rabbitohs in Round 6) have to bounce back following the embarrassing defeat. On the other hand they may just not be up to it.



In that game, Cam Munster somehow only put 66 points on, while Jahrome Hughes put 123 on.



The Tigers concede the second most SuperCoach points to halfbacks, and the most of any side to five-eighths.



All signs lead to a Cody ton in this one.



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DALY CHERRY-EVANS



I don’t expect many to own DCE, but for anyone considering going Cleary to the Manly skipper this week, you must be tempted to skipper, especially if they don’t already own Turbo.



He has three tons this season and is coming off scores of 85 and 148.



A few words of warning, the Bulldogs do defend halves okay in SuperCoach, conceding the sixth most points to halfbacks and the ninth to five-eighths.



Also, DCE does have eight scores under 50 this season, five of which have come with Turbo in the team.



The Bulldogs are depleted though, and I expect him to go big this week coming off the Origin disappointment.



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<h2 class="wp-block-heading">CAPTAIN RISKY/POD SKIPPERS</h2>



KODI NIKORIMA



I’m not that keen on Kodi personally, but I can see why you’d be tempted.



I think Chad Townsend’s arrival should complement Nikorima quite well and allow him to play a bit more free-flowing footy as The Chad gets the side around the park.



Hopefully we see Niko sweep both sides of the ruck, it could be huge.



I fear that he has a low score in him, but his form suggests different, having not scored under 50 since Round 7 against Melbourne.



He has three tons this season including a top score of 134.



The Dragons do defend halves okay, conceding the eighth most points to halfbacks and 5/8s.



I do think the match up reads well for him regardless.



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SHAUN JOHNSON



SJ could carve an understrength Broncos on the points conducive surface of Suncorp Stadium.



The injury risk is a real threat thought, so I’d personally avoid, but he’s worth noting.



Having strung a few games together since returning from injury he’s in decent form with a 3RA of 70PPG.



In his prior three games he did have outputs of 28, 59 and 27 against the Panthers, Storm and Bulldogs.



If the Sharks put a score on he could go large, but are his days of big tons over and done?&nbsp;



ALEX JOHNSTON/DANE GAGAI



While I prefer Cody as an option who will be feeding this pair, they both warrant cases off stunning runs of form.



They have 3RAs of 119PPG and 101PPG respectively, and they can keep those averages in three figure territory this week.



The risk is that if the Tigers do show up they can go sub 50, or in AJ’s case sub 20.



The Tigers concede the eighth most SuperCoach points to CTWs.



I personally feel far safer going Cody on the inside who will get more touches and can hopefully scrap to 50 odd in the event the Rabbitohs don’t pile on many points, but it’s a fair case to go with the outside backs.



Being the last game of the round we unfortunately can’t put the VC on them.



LATRELL MITCHELL/KALYN PONGA



I won’t go into details as this pair have very few owners at the moment, but if you are one they’re both huge plays against the Tigers and Cowboys respectively.



Latrell in particular looks very enticing…



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<h2 class="wp-block-heading">AVOID</h2>



NICHO HYNES + no VC



Firstly, with many SuperCoaches down on numbers we may get a half okay crack at the vice-captaincy loophole this week.



Hynes plays in the opening game of the round, so that’d rule him out as an option of VC if he were to be a straight skipper.



Many are questioning whether the Roosters are still a defensive force, but I think they are.



Between a host of in-game injuries and the sin-binathon against the Broncos I think they’ve had genuine excuses this season (as much as it pains me to admit).



While the Storm are the pinnacle of the competition, it’s a pretty decent Roosters outfit still and I expect them to put up a fight.



Nicho could score well of course, but I don’t see him getting the big 130+ we want from a skipper in the current era of SuperCoach.



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<h2 class="wp-block-heading">VERDICT</h2>



Provided he backs up, Tom Trbojevic is a must, lock him in.



He plays on Saturday at 3pm, so the vice-captaincy has to come earlier than this.



There aren’t many options, so I think the pick of the VC options are Jarome Luai, Matt Burton or Kodi Nikorima.



I’d lean towards Nikorima for anyone who picks up.



For non Turbo owners, I like the look of Cody Walker as skipper, closely followed by David Fifita.



SUPERCOACH TERMINOLOGY KEY



MPG = Minutes per game



PPG = Points per game



PPM= Points per minute



BPG = Base per game (point accrued in tackles + runs + missed tackles)



POD = Point of difference



3RA = Three round average



5RA = Five round average



BREAKEVEN (B/E) = The score a player must record to earn a price rise.



*Please note all our stats are taken from the geniuses at&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nrlsupercoachstats.com/">nrlsupercoachstats.com</a>

Captain’s Challenge: Who to skipper in Round 16?

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