Final Word: Trades, tactics, tips, Round 5

2019 runner-up Walson Carlos has the final say on the major Round 5 plays, including PODs, skippers, trades and more.

NRL

There were some massive scoring Supercoach teams this week on the back of a Papi masterclass mainly.

If you didn’t captain Papi in Round 4 you would be kicking yourself, and if for some reason you were a part of the 58% of Supercoach teams who didn’t own Papi, the Storm v Bulldogs game would have been a really tough watch. 

My main takeaways from the round of footy were:

–       If you are not in the 28% of Supercoaches that already have Taylan May then he just absolutely must come in as your first trade this round.  

–       Is Wade Graham the most influential Supercoach player without having even played a game this year? The Cronulla Sharks are so much better than 2021 and Tieg Wilton (probably too late now) and Siosifa Talakai look like great trade-in options. However the impending return of Wade Graham will probably see some Supercoaches avoid these two players for Supercoach. 

–       Tom Trbojevic looked really good on the weekend and such was his form I reviewed The Spy’s article referencing how and when we should get Turbo into our teams. Unfortunately the injury has changed things and now Turbo probably isn’t a trade in until maybe after Origin, even though he is notorious for going beserk on his comeback games from injury. And his comeback game if the four weeks is a correct timeline will be against Wests Tigers at 3pm on a Saturday @ 4 Pines Park (Brookvale Oval). Food for thought.  

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Strategy 

Last weekend I had probably my first serious slip-up of this Supercoach season, but I’m certain it won’t be my last. 

It’s not really that my two main trade-ins Nicho Hynes and Cameron Munster scored well under expectation. 

I still believe they are solid trades as I believe they are both keepers, so I can cop them having an off game. 

But my third trade was set to be Peta Hiku to Taylan May and instead I zagged and brought in Brodie Jones instead. 

It cost me 65 points with Taylan May scoring 97 and a short-of-a-run Brodie Jones scoring 32. 

It’s not so much the points, and of course Taylan May will be coming in for my team this week, it is that the trade was rash, risky and unnecessary.  

Taylan May looked good in his first game and I hadn’t even seen Brodie Jones this year who has been out injured. 

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not unhappy to have Jones as I think with the serious injury Fitzgibbon, concern around Frizell and the long suspension to Barnett means he should get decent minutes in 2RF moving forward. 

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Anyway, it was a poor decision and probably a good one to make early and learn from, although as an experienced SC player I should have known better. 

Sunday was truly my saviour this week. After low scoring from pretty much all my players on Thursday, Friday and Saturday I was really gearing myself up for a 900-950 score. 

Then along came Papi. Sure I had Munster, but if you throw in Grant, D Brown and Penisini it was a great Sunday arvo for me. 

With the C on Papi I scored 1,281 and actually moved up about 800 rankings to 5,950 overall. 

Looking forward after having gone hell for leather in the first three rounds and using three trade boosts and a full allocation of nine trades, I am reasonably happy with the make-up of my side. 

This week I am looking at 1-2 trades. The first trade is definite and the second I may wait and see how I’m travelling and the feel of the round (except I might not have that luxury because Manly play Thursday night):

Trade-1         Ethan Bullemor to Taylan May (via duels)  

Trade-2        Toby Sexton (via duels) / Billy Smith to Tolutau Koula

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PODs & Super PODS 

Here’s the players I’ve identified as PODs (Point of Difference players – less than 10% owned) and Super PODS (less than 2% owned) that should be on your radar. 

I’ve listed them in ranking order of who I believe is the best to take the risk on: 

PODs (My top-8 ranked) 

1.    Reuben Cotter – Punched out 62 and followed it with a 55 playing around the 55-60 minutes mark each time. He’s a serious footballer this lad who’s had a wretched run with injuries, but Payten loves him and it’s not hard to see why. He may be a real zig option to the popular Talakai zag. He is listed to start off the bench this week though, so be wary. 

2.   Siosifa Talakai – Certainly in the sights of plenty of Supercoaches this week. Proceed with caution! Very dependant on attacking stats, but in saying that the Sharks are feeding their centres good ball and Talakai comes with a -36 breakeven. Is he worth a calculated risk?     

3.   Campbell Graham – You have to pay premium dollars, but Graham is producing a very solid 60 point average for Supercoaches. All this as Souths enter the soft part of the NRL draw in the next two months.

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4.   Alex Johnston – Gets the awesome upcoming draw that the Rabbitohs face. He is a try scoring machine that has started a little slow, but could easily start stringing together try doubles and hatricks. The Rabbitohs left side is still lethal. 

5.   Moses Suli – I have had my eye on Suli from the start and he is quietly putting together an impressive SC season. The Dragons seem to be using him more in the right parts of the field and I expect that will only increase as the year goes on. 

6.   Haumole Olakau’atu – May get more ball now that Turbo is out. Just needs opportunity and he will make things happen.  

7.   Brodie Jones – Looked well short of a gallop in his first game back from injury and went off twice in the game. Hopefully he is a lot better second up and quickly gets himself to the 80 mins we want to see him playing on the edge. 32 SC points from 52 minutes is a solid starting output. We can watch him for another week or maybe two.    

8.  Blayke Brailey – Super consistent – only marginally down on his season average because of the late sin bin. Getting up in price though. 

SuperPODs (only 1 this week) 

1.     Waqa Blake – I truly believe he has found his position Waqa Blake at left wing. It’s going to be interesting to see how the year plays out with Russell and Sivo to return, but that is not for a while. Parra have a reasonably soft draw the next month so Blake is a plug in and play option at $455,000 and rising!  

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CLOSE WATCH

This segment will list the players to keep a close watch on over the next month for their Supercoach prospects:

1.     Cody Walker – Souths are coming into a real soft section of the draw over the next 10 weeks – yep 10 weeks! Apart from Manly they don’t really play a Top-7 quality side until Round-16. Get on early this week or go next week. 

2.    Latrell Mitchell – Rinse repeat what I said above about Cody. Latrell goalkicking also if the crackdown does open up those blowout scorelines again. 

3.    Cam McInnes – Keep monitoring his minutes for the next 3-4 weeks as eventually his price will plateau and he will be a buy. 

4.    Alex Johnston – Another Rabbitoh who we know can score tries and post big Sueprcoach scores. If the current edict from Vlandys sees the games back to what they were in 2021 then AJ will be going big.

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ROUND 5 MATCH-UPS 

Friday night the Roosters will take on a depleted Broncos side at Suncorp Stadium. I expect the Broncos to lift, but they will surely be outclassed by the Roosters if they turn up to play. Tedesco, Manu, Tupou and even Keary and Sam Walker if you have them should benefit.   

Sunday afternoon/evening shapes again as a couple of possible blowouts. Cronulla Sharks are firing and will be at home at Shark Park in a day game. Expect big games from Nicho Hynes, Talakai, Ramien, Brailey and the outside backs. 

Last game of the round the Bulldogs will be up against it against a Panthers side that has been red hot this year. Cleary, Tago, Taylan May and Kikau could all be in for big scores. 

CAPTAIN

With the explosion from Papi last week and a day game vs Raiders at Wagga Wagga I expect he will be the most popular choice. Most likely I will pivot away from Papi and I am looking at Nicho Hynes who plays the Tigers on a Sunday afternoon at Shark Park.  Other good options could be Tedesco, Cleary and Grant.  

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Round-4 Recap

Lock of the week got up up again with some help from the goalpost at Cbus Super Stadium bringing home $58 in winnings. Still looking to jag a tryscorer multi after 3/4 legs getting up but no Marzhew. 

Round-5 Best Bets (Odds courtesy of TopSport) – Total Bets $78

Lock of the Week 

Knights, Roosters & Sharks 13+ @ $3.70 (TopUp) x $38

To score a try Multi 

A Johnston/M Feagai/M Ravalawe @ $12 (TopUp) x $10

T May/W Kennedy/W Blake @ $6.50 (TopUp) x $10

Multi

Roosters -13.5/Sharks -17.5/Dragons +9.5/Eels v Titans Over 39.5pts @ $14 (TopUp) x $10

First Tryscorer 

Isaiah Papali’i (Eels) @ $26 x $10

One Response to “Final Word: Trades, tactics, tips, Round 5”

  1. shaun wang

    Would you sell Ryan Matterson if you had him.

    He is on the bench and has give break even. Also Dylan Brown might be running instead of feeding him the ball.

    But eels have great run and Matterson is a great player and won’t be a bench player for long.

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