Assessing the major trades plaguing Round 18

David Fifita, will I or wont I?



This should be the question that serious overall ranked supercoaches are asking themselves right now as he gets named to start against a depleted Broncos side.



$580k for a guy who can easily knock out four tons in the last 8 weeks of the year? It’s a no brainer for anyone calculating the risk vs reward of a David Fifita trade in.



I suppose it comes down to whether you prioritise using your trades for bringing back in the likes of Munster, Hynes, or Grant if you have traded any out in recent weeks.  



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Cameron Munster returns for a Melbourne side that are just about ready to absolutely pulverise a team and remind everyone why they are still huge threats to win the premiership.



Harry Grant and Ryan Papenhuyzen both have another gear they can crank to if they manage to remain relatively injury free.



This is just a word of warning for anyone starting to second-guess reemploying the Melbourne playmakers in their Supercoach side &#8211; don’t back against this juggernaut of a rugby league side for too long.



Munster is probably the risk-free trade in, however it’s clear that most other serious 5/8 Supercoach relevant players are in serious form right now, so I can see the case for Harry Grant being the more pressing trade for many teams.



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Especially with the likes of Cody Walker seemingly hitting his straps right as many owners, myself included, were about to trade him out.



As for guys like Angus Crichton and Siosifa Talakai, who many will be contemplating trading out this week, I’ll personally be holding onto these players for another week before I re-assess whether I want to hold onto them as PODs against the top ranked players who may decide to cut them for safer scoring players on the run home



One thing to keep in mind for people who aren’t entirely convinced by David Fifita is that he was averaging a very healthy 70+ on 80 mins prior to round 8 this season – all the while carrying a rib injury that was keeping him away from his destructive best.



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The Titans have a relative cakewalk of a draw for the run home, and nothing left to lose, I’m almost certain this is the time to hop on Fifita if you have the stomach for it.



If you can get Fifita in with one trade, I highly suggest going for it this week – if you need to use two then perhaps some caution on the trade button wouldn’t go astray.



The same can be said about Grant and Munster who are no doubt elite players but aren’t quite on the big 3’s level, move over Nadal, Federer and Djokovic it’s time for Papenhuyzen, Cleary and Hynes.



Also beware Canberra can always be pesky against Melbourne if they compete through the forwards and shut down any fast play the ball space that Grant and Munster generate.



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Many Supercoaches are probably quite reluctant to hit that trade button this week, especially after losing so many players to late outs and restings over the last fortnight.



Indeed, it might be the case where the pot of gold goes to Supercoaches who are bold enough to take a speculator on a David Fifita type player when the consensus is to give him a week.&nbsp;



I believe this is the time and place to attack your competitors with some under owned danger players that they just might regret death riding for any longer than necessary.



VC Manu and C Paps for myself this week, good luck all.

Assessing the major trades plaguing Round 18

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