Squad breakdown: Sea Eagles 2024 Supercoach analysis

<p>Hey Robin, </p>
<p>I wasn&#8217;t overly keen, and still aren&#8217;t, but the lack of quality 5/8 options definitely gives him more relevance.</p>
<p>Personally happy to watch and see how he goes early though.</p>



<p>Manly kick their season off in Vegas as they begin their bid to return to NRL finals footy in 2024.</p>



<p>When assessing the Sea Eagles from a straight NRL perspective and NRL Supercoach perspective, it invariably begins with a spiel about Tommy Trbojevic.</p>



<p>This article is no different.</p>



<p>We know they are a completely different side when Tommy Turbo is fit and firing, and as it stands, he’s exactly that to begin the season.</p>



<p>It lifts the Supercoach prospects of players all around him.</p>



<p>Manly start the season with a relatively tough draw, but it’s also not tough enough to warrant steering clear of any players you’re keen on.</p>



<p>Let’s take a look at the Sea Eagles NRL Supercoach credentials leading into round 1.</p>



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<h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Manly Warringah Sea Eagles predicted team</strong></h3>



<p>1. Tom Trbojevic<br>2.&nbsp;Jaxson Paulo<br>3.&nbsp;Reuben Garrick<br>4.&nbsp;Tolutau Koula<br>5.&nbsp;Jason Saab<br>6.&nbsp;Luke Brooks<br>7.&nbsp;Daly Cherry-Evans<br>8. Josh Aloiai<br>9.&nbsp;Lachlan Croker<br>10.&nbsp;Taniela Paseka<br>11.&nbsp;Haumole Olakau’atu<br>12. Ben Trbojevic<br>13.&nbsp;Jake Trbojevic</p>



<p>14. Gordon Chan Kum Tong<br>15.&nbsp;Toafofoa Sipley<br>16.&nbsp;Josh Schuster<br>17. Ethan Bullemor</p>



<p><strong>Unavailable:&nbsp;</strong>Matt Lodge (knee, round 5)</p>



<p><strong>Analysis</strong></p>



<p>Recruit Jaxson Paulo is expected to get the nod on the wing over Raymond Tuaimalo Vaega, with Reuben Garrick shifting to centre in 2024.</p>



<p>Josh Schuster is under an injury cloud, and general fitness cloud due to lack of training with the main squad recently, which may see Ben Trbojevic start in the back-row.</p>



<p>Gordon Chan Kum Tong and Karl Lawton will likely vie for the bench utilty role, while impressive rookie Jamie Humphreys is also a chance.</p>



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<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Draw</strong></h2>



<p>Rabbitohs (Vegas), Roosters (H), Eels (A), Dragons (A), Panthers (H), Warriors (A), Titans (A)</p>



<p><strong>First five round rating: </strong>4/10</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Guns</strong></h2>



<p><strong>Tom Trbojevic (FLB, $833,500)</strong></p>



<p>If we knew Tommy was 100% healthy he’d be near first picked for every Supercoach team.</p>



<p>Yes there is a significant injury history, however it is somewhat reassuring that his hamstrings did actually survive his 11 games last season before it was ended by a pec injury in Origin.</p>



<p>&nbsp;His last full injury free season was 2021 where he produced the greatest Supercoach season of all-time with 143.5 points.</p>



<p>Most people pass this season off as an anomaly as the game had rules tweaked, namely around easing interpretations around calling six-agains.</p>



<p>Tonnes of points were scored as a result, so it’s largely true, but in Supercoach scoring it wasn’t necessarily.</p>



<p>In 2023 there were six players that averaged 80+ Supercoach points for the season, having played a minimum of five games.</p>



<p>15 players averaged 75+ points in the season.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">How will Ryan Papenhuyzen and Tom Trbojevic return in 2024? ⚡️ ⚡️🦅🦅<br><br>Beers and Breakevens is live on Youtube and Apple/Spotify 🔉🔉🔉 <a href="https://t.co/M1pgyTRVN0">pic.twitter.com/M1pgyTRVN0</a></p>&mdash; SC Playbook &#8211; NRL (@scplaybook1) <a href="https://twitter.com/scplaybook1/status/1752543657365041313?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 31, 2024</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
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<p>In 2022, there were four players who averaged 80+ and 10 that averaged 75+.</p>



<p>We go back to 2021, Turbo’s stunning year, eight players averaged 80+ for the season.</p>



<p>Of those players, Turbo and Cleary were the only players to average over 88.</p>



<p>Reuben Garrick was third on the list with an 87.5 average, which was almost entirely a result of Turbo’s brilliance, and goal-kicking boosts off the back of Manly’s attack.</p>



<p>In the same year, just 13 players averaged 75+ Supercoach points.</p>



<p>Even last season where he very evidently was holding back on return from a hamstring injury, he still averaged 83 points for the season.</p>



<p>While I’m not saying he’s going to come out and average 143 this season, I do think it’s worth noting that perhaps it wasn’t as much of a complete one-off as everyone thinks.</p>



<p>Fit and firing, he becomes hard to pass up.</p>



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<p><strong>Daly Cherry-Evans (HFB, $782,900)</strong></p>



<p>Cherry-Evans averaged an excellent 77 points last season, but I can’t really justify bringing him in over a player like Nicho or Cleary.</p>



<p>He kicked 20 goals across the season, while his average is arguably inflated a bit having belted out back-to-back scores of 153 and 146 in the final two rounds of the season against depleted Bulldogs and Tigers outfits.</p>



<p>If anything is to happen to Reuben Garrick and he ends up with the goal-kicking duties it’ll change a bit, but for only a bit over $100k I’d still probably just grab Cleary.</p>



<p><strong>Reuben Garrick (CTW-FLB, 722,500)</strong></p>



<p>Garrick is arguably the best Supercoach CTW of the past three years, but it’s the W not the CT where he does his damage.</p>



<p>He is expected to make the move to centre this season.</p>



<p>Playing centre doesn’t write him off this season, but I do think it makes him overvalued to start 2024.</p>



<p>He did have a mammoth 169 point score against the Dolphins at centre last season when Manly put on a show at Brookie, but outside of that the reading isn’t great.</p>



<p>In his other three games at centre in 2023, he had scores of 35, 26 and 62.</p>



<p>Unless he is named on the wing, I’ll be looking elsewhere and potentially reconsidering down the track if he gets a price reduction.</p>



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<p><strong>Haumole Olakau’atu (2RF, $699,800)</strong></p>



<p>Big Ola averaged the full 80 minutes per game last season for a career-high Supercoach average of 69 points per game.</p>



<p>Personally I’m loading up on mid-range 2RFs to start the season, but Ola shouldn’t be far off the radars of POD hunters.</p>



<p>He has so many ingredients to be a Supercoach star.</p>



<p>He’s a try-scoring back-rower, brushes tackles off like a dog does fleas, offloads and has a decent enough work-rate with 44 base last season.</p>



<p>Not for me to begin, but I’m every chance to own him at some stage this season.</p>



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<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Mid-rangers</strong></h2>



<p><strong>Tolutau Koula (CTW-FLB, $581,400)</strong></p>



<p>Koula is a huge trial watch for me after destroying weakened Doggies and Tigers outfit from fullback last season.</p>



<p>I’d be surprised and disappointed if he wasn’t given a licence to roam the field at stages after what we saw from him when wearing the No.1 jumper late last year.</p>



<p>If he plays the same role at centre where he holds his edge I have no interest, but if we do see him chiming in around the ruck and roving around I’ll be somewhat interested.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Have a feeling Burbo is going to haunt NRL Supercoaches for the next decade 👀👀👀 <a href="https://t.co/jnYMzplklD">pic.twitter.com/jnYMzplklD</a></p>&mdash; SC Playbook &#8211; NRL (@scplaybook1) <a href="https://twitter.com/scplaybook1/status/1756561731613282599?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 11, 2024</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
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<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Cheapies</strong></h2>



<p><strong>Ben Trbojevic (CTW-2RF, $277,400)</strong></p>



<p>Burbo, are we really back here again?</p>



<p>Of course we are…</p>



<p>Josh Schuster hasn’t exactly set the world alight this pre-season, with reports suggesting different issues had him training away from the main squad for a very long period.</p>



<p>This could see Ben Trbojevic start on the edge in Vegas.</p>



<p>Dual position, at just $277k, he’s hard to pass up despite obvious red flags.</p>



<p>He could quite easily start round 1, then be benched for Schuster by round 2 where he becomes a nightmare for owners.</p>



<p>But if it does appear that he could lock down an 80-minute role you’ve got potentially one of the cheapies of the year.</p>



<p>He’s currently priced on a 27 point average from 29 minutes per game last season.</p>



<p>Weighing up his Supercoach form to predict his output this season is very hard to do, because in his 26 career games he’s been mostly off the bench, and sometimes starting in the second-row or centre.</p>



<p>He’s certainly one to reassess closer to the first game in Vegas once we know more about his job security, and more so Schuster’s position in the team, but I’m very interested.</p>


Squad breakdown: Sea Eagles 2024 Supercoach analysis

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