Champion Trades: Key targets in coming rounds

Instead of a PODs article this week I thought I would instead do a more generalised trade-in article, not necessarily differential players but more players that really stand out as buys over the upcoming weeks, whether it be for bye coverage or simply how good their upcoming fixtures are.



At the top of the list for me is Tigers 2020 CTW sensation David Nofoaluma. Priced at $561k, Nofo is over $100k down on his starting price and looks absolutely primed for a trade-in this week as people look for that elusive 3rd or 4th CTW gun.



With the Tigers facing Manly, Dragons, Titans, Knights and Warriors over the next five rounds you can be sure Nofo will score plenty of tries and hopefully average around 65-70 points.



He is also the absolute best CTW option who definitely plays the first bye round (assuming To’o gets an origin call up) so I expect his stocks to soar over the coming weeks as savvy coaches swoop in for the discount gun buy of the round.



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Alongside Nofo at the Tigers is young gun Jake Simpkin who very much impressed on debut by notching up 58 in raw base against a big South Sydney forward pack.



At $173k I really don’t mind pulling the trigger a week early on Simpkin for a guy like Jayden Brailey who I believe to be severely over-owned at this point in the season given he will likely get less attacking stats with Kalyn Ponga back in the Newcastle team.



Simpkin will almost certainly be traded in by every man and his dog next week so I think trading him in a week early could reap some rewards and net you a serious chunk of cash to work with next week and put you one step ahead of the pack.



Matt Lodge is the next guy I deem to be a massive trade-in this week. Lodge sits at $336k and if you take out his injury affected first game he averages over 50 points in the ever tricky FRF position.



People looking for potential Tino, TKO and Paulo downgrades to net some extra cash and gain an extra bye player should seriously be looking at getting this guy in, especially after last week’s performance which consisted of seven tackle busts and three offloads for 62 points.



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I obviously couldn’t leave Tom Trbojevic off this list so here he is. Turbo sits at a ridiculous price of $593k coming into the season and boy did he show he is worth more than that last week with an impressive 116 against the high-flying Titans.



People who need to trade out Latrell or perhaps even Ryan Papenhuyzen have the perfect opportunity to pick up Turbo this week for a juicy matchup against the Tigers.



As always though, buyer beware when it comes to Tommy because he could just as easily pick up a niggle mid game and knock out 30 points or worse yet pull another hammy.



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Harry Grant is the next man on this list and wow is he appetising for Supercoaches. Averaging 82 in his opening two games in only 50 minutes, Harry looks set for an even bigger breakout season than last year in the Melbourne jersey.



You can probably expect his minutes to start increasing over the coming weeks until he eventually takes over the 9 role for the full 80 minutes – which could see him averaging up there with the elite of Teddy, Cleary and Paps for the remainder of the season.



Last but not least is Eels fullback Clint Gutherson who looms as the alternative fullback trade-in for those who don’t want to risk bringing in an injury prone Turbo.



Priced at $636k, Gutho is averaging a very healthy 75 points which you would assume only increases over the next two rounds as Parramatta take on the Broncos and Bulldogs back-to-back.



If you wanted to trade Latrell/Paps out and back in again I think Gutho is the perfect intermediate to do so given the Eels fixtures over the next month.



This is the very definition of using two trades to chase points with a short-term POD move to climb the rankings.

Champion Trades: Key targets in coming rounds

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