Captain's Challenge: Who to skipper in Round 11?


<p>The return of our captaincy column has reaped rewards so far with some successful picks.</p>



<p>Last week we had Nathan Cleary as the number one option who broke the SuperCoach record, followed by Tommy Turbo who tonned up, then onto James Tedesco who also went huge.</p>



<p>The week prior, Tommy Turbo was the number one pick who scored 191, ahead of David Fifita and Nathan Cleary who both scored centuries.</p>



<p>There’s a slight revamp to the format this week as ‘Safety First’ seems to be an outdated category.</p>



<p>Locking in forwards with big base would have fallen in this category in the past, and fullbacks/halves were more likely to drop under ‘Risk it to get the Biscuit’.</p>



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<p>But under the new NRL style that’s become a far faster game resulting in mass points and huge SuperCoach scores, there’s hardly any risk in captaining outside backs with high ceilings.</p>



<p>Furthermore, captaining forwards is almost an extinct tactic outside of maybe a particularly crafty hooker such as Harry Grant on his day.</p>



<p>Chase those high ceilings people, it’s the only way to win SuperCoach! Plus, it can end a head-to-head match up in the blink of an eye.</p>



<p>Instead, we’ll drop our preferred picks into tiers, with a category set aside for risky/POD picks.</p>



<p>Let’s take a look at the Round 11 captaincy options.</p>



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



<p><strong>JAMES TEDESCO</strong></p>



<p>Teddy against Brisbane in Sydney, yes please! The Broncos have conceded the second most points in the NRL, and have conceded the most SuperCoach points to fullbacks of any team.</p>



<p>Teddy’s 131 last week had been coming a long time, it’s his third century of the year.</p>



<p>In his only game against Brisbane last year he put 176 points on them.</p>



<p>I touched last week on how vital Victor Radley is to the Roosters attack, namely Teddy as it allows him to sit wider in the line and finish off the raids resulting in big SuperCoach points.</p>



<p>Radley is back playing big minutes which should continue to help the entire side.</p>



<p>While not a quite a POD, Teddy was owned by just 37% of the top 100 ranked teams at the conclusion of Round 10.</p>



<p>I expect this number to jump this week, but there will still be plenty who don’t own, making him even more enticing.</p>



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



<p><strong>TOM TRBOJEVIC</strong></p>



<p>Parramatta are playing serious footy, but that isn’t likely to stop the machine that is Tommy Turbo in his current form.</p>



<p>We saw him do damage to Penrith just a few weeks back from injury, he’s gaining confidence with every game back, as are the Sea Eagles.</p>



<p>While Teddy is my pick, I’d be very comfortable putting the C on Turbo who has a whopping four tons in five games!</p>



<p>Furthermore, he should play the full 80 minutes with Manly surely not blowing Parramatta away with a big lead as per prior weeks.</p>



<p>Injury is the only risk here.</p>



<p><strong>NATHAN CLEARY</strong></p>



<p>The Rabbitohs look a far stronger side this week with returning stars, and I expect them to be up for this blockbuster clash against Penrith.</p>



<p>It’s still hard to see Penrith losing, and points should flow fairly well in a dry game in the country, but the Bunnies at near full-strength are pretty resilient defensively.</p>



<p>There’s also the risk that if the Panthers have success on the left edge they’ll throw far more ball through Jarome Luai as we’ve seen at stages this year, forcing Cleary to take somewhat of a back seat (in attacking raids at least).</p>



<p>While a very safe option as always, I can see Cleary landing in that 80-100 point category.</p>



<p><strong>ROGER TUIVASA-SHECK</strong></p>



<p>I won’t bother going into detail due to his lack of owners, but for anyone who does have RTS I think he can score extremely well against the fragile Tigers defensive unit.</p>



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



<p><strong>SAM WALKER</strong></p>



<p>I really like Walker as a play this week. I’ve already touched on Brisbane’s leaky defence above.</p>



<p>The Broncos concede the sixth most points to halfbacks in SuperCoach.</p>



<p>I’m expecting the Roosters to belt them, resulting in lots of conversions and hopefully try-assists for young Sam.</p>



<p>There’s decent risk in that he already has scores of 21 and 34 this season, but that was against the Storm and Eels so I’m not concerned.</p>



<p>I’d be more concerned about his lingering injuries that have appeared to have hampered him at times of late.</p>



<p>Just over a fortnight ago he had back-to-back scores of 125 and 163 in a show of his lofty ceiling.</p>



<p>Regardless, he looks a great play and not many will be game.</p>



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



<p><strong>NICHO HYNES</strong></p>



<p>Hynes is in terrific form and is coming off a monster 182 points.</p>



<p>I think people may be tempted due to Canberra’s recent form, and the fact that outside of Teddy the options are a bit scarce this week.</p>



<p>Canberra do concede the fourth most points to fullbacks which is worth noting.</p>



<p>It’s probably the green-eyed Raiders side coming out in me, but at very least I expect them to put up a fight against a Melbourne side missing Papenhuyzen, Munster and Grant.</p>



<p>The 12-man Dragons side last week were irrelevant in my books.</p>



<p>I’m not bold enough to think Canberra will win, but they have shown time and time again in recent years they can thrive under adversity.</p>



<p>Despite key injuries/suspensions, their pack is still strong, so I think they can show some ticker in chilly Canberra.</p>



<p>It’s not to say he’s a bad option by any means, just that I think there’s far better available. Perhaps a VC though?</p>



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



<p>It’s James Tedesco very comfortably for me this week, I won’t think twice about it.</p>



<p>It feels wrong, but purely based on match ups I have Sam Walker at number two ahead of Tom Trbojevic, then Nathan Cleary who won’t let you down.</p>



<p>A Teddy skipper doesn’t leave much in the way of vice-captain options as he plays earlier than most decent options, but any Adam Doueihi or David Nofoaluma owners could look toward either of them.</p>



<p>Val Holmes is the other option, otherwise there are very few gun SuperCoach relevant players with high ceilings in the four games prior to the Roosters.</p>



<p>I mentioned last week that the cut-off to looping was looking more at being 140+.</p>



<p>We saw it two weeks back when people looped Nathan Cleary who went large, only for Tom Trbojevic to go enormous a few games later.</p>



<p>It happened again last week in the opposite order, with people looping Tommy, only for Cleary to belt the SuperCoach record.</p>



<p>As a guide, eye that 140+ as a loop line pending later match ups.</p>



<p>Good luck this week!</p>


Captain’s Challenge: Who to skipper in Round 11?

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