Final Word: Round 6 skippers, tactics, weather

The festive season is in full swing, the Boxing Day Test is underway, and SuperCoach BBL Round 6 begins tonight, how good this time of year.



Round 5 was a tough one, with the high forecast of rain and looming storm before the Sydney Smash causing plenty of late chaos.



Banking on the rain hitting harder than what eventuated, I made a few rubbish calls, including avoiding Dan Christian and sitting Dan Sams out of my side, horrow show!



But that’s SuperCoach, you have to ride the ups and downs, so onto the next week.



The Cooma Stallions dropped a few spots into 775th overall, so we’re not too far off the mark.



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There’s rain looming around Brisbane for the Heat’s double, so proceed with caution when considering their contingent of players.



Personally I’ll lean towards more Hurricanes players of the two sides on the double game week.



They’re a better side, with a more settled and predictable line-up, and most importantly they aren’t expected to have their games impacted by rain.



Let’s take a look at Round 6.



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<h2 class="wp-block-heading">WEATHER WATCH</h2>



All weather is courtesy of the Bureau of Meteorology as of Monday, 12.30pm. All times are in AEDT. Forecasts are subject to change.



MONDAY



6:05PM: Hurricanes v Strikers, Blundstone Arena, Hobart



Forecast: Cloudy, 19 degrees, 0mm of rain



Verdict: All clear



9:05PM: Heat v Stars, The Gabba, Brisbane



Forecast: Showers, 28 degrees, 80% chain of 5-15mm of rain, the chance of a thunderstorm.



Verdict: Decent rain around, monitor radar closely prior to match beginning. If it appears threatening, favour Hurricanes over Heat players for the double game week.



TUESDAY



7:15PM: Thunder v Scorchers, Manuka Oval, Canberra



Forecast: Partly cloudy, 22 degrees, 0% chance of rain.



Verdict: All clear



WEDNESDAY



6:05PM: Sixers v Heat, SCG, Sydney



Forecast: Partly cloudy, 25 degrees, 20% chance of rain.



Verdict: Looking fairly clear, monitor in coming days.



7:15PM: Renegades v Hurricanes, Marvel Stadium, Melbourne



Forecast: Sunny, 25 degrees, 0% chance of rain.



Verdict: All clear



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<h2 class="wp-block-heading">LOOKING AHEAD</h2>



The Hurricanes and Heat are on the double game week, and neither have the bye next round.



In fact, Round 7 will see another week with no teams on the bye or double game.



Round 8 will see the Hurricanes on the bye, but the gap between the double and the bye means we’ll have six trades in which to sell their players for anyone who does load up with them.



Round 8 will also see the Stars on the double, so ideally you wouldn’t look to be trading them out at this stage.



The Strikers and Scorchers then have the Round 9 double, so even their contingent I’d be hesitant to sell as that’ll come around in a flash.



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<h2 class="wp-block-heading">SUPER PODS</h2>



Each week one of our contributors will provide a full analysis on the point of difference (POD) players to consider.



In the Final Word, we’ll look at the super POD options, the players at under 5% ownership (or around about) that could send you soaring (or falling) up the overall ranks.



They come with big risk, but the reward is immense if it comes off.



Last week, Nathan Ellis delivered with 67 points and a $9k price rise.



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Saqib Mahmood – 3% ownership



The Englishman has been seriously impressive in two games thus far, producing returns of 4/22 and 1/38, scoring 104 and 33 SuperCoach points in the process.



He’s bowling key overs for the Thunder and looks absolute class.



Along with being a wicket-taker, he’s very economical despite conceding a few runs late against the Sixers.



Across 50 career T20s, he’s taken 64 wickets at an economy of 8.56.



Nathan Coulter-Nile – 2.1% ownership



NCN is surprisingly low-ownership for his ability and role.



He bowls key overs for the Stars and often gets a pinch-hitting role late in the innings where he is very capable of reaching a quick-fire 20 runs.



The Stars have a double in a few rounds time so going early could be a sneaky play.



He’s at a far more affordable rate than earlier in the season, dropping $34k to sit at $155k.



He’s always a bit of a rest option, but we should have enough depth at this stage of the competition to cover him should it occur.



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<h2 class="wp-block-heading">BREAKEVENS</h2>



Each week we’ll list the top 10 players with both the highest and lowest breakevens, plus a few additional players worth noting, to help track your cash movement.



LOWEST BREAKEVEN (Money-makers)



Dan Christian (-41)



Dan Hughes (-39)



Jono Wells (-35)



Jason Sangha (-34)



Ben Duckett (-18)



Kurtis Patterson (-14)



Hayden Kerr (-11)



Aaron Finch (-11)



Nic Maddinson (-10)



Lloyd Pope (-4)



Brody Couch (-1)



Rashid Khan (4)



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HIGHEST BREAKEVEN (Likely money fallers)



Josh Philippe (189)



Jack Wildermuth (137)



Jordan Thompson (116)



Alex Ross (115)



Mujeeb Ur Rahman (110)



Matt Short (105)



Mitchell Swepson (105)



Nathan Coulter-Nile (99)



Daniel Worrall (98)



Tom Abell (98)



Mark Steketee (97)



Moises Henriques (97)



Chris Lynn (94)



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<h2 class="wp-block-heading">SKIPPERS</h2>



The Hurricanes play game one, so they are the key vice-captaincy options.



Hopefully your VC does well enough in the opening game and you’ll be able to loop, however if they struggle it’ll be worth looking elsewhere.



While I’m not exactly keen on them for a number of reasons, it makes sense to then drop the captaincy on a Heat player provided the game tonight looks likely to get at least some play in.



As a vice-captain from the Hurricanes I like Matty Wade.



That Hobart deck is playing very true and the boundaries are short, he’s a class above this level and has a big score incoming.



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There’s obviously some risk if he fails in both knocks, but at least he has the added bonus of wicket-keeping to hopefully add a few stats in the field.



D’Arcy Short is extremely hard to assess, following Ben McDermott’s knock as opener last game, Short will probably bat at three or four again.



Further, he may bowl a few overs, or none, it’s hard to gauge.



While there’s massive upside in Short, he’s been out of touch with the willow, so I’d prefer Wade. McDermott is a genuine POD option as well.



At the Heat, there aren’t many great options.



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Mujeeb Ur Rahman is only averaging 23 SC points and isn’t taking wickets, while most of the line-up have job security issues or potential Australian commitments.



However I’m not too sure whether there’s many better options. He was sensational last year, so hopefully the wickets are around the corner.



Mark Steketee looks another decent option, but there’s some risk he may not get both games in.



I’m really banking on Wade to get a few runs in game one to make it a non-issue! I’d probably loop him if he gets 30+ runs due to the lack of genuine Heat options.

Final Word: Round 6 skippers, tactics, weather

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