The Final Word: Round 17 NRL Supercoach Strategy


<p>With the second major bye round now behind us, many Supercoaches eyes will shift to the third and final bye in round 19 to make sure they can field a full 13 players and get a jump up the rankings.</p>



<p>However, for Turbo Irvo it’s all eyes on round 17 after a disastrous round 14 backing up the first major bye round.</p>



<p>These rounds can be deceptively tricky for even the most seasoned of Supercoaches, especially when Origin players don’t back up (which is looming as the case for many players in round 17).</p>



<p>Sitting 306<sup>th</sup> overall and with just 13 trades left, I’ll share a bit of insight into how I’m planning on navigating the round and who I think are the best trades and captain choices to get you on the front foot through this historically difficult period.</p>



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<p>Now I know that normally Supercoaches will be looking for those low ownership PODs or Super PODs around this time of year to get ahead of the competition, and admittedly I brought in Titans young gun Keano Kini a few weeks ago who has quickly turned into borderline buy of the season.</p>



<p>If the Titans weren’t on the bye, then he would still be a fair buy this week.</p>



<p>However, I do believe that Ryan Papenhuyzen (despite being decently higher ownership) with goalkicking duties for the same price as Kini is the guy you want going forward at fullback to partner Tedesco/Edwards/Latrell.</p>



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<p>There are currently 23 players in Supercoach with five round averages of 80+ and four of the top 5 are fullbacks which clearly highlights that it is quickly becoming the highest ceiling position while Cleary remains injured and Hynes remains relatively subdued.</p>



<p>With that said I can see why many are flocking to Fletcher Sharpe for the cash grab to build a war chest that will certainly be spent over the next month with so many gun Supercoach players returning to the fold.</p>



<p>Indeed, the returns of Kalyn Ponga, Nathan Cleary and Tom Trbojevic are predicted to be just a few weeks away which is another few cats amongst the pigeons at the vital fullback and halfback position that Supercoaches will need to navigate.</p>



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



<p>As per usual Nicho Hynes seems a very safe VC option against the Bulldogs on Friday night (bonus of no Thursday night curse).</p>



<p>If Hynes didn’t have a BE of 220 concurrently with so many expensive guns returning, then I would be buying him.</p>



<p>If you are lucky enough to have held Nicho through this period, then you may be handsomely rewarded against a Bulldogs team that just conceded 109 points to a sin-binned Sam Walker despite their fantastic defence all year.</p>



<p>My next best option for the VC is Ryan Papenhuyzen with goalkicking duties, provided of course he is cleared to face the Raiders.</p>



<p>Seriously, don’t sleep on Paps with the kicking tee back, big tons are back on the menu for the Melbourne maestro.</p>



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<p>The only downside to this is that you can’t C the obvious and safest captain choice for the week in James Tedesco.</p>



<p>With a whopping five round average of 100, Teddy is back to his slippery best.</p>



<p>A matchup against the Tigers is as good as it gets and should see him easily notch up a triple figure score on Sunday evening.</p>



<p>At $900k Tedesco is amazingly still a buy if you don’t own him yet and his form is so superb that he won’t be dropping in price anytime soon.</p>



<p>Death ride Teddy at your own peril, I can assure you it won’t be a fun one.</p>



<p><strong>Trades: None</strong></p>



<p><strong>VC: Isaako</strong></p>



<p><strong>C: Tedesco</strong></p>


The Final Word: Round 17 NRL Supercoach Strategy

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