NRL Supercoach | Clem’s Captains, Round 23 Skippers


<p>Eat, sleep, Cleary x Nicho, repeat.</p>



<p>Unless you own&nbsp;<strong>Sammy</strong>&nbsp;<strong>Walker</strong>&nbsp;on Thursday 30<sup>th</sup>&nbsp;July at 7.50pm.</p>



<p>Aka The One&nbsp;When Queensland Country Bank Stadium&nbsp;Entered the Twilight Zone.</p>



<p>Because at that point the game was taken control of by someone who’d jumped onto his PlayStation 3 to play a quick game of Rugby League Live 3 vs their little brother &#8211; whose controller wasn’t plugged in.</p>



<p>Because what in the TWO HUNDRED AND SEVEN POINTS including 3 tries, 3 try assists, and 48 points in goals was that!!</p>



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<p>And take a bow&nbsp;Sammy W!&nbsp;</p>



<p>And take a bow, owners, and take the crown, whoever the VCers and Captainers were.</p>



<p>What a round for the scoring! It was records&nbsp;broken&nbsp;up in Townsville and records&nbsp;broken&nbsp;in the&nbsp;SuperCoach&nbsp;world, with the elusive 2000-point barrier&nbsp;smashed, and happy coaches soaring up&nbsp;the rankings after a round that saw no less than 20 tons.</p>



<p>The Friday Beers reaped some of those tons with a final score of 1700 on the dot, meaning we’re now back in the double digits! 77<sup>th</sup>&nbsp;to be exact!</p>



<p>We are overjoyed!&nbsp;</p>



<p>Now with just 5 rounds left, and points to make up, and H2H finals to win – let&#8217;s jump straight into the Captains for this week and go straight to Friday night&#8217;s games. </p>



<p>We can’t touch tonight’s game because we don’t know who has what controller and even if the second one’s been plugged in.</p>



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<h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Nathan Cleary</strong></h3>



<p>This is painful as a Warriors fan, but after going 116, 147 in his last two games, it’s less a matter of <strong>Nathan</strong> <strong>Cleary</strong> coming into the equation for your VC, than Nathan Cleary BEING the equation.</p>



<p>Unless you don’t have a&nbsp;halfback&nbsp;in your Flex.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Because Cleary is in some red-hot form with 5 try assists in his last two games and 60 points in goals and 6 line-break assists and….</p>



<p>He ripped the Eels apart, and then the Raiders, and now he’s eyeing up the Warriors in Auckland on Friday night, and I will be doing all my very best manifesting in that game, including some extra manifesting that Cleary doesn’t get a ton.</p>



<p>We’ll allow a nice 86&nbsp;– after all, I own him too.</p>



<p>VC if you don’t believe the Warriors can stand up to the former Premiers – I’ve got faith so I’ll be saving the HB one spot for Nicho.</p>



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<h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Nicho Hynes</strong></h3>



<p>And I know we normally do this in order of the games, but let’s go a bit off-kilter and jump straight into the Captain of the Round who is playing the last game of the round, and he is, of course, <strong>Ryan Couchman</strong>…</p>



<p>And okay, no, it is Nicho, but also Rouchman isn’t going to look out of place in this Captaincy article soon putting on performances like he did at WIN Stadium on Friday night, when he scored his VERY FIRST NRL TRY.</p>



<p>I was up on the hill screaming and cheering like I was born&nbsp;and bred&nbsp;Thirroulan&nbsp;and&nbsp;the Dragons were my team (they’re my second team – and nobody can accuse me of being a bandwagoner when they make finals next year).</p>



<p>Anywho – the one we are actually targeting in this game as the Captain of the Round is the Wet Haired Prince himself, <strong>Nicho</strong> <strong>Hynes</strong>.</p>



<p>So,&nbsp;I&nbsp;VC’d&nbsp;Herbie last week, and Captained Nicho, and to avoid that absolute AE nightmare of a Cheese in my team, I ran with the Nicho Captaincy and wondered what I had done&nbsp;to deserve this slap in the face to my loyalty&nbsp;at halftime when he was on 34 points.</p>



<p>But like the Great Accumulator he is, 40 minutes was plenty for him to pile on 100 more points vs the depleted Bunnies, sending those who Captained into a frenzy.</p>



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<p>The law of averages is simple: an average of 105 + a 5-round average of 132 + a 3-round average of 126 = Captain Nicho vs the Dragons.</p>



<p>I’m with the 90% of SuperCoachers who are Captaining Nicho. If he can go 200 and the Dragons can get the win, I’d call that a perfect Sunday afternoon.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Your Other Options</strong></h2>



<p>Okay, it’s not all about the&nbsp;halfbacks (<em>yes it is</em>) because we have options elsewhere around the park (<em>no we don’t but I need to get to 1200 words</em>).</p>



<p>Okay, but we do! So, let’s jump into a couple more options, noting that someone in the Twilight Zone game tonight is going 150 – let’s hope it’s JC who’s got the plugged-in controller.</p>



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<h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Sua&nbsp;</strong><strong>Fa’alogo</strong></h3>



<p>Still leading the overall points so far in SuperCoach 2026 – if you traded Sua out in the last few weeks – what are you doing for this Saturday arvo game, and why does it either involve getting comfy behind the couch or taking your significant other out for a date because ‘there’s no footy on this afternoon, love’?</p>



<p>Back-to-back&nbsp;scores of 107 with tries in both – Sua looks dangerous every time he touches the ball.</p>



<p>Playing Manly over in Perth – you’d imagine this game could get a bit of a score up from both sides, and where there’s points, you normally find a happy Sua&nbsp;Captainer&nbsp;or two.</p>



<p>86 points in his last outing vs the Sea Eagles and an average of 86 points this season tells us one thing:</p>



<p>There’s points coming Sua’s way – just check the weather because apparently the rains are coming to Perth too…</p>



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<h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Herbie x Isaako</strong></h3>



<p><strong>Isaako</strong>&nbsp;VCers&nbsp;would have felt a little bit hard done by after he was left out in the cold on Friday night with the Dolphins choosing to form repeat attacks on the Dragons right side.</p>



<p>But never fear&nbsp;Isaako&nbsp;VCing-enthusiasts – you may forget the 47 points of last week and focus on the fact that he’s&nbsp;playing the Broncos instead.</p>



<p>And look, while I don’t have a crystal ball to tell you which Broncos team is going to turn up and if half the team are already mentally at a beach club in Bali enjoying a Bintang or two – what I can tell you is&nbsp;in their last game,&nbsp;the Broncos had 30 points put on them with tries coming&nbsp;to&nbsp;left and right wingers and you may absolutely take that as a sign that&nbsp;Isaako&nbsp;can be a pod VC option if you are so inclined.</p>



<p>Of course, you might like to look over on the other side of the field to the man who had the loopers looping with 122 points last week.</p>



<p><strong>Herbie</strong> just keeps doing Herbie things – that score was made up of only 2 try assists and 2-line break assists – there were literally 74 points in Base+Power in that game. Imagine if Cobbo hadn’t fumbled those plays!</p>



<p>And while the Broncos have been quite conservative when doling out points to left centres, this&nbsp;is&nbsp;Herbie.&nbsp;</p>



<p>That is all.</p>



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



<p>Who has the unplugged controller this week?</p>



<p>It’s the question we must all answer ourselves when&nbsp;considering who gets our armbands in Round 23&nbsp;now that the Roosters have struck this new fear into us.</p>



<p>I’m going a Herbie VC into a Nicho Captaincy, which is very much following the crowd, but if you are H2H inclined you might like to take a punt on a pod or two. </p>



<p>Now I must fly because I’m in the office and we’ve discovered the most excellent roast pork and crackling Banh&nbsp;Mi&nbsp;down the road&nbsp;and I am not missing out on the excursion down Bondi Beach to get one…</p>



<p>See you all at the Community Hall Monday for the H2H celebrations or&nbsp;the H2H commiserations&nbsp;– I’ll be there for you either way…</p>



<p>And on that note, I hope you have a beautiful weekend, and you win all your H2Hs, and your Captain scores you a double ton too…</p>



<p>Clementine xxx</p>


NRL Supercoach | Clem’s Captains, Round 23 Skippers

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