God you have to love Origin! Absolutely brutal game as always but with the fallout leaving many teams at half strength. Plenty of opportunities but very few standout keeper options for this week. Time to trim the fat and start planning for Round 15, likely the hardest of the three big byes. Also I’ll say it early on, with so many players possibly returning/being omitted with injury or due to Origin, be sure to check the late mail before each game and leave making trades until as late as possible; almost guaranteed to be one surprise spanner thrown in the works this week.

Best call:

BUY Jordan Rapana – 120: Rapana came back to his best with an impressive double and genuinely looks like the real deal. Will be sacrificing bye coverage to pick him up this year but it might just be worth it given he boasts an average of 76 and barely went up in price this week.

Worst call:

BUY James Graham – 18: Injured again and this one really hurt. Started the year with Graham with the expectation he would fire up in round 12 with Jackson and Klemmer out, but between HIA’s and now this persisting shoulder injury it will be a tough call whether to hold him for round 18 or cut and run.

BUY:

Dylan Edwards ($143,600 – NA, AVG: 62, BE: -54)

We’ve been waiting on this one for a while and he should be locked in as one of your trades this week. Made a hell of a debut and backed it up with a solid 45 from FB without a try or TA. Available as a dual CTW and FB, he is an essential with the likes of Moga, Cotric, Leilua, RTS and all the other SELL cheapies from last week ready to be downgraded.

Jordan Rapana ($405,900 – 120, AVG: 76, BE: 5)

Was so close to bringing in Rapana last week and certainly regretting it despite a strong performance from Radrandra. He only went up 15k after that monster score so it might be either you pick him up now or you wait until after the byes and who knows what he could do in the meantime. To give you a comparison, he is averaging just under Paul Gallen and comes in at a 100k discount of him. Will be a top 4 CTW for the rest of the year so he is a set and forget option if you pick him up.

Semi Radradra ($304,500 – 61, AVG: 53, BE: 3)

It took 12 rounds for Semi to put two solid performances together back to back but it has finally happened. Understandably many steered clear of him given his inconsistency and that may still prove to be the correct option. Hopefully with the court case behind him he is finally just focusing on playing footy and we can see him get back to his best. With a low BE and covering the remaining bye rounds he is probably worth the risk, particularly at the bargain price.

Tohu Harris ($448,100 – NA, AVG: 69, BE: 81)

Has a relatively high BE but I would view Harris as being at around his genuine price, and up against the Knights this week he could quite easily hit it. Storm players are an absolute premium from here on out, and while Harris will give a lot of 55-60 scores, there will be the weeks he goes crazy Ryan James style that managed to gift him a 67 keeper level average last year. With the Dual 2RF/CTW dual there are no excuses for not finding room for him in your side over the coming weeks.

Cameron McInnis ($381,500 – 66, AVG: 63, BE: 48)

Had a few down rounds but is starting to find form again reflective of the Dragons getting themselves back to full strength and playing the expansive style of footy they opened the season with. With his past 3 scores coming in at 68, 72, 66 he is still a bargain provided he can keep it up. Covers the round 15 bye and is a great trade to the falling McCullough or Nikorima. Provided he does keep it up he won’t need to be traded out and can be kept as a second hooker from here until stumps.

Cameron Smith ($471,100 – NA, AVG: 70, BE: 79)

Possibly a bit of a surprise option for this week given he still has rep duties ahead of him, but with Nikorima and McCullough also offering no more bye coverage if you have been banking the cash it might be time to lock Smith in for the year. I’m currently leaning very slightly towards him over McInnis but I’m sure that will change another five times between now and kick off tomorrow.

Watchlist:

These are the second tier options for the week that either it isn’t the right time for them or there are likely better options on the market. That being said for some there probably are situations where these guys might tick all the right boxes.

Cameron Munster – This really should just be the week of anyone named ‘Cameron’. The only reason I have left Munster off the buy list is that he can be waited on with that high BE of 92 and given QLD got belted there is the outside chance they will make changes that could bring him into contention. Line him up as a target for 2 weeks time.

Billy Slater – Another one I wouldn’t touch until Round 15 but if by some miracle QLD decide not to play him again then he is an upgrade option for the likes of RTS.

Ryan James – Will be another popular option in the coming weeks but should be held off on this week with his minutes constantly changing and facing a high BE of 95. With better options available I wouldn’t recommend picking him up this week but it would be a good idea to save some space and $$ for him.

Sell:

Tautau Moga ($305,800 – 26, AVG: 44, BE: 66)

Got a harsh downgrade which almost split his point in half and as such Moga needs to be moved on. Has never shown the capability of a BJ or Semi to go crazy and shoot up another 100k so it is fairly safe to move him on now with a rising BE.

Kodi Nikorima ($315,700 – 30, AVG: 48, BE: 63)

This one needs to be dealt with urgently. Niko has done fantastically, rewarding owners that jumped on him after Hunt went down with a 120k price rise and some handy points along the way. With both Hunt and McCullough back in the side he will be relegated back to the bench and likely lose those profits within a month.

Andrew McCullough – ($386,300 – 31, AVG: 63, BE: 109)

It really is a clean out of the Broncos this round! Just to reiterate on last week’s sentiments, despite being back in the side McCullough will likely have his 80min games under threat as Nikorima is too good to be kept off the field permanently. This will see Andrew slip back below the keeper range to where he was at the end of last year. Factor in that he offers no more bye coverage and is facing a monster BE and he needs to be moved on to McInnis or Smith this week.

Nick Cotric ($304,000 – 19, AVG: 44, BE: 71)

What a way to reward rhose who held onto him with a pitiful 19 when the other wing saw 10x the points. Cotric has more than served his purpose and should exit the premises. Downgrading him to Edwards is an ideal move this week.

Joseph Leilua ($262,100 – 32, AVG: 43, BE: 52)

About damn time I could put BJ on the list. Pretty amazing to think the man outside him could get 120 and Leilua couldn’t even be generous enough to leech off that with a few try and linebreak assists. The worst thing is that despite being a sell will probably need to be held at least for this week with other players with more value and higher BE’s needing to be moved on first.

On notice:

Everyone on here is getting close to death row, however it is either due to the depth of other problems or the need to give them one last chance they avoid the firing squad this week.

Roger Tuivasa-Sheck – Can realistically be moved on this round but given his pedigree there are likely other higher priority targets this week. Up against the Eels and Titans over the next few weeks, you’d think he would be the most likely to make you regret an early trade out.

Hold:

James Graham ($321,200 – 18, AVG: 53, BE: 97)

I will preface this by saying I wouldn’t blame anyone for looking to sell Graham this week, and if you do it is probably this week or you commit to him until Round 19. Having suffered HIA’s and this niggling shoulder injury, assuming Graham lines up this weekend I would hope for him in the long term to make back the money he will lose this week. Also to note he is still trying to play for a contract and if the Dogs are any chance of getting back into the 8 then Graham will need to be at the forefront of that push. With the lines of Cotric, Moga & Nikorima all around that same bracket, who would you rather keep?

You know you want to share this...