JT’s Weekend Roundup – R19

It didn’t take long, but those of us who have burned through their trades at a rapid pace are now waking up to a rough injury and suspension toll for some of the more popular picks in the game. Shaun Johnson’s hammy has gone ping, Addin Fonua-Blake’s finger has broken, Cody Walker got a worrying amount of strapping to his knee, Matt Ikuvalu’s ankle rolled nastily, Nicho Hynes’ spot in the lineup looks tentative now that Papenhuyzen is back, Matt Lodge and Luke Thompson both look like being out for a while with suspension…

On the bright side, outside of the injuries, it was yet another huge week in scoring, with the top score for the week a ridiculous 1,801. Most scores ranged somewhere in the 1300+ region, which would in other seasons generally mean a rocketing up the rankings, but in 2021, may have not seen much movement at all. Crazy year.

14 players got to raise the bat during the week, including a resurgent Daly Cherry-Evans who notched a massive 172 and who stole the limelight from the most popular captaincy pick of the week (Tommy Turbo). With Nathan Cleary returning over the next couple of weeks, Manly heating up for a run home and now SJ going down, there could be some big moves to be made (IF you have the trades!).

The Queensland weather could also mean we see a lot more dry tracks and a lot more sunny outings, which looks like meaning plenty more tired forwards and plenty more massive scores. It’s certainly already looking that way so far.

The run home has begun.

The Weekly Top 5

• Rockers– the ‘SuperCoach-relevant’ players who killed it
• Floppers – the ‘SuperCoach-relevant’ players who killed your week
• Shockers – the left-field players who will no doubt be high on the list of trade-ins the next round and prime candidates for SC players chasing last week’s points!
• Trade Fail of the Week – always good value!

Payne Haas has been in a purple patch lately, with good minutes and very heavy involvement leading to a three round average of 95, including this week’s ton (his first of the year). Not sure what may have led to this move, but one poor coach’s hooking stocks must have taken such a battering that Tom Starling looked like a handy inclusion as they cashed in on big Payne. Ouch. His 44 was okay, but missing out on a ton and what looks like being a huge run into the back end of the year? Not sure that one was worth it.

1. Daly Cherry-Evans – 172. Two tries, three assists. These were meant to be Turbo’s stats! DCE has slipped back a little in the pecking order with the loss of goalkicking this year (which he only really had whenever Garrick was out), and Turbo usually pinches plenty of points off him. Is this a sign of things to come? The last four weeks now read 148 (without Turbo), 85, 119, 172 (all with). It makes him a serious consideration for the run home, although they do have a couple more testing games coming up against the Storm and the Eels which may normalise these scores a bit. But against the lesser opponents, look out. $760k+ is a tough pricetag at this stage of the year, though.

2. James Tedesco – 146. How could we forget him. All the talk in the run home has been about trying to squeeze in a Ponga or maybe even a cut-price Papenhuyzen once his price levels out. Teddy has now shed $200k on his starting pricetag, and put this score on despite not getting a try. Three assists and a contribution, along with two linebreaks. His ownership has dropped almost 20,000 since the middle of the year, with just 25% of teams holding onto him (many of whom may have stopped playing). One game doesn’t automatically mean there’ll be scores like this coming thick and fast, and outside of the Broncos and Dragons, there aren’t too many weak teams he’ll be coming up against. But a clean bill of health post-Origin might mean those 50-odd scores he was putting together could be a thing of the past. He even took over the goalkicking for this one. Again not perfect, with three misses, but a brilliant kick from the touchline for one of them. What’s going on there?

3. David Fifita – 134. I thought I may have broken him by bringing him in for the first time this season, with Fifita demoted to the bench seemingly in a bid to fire him up after falling in and out of games over the last few months. Thankfully it had the desired effect, despite Fifita coming on to the unfamiliar right-hand side, with a barnstorming try and a similar try assist. He almost had another as well, just getting stripped of the ball in the act of scoring (which also seemed to confuse Blocker Roach in commentary to no end). In the end, a 57-minute stint on the park was more than enough when he was lining up against the likes of Cody Ramsey on the edge. More of that, please.

4. Sitili Tupouniua – 125. When he’s on, he’s on. Three linebreaks, two tries and eight busts. Been a bit rocks and diamonds so far this season, and against the better sides seems to struggle getting involved. But lined up against brittle edge defence and being fed the ball by an on-song Tedesco will do wonders.

5. Luke Thompson – 114. An incredible game from the dual FRF/2RF, who probably (if you’re like me) was left out of your side this week as we carry him through as depth in those positions. First a barge-over try, then a sinbin for a late shot, then a linebreak through the middle and through about 4 tacklers where he threw a try assist offload. What. A. Play. And to think what could have been without the negative points from that sinbin. Maybe it kept him out there a little longer, without needing his usual first half rest. Either way, good confidence boost for him and the Dogs going forward that they can create these sorts of plays. Update: Unfortunately, that sinbin play looks like costing Thompson at least two weeks on the sideline. Bugger!

1. Sam Walker – 38. Just one try contribution and one linebreak assist through his 80 minutes, despite 6 runs still being a decent number for such a pint-sized half. Stuck most of his tackles I guess, but looks like it could be tough to share attacking stats when James Tedesco decides he wants to become a focal point in attack again. Desperately needs the goalkicking back (Teddy again stealing those points). Not sure where he sits now in the halves power rankings, but looks to have been run down by some of his peers after this week.

2. Matt Burton – 26. Unfortunately, the idea that Tyrone May should be in the halves while Cleary is out seems to have been a death knell for Burton, with practically zero ball out there at the minute in the centres. He at least kicked a goal randomly, but in a game against the Broncos this one would have had owners pencilling in a much higher score. Penrith’s attack was all a bit of a mess at times, with a couple of nice plays to Brian To’o being the only highlights on a gritty win.

3. Taane Milne – 24. He got a late callup after being benched with Campbell Graham bumped out as he recovered from a concussion suffered last week, and you would have almost guaranteed that in a 60-22 rout, Milne would have continued on his strong form of recent weeks and barged over. Probably ruined a few multis, probably ruined a few savvy SuperCoaches’ days who saw the late mail and brought him back into the fold. A single offload was his only non-base stat for the day. In a game where a lot of time was taken out of it through conversions, and a lot of Souths’ play was directed through the middle, I guess you can just excuse this one and move on.

4. Reece Walsh – 33. Tough day at the office for the young fullback, with plenty of calls for him to put the kicking boot away with kicks going dead and out on the full repeatedly. Were it not for a late try chasing through on a kick, this score would have been truly awful. Not the score most of his owners would have been hoping for having kept him around as a run-home POD, particularly after a terrific 98 against Penrith the week prior. The Warriors’ forwards have been decimated through injury the last two weeks so he needs a bit of help and luck there.

5. Reuben Garrick – 41. Most expected the trifecta of Turbo, Garrick and Saab to pay off in a big way against the Tigers this weekend, but it wasn’t to be. Even Turbo’s 95 felt like a flop of a score! Twenty of these points came from goalkicking, with just two busts in Garrick’s column at the end of the game. A little bit surprising given the Manly side ran up yet another score, but Garrick’s base out on the wing hasn’t really been that great all season. Would suspect he’ll bounce back in the coming weeks anyway, the confidence won’t be disappearing any time soon.

1. Damien Cook – 146. Fair to say that Damien Cook looked like coming back to the pack with a run of very quiet scores littering his season so far. Having now come through the Origin period unscathed, he put together his fourth ton for the year. Which makes it a return of one ton every four games. So far, the big scores have not been backed up by anything of substance, so need to see more of this before we burn a valuable trade on the guy. But this looked like Cook of old stuff.

2. Morgan Harper – 141. Lionel Ritchie impersonator by day, hattrick scorer in the NRL by night.

3. Tom Burgess – 101. The lone remaining Burgess brother came close to breaking a record – none of the Burgii have ever scored an NRL hattrick. Which doesn’t seem that surprising given they’re all forwards, but would have thought Sammy would have scored one at some point.

4. Siosifa Talakai – 88. Another demotion to the bench for Talakai who has fallen away after being a revelation on the edge last year. He finally got into the attacking stat column with a barnstorming try. More of that needed for any owners who’ve held onto him.

5. Matthew Feagai – 89. This is now twin scores of 89 across the year which means he retains his spot at the top of the CTW average total for another week!

Injuries

• Shaun Johnson – hamstring – 2-4 weeks
• Cody Walker – knee – 0-1 week
• Addin Fonua-Blake – finger – 2-4 weeks
• Matt Ikuvalu – ankle – 6-8 weeks
• Cody Ramsey – wrist – TBA
• Ryan Sutton – sternum – 1-2 weeks
• Brian Kelly – ankle – TBA
• Adam Reynolds –
• Luke Garner – ankle – 6-8 weeks
• Alex Seyfarth – knee – TBA
• Billy Smith – ankle – TBA
• Marata Niukore – knee – 4-6 weeks
• Jake Turpin – thumb – TBA
• Cory Paix – ankle – TBA

HIAs: Isaah Yeo, Josh Papalii, Dylan Walker, Jack Murchie, Eli Katoa,

Suspensions

• Cameron Murray – 1-2 weeks
• Matt Lodge – 1-2 weeks
• Luke Thompson – 2-3 weeks
• Josh Aloiai – 1-2 weeks
• Tom Flegler – 2-3 weeks