How to avoid a Round 2 Fantasy overreaction

The don't sell list for Round 2

Patrick Carrigan (MID, $774k)

Forced to play out on an edge for all but the first few minutes due to Brendan Piakura failing a HIA, his Round 1 score of 41 wasn't a true reflection of Carrigan's Fantasy prospects. Piakura is back this week and barring another injury in the back row, Carrigan will return to his normal big-minute role in the middle where there are a lot more tackle and run metre stats on offer. The Brisbane big man is a good second-tier MID who doesn't have a bye until Round 13, so he's one to keep. 

Kalyn Ponga (WFB, $736k)

Given how he finished last season, and the fact that he's the second-most expensive WFB in the game, Ponga's 35 in Round 1 was disappointing to say the least, especially when 11 others in that position had scores of 50 or over last week. While his base stats were still decent, with 19 points from run metres alone, Ponga lost 10 in demerits, which included an uncharacteristic three errors. Once he cleans that up and the left edge, which hardly threatened against the Raiders, starts clicking in attack, the scores will come back for the Newcastle No.1.

Nathan Cleary (HLF, $977k) and Nicho Hynes (HLF, $976k)

Yes they both hit about 20 under their average from last season, yes they've both lost significant money from the $1m you paid for them and no you shouldn't even be thinking about moving on from either of them. Cleary wasn't able to rack up his usual attacking or goalkicking stats as the Panthers were held scoreless for the first time in 33 games, while Hynes suffered due to being involved in a slugfest in Auckland too. Neither of those things is likely to happen very often this year and both remain among the three best options in Fantasy. 

The don't buy list for Round 2 

Tyrell Sloan (WFB, $501k)

You don't score hat-tricks every week in the NRL and without his tries and line breaks against the Titans last week, Sloan's score of 64 would have been cut in half. He's going to have more peaks like this in 2024 because he's a dynamic player who on his day can be absolutely brilliant, but there'll also be a lot of troughs with Sloan because of his lack of base stats. He's not the type of WFB you'll want in your final squad and is now too expensive to make money on. 

Richie Kennar (WFB, $363k)

There is ownership movement on cheapie WFB Richie Kennar this week and he's set to go up above four percent ownership, which is a worry. While he was excellent for the Bunnies in their season opener in Las Vegas, scoring 58, Kennar is next to no hope of having a spot in this side long-term, with Jack Wighton due back from suspension in Round 3 and Jacob Gagai and Tyrone Munro the more likely candidates for the other wing spot. If you've got him then that's great and he'll make some more cash after Round 2 as well, but Kennar is definitely not worth spending a trade on. 

Tom Eisenhuth (EDG, $459k)

It was a huge shift at lock that saw the former Storm man rack up a point per minute across an hour on the field, but it almost certainly won't be repeated. He was effectively the replacement for injured prop Blake Lawrie last week, with Jack de Belin moving to the front row and Eisenhuth slotting into the other middle spot. Lawrie is back this week, which has bumped Eisenhuth out to an edge and the return of Luciano Leilua will likely spell an end to his days as a starter in the next week or two as well. If you've got him then keep him, with a handy price rise coming on the back of a break even of 12, but you don't want to be buying him now.