Scout Report: Round 10 Fantasy Q&A

Andrew Fifita is down, Greg Bird is out, State of Origin is around the corner and chances are your Fantasy team is starting to look as shaky as the Blues' Origin chances. If that's the case, here are a few answers to this week's big questions to give you a helping hand.

For more, take a look at my Round 10 team lists wrap and as always, double check the official team lists, NRL judiciary results and the casualty ward – plus the Friday late mail – before locking in your team.

It's one more week until the byes begin, which will be a time for most head-to-head players to kick up their heels and overall points players to really put their tactics to good use. With that in mind, here's the Round 10 Q&A.

His scoring is so good at the moment that I'd hold him until Round 14, and then think about it. He'll miss just one game until then (Round 11 before Origin I) and then missing Round 14, 15, 17 and 18. When Round 14 comes around see if you can afford to hold him and how many trades you have left (it'll cost you two to trade him out and in again) before deciding what to do with him. 

If you do trade him it'll be in order to boost your points, so get somebody like Mansour or the best scorer available who isn't playing Origin.

It again depends on your game plan. They should both remain mid-40s scorers for the long term, but if you don't count them as keepers then now is a good time to trade Peats as his price will drop after a run of low scores. If there are more pressing matters in your team then both can be held onto though.

If you've got an eye on the bye rounds and are playing for overall points, Peats will miss two major bye rounds with the Eels while Taumalolo will only miss one (Round 14) with the Cowboys. On the other hand, that means Peats will play in every regular head-to-head Fantasy round.

It depends. 

For overall points, trade him for a non-Origin forward from one of the five best bye-round teams (Rabbitohs, Roosters, Bulldogs, Tigers and Titans). So that's guys like Sam Burgess, John Sutton, Sonny Bill Williams or Josh Jackson, or if you can switch a prop back to the second row then guys like George Burgess, Aiden Tolman or James Graham.

For head-to-head, just go keepers – preferably who won't have to have to back up from Origin. Shaun Fensom if you've got cash, Jesse Bromwich if you can bring in a front-rower, or the next best back-rower you can afford.

See the answer above. The Burgess brothers and Graham are great value for the bye rounds (all three are in my team) with Tolman and Jesse Bromwich another two great front row options and Shaun Fensom and Sonny Bill Williams good options in the back row.

Very hard to say. The Origin period will see a lot of the top teams drop significantly if they haven't planned for the byes. After that it'll be much easier to see if you're in the running.

Yes, assuming you're playing for head-to-head. By the end of the year you'll want a playing squad of about 19/20, with a couple of decent backups to your first-choice squad and the flexibility to cover every position. Until then you still want cover for injuries and suspensions, but now is certainly the time to be upgrading your cash cows to keepers or downgrading them to very cheap players. The only other thing to consider is avoiding low-scoring players who could become a low-scoring auto-emergency down the track.