Round 25 of the NRL Fantasy season is done and dusted, and for many of you that means your head-to-head league has been decided. A huge congratulations to your league's winner (yours truly has taken out the NRL.com office competition once again) and commiserations to those of you who fell at the final hurdle. There's no shame in a grand final loss – just let it drive you to bigger and better things next season (or in a couple of weeks... more on that shortly).
Round 25 success stories
He's left his best to (almost) last, but Super League-bound Gold Coast forward David Taylor has finally showed what he's capable of with a super two-try, 11-tackle-break performance in the Titans' shock win over the Dragons on Sunday. Taylor finished with 99 Fantasy points – easily his best result of the season.
Taylor is only in around 1,000 Fantasy teams, so the bigger news for most Fantasy coaches was the massive performances of Ben Hunt (three tries, two try assists, 98 points), Roger Tuivasa-Sheck (three try assists, 10 tackle breaks, 86 points), and a fired-up Robbie Farah (one try, two line breaks, three try assists, 95 points).
Meanwhile Farah's teammate James Tedesco (79) fired again, as did Hunt's halves partner Anthony Milford (84) and new Bulldogs hooker Damien Cook (75). Cameron Smith (74) was the best of the usual captaincy options, while James Segeyaro, Frank Pritchard, Martin Taupau, Shaun Fensom, Paul Gallen and departing Knights skipper Kurt Gidley were among those to score in the high 60s.
Round 25 flops
I described Simon Mannering as a "handy fallback option" as captain for those who didn't have Corey Parker in their side but that proved to not be the case, with the Warriors skipper scoring a mediocre 37.
Meanwhile Daly Cherry-Evans produced pretty much nothing in attack in Manly's thumping defeat at the hands of the Roosters, leading to just 28 Fantasy points.
Other Fantasy underachievers on the weekend were Aaron Woods (22), Sio Siua Taukeiaho (26), Lachlan Coote (23), Solomone Kata (18), Luke Keary (17) and Mitchell Aubusson (16).
The Fantasy year is not done yet
With one week left in the NRL Fantasy season there is just a 30-point gap at the top of the overall rankings, with 'THEPYTHONS' edging out 'Mansion' and 'PhilGouldsChins'. There is less than 100 points separating first and sixth in the overall rankings, meaning the race is still fairly open heading into Round 26.
And if you're not in the overall points race, don't worry – you'll have more chances to win prizes once the NRL finals kick off, with weekly and overall prizes for NRL Finals Fantasy. Simply pick six-man teams from every NRL Finals game, with captains earning triple points and vice captains earning double, and you could be a big winner. Once again you can set up leagues with your mates to see who will be your finals champ after the NRL grand final.
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