It was a mixed round for NRL Fantasy's big guns as thousands of head-to-head league finals series got underway. Here's the recap of which players starred and who misfired in Round 22.
Winners
The best player of the round was Raiders hooker Josh Hodgson, who tore the Sharks to pieces in the first half on Saturday on the way to 70 Fantasy points by half-time and 89 by the end of the game. Two try assists, a line break, six tackle breaks and 40 tackles featured in a superb all-round performance for the English rake.
Wests Tigers winger David Nofoaluma (86 Fantasy points) was terrific in another big win over one of the competition heavyweights, opening the scoring and proving hard to stop all game (14 tackle breaks, 216 metres) in the Tigers' win over the Cowboys.
Popular Fantasy buys filled out the next batch of top scorers, led by rookie sensation Nathan Cleary (85), Jack de Belin (81), Sam Burgess (76), Ryan James (76), Bodene Thompson (74) and Simon Mannering (71).
James Tedesco also bounced back into Fantasy form with 70, while Cameron Smith got the most out of extra time with the match-winning field goal and 66 points.
Losers
He was the best scorer in the competition a week ago but Josh Mansour wasn't required to do much in the Panthers' win over the Roosters on Monday night, finishing with just 20 points – his worst Fantasy score of the season. Meanwhile Elijah Taylor was sidelined with concussion 13 minutes into the Tigers' win over the Cowboys and finished with just six Fantasy points.
With the NRL Fantasy head-to-head finals underway every below-average score from star players can be crucial, and Fantasy coaches will be ruing some mediocre returns from the likes of Tom Trbojevic (21), Clint Gutherson (29), Anthony Milford (30), Elliott Whitehead (30), Ben Barba (34), Johnathan Thurston (36), James Graham (39) and Shaun Johnson (40).
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