NRL Fantasy winners & losers: Round 25
Nathan Cleary hits one of the biggest scores in history (but doesn't break his own record), a bottom-of-the-table clash produces monster scores while Fantasy's most popular player saved his worst for last.
Winners
Nathan Cleary has done it again. Two years after hitting the all-time top score in Fantasy of 126 with a hat-trick against the Warriors, the young Panther smashed out 120 with a four-try, nine-goal effort against Newcastle – the second-best Fantasy score in history. He's now the only player ever to have breached 120 and he's done it twice.
That boomer from Cleary overshadowed one of the season's best scores, 102 from Dragons halfback Ben Hunt who had stats across the board including two tries against the Titans. That match also produced 84 and 82 from Mitch Rein and Jai Arrow respectively, with each nabbing a try, while Euan Aitken hit 75.
Roger Tuivasa-Sheck was at his evasive best busting 14 tackles and running 266 metres with a try in an upset win over Canberra while Payne Haas was the best of the likely captaincy options, hitting an 83 of his own in a typically massive effort in Brisbane's loss to Canterbury.
Episode 28 - Finals schedule confirmed
Teammate Anthony Milford (80) ran for over 200 metres with a try in that game while David Fifita's 65 was a comedown on recent efforts but still impressive.
Maika Sivo claimed the season top try-scorer award with a hat-trick against Manly for a season-high 81-point return.
Josh Papalii (80), Nelson Asofa-Solomona (76), Michael Morgan and Briton Nikora (both 75), Nick Meaney (73) Cameron Smith and Luke Garner (both 71) Josh Jackson and Luke Brooks (both 69) were the other top scorers.
Losers
Newcastle's worst performance of the season coincided with Kalyn Ponga's worst of the year in Fantasy (and arguably his worst in the NRL) with just seven points in 80 minutes with 12 demerits and just 56 run metres.
Latrell Mitchell (15) was kept extremely quiet in the loss to Souths, Andrew Fifita's (32) promotion from the bench to the starting side had the opposite of the desired effect on his scores, while Eels duo Reed Mahoney and Mitch Moses (both 26) produced their lowest (or equal lowest) scores of the year.
Round 24 team of the week
- Roger Tuivasa-Sheck 83
- Maika Sivo 81
- Euan Aitken 75
- Briton Nikora 75
- Anthony Milford 80
- Ben Hunt 102
- Nathan Cleary 120
- Payne Haas 83
- Mitch Rein 84
- Nelson Asofa-Solomona 76
- Josh Papalii 80
- Luke Garner 71
- Jai Arrow 82
- Michael Morgan 75
- Nick Meaney 73
- Cameron Smith 71
