Lone Scout's NRL Fantasy Q&A: Round 10
Ahead of round 10, Ben Hunt looks a buy, Siliva Havili might be a steal, and there are no good centres.
It's another tricky week of NRL Fantasy.
This week's big questions
Thinking of buying Hunt as an 80-minute hooker, although, if Clune gets injured who will replace him?
From Jayden Quensell
Ben Hunt looks a great buy this week. After averaging 44 points in 58 minutes as a bench hooker he scored 76 in 80 minutes against Manly last week, with 51 tackles and 314 kick metres. At the moment he's averaging 65 points per 80 minutes at dummy-half this year but is priced closer to a 45-point player; if you snap him up for $654k and he gives you 55 points a game he'll be a bargain.
Sure Hunt will probably return to halfback if Adam Clune gets injured, but you can't factor in potential future injuries when making trades in Fantasy. Even if Hunt spends a few weeks back in the halves (where he scores pretty well anyway) he's likely to return to a big-minute hooker role for the bulk of the season after the Dragons' recent success.
Would you trade Latrell Mitchell? What centre options are good in your opinion?
Dominic Carswell
With a two-game suspension and very inconsistent scoring, Latrell Mitchell is only really worth trading out if you have decent depth at centre in your squad without him. Otherwise, most trades could end up being sideways.
Teammates defend suspended Mitchell
The only centre who is averaging 10 points per game better than Mitchell is Zac Lomax, and that's thanks to him scoring six tries in nine games. Despite his consistency so far there's no guarantee that scoring spree continues. The other options are either injured (Kurt Capewell, Kotoni Staggs, Campbell Graham), inconsistent (Bradman Best, Tommy Talau), now a bench player (Sione Mata'utia) or are scoring in the mid-30s like Mitchell.
If you've already got a combination of decent centre options and can afford to get a quality scorer in a different position by trading out Mitchell, do it. Something like…
Latrell to Ben Hunt? Still have Best, Lomax, Talau, Niu as centres. Hunt to partner Cleary in the halves.
From Grayson Cullen
Good trade.
Is Havili worth getting in?
From Andrew Pryor
Siliva Havili will be one of the most-watched Fantasy scorers this week after taking over the Raiders hooker role from Josh Hodgson. With a $396k price tag he's projected to climb by almost $100k in three weeks if he can average 45 points a game, and he's cheaper than the likes of Hudson Young or Nat Butcher were when a lot of people swooped on those mid-rangers a couple of weeks ago.
Raiders' injury toll mounts
The two questions are his game time and his scoring. Havili scored just 34 in 53 minutes, partially at hooker, against Melbourne last week – although that included five missed tackles against one of the league's elite teams. He'll probably play around 55-60 minutes per game with bench hooker Tom Starling also in the 17. If Havili scores below 40 he's not worth a trade, if it's closer to 50 he's great value.
With a break even under 20 now's the best time to snap him up if you think he's worth a shot, but it's only a good move if you have enough trades to afford to spend two on a mid-range cash cow at this time of the season.
Holmes to serve lengthy stint on sidelines
At this time of the season is it more important to save trades, or begin dumping low performing cash cows like Tabuai-Fidow? How long will Fermor likely stick around as a starter?
From Schone Sommerfeldt
Not wasting trades is crucial at this stage of the season. To see if you've got enough left, work out how many of your current squad you want to keep all year, how many you want to trade, and how many trades you'll have left after you make those moves. Ideally, you have four or five to cover injuries after putting together your "final" 17.
With trades so tight this year, it's also important to try to squeeze as much cash out of cash cows as possible, so it could be worth giving cheap reserves like Tabuai-Fidow a decent run in your squad (now that he seemingly has the Cowboys fullback spot for the next couple of months) to see if he can jump in value with a big game or two.
Is this the new standard for Yeo? And is he a trade out or wait one more week?
From Kai Spence
Last year Isaah Yeo averaged 46 points in 70 minutes in his four games at lock, but this season he's one of the players whose scoring has exploded with the new six-again rules leading to an increase in tackles.
After seven games he was averaging an excellent 65 points a game but in both of the past two weeks he's scored 46 points from 64 minutes. I still think he's worth holding though, with both those games arguably outliers.
Tamou: 'Coaches don't want to be assistants forever'
In round 8 against the Wests Tigers, he had -10 in demerits including four missed tackles (he hasn't had more than two in any other game) and last week he had 33 tackles – 10 below his average – in a 56-24 tryfest against the Sharks, the kind of game that doesn't suit workhorse middle forwards. He's a hold for now in my book.
When do dual position players gets updated?
From Corbin Giddy
The next (and final) batch of dual-position player updates for this season will happen after round 12.
Bought Daniel Saifiti last week, sell or hold after weekend's injury?
From Jamie Muldoon
Update: With news Saifiti could miss up to six weeks he is a sell this week, or you could hold until next round for further clarification on his return date and to see which potential cut-price keeper out of Manly's Martin Taupau and Bulldogs recruit Luke Thompson performs better this round.
