NRL 2020: NRL Fantasy winners & losers, Round 17

Author: Lone Scout NRL Fantasy guru
Timestamp: Mon 7 Sep 2020, 08:37 AM

Mark down round 17 of 2020 as the highest-scoring Fantasy week in history.

Hundreds of coaches broke the 1200-point mark as a host of popular Fantasy players went berserk, headed by centuries from uber-popular WFBs Kalyn Ponga and James Tedesco.

Winners

Knights star Ponga embarrassed the Sharks defence to the tune of three tries, 15 busts and 222 metres for 108, surviving a couple of high shots in the process.

Roosters fullback Tedesco made it back-to-back tons with 101 against Canberra following his 112 against the Broncos a week earlier. Two tries and 16 busts with 234 run metres did the damage.

Payne Haas bounced back from his suspension with a huge 80 minutes against the Panthers, racking up 61 tackles, five busts and 180 metres.

The trio are three of the four most-owned players in Fantasy, with many coaches owning all three and plenty making one of them captain.

Get Caught Up: Round 17

Two more heavily-owned guns in Cameron McInnes (90) and Ryan Papenhuyzen (75) were also among the week's top scorers, with many coaches netting a lazy 284 points from their three WFBs.

Mo Fotuaika (83), David Nofoaluma (80), Daly Cherry-Evans (74), Mitch Barnett and Jamal Fogarty (both 70) and Damien Cook (68) were also among the popular picks to hurt the scoreboard.

Lachlan Lewis (90) at under 1 per cent ownership was the only big score from players who aren't in a stack of Fantasy teams.

Chanel Harris-Tavita's double against the Eels in all its glory

Reuben Cotter (59) justified his billing as cash-down of the week while there were solid scores from more popular picks such as Nathan Cleary and Mitch Moses (both 67), Ryan Matterson (66), Tohu Harris (65), Tyrone Peachey (64), Kotoni Staggs and Kurt Mann (both 61).

Tom Starling (54) continues to get plenty of minutes, playing all bar 10 against the Roosters.

Losers

Given the monster scores put up elsewhere, it was a disappointing week for owners of Zac Lomax (34), Jarome Luai (40) and Stephen Crichton (19), who are all in more than 20 per cent of teams.

Injuries played a part, with Josh Papalii (34) going off with a shoulder injury and Kaeon Koloamatangi (6) copping a head knock.

AJ Brimson (29) was surprisingly quiet, Alex Twal (33) got just 47 minutes, Luciano Leilua (34) was also kept quiet while minutes were also an issue for Ben Hunt (48) who now has a bench hooker and Nat Butcher (36) now that Boyd Cordner and Angus Crichton are both back.