NRL 2021:NRL Fantasy, winners and losers, Round 9

Author: Lone Scout NRL Fantasy guru
Timestamp: Mon 10 May 2021, 03:45 AM

Yet another two entrants into the 100 club for 2021 and a bad week for a couple of popular cash cows headlined the NRL Fantasy news from round nine of the Telstra Premiership.

Winners

The Wests Tigers couldn't get the win against the Titans but it was through no lack of effort from their five-eighth Adam Doueihi, who registered his best NRL Fantasy score of 103 with a try and two try assists to go with five busts and a stack of run and kick metres.

Tom Trbojevic finished with an even 100 as his remarkable run continued on the back of two tries, four try assists and eight busts.

Nathan Cleary was back to his high-scoring ways, barely raising a sweat in cranking out 88 for the second-top score of the week. Jason Taumalolo was also back to his best, almost reaching his very high break-even with a powerful 84 against Brisbane.

Josh Addo-Carr arguably could have been expected to finish with more than 85 given his historic six-try haul given fellow winger Matt Ikuvalu (82) scored almost as well with half the tries.

Doueihi gets a try but it is all too late

Another Rooster in Nat Butcher also his 82, standing tall for the injury-ravaged Tricolours with 70 tackles.

Jahrome Hughes and Matt Dufty (both 78), Payne Haas, David Fifita and David Nofoaluma (all 76), Jayden Brailey (74), Tohu Harris (73), Tyson Frizell (71), and Kodi Nikorima, Ryan Matterson and Brandon Smith (all 70) round out the 70-plus scores from the weekend.

Kalyn Ponga also shrugged off back-to-back poor scores and a dire first half to light up late in the comeback against Canberra to finish with 64.

Relive the final moments of Cowboys-Broncos

Losers

From the heights of a try-scoring, match-winning debut last week, Wests Tigers rookie Zac Cini quickly learned about the lows, with five handling errors in his second match for a return of -1 in Fantasy.

It's a tough break for the coaches who snapped him up to plug the CTR gap left by the likes of Tesi Niu, Paul Momirovski and Ben Hampton in recent weeks.

At least it wasn't the worst score of the round with Brayden Musgrove (-5) and Will Kennedy (-3) having an even tougher time of it.

Reece Walsh was, as feared, shuffled to the bench on game day to accommodate the return of Chanel Harris-Tavita, but managed a try and a try-assist in that time to at least scramble 23 points.

The injury-riddled loss to the Eels was bad news for the scores of popular Roosters trio Angus Crichton (36), James Tedesco (34) and Sam Walker (32).

Match Highlights: Sea Eagles v Warriors

At the Tigers, Daine Laurie (26) was quiet while Jake Simpkin (38) scored a try but with Jacob Liddle returning on the bench his minutes were always going to be a concern and he spent the last 30 minutes on the pine.

There were bench rotation concerns for NRL Fantasy coaches at Newcastle as well, where the return of big-minute edge forward Lachlan Fitzgibbon pushed Mitch Barnett into the middle rotation where both Barnett (46 in 44 minutes) and Connor Watson (43 in 40) shape as sells in the coming weeks despite scoring quickly while on the park.

An early HIA was bad news for Reed Mahoney (21) owners while Dane Gagai (17) and Keaon Koloamatangi (34 were kept quiet by Melbourne).