NRL 2021: NRL Fantasy, Winners and Losers, Round 18

Author: Lone Scout NRL Fantasy guru
Timestamp: Mon 19 Jul 2021, 04:45 AM

Origin withdrawals and a raft of injuries to key Fantasy players no doubt decided countless head-to-head matches in a brutal weekend of Fantasy.

Winners

Corey Harawira-Naera (106) joined the 100-club for the year with one of the best performances of his career, including 13 busts and seven offloads.

That overshadowed fellow Raiders back-rower Hudson Young (92), who got the third-top score of the week.

Reece Robson (98) is in less than 1% of teams but was a man on a mission against the Roosters while Matt Lodge (90) was forced to play 80 minutes due to the Warriors' horror injury toll and busted out of 10 tackles with eight offloads.

Nicho Hynes (88), Cam Munster (81) and Jahrome Hughes (72) tore apart the Knights; Clint Gutherson (86), Reed Mahoney (77) and Ryan Matterson (76) did similar to the Titans; while Matt Ikuvalu (83), Sam Walker (79), Drew Hutchison (76) and Joey Manu (74) made hay against the Cowboys.

Adam Doueihi (79) had a stunning five try assists against Brisbane, cheapie Xavier Savage (73) had a breakout game against the Sharks while Cam Murray (78), Addin Fonua-Blake and Jordan Riki (both 76), Haumole Olakau'atu (71) and Justin Olam (70) round out the 70-plus scores.

Payne Haas (69) backed up well from Origin, Josh Schuster (68) made an impressive return from injury, Viliame Kikau (68) was a try-scorer against the Warriors and Jason Taumalolo (66) appears to be well and truly back.

Matt Burton (61) also showed what he's capable of when he gets a start in the halves.

Bodies everywhere and Nofoluma somehow gets it down

Losers

Origin withdrawals hurt a stack of NRL Fantasy coaches. From the teams named on Tuesday, Tom Trbojevic, Daly Cherry-Evans, James Tedesco, Latrell Mitchell, Josh Addo-Carr and Christian Welch were all rested.

Kalyn Ponga (8) went off early with a head knock, Tohu Harris (3) sadly suffered a probable season-ending knee injury, TC Robati (4) suffered a corked calf after four minutes, Roger Tuivasa-Sheck (11) was concussed early, as was Campbell Graham (26).

Jamal Fogarty (24) suffered a compound fracture in his hand and Wayde Egan's (25) season is likely over due to a shoulder injury.

In non-injury news, Shaun Johnson (22) and Ben Hunt (27) struggled, Jake Averillo's (35) scoring has slowed right down while Jason Saab (4) has scored just 11 Fantasy points in his past 160 minutes of football.

Among possible captaincy candidates this week, Isaiah Papali'i (41) and David Fifita (45) had among their worst scores of the year