Lone Scout's NRL Fantasy Q&A: Round 23
Tom Trbojevic is in doubt, Jahrome Hughes is out, and Fantasy coaches are weighing up whether to use up their last few trades.
So, what are the smart moves to make for round 23?
This week's big questions
What to do with Turbo? Even if he is named is it worth risking holding him as he could be a late scratching?
From Troy Hetherington
I'll be holding. The good news is Manly play early in the round, in the 6pm Friday game, so we'll know fairly soon whether he's in or out. If he's in you obviously keep him, and even if he's a scratching this week he must be a good chance of returning for the final two rounds – where he'd be a crucial player to have in head-to-head finals match-ups.
Here's what Manly head physiotherapist James Rahme had to say on Tom Trbojevic on Tuesday: "I can report that he has had a knock to an old injury. The only concern is a bit of swelling, there is not really too much pain.
"From a medical point of view we are not really concerned about the injury itself. We are just assessing the swelling and hopefully he is comfortable as the week progresses to join training and will be fine to play."
That – and the fact Manly may need to win their final three games to clinch a crucial top-four spot – suggests Trbojevic is a very real chance of starting this week.
Trbojevic cleared of cheekbone fracture, but will he miss matches?
Latrell, Papenhuyzen or Garrick to replace Turbo?
From Mitchell Jordan
If Trbojevic is ruled out and you are set on trading him, I'd probably go with Latrell Mitchell ahead of Garrick and Papenhuyzen as the most reliable replacement.
All three of those guys are capable of a low score – Mitchell has never been super consistent, Papenhuyzen is still getting back to his best and Garrick has his best scores when Manly dominate their opponents and rack up a lot of points – which is less likely to happen if Trbojevic isn't playing.
Do you think given the potential severity of Hughes' HIA, the Storm are unlikely to rush him back before finals and it would make more sense to trade him for Cleary than Hynes? I had both in my halves.
From @FirstHitUp
It's an interesting point. Certainly for this week with Hynes replacing Hughes at halfback you'll be better off having Hynes in your squad, and if Hughes does in fact have a few weeks off after the head knock that resulted in Corey Harawira-Naera being suspended for the rest of the regular season then Hynes will continue to score well.
Storm to rest Hughes and Finucane
The Storm have already shown they are happy to play it safe with serious head knocks, having given Ryan Papenhuyzen an extended stay on the sidelines this year.
The risk is that if Hughes – like most players after head knocks – misses a single week and then returns to the field, Hynes is probably the man most likely to be shifted to the bench (or at least share game time with Papenhuyzen at fullback).
There's no real way of knowing at this stage which way it'll go, so make the move that best suits your team's situation.
If you're facing a tough challenge in this week's head-to-head final and need every point you can get, trade Hughes and hope Hynes can continue getting good scores.
Curran steams through a hole
Is Schuster to Curran worth a precious trade?
From Jason Faulkner
Josh Curran is in red hot form and looks a terrific buy this week, while Josh Schuster has been hovering around 45 points a game lately (he only had 34 last week) although he does still average 50 across the season.
Still, unless you have several trades to burn and no injury dramas in your squad, I'd probably just hold on to Schuster.
We've had to cope with a huge number of injuries and suspensions this year and some key ones in the past few weeks, so there's every chance one or two more star players will need replacing in the final two or three rounds.
If a key player goes down, having a spare trade up your sleeve could be the difference between winning your head-to-head league and coming up short, so I'd be avoiding using up trades on luxury upgrades like this one.
