NRL 2022: NRL Fantasy, Lone Scout, winners & losers, round 7

Author: Lone Scout NRL Fantasy guru
Timestamp: Tue 26 Apr 2022, 11:01 AM

A stunning 40-minute demolition job from Sharks centre Siosifa Talakai was the Fantasy highlight of round seven, with Nathan Cleary again dominant – but it was a bad week to own any Newcastle players.

Winners

Possibly the most dominant 40 minutes in memory boosted Talakai to 107 against Manly. The Sharks backrower-turned-centre scored two tries and set up three more to be on 97 at half time. The all-time record of 150 by Tom Trbojevic looked under serious threat but Talakai hardly saw any ball in the second half as a Manly comeback made a serious game of it. Well done to anyone who picked him up before this week's enormous price rise.

Two tries boosted Isaiah Papali'i (87) to the second-best score of the week while Nathan Cleary (85) shook off a quiet first half to dominate in the second. Ryan Papenhuyzen (80) and Cameron Munster (76) were in everything in Melbourne's second-half points avalanche against the Warriors, Talakai's teammate Nicho Hynes (78) got in on the action against Manly, Mitch Moses (75) also enjoyed the Eel's rout of the Knights while Adam Reynolds (75) and David Nofoaluma (72) round out the 70-plus scores.

Four tries boosted Xavier Coates to 68; it's the sort of match his owners were hoping might occur with his shift to Melbourne but his regular low scores mean he can't be relied on in your 17.

NRL Round Up - Round 7

James Tedesco (64) finally hit a bit of form, Jackson Hastings (63) is officially Fantasy-relevant, Tom Starling (63) is not producing consistent scores (and probably would've played 80 again if not for a HIA), while Stephen Crichton (59) shook off a couple of low scores with a hat-trick.

Tevita Pangai jnr (58) had a busier game, Dylan Brown (50) saved what could've been a poor score out in the centres with a try, his fellow centre Will Penisini (48) had another solid score and Lachlan Ilias's (36) very slow price rises continues.

Losers

The Knights' humbling loss to the Eels was bad news for pretty much all their players. Chris Randall (25) got a very early shower, Leo Thompson (25) didn't get on until the 48th minute, Kalyn Ponga (24) failed to back up last week's huge score, Jake Clifford (31) and Kurt Mann (36) are probably both a sell and while Brodie Jones (36) is still making money, he is set to miss at least a week with an elbow injury that forced him off 20 minutes early. Even Dane Gagai (22) was quiet.

Try of the Week: Round 7

Xavier Savage (-3) produced a negative score through 80 minutes, Blake Taffe (14) struggled in the loss to Wests Tigers, Jesse Arthars' (16) two 50-plus scores are fading quickly from memory, Tolu Koula's (16) 40 minutes off the bench weren't ideal and Jack Bird (17) appears to have broken his forearm.

Possible cash cow Harry Rushton (17) had a very good points-per-minute return but with only 21 minutes he wasn.t able to make it count.

A move to the centres was bad news for David Fifita (28) owners, Jeremiah Nanai (29) scored another try but was brought undone by a sin-bin decision we could perhaps best describe as "debateable", Matt Burton (30) is now shedding cash, Kobe Hetherington (30) has been a bust, Josh Curran (31) will miss at least a month and should be sold while a return to 80 minutes didn't do much for Angus Crichton's scoring.