NRL 2022, Fantasy winners and losers, Round 8 standout, players to trade for

Author: Lone Scout NRL Fantasy guru
Timestamp: Mon 2 May 2022, 08:15 AM

He might not have led his team to victory but James Tedesco was a leading reason his coaches will finally be satisfied with the fantasy highlight of round eight, but Payne Haas and David Fifita owners will be devastated after both suffered injuries.

Round 8 Winners

James Tedesco (81) did everything but win the game for the Roosters as they continued their surprise 2022 struggles. At least Teddy owners can be satisfied the NSW fullback and captain will continue to be heavily relied on to get his club out of this current funk.

Back-to-back Melbourne demolition jobs led Justin Olam to a very strong 76 points while Euan Aitken (77) and Reuben Cotter (71) were strong reasons behind their teams victories on Saturday night.

Nathan Cleary (70) continued his relentless fantasy scoring form while Daly Cherry-Evans (72) was also outstanding in a beaten side.

Nicho Hynes (66), Cody Walker (68) and Isaah Yeo (63) are other fantasy relevant players that stood out while all eyes will be on North Queensland’s team list on Tuesday as Reece Robson (63) took advantage of being able to play 80 minutes with Jake Granville a late omission.

Walker scores from Tass offload

In the same game, those that brought in James Taumalolo (55) will be satisfied that despite the reduced minutes in the heat in Darwin he still broke the half-century while David Klemmer (71) was enormous two weeks running despite playing in a team that was heavily defeated.

Angus Crichton (66), Cameron McInnes, Alex Twal and Ryan Matterson will be interesting trade-in options this week as all three traditional fantasy performers finally got the right mix of opportunity and circumstance to put in high scores this weekend.

Matt Burton (52) fired in the Bulldogs shock win along with team-mate Tevita Pangai Jnr (54) in a major relief for their owners while Tom Starling, Cameron Murray, Damien Cook, Harry Grant and Ryan Papenhuyzen all scored solidly as expected.

Xavier Coates (52) had Lone Scout eating his words from last weeks column as he did in fact make it back to back high scores thanks to the Storm’s smashing of the Knights. Nick Meaney also made the most of Melbourne's attacking dominance with a 62-point score of his own.

Izack Tago, Christian Tuipulotu, Royce Hunt, Daejarn Asi and Billy Tsikrikas were the best of the cheapies although Tsikrikas is now out for a week with a suspension.

Luke Brooks (77) and Jackson Hastings (76) had big games for the Wests Tigers to round out the week — Hastings rewarding those owners who brought him in this week with his ownership rising above six percent.

Action Jackson and cool-hand Luke

Round 8 Losers

David Fifita (19) was the biggest loser of the round after not only starting from the bench but then leaving the game early due to injury. It looks like he will be out for a month and with Origin coming straight after that he will be a sell next week. Like Fifita, Payne Haas (43) was also unable to finish the game against the Sharks but is probably a hold as it is most likely he either plays next week or the week after.

Siosifa Talakai (30) was the most traded-in player and, despite smashing his break even, new owners would be dreadfully disappointed with his 30 points. It could have been worse too, bar for some late efforts during the final minutes of the game.

Talakai held up over the line

Mitchell Moses (22) crashed back to earth after firing last round; Edrick Lee (11) another to fall backwards, barely getting out of single digits as his side failed to score a try against the ruthless Storm.

Te Maire Martin (22) and Kobe Hetherington (17) were also disappointing lower priced players that may be in some lineups.

Brad Schneider (24) had his lowest score so far this year and may have peaked in price as the Raiders continue to struggle with on-field performances.