Crucial Fantasy calls to make: Round 11

The future looks bright for a mid-priced HLF, while it's time we spoke about trade rage ahead of the Origin period. 

Here are the major Fantasy talking points facing coaches ahead of Round 11 of the Telstra Premiership season. 

Dylan Brown gets the crown

The stars have aligned this week for Parramatta No.6 Dylan Brown and he is looking like a good trade in for the remainder of the season too.

With Mitchell Moses sitting out Round 11 with a head knock, Brown will handle most of the playmaking duties for the Eels this week and should have increased points from kick metres in particular. 

He's also set to line up on the left against the Raiders, where players have been able to produce some big scores in recent weeks, and it's easy to see him setting up a number of tries (or scoring one or two himself) on that side of the field, in what should be a high-scoring game. 

Looking further down the track, the Eels play in Round 13, 16 and 19, which is huge for overall players or those in head-to-head leagues which play through bye rounds, making Brown a really good pickup this week at $712k. 

Avoid trade rage 

With injuries to a couple of popular Fantasy players this week and the Dolphins being on a bye, the temptation is there to hit the trades hard in order to field a full 17 or strengthen the group you have.

But with the bye rounds and an Origin period sure to wreak havoc on player availability coming up, now is not the time to be burning trades.

The likes of Jackson Ford, Mitchell Moses and Egan Butcher are all expected back in Round 12, so unless you already viewed them as a sell before their head knocks, they are holds. 

For those hit hard by the Dolphins' bye – with a bunch of teams owning Isaiya Katoa, Connelly Lemuelu and Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow in particular – you are better off taking the black dot or fielding a low-scoring player this week, rather than trading them out for someone for the sake of one week. 

Fantasy draft free agent of the week

Next to nobody had Billy Smith on their mind or in their team due to him starting the year in the rehab ward, but a 62 in his NRL return last week is set to change that. His job security isn't great, with Joey Manu almost certain to take his spot if Sam Walker returns to the halves, but for the time being he is a CTR with plenty of upside who is worth bringing in from your free agent pool ahead of Round 11.