Round 1 Results:

Score – 856
Rank – 10,319

Overall, not a bad start to the season — some cash cows firing, and others not. It’s very unlike what I normally do, but I did make 3 changes close to kickoff and they all backfired. More on that below.

Captaincy (Round 1):

David Fifita (51). My other captaincy option, Payne Haas performed amazingly, and I left some points on the board as a result. I’ll likely keep it on Fifita for Round 2, and lean into his upside against the Warriors.

They Scored What? (Overachievers):

Max King (56). I couldn’t believe it when I was checking his stats — 56 NRL Fantasy points in 38 minutes, and the best part — it was all BASE!

40 tackles, 0 missed. We can’t ask much more from a cash cow than this – if he was in my scoring 17. I’ll give an honourable mention to Stephen Crichton, as I was not expecting a stellar 57 points from him in his first up clash against the Sea Eagles.

Did Their Job:

Kurt Mann (45). I was hoping for him to get into the early 50’s, but we’ll take mid forties as he did go off for a HIA in the 44th minute. If he can keep his role of 60-65 minutes, he should make some decent cash.

Underwhelming:

Matt Burton (39). First full game with the Bulldogs and it was a dour affair with a lot of rain and limited attacking stats (Full Time Score, Bulldogs 6 Cowboys 4). The promising aspect of his game is he was the dominant kicker. Burton kicked 505m which was 80% of all Bulldogs kick metres. Playing the Broncos this week, he’ll be one for me to monitor closely in hope that he can improve his try involvements and kick a couple more goals.

Overall Squad Scoring:

I made some bad decisions prior to a few games where I moved out Tago for Leniu, and Clifford for Walker. Hindsight is always amazing, but both moves were a big mistake.
I also moved from Harry Grant to Connor Watson at the last minute. I’m 50-50 on that decision at the moment.
Leniu remains firmly on the chopping block, even with the Moses Leota injury.

Cash Cows:

The good — Ethan Bullemore (48), Stephen Crichton (57), Jeramiah Nanai (56), Kelma Tuilagi (38), Brad Schneider (44), Sean Russell (41), Max King (48).

The ugly — Lachlan Ilias (20), Beau Fermor (34), Sam Walker (26), Spencer Leniu (19), Viliami Vailea (7)
We’ll track overall price rises in the coming weeks to see how my team is setup for early upgrades.
At this stage of the season, cash generation is my priority — so the likes of Fermor, Ilias and Walker will be monitored closely.

Round 1 Dilemmas:

Vailea is so cheap that I’ll likely keep him in the non-playing reserves and hope he will go on a run of scores.
Young Ilias didn’t go too well in his first start, but he is a starting half for the 2021 Grand Finalists, and he’ll get another chance in my team.

However, he will have to get comfortable in the non-playing reserves for now.

Sam Walker, like the entire Roosters team, did not have the start to the season we were anticipating.
I’ll be putting this game aside and like Ilias, Walker is in a top team who will click, and we know he can string good scores together and get that price moving.

With his high ceiling and low floor, timing will be crucial with young Sammy.

Round 2 Trade Options:

The Spencer Leniu pivot is one I’d like over. 

He’ll see a reprieve this week, but if there is no increase in fantasy output — he’ll be making way for someone else in the short term.

Sean Russell unfortunately had an injury, and he will be traded out this week.

Viliami Vailea is another player who is out due to injury, but given his price-point – I don’t have a standout replacement at this stage. Due to this, he’ll stick around for now.

Trade-in Targets:

Trades Left:31 | Cash in the Bank: 18K | Team Value: 9.66M.

Izack Tago looked scintillating in his first outing. He’s locked into my team for Sean Russell who will make way due to injury.

This will, however, exhaust all the cash in my bank. 

Josh King has a strong start to the season (despite not boasting a great ppm), and with the injuries in the Storm pack — he is again starting this week.

If he were to come into my side in the next week or so, it would have to be at the expense of Sam Walker. Another situation I’ll be monitoring closely.

With Sean Russell to Izack Tago my only trade — I am happy to be banking 1 trade early on.

Captaincy (Round 2):

Although it does seem like Payne Haas is the obvious choice here, I will be holding strong (and having a bit of fun) and putting the captaincy on David Fifita again.

Fifita is coming up against the Warriors, and I feel it could be another high scoring affair where Fifita can take advantage and crash over for a try or two.

I’ll be looking to be a bit fancy this week and doing a double loop.

We’ll get a look how Ilias goes — if he underperforms, I will move Burton into the halves and Tago into the Centres.
After this, I’ll be able to see how Lenui goes, and if he also underperforms — I’ll swap him out for big Maxxy King.
The team will be shaping up as per below, and I’ll be hoping we can have a good round and get into the 900s.

Good luck to everyone this week.

I’d love to hear your thoughts — say g’day to me on Twitter @otlfantasyrl any time.