With May 28 now confirmed as the return date for the NRL Season, OTL take a look at three players who have potentially taken a hit to their NRL Fantasy stocks as a result of the NRL suspension.

With May 28th now confirmed as the return of the NRL season, we’re ramping back up again with NRL Fantasy videos – so if you haven’t already – make sure you get yourself subscribed so you don’t miss any of the valuable content on the way.

In this video we’re going over three NRL Fantasy relevant players whose stocks have potentially taken a hit due to the competition suspension.

We kick things off with one of the most popular cheapies in the game, Billy Walters.

Walters is currently the 3rd highest owned player, with 43.3 percent of coaches picking him up in hope of enjoying a long run of cash rises in his role as an 80-minute Hooker for the Tigers. 

However, the on-and-off-again loan swap deal between Harry Grant and Paul Momirovski was finally approved at the conclusion of Round 2, and as a result, we’re expecting Grant to take over in the number 9 jersey.

Adding to this, the return of Luke Brooks also looks set to impede Walter’s chances of nailing down consistent starts in the Tigers’ 17, with Reynolds, Chee-Kam and Walters likely to be battling it out for the bench-utility role moving forward. Unfortunately for Fantasy coaches, we’re expecting Walters to be the man relegated back to the reserve grade team where he’ll have to bide his time and look for another opening through injury or poor form.

As a result, we’ve got the Wests Panthers junior as the player to arguably take the biggest hit to their NRL Fantasy stocks due to the break.

Up next, we’re assessing the prospects of Melbourne born Warriors prospect, Jamayne Taunoa-Brown.

Brown kicked off the season from the interchange in impressive fashion, with 35 points in 39 minutes against the Knights. He then backed-up this performance with 27 points in 41 minutes in Round 2 – resulting in a respectable PPM of 0.78. 

Like Walters, Brown featured heavily for NRL Fantasy coaches, with an overall ownership at the conclusion of Round 2 of 33.4%.

The unfortunate news for Brown owners comes via the return to fitness of two established middles in Agnatius Paasi and Jazz Tevaga, which may result in a reshuffle that sees Brown drop out of the side altogether – and all dreams of a slow-burn cash cow go out the window.

Finally, we round out this list with one the most damaging front row forwards over the opening Rounds, Thomas Flegler.

The former banana farmer caught our eye last season where he featured heavily for the Broncos from the interchange, scoring a strong PPM of 0.83.

It was this impressive output that had the dynamic young Bronco hot on the radar of a number of NRL Fantasy coaches once news has broken that Matt Lodge was expected to spend an extended period on the sidelines – adding to a developing list of unavailabilities in the pack that already featured established forwards such as Alex Glenn and Joe Ofahengaue.

Flegler took full advantage of his opportunity in the run on side with an impressive 58.5 point average in the opening two rounds – bettered only by Payne Haas and Alex Twal in the position. 

However, what is even more impressive, is his $97k in price rises over these two games – which has him placed as the third best earner in the entire competition.

The downside for owners is the NRL suspension has given the opportunity for the trio of sidelined Broncos in Glenn, Ofahengaue and Lodge to make a full recovery ahead of the season resumption, and put Fleglers minutes heavily under pressure.

With that said, the Tully Tigers junior is by no means an urgent sell. 

The unavailability of Tevita-Pangai Junior until Round 6 and an enticing break even of (-5) means there is likely additional cash rises to come in the short-term; however, the season suspension has undoubtedly applied the brakes to this progress.

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