NRL Fantasy Scout, Wicky & Kyle Bedford will be bringing you the most important news every week to help you with your NRL Fantasy teams!

This week, we cover our key players to buy, hold & sell + recapping how our teams went in Round 14 & key notes from the 16 teams playing in Round 15.

Buys/Ones to Watch/Holds/Sells

Buys

David Fifita (EDG, $895K)

• Fifita is a Fantasy gun and looks to be a great pickup for the bye period as he’s not playing Origin. If you can afford it, it looks like a good move

Jayden Campbell (WFB, $519K)

• JC looks to be underpriced at $519K. He’s playing at 5/8 as well as goal kicking. He looks like a solid buy that could average around the 45-50 point mark with this role
• If this continues he’ll likely get DPP and is available for R16 and R19
• The risk here is him losing his spot with Boyd in the reserves and/or Brimson returning in R18
• We think their best 17 is Foran, JC and Brimson as the spine

Jahrome Hughes (HLF, $752K)

• With Munster out, Hughes looks to have some real value. Across his entire career, in games at halfback WITHOUT Munster, he averages a very impressive 61.8
• Games WITH Munster his average is only 49.7. Lot to like here with no real downside

Fletcher Sharpe (WFB, $264K)

• It appears that Sharpe has won the fullback spot over Armstrong, with Armstrong set to leave the club next season
• At this price, job security is the only risk, and the risk seems fairly low. Coming off a 50 pointer, he’s set for some nice price rises

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Ones to Watch

Connor Watson (MID, $780K)

• Watson has been named at hooker this week, with Brandon Smith out.
• Smith is expected to come back into the side next week, so the question is whether Watson stays at hooker, moves to lock, or goes to the bench.
• There’s no doubt if Watson gets the minutes he’s a great buy, but there’s no real way of knowing how many he’ll get in future weeks, so probably best to wait for now

Jack Wighton (HLF/CTR, $412k)

• Wighton is continuing to play in the halves, which is good for his fantasy stocks. At such a cheap price, if he can average around the 45 pts he looks like a great buy – especially with his DPP and the fact he plays in both R16 and R19.
• The risk here is if he’s able to maintain good scores
• For comparison, he averaged only 39 pts in 2023, but 47 pts in 2022
• It may be wise to watch him for another week before making a call on whether to buy

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Holds

Jack De Belin (MID, $698K)

• De Belin had reduced mins last round – can only assume it was a one off thing. Would be an overreaction to sell.

Jayden Brailey (HOK, $559K)

• Brailey was just given a rest last week, no need to panic. He’s been scoring well and looks like a hold

Lachlan Galvin (HLF, $643K)

• Galvin is finally getting a rest after battling a hand injury the last month or so.
• He’s averaging 49 which is borderline keeper levels, plus he has a really good bye schedule.
• More of a luxury trade if anything

Sells

Dylan Brown (HLF, $727K)

• Dylan Brown scores significantly better without Moses than with him
• With scores of 50 (including a try), and 36 since Moses’ return, Brown looks like a sell before he loses too much cash

Tolutau Koula (CTR/WFB, $451K)

• Unfortunately Koula doesn’t have the fullback spot like we initially hoped. He’s playing centre and has no real value
• As a 30-point average player, look to sell when you get a chance
• There is a small chance he goes to fullback when Turbo is back, so is an ok hold, but I wouldn’t bank on it

David Armstrong (WFB, $489K)

• Back from injury, but Sharpe has held his spot at fullback. 
• With news coming out he’s asked for a release, wouldn’t be too confident that he’ll be back in the team anytime soon

Daniel Atkinson (HLF/WFB, $458K)

• Has been dropped unfortunately, with Trindall preferred as Hynes halves partner
• If Hynes plays Origin, which is best case scenario for Atkinson, he will get Round 17 (maybe) and Round 19. Round 16 and 20 Sharks have a bye. If Hynes doesn’t play origin, then he might not play again.

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Team Recaps

Kyle – Baby Face Leota

RD 14 Score – 828

Overall Rank – 384

General Thoughts

A pretty solid week with another rise in ranks. Fairly happy with the trade-ins of Hughes, Twal, Fifita and Hands.

Will just look to try and field a full side in the remaining bye rounds and hopefully have a few trades remaining for the run home.

Trade Thoughts

I haven’t locked in any trades as of yet, but a few guys I’m considering selling are Brown, Koula and Atkinson.

The guys I’m looking at bringing in are Sharpe, JC and Wighton. I doubt I’ll get all 3 of these guys, but will need to make a call later in the week.

I’ll have another look at what positions I need for the R16 and R19 byes and look to plan towards those rounds.

Alessandro – NRL Fantasy Scout

RD 14 Score – 808

Overall Rank – 3113

General Thoughts

Decent week, rising some more ranks. Starting to run a bit low on trades so will look to be more conservative in the coming weeks.

Trade Thoughts

Looking at selling Atkinson this week in order to field a full side. Ideally would just go Atkinson straight to Jahrome Hughes but am 13k short, so looking at maybe selling both Brown and Atkinson to Hughes and Jayden Campbell.

 

I always post my team and trades to my story before the round starts, so if you want to see what I do every week check out my page – @NRL Fantasy Scout on Instagram.

 

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