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 5 & key notes from all 16 teams playing this week.

Buys/Ones to Watch/Holds/Sells

Buys

No one stands out as a clear buy. All the Ones to Watch guys are borderline buys – though beware they all possess some risk.

Ones to Watch

Jayden Campbell (WFB, $481K)

• Campbell was impressive last round, scoring 60
• Despite this, we’d like to see at least one more good score from Campbell before bringing him in. Titans do have a very tough next 4 fixtures as well

Angus Crichton (EDG, $442K)

• Crichton scored 59 in Round 5, which may look appealing, but that doesn’t paint the full picture
• Roosters had a massive amount of injuries + a send off, which led Crichton to play 80 mins. Now this week, Roosters rotations should be back to normal
• It’s hard to see him playing anymore than 55-60 minutes at this stage with an edge on the bench, but is one to keep an eye on if he were to get those big minutes consistently.

Stefano Utoikamanu (MID, $680K)

• Stefano has been doing well to the start the season, playing bigger minutes. Despite this, he has largely played those big minutes as a result of injuries/restings
• Round 2, To’a injured. Round 3, Ipap early rest + Twal HIA No Return + Pole HIA. Round 4, Tigers only used 15 players for whatever reason. Round 5, Bateman and S.Fainu HIA No Return
• When the rotations are normal, Stefano will likely only see 45-50 odd mins a game, and not the 57.3 mins he is averaging currently

Chevy Stewart (WFB, $230K)

• Chevy gets the fullback spot with Rapana out for 6-8 weeks and is obvious value at this price
• Although there are other options the Raiders could turn to in Kris/Hopoate if he doesn’t perform
• If he goes well, you won’t miss much of a price rise this week anyway, so may be worth giving him a week

Kayal Iro (CTR, $268K)

• Iro scored 49 with a try + assist last game and has kept the centre spot over Talakai
• However Talakai is on the bench, which may be due to lack of depth in the forward pack at the moment. It’s very possible Talaki is back in the centres when some forwards return
• If Iro holds the spot, he’s great value. He averaged 49.7 pts in reserve grade and is a tackle buster. He should be able to avg 30+ which is plenty at this price

Tom Chester (WFB, $350K)

• Chester gets the centre spot after Laybutt going down with an ACL injury. It’s possible Chester keeps the spot for the rest of the season
• We don’t have much data on Chester at centre, so best to watch him for now

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Holds

Terrell May (MID, $667K)

• May played just 20 mins last week due to the Dom Young send off which saw the Roosters play the last 53 mins with just one prop
• Don’t overthink this one, it was an anomaly. Hold

Api Koroisau (HOK, $694K)

• A down week for Api, who had less minutes as a result of a quad injury he carried into and throughout the game
• No need to panic here. He’s been playing great and should continue to find attacking stats even in losses. With most teams having other issues it’s tough to imagine selling Api

Jacob Kiraz (WFB/CTR, 582K)

• Kiraz is a borderline sell. He played on the wing last week which hurts his scoring, but luckily has been named at centre this week
• With the Dogs down on troops, we may see some low scores from Kiraz, but he’s an okay hold if you have other issues
• Potentially give him 1 more week to see if he can improve before selling

Blaize Talagi (CTR, $324K)

• Unfortunately Blaize has been dropped for Asi. He’s cheap enough to hold for now in case he gets recalled to the side
• It’s certainly possible he’s a late in to replace Harper at centre too. Look to trade out your other sells before Talagi if possible

Ben Trbojevic (EDG/CTR, $362K)

• Burbo has been named at centre this week with Garrick out due to his HIA. It may be time to jump off with his limited minutes on the edge
• He’ll likely shift back to the edge next week when Garrick returns, but looks at risk to lose his spot to Waddell and/or Schuster
• For now, 80 mins at centre may actually be good for him. If you’re able to loop him, he’s an okay hold this week and could score you a 40+ if he can get involved in attack

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Sells

Sitili Tupouniua (MID/EDG, $416K)

• Sitili has been dropped to the bench in favour of Crichton again. It’s time to sell if you haven’t already

Latrell Mitchell (WFB, $712K)

• Suspended until round 10 and Souths are in shambles. Sell

Will Penisini (CTR, $517K)

• Penisini has been struggling big time without Moses, scoring 24 and 20 the last 2 weeks
• It is well noted Penisini averages much lower when playing without Moses, and with Moses still out for another 2 months, he looks like a sell

Drew Hutchison (HLF, 463K)

• Not an urgent sell at all, but with two tough matches coming up before the bye, and with the Dogs down on troops it’s tough to see him scoring well
• Most teams have multiple Dogs players and with the bye approaching, it’s not a bad time to offload Hutcho

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Team Recaps

Kyle – Baby Face Leota

RD 5 Score – 764

Overall Rank – 365

General Thoughts

A decent round considering the amount of carnage that went on. Disappointing scores from May, Kiraz, Papi and captain Fogarty.

Happy to get a good score out of Turbo in a tough matchup. Think the team is looking okay and starting to come together. Just need to get rid of the duds over the next couple weeks.

Trade Thoughts

Not sure on my trades currently. The sell candidates are Cheese, Hutcho, Burbo, Cotric, Kiraz.

At this stage it looks like I’ll grab one of Iro/Stewart, plus potentially an upgrade elsewhere.

Honestly not sure at this stage. Just 1 trade this week is also a real possibility.

Alessandro – NRL Fantasy Scout

RD 5 Score – 647

Overall Rank – 14064

General Thoughts

Dreadful round for me, scoring just 647, and dropping over 10k ranks.

Not many positives. Probably the worst thing that happened during the round – I swapped Tupouniua (who was in my emergencies) and Hughes (who was in my starting side) after the 1 hour team cuts, which saw Tupouniua move into the starting side, and Hughes benched.

I wish I never saw those late changes in hindsight. Lots of poor scores, but to be honest none of them are majorly concerning other than Tupouniua.

Trade Thoughts

Really disappointing that Talagi has been dropped, after buying him last week. This week, I’m in desperate need of a forward.

With Piakura still not back, I really don’t want to have to play Burbo again especially given he’s playing centre this week. Tupouniua is definitely being sold, I don’t even care if he is a late addition to the starting side again like last week.

I have a lot of money in the bank, but don’t really want to use it all as I plan on getting Cleary as soon as he’s back.

At this stage, I’m looking at doing just 1 trade, Tupouniua to KPP – but it is definitely up in the air. This is probably the most uncertain I’ve been about trades all season.

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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