Well after finally cracking the 1000 it’s not all sunshine and rainbows. There was lots of good some bad and a couple of ugly, with us trying to hit the accelerator it’s important that we make some good decisions for the run home.
The Good - James Tedesco
As you read this just over half of you don’t own him, that blows my mind. Coming of an 88 you will be feeling it and looking for cash to get him into your team. He should open around the 740k mark this week, which is affordable for a premium player. This week highlighted the fact that some of those cut price keepers were cut price for a reason. So you might of thought May,Tago,Latrell,Douehi or Ponga would do a similar job, with little pappy dead there are only two premium Wfb’s Hynes and Teddy. The thing to love about Teddy is he is all heart and all work rate, sort of the Anti Fafita. With the Roosters only in 8th you know he will go hard till the end.
Prediction scores 390 in last six games.
The Bad - Reed Mahoney
I have always said a good big man always beats a good little man, however everyone beats a bad little man. Sadly for me like a dog returning to his vomit I was remembering last season when he was chasing a contract and picked him up for the byes for a second time. It’s time for him to go, I think if a club could backflip the Bulldogs would be having buyers regret. He seems reticent to run and playing 80 every week could be draining him as he is missing almost 5 tackles a game in his last 5 games. I don’t recommend running the gauntlet with one hooker but for about 140k you could upgrade to Reece Robson.
Prediction scores 260 points in last six games although a late season injury wouldn’t surprise me.
The Ugly - Kalyn Ponga
This was horrific and just another reason to hate Matt Lodge who ended his game in the 8th minute. Reports coming out that his season was over, on one hand this would make this decision easy and would mean we would trade him out. At 460k it probably cost’s two trades with Ponga to a cash out and our other player to a premium player. There is no one at 460k that will serve as a keeper or at least keep you close to the pack. He is meeting the specialist this week and worst case for us best case for him it would be 2 weeks, this puts it in the twilight zone and we may just have to hold. If his season is over he will be in every team at the start of next season.
Prediction season over. With us getting those four trades this week, do not buy into the hype and use them all. We are starting to see the attrition so trade to premium players but please keep at least 1 trade up your sleeve. Yes even you Shooter. Think of it this way if you trade, it might bring you 10 points a game that’s 60 points, however if you lose a gun with 3 games to go those 60 points cost a lot more.
Be sure to check out TK, Jake and Kyle on the Round 19 Wrap podcast if you missed out on the live Facebook show.