The Fantasy King: Round 22

By Mick Adams

It’s been a tough week for the king. After a sluggish start to the year, I had finally got on a bit of a roll, with a strong squad capable of beating most teams on a good week. After nine consecutive league victories, I was sitting in a pretty good position. So good in fact, that if other results went my way (which they did) I would be sitting in outright second position heading into the final round. And, playing one of the easybeats of my league, notching my tenth straight head-to-head victory was to be as inevitable as Braith Anasta still polling in the RLW Most Overrated Player category years after the last time anyone actually rated Braith Anasta. It didn’t pan out that way however, and as the low scores across the country suggest I’m no Robinson Crusoe, I thought I’d take a look back at my week from hell, and try to turn the ship around for this final week.

Mannering Ruled Out, Parker in Doubt

Of the former, no worries I thought. Hurrell comes back in and I’ll throw in Tautau Moga. More on how that panned out below. Worryingly, Mannering is out again this week, leaving myself and plenty of others with some decisions to make. I have had Moga and Andrew Everingham as my back up wing/centres for most of the year, and when needed have tended to favour Moga (for no good reason). Everingham’s had some great scores this year, but some unacceptably low ones too, and needs to be scoring tries to be effective. Souths have a tricky match away to the Titans to navigate this weekend, and points may be hard to come by. The Titans have the sixth best defence in the comp, and without their guns in Luke and Inglis this could be a struggle for the Bunnies. Hard to justify throwing Everingham in. Trading out Everingham or the injured Dene Halatau for someone like the popular Sharks cheapie Ricky Leutele, or even the in-form Jamal Idris, might be options.

Parker’s injury cloud left most players with a conundrum. While ever his name was in the team sheet you had to keep him in your 17 and just cop it if he was ruled out. It did make the captaincy choice tricky. I played it safe and went with Hindmarsh, which worked out fine. Fensom, Smith, Graham were other safe options which more or less paid off. But kudos to the players I saw that went for the likes of Mateo. I don’t have him in my team, and could not take the stress of naming him captain even if I did, but his hot streak continued and the brave were rewarded. Ditto to the lunatic in my league who picked Nathan Peats as captain!

Farah to Halfback

I didn’t see the game on Sunday, so can’t comment on what went wrong for the Tigers, but I’ve always felt that Farah is at his worst when he tries to do too much, tries to play too much like a halfback. So it did not bode well when he was named to wear 7 against Souths. He was always going to take a points hit by not playing as Hooker- such is the nation of the competition- but he was abominable as a fantasy halfback.

Thankfully sanity has prevailed, and Farah returns to his usual position, but it comes at a significant cost. The prolific Liam Fulton has shifted to the halves, meaning it is not just Tigers fans who will bemoan their mounting injury toll. Poor old Tigers. Does anyone else get the feeling that the premiership window might have just closed for this current group?

Moga polls negative, Hurrell carted off

The Moga score came at a particularly bad time for most players, given how crucial the Auto Emergency became. I didn’t have that problem as I was foolish enough to pick him in my 17. He really hasn’t lived up to the pre-season hype. Took ages to get a start and hasn’t really stamped his authority as expected. If he develops next year he should still be cheap enough to provide some value, but you’d have to say he’s been a fantasy dud on the whole.

Hurrell’s injury is devastating, particularly as the subsequent drop in price meant I could no longer afford to replace him with Brett Morris as planned. I have some weird aversion to Dragons players for some reason, but I really regret not picking Morris up. His scores have been phenomenal of late, and he is far and away the best winger in fantasy, if not the best back overall. For those with a predicament similar to mine, I picked up Jamie Lyon, who has been in great fantasy form, and comes in a little cheaper than Morris. Krisnan Inu’s inexplicable run of form has made him another option.

Carney, Gallen ruled out

Both have been named this weekend, but of course as the Sharks play on Sunday Flanagan has plenty of time between lockout and kickoff to piss off all us fantasy players once again and rule either out. Gallen for mine is an unknown quantity at this stage. Of course if he comes back and plays like he did pre-Origin, nobody else in fantasy goes near him. And with the Sharks now battling to hold their place in the eight, the coach no longer has the option of keeping him fresh for the finals. He needs to be going all out, and fantasy players could well reap the benefits. And yet, is he fully fit? Is he capable of maintaining his phenomenal work rate? I guess we find out Sunday.

Carney has been quite disappointing recently, and hasn’t been the player he can be since his ineffectual Origin performances. This suggests a loss in confidence which should be troubling for both Sharks fans and Carney owners. I gave him the Fantasy King kiss of death last week by wishing him a big game, so I won’t even mention how I need him to fire this weekend. Won’t even say a word about how the whole of the Shire and one humble fantasy king from Dulwich Hill absolutely NEED him to get his mojo back. Did you hear that Toddy? Not a word.

 

So that’s how it all went down. By the time the news came through on Sunday that Parker, as feared would not be playing, my fate was sealed. A humiliating loss which has left me floundering, needing to defeat the second-placed team (the one I should have overtaken) in order to stay in the top four. Ah, fantasy. You’re a frustrating mistress, but I still love you.