NRL Fantasy teams analysis: Round 24

Only two rounds remain in the NRL Fantasy season, so hopefully your team is still alive and kicking in your head-to-head league or the overall points race.

Every move from here could be the difference between a shot at a head-to-head title and a season-ending defeat – especially if you're up against an in-form Scouts team that's travelling along nicely, ranked 33 overall. Here's all the Fantasy news and key team changes heading into round 24.

Round 24 NRL team lists | Round 23 Fantasy winners & losers

Wests Tigers v Manly Sea Eagles, Thursday 7.50pm at Campbelltown Stadium

Wests Tigers: Elijah Taylor is out injured, with Chris Lawrence named to start. Jacob Liddle drops off the interchange with Alex Twal and Josh Aloiai joining the bench. Robbie Farah's last four scores have all been between 50 and 60. Esan Marsters is due a big game – and it could come against a Manly side that just leaked 42 points at home against the Titans.

Sea Eagles: Just the one change for Manly with Jack Gosiewski replacing Frank Winterstein on the bench. The Tbrojevic brothers owned round 23, with Tom smashing out 115 points in the individual Fantasy performance of the season while Jake added a couple of tries on the way to 78 points. Daly Cherry-Evans (43) and Martin Taupau (40) were both quiet last week.

New Zealand Warriors v Penrith Panthers, Friday 6pm at Mt Smart Stadium

Warriors: Tohu Harris returns on the bench in place of Leivaha Pulu, while Mason Lino replaces the injured Blake Green (calf) at five-eighth. Roger Tuivasa-Sheck has roared into life in the past three weeks, hitting 58, 78 and 71, with his two biggest running games of the season (338m and 273m) coming in the past fortnight. A couple of try assists and a good all-round game helped Shaun Johnson to 77 against the Bulldogs and there's no reason he can't produce a similar effort against the Penrith defence.

Panthers: Viliame Kikau has been cleared to travel to New Zealand after a visa drama threatened to rule him out. Cameron Ciraldo has rung the changes in his second game in charge, with Dallin Watene-Zelezniak starting at fullback, Tyrone Peachey at five-eighth, Wayde Egan at hooker, Christian Crichton on the wing and James Fisher-Harris returning at lock. Tyrone May and Corey Harawira-Naera are on the bench with Sione Katoa and Kaide Ellis out of the 17. The team's struggles of late haven't hurt Nathan Cleary's Fantasy prospects, with the halfback making season-highs for kick metres (333) and tackles (24) in last week's 77. No other Panther scored more than 50 against the Knights, although Viliame Kikau would have if he didn't get sin-binned.

North Queensland Cowboys v Parramatta Eels, Friday 7.55pm at 1300Smiles Stadium

Cowboys: Jason Taumalolo is back from suspension at lock and Matt Scott returns at prop, with Scott Bolton and John Asiata benched and Ethan Lowe and Corey Jensen out of the side. In Taumalolo's absence Jordan McLean (64), Coen Hess (62) and Gavin Cooper (57) all performed strongly last week. The wooden spoon could be on the line in this game but with home crowd advantage and the desire to send Jonathan Thurston out a winner in Townsville should give North Queensland the edge.

Eels: Nathan Brown played the full 80 against Melbourne, with 48 tackles and 62 Fantasy points – but he's suffered a knee injury and will miss the final two weeks of the season in a real blow to Fantasy coaches. Peni Terepo starts with Kane Evans starting at prop and Tim Mannah and Cameron King joining the bench. Rookies Ray Stone and Oregaon Kaufusi drop out. Mitchell Moses followed up his stunning 92 against the Dragons with a somewhat-less-stunning 22 against Melbourne. Ditto Jarryd Hayne, who finished with just 16 against the Storm.

Canberra Raiders v South Sydney Rabbitohs, Saturday 3pm at GIO Stadium

Raiders: Joe Tapine is out with a broken thumb, with Michael Oldfield returning at centre. Aiden Sezer could return from a hamstring injury after being named in the reserves. Josh Papalii was Canberra's best with 60 last week but it remains a risky move to play any Raiders in your 17, with Jordan Rapana (34), Joey Leilua (30) and Nick Cotric (22) all pretty quiet despite a surprise win over the Roosters.

Rabbitohs: Alex Johnston, Campbell Graham and Greg Inglis return, with Dane Gagai shifting to centre, Braidon Burns moving to the bench and Tyrell Fuimaono, Richie Kennar and Mawene Hiroti dropping out of the 17. After setting new season-highs with 88 and 98 in successive weeks, Damien Cook has posted back-to-back sub-50 scores for the first time all year. With a season average of 65 he's still the safest bet as captain but if you're the underdog in a head-to-head match-up or chasing the overall leaders, going elsewhere for skipper could pay off. It looks like Sam Burgess is going to finish the season with an average around 45.

Gold Coast Titans v Melbourne Storm, Saturday 5.30pm at Cbus Super Stadium

Titans: Bryce Cartwright is replaced by Will Matthews on the interchange. Ryan James is in his third Fantasy purple patch of the year, coming off scores of 79 and 64, while Jai Arrow didn't have the chance to get through too much work in last week's tryfest against Manly. AJ Brimson is in more Fantasy teams than James and is coming off a season-high 69 after scoring two tries and saving two others last week.

Storm: Cameron Smith has been named but is in some doubt after hurting his back against Parramatta last round. The injury concern just about rules him out as a captaincy option this week, unless you need to gamble.  Suliasi Vunivalu (hamstring), Will Chambers (suspension), Nelson Asofa-Solomona (ankle) and Brandon Smith (knee) have been replaced by Cheyse Blair, Justin Olam, Tui Kamikamica and Ryley Jacks.

Sydney Roosters v Brisbane Broncos, Saturday 7.35pm at Allianz Stadium

Roosters: Luke Keary is back, bumping Ryan Matterson to the interchange and Sean O'Sullivan out of the side. Latrell Mitchell (30) didn't get enough ball in last week's loss to Canberra, while Jake Friend has gone under the radar and averaged 61.6 in his past five games. Kalyn Ponga may be the best Fantasy fullback this year and Tom Trbojevic and Roger Tuivasa-Sheck may be firing on all cylinders, but James Tedesco remains the one who can be relied on to score 40+ every week.

Broncos: Kotoni Staggs replaces Patrick Mago on the bench. Anthony Milford has been getting a ton of kick metres this year and scored 72 last week, with two try assists and a try save, but this could be a tough round for Brisbane's attacking players against a Roosters side that hasn't conceded more than 20 points in a game in the past four weeks.  

Cronulla Sharks v Newcastle Knights, Sunday 2pm at Southern Cross Group Stadium

Sharks: Jesse Ramien is out with an ankle injury but Jayden Brailey, Wade Graham and Edrick Lee return, with Josh Dugan starting at centre and Kurt Capewell and Joseph Paulo dropping out. Val Holmes has a five-game average of 56 while a fired-up Andrew Fifita scored 62 in 38 minutes against the Cowboys. He could be primed for another short-range try against a Knights side not renowned for its goal-line defence.

Knights: Chris Heighington bumps Luke Yates off the bench while Connor Watson is some chance of returning from injury after being included in the reserves. Kalyn Ponga lost a lot of run metres in his switch to five-eighth last round but still played well enough to score a decent 38. He's named there again this round. Aiden Guerra scored 69 last week and has averaged 65 in his past three games. Mitchell Pearce is proving very solid but hasn't made a really big score since round 18.

St George Illawarra Dragons v Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs, Sunday 4.10pm at Jubilee Oval

Dragons: Jason Nightingale is named on the wing with Jordan Pereira taking the backline utility spot on the bench ahead of Jai Field. Luciano Leilua has scored tries in his past three games and was just about unstoppable against the Tigers, breaking the line open on a couple of occasions and getting through 40 tackles on the way to 83 points. Still, he's been benched this week at this stage with Leeson Ah Mau named to start. Paul Vaughan is among the names on the reserves but he's now been ruled out for the season. Ben Hunt (29) had a shocker last week while Cameron McInnes is just about the form hooker in Fantasy - making 54 tackles and adding four busts and a try assist for 75 against the Tigers.

Bulldogs: No changes for Canterbury. Lachlan Lewis made 64 points including a match-winning field goal last round but Rhyse Martin's Fantasy form is concerning despite a goal-kicking boot that has been just about perfect. Martin has only scored below 40 twice this year but they've both come in the last couple of weeks. In that time his run metres have gone down while his missed tackles have gone up.