The big Fantasy calls you need to make

The state of bliss that comes with having unlimited trades available to you is about to end, so it's crucial Fantasy coaches make good decisions over the next few days. 

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Any Sea Eagles, Rabbitohs, Roosters or Broncos players you picked up are already locked due to them playing last Sunday, while the same will happen at kick-off for the remaining games across Thursday-Sunday (Wests Tigers players lock at the end of the round as they are on a bye).

This week's team lists have given us even more food for thought, so what are the moves to make, or reverse, ahead of the rolling lockout? 

Don't forget it's not too late to get started and build your team, with most of the player pool still not locked and plenty of head-to-head leagues starting after Round 1.

Get your cash cows right

If you plan on keeping up with the competition then you're going to need to nail your choice of money makers. 

Hopefully you already got on Sea Eagles back-rower Ben Trbojevic, who is now locked out after scoring 51 last Sunday in Vegas. Outside of him, Raiders five-eighth Ethan Strange (CTR/HLF, $250k) is the top cash cow to start the year and is the must have among the cheapies.

He looked good through the Pre-Season Challenge and while he'll lose kick metre stats to Jamal Fogarty in the season proper, Strange is probably an even better Fantasy player due to the veteran's presence because it will open up his ability to run the ball, which is his great strength. 

Jaeman Salmon (EDG/MID, $289k) is a must buy as well after getting the starting lock role at the Dogs. He scored in the high 30s in each of his two Pre-Season Challenge games and if he continues that pattern through his first four games – which is no guarantee now the Bulldogs have added more middle forwards to the roster – then he'll jump close to $100k in value. 

I'm less sure about players like Joe Chan and Danny Levi, who have been named to start but look like having dodgy job security. 

The Storm have Shawn Blore sitting as 18th man for now, but it's unlikely they sent Justin Olam to the Wests Tigers in exchange for the forward earlier this year to have him watch games, so he could easily come in for Chan in coming weeks. 

Levi meanwhile is keeping Zac Woolford out of the team right now, while he might actually play fewer minutes than Raiders bench hooker Tom Starling anyway, so he's no sure thing to make significant money. 

About a third of all Fantasy teams jumped on Rabbitohs rookie wing Jacob Gagai ahead of last weekend too, despite him looking unlikely to keep that role long term. 

Avoid dead wood

If there's no roadmap to them making decent money and they aren't going to produce consistent keeper scores, which at this stage of the year is probably 40+ for WFBs, CTRs and EDGs and 50+ for HLFs, MIDs and HOKs, then there's a good chance they are dead wood. 

Middle of the road players do very little for you in the long term and will end up costing you valuable trades down the track, so look closely at who you are bringing into your squad, particularly in spots like WFB and CTR or in your wider reserves. 

Scoring from previous years is usually a good guide provided their role hasn't changed dramatically, while some examples of highly-selected players who are unlikely to be either money makers or keepers this year include Sitili Tupouniua (MID/EDG, $421k) and Heilum Luki (EDG, $498k). 

Don't scrimp on your big guns

If you're going to compete from the get-go then you're almost certainly going to need at least one of Nicho Hynes, Nathan Cleary or Payne Haas, who were the top three scorers in Fantasy last year and probably will be again in 2024. 

In head-to-head leagues it's bad enough playing a team who has one or more of these guys if you don't, while if you're opponent captain's one of them when they have a big game and you don't have them, it might be curtains in terms of your hopes in that match-up. 

Haas started with a hiss and roar last Sunday with a 76 against the Roosters that will see his price jump another $14k for next week, while Cleary is already captained by a whopping a 44 percent of teams for Round 1.

Hynes is the least selected of those three players so is the potential point of difference option if that's what you want. 

While there are some excellent players available at under $800k who will end up being pillars of your squad, you really want whoever you're going to be captaining to be one of the earlier mentioned trio or someone like Isaah Yeo, or at a stretch Shaun Johnson or J'maine Hopgood. 

They cost that much for a reason and are almost always worth it.