NRL Fantasy by the numbers: Round 1

The opening round of the season served up more questions than answers from a Fantasy point of view, with plenty of coaches likely to be contemplating early trades as a result. 

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While some of game's most popular cheapies and cash cows underwhelmed, there were some big scorers across the board with 19 players clocking final tallies of 60 or above across the eight games. 

NRL Fantasy by the numbers: Round 1

Consensus on captain Cleary 

A whopping 43.35 percent of teams captained Nathan Cleary in Round 1, making him the most popular choice for the 'c' by nearly 30 percent. Nobody who picked him could have imagined the Panthers would be held scoreless by the Storm on Friday night and in the end his 56 was a decent outcome. Should that trend continue into Round 2, there's a great opportunity for coaches to find a point of difference with an alternative captain choice, with a good chance you'll have a unique pick even if you go for a traditional big gun like Nicho Hynes or Payne Haas. 

'Burbo' stands out in tough round for cash cows

Ben Trbojevic finished Round 1 as by far the most selected player in Fantasy, with over 100,000 coaches jumping on the $250k EDG/CTR. He didn't disappoint either, with a try helping him to 53 and a handy $40k price jump ahead of Round 2, with his ownership likely to climb even more now given there's still time to make money on him. It was a less fruitful experience for fellow cash cow Ethan Strange, who played well but only beat his break even of 18 by three points, while cheapie EDG Brendan Piakura finished on a donut after failing a HIA in the opening minutes of Brisbane's loss to the Roosters. Other popular picks like Jaeman Salmon, Sam Hughes and Keano Kini struggled too and none had more than 30 points to their name. 

Houston, do we have a HLF problem?

While we are a long way off being able to declare the position less valuable than in previous years, the absence of a HLF in the top 17 scorers for Round 1 was certainly a surprise. Shaun Johnson was the only player in the position to register a score in the 60s, although there were a bunch a little further back who scored 50s and were hardly disasters. Nathan Cleary and Nicho Hynes were both involved in low-scoring encounters, so we can't read too much into it yet, but if the trend does continue it means the $1m price tag coaches paid for those two to start the year might have been a little on the steep side. 

The MVP of the PODs

If you had Bryce Cartwright this week it was huge for you, not only because he had a round-high 91 points, but also the fact that he's owned by just 1.2 percent of teams. The Eels EDG was easily the least owned player among the top 10 scorers, with only a touch over 2100 teams having him for Round 1. 

Round 1 Fantasy Team of the Week

1. Latrell Mitchell (WFB) – 81 points
2. Taylan May (WFB, CTR) – 66 points
3. Joey Manu (CTR, WFB) – 75 points
4. Valentine Holmes (CTR) – 65 points
5. Reuben Garrick (CTR, WFB) – 68 points 
6. Adam Reynolds (HLF) – 58 points
7. Shaun Johnson (HLF) – 60 points
8. Addin Fonua-Blake (MID) – 81 points
9. Damien Cook (HOK) – 60 points
10. Payne Haas (MID) – 76 points
11. Bryce Cartwright (EDG) – 91 points
12. Haumole Olakau'atu (EDG) – 70 points
13. Isaah Yeo (MID) – 70 points
14. Zac Hosking (EDG) – 68 points
15. Tohu Harris (MID) – 66 points
16. Jordan Riki (EDG) – 63 points
17. Zac Laybutt (CTR) – 63 points

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