Fantasy by the numbers: Round 5

Concern among Fantasy coaches that the bad weather which impacted the start of Round 5 would hurt scores for backs didn't eventuate, with HLFs having a particularly good week. 

While 11 players had scores of 70 and above, that didn't necessarily contribute to bigger scores for most coaches due to many of those scorers being owned by only a small portion of teams. 

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NRL Fantasy by the numbers: Round 5

HLFs rise to the occasion.

Just as it was looking like the HLF position would be a serious issue for coaches this week, with Nathan Cleary, Nicho Hynes and Lachlan Galvin all unavailable, three players in that position stood up to register top-four scores. A two-try, two-assist showing from Shaun Johnson delivered an equal-best 87 for the week, which was a huge result given almost 18 percent of teams owned him in Round 5 and a bit over six percent opted to captain him. The lesser owned Daly Cherry-Evans and Matt Burton scored 86 and 82 respectively and if you add in Luke Keary, Jahrome Hughes, Te Maire Martin and Ben Hunt, in total seven HLFs hit scores of 60 or over.

A good time in a short time

Some good point per minute players are emerging ahead of Round 6 and it’s worth keeping an eye on them, particularly if an injury or change of circumstance opens up the opportunity for them to assume bigger-minute roles going forward. Broncos giant Ben Te Kura scored a try on debut to register a 1.38 PPM score, while Roosters EDG Naufahu Whyte scored 1.27 points for each of the 23 minutes he was on the field against the Bulldogs. Among the worst players in terms of PPM performance so far have been popular pickups CTR Solomona Faataape (0.21), CTR/WFB Tommy Talau (0.25) and HLF Braydon Trindall (0.27).

Majority miss out on big scores

Half of the top 20 scores in Round 5 were missed out on by all but a few thousand Fantasy teams, with 10 players who featured on that list having been selected by less than three percent of coaches. If you had Raiders CTR Matthew Timoko in your squad then there’s a good chance you got full benefit from his 87-point haul, with less than 3000 teams having selected him for Round 5. The biggest cheer of the weekend though goes to the 273 coaches who had Roosters EDG Egan Butcher, with his 65 points on the back of a double coming out of nowhere following his 20 in Round 4.

Round 5 Fantasy Team of the Week

1. Scott Drinkwater (WFB) – 81 points
2. Kalyn Ponga (WFB) – 67 points
3. Matthew Timoko (CTR) – 87 points
4. Zac Lomax (CTR/WFB) – 70 points
5. Dylan Edwards (WFB) – 67 points
6. Daly Cherry-Evans (HLF) – 86 points
7. Shaun Johnson (HLF) – 87 points
8. Stefano Utoikamanu (MID) – 77 points
9. Reece Robson (HOK) – 78 points
10. Isaah Yeo (MID) – 64 points
11. Eliesa Katoa (EDG) – 74 points
12. Dylan Lucas (EDG) – 72 points
13. J’maine Hopgood (MID, EDG) – 62 points
14. Matt Burton (HLF) – 82 points
15. Luke Keary (HLF) – 72 points
16. Jahrome Hughes (HLF) – 69 points
17. Tom Trbojevic (WFB) – 66 points