Fantasy Winners & Losers: Round 3

Payne Haas continued his incredible start to the season by registering our first triple-digit score of 2025, while Nathan Cleary's misfortune caused widespread hurt for Fantasy owners. 

Plenty of PODs stood tall as well, including a player who hit a score in the mid-70s while sitting in just a handful of teams. 

Round 3 NRL Fantasy winners

Season-high minutes, a try and a long list of freakish numbers on the stat sheet. It all came together for Payne Haas and his Fantasy owners in Round 3.

His mammoth 106-point effort on Friday set the 17.6 percent of teams who captained him up to have a huge weekend. 

Haas is in rare form to start the season and now has an absurd 90.7-point average next to his name ahead of Round 4.

In the final game of the round on Sunday night Reuben Garrick did his utmost to match Haas, putting in a four-try effort and kicking six goals on his way to 97 points. 

It's just the latest in a string of excellent scores for members of Manly's right edge. 

Broncos veteran Adam Reynolds, who benefitted from a try and five conversions was next on 85, while Titans DPP threat Jayden Campbell backed up a 46 in his first outing of the season by scoring 81 in his side's comfortable win over the Knights. 

Despite that result, Thomas Cant, who was called up to help cover for the loss of both Newcastle's usual starting back-rowers, powered to 76 points earned completely from base stats. Not that it mattered much in the context of Fantasy outcomes, given just 0.08 percent of teams owned the $458k EDG for Round 3. 

A dominant display for Cronulla against the Rabbitohs saw Ronaldo Mulitalo (76) and Nicho Hynes (74) impress, while South Sydney cash cow Jamie Humphreys did it again with a late flurry of stats which elevated him to a third-straight score in the 70s. Humphreys has been by far the best HLF through the opening three rounds, with a commanding average of 73.7. 

Outside of Cant, it was a good week for point of difference players, with six of the top 10 scorers sitting in under six percent of teams. 

Round 3 NRL Fantasy losers

A freak collision ended Nathan Cleary's game after seven minutes on Thursday night and caused chaos across the Fantasy community. 

A touch over a quarter of all teams opted to captain the Penrith maestro in Round 3, leaving them with a 10-point return. If you had him as skipper it almost certainly ruined your round, plain and simple. If you played someone in a head-to-head game who had him captained and you didn't, you most likely won. But hey, that's Fantasy sometimes. 

Raiders WFB Xavier Savage plummeted in his second appearance of the year, registering just eight points after finishing with 69 in Round 1, with Canberra's incredibly low share of possession against the Sea Eagles meaning he hardly had any base stats. 

$475k WFB AJ Brimson, who is in 7.3 percent of teams, struggled yet again on his way to 13 points and has now averaged just 22.5 across his first two games, after being a Fantasy gun at times last season. 

Back-to-back scores in the 50s were a long way in the rear vision mirror for Jason Saab this past Sunday, with the flyer not able to take advantage of a red-hot attacking performance by his Sea Eagles team and hitting just 14 points. 

Round 3 Fantasy Team of the Week

1. Jayden Campbell (HLF, WFB) – 81 points
2. Ronaldo Mulitalo (WFB) – 76 points
3. Reuben Garrick (CTR, WFB) – 97 points
4. Herbie Farnworth (HLF) – 74 points
5. Charnze Nicoll-Klokstad (WFB) – 67 points
6. Nicho Hynes (HLF) – 74 points
7. Adam Reynolds (HLF) – 85 points
8. Payne Haas (MID) – 106 points
9. Apisai Koroisau (HOK) – 70 points
10. Terrell May (MID) – 70 points
11. Thomas Cant (EDG) – 76 points
12. Naufahu Whyte (MID, EDG) – 69 points
13. Trey Mooney (MID) – 64 points
14. Jamie Humphreys (HLF) –74 points
15. Kayal Iro (CTR) – 68 points
16. Bradman Best (CTR) – 67 points
17. Hudson Young (EDG) – 64 points