NRL Fantasy Q&A: Round 4

Round 4 is nearly upon us and Fantasy coaches will be missing a handful of the game's top players due to a bye or injuries. 

• NRL Late Mail: Round 4
• NRL Fantasy teams analysis: Round 4

From Lucas trade outs to cash downs and Payne Haas, here's our Round 4 Q&A. 

NRL Fantasy Q&A: Round 4

Best trades for Lucas?

My eyes turn immediately to Beau Fermor. Like Dylan Lucas, he's a Fantasy unicorn who is available at CTR while actually playing in the second row. He comes with DPP status as an EDG too.

He's scored a 69 and a 61 so far, with the latter including a try, and he's played 80 minutes in both instances. 

Looking at his stats, he's probably going to level out as a mid to high 50s player rather than mid 60s, but that's an acceptable scoring range, especially if you're playing him at CTR. 

Elsewhere, Jacob Preston looks an underpriced EDG at $677k, while in terms of CTRs Kayal Iro is a point of difference player right now who is averaging 61 and currently owned by less than three percent of teams. 

What are you doing with Cleary?

You don't trade out keepers who are expected to only miss a week or two, unless you absolutely have to.

At this time of the year, you're not facing must-win games in head-to-head leagues, while for overall players a fair chunk of those you are jostling with will also be without Cleary (he's owned by 39.6 percent of teams).

Trades are going to be so valuable come the end of the season and if you trade Cleary out now, chances are you'll want him back in a few weeks.  

I don't have Haas, do I need to sell the farm to get him?

Do you have a good captain option anyway? Do you have another big scoring MID like Terrell May? 

If the answer to either of those questions is yes, then you probably don't need to tear your team apart in order to get Haas. 

He's incredible to have right now and an absolute game changer if you're captaining him against others who aren't. But what goes up (usually) has to go down, so being without Haas right now doesn't mean you have to be for the full season, and there's a good chance he's available for a little bit less money going forward. 

In saying that, if you have to trade out someone like Dylan Lucas this week, or are stuck on getting rid of Nathan Cleary, then a move for Haas might be right for you. 

Cash down to Thomas Jenkins?

Given how many backline options Penrith have at their disposal (including some who are out injured), I'd be uneasy about moving for someone like Jenkins.

His lack of job security and mediocre score of 25 last week don't scream cash cow, and it feels like an unnecessary reach given there'll probably be much better cash down options appear in coming weeks.

If you need someone to trade down before Round 4 then I'd prefer someone like Jaxon Purdue – who has a negative break even on the back of his best game of the year and better job security – or Eels starting back-rower Kitione Kautoga (EDG, $279k). Kautoga comes off a 38 and seems to have jumped some much bigger names in the pecking order at Parramatta.