NRL Fantasy 2022 Part 59 - Who let the Dogs into the winner's circle

Loomer wrote:

If only we had some WT fans on here

He'll be back for R16

robelgordo wrote:

That was one of the #codeincrisis moments back in the day, where video refs rules passes forward that may/may not have been backwards out of the hand so they decided it was too hard.

But then in a recent game you had a ref pretend a pass was a bat-on so they could rule on it anyway. Which shows the absurdity.

If they get the chip in the ball to work though, I fear we will never get through a set of six without a forward pass from dummy half. At least for a few rounds.

Other things I don't like:
* golden point in regular season games
* golden point, generally. It's bad footy to watch, with a few rare exceptions
* the 7-tackle set restart if a ball goes dead. Seems disproportionate punishment for a grubber going a bit long
* the other team not being able to pickup a kick restart that doesn't go 10m
* tries being allowed from grounding with your torso, or anything that isn't a hand
* tries being allowed when a guy is wrestling in a tackle, held-up, for 15-20 seconds, way after it would be called held anywhere else
* anything that is reffed differently in the goals compared to the 100m in between
* the way refs will let the play go to a try, so they can get the video ref to check something 50m earlier. One day a player will deliberately get tackled 5m out to end that nonsense.

Also I like field goals but it's weird that the act of kicking a field goal involves a deliberate knock-on. Which makes me think, if a guy drops a pass cold, but kicks it on the bounce, should it not just be play on? Why aren't players doing this? Aside from that one time Benji scored that way, I mean?

No way to the kick restart 10m thing. U would just have teams huddling at the kick off, kick it 1 metre and charge forward to clash with the opposition 13 guys huddled in the same one metre spot. Like an orgy  !

my tv broke wrote:

he didn't actually make it to australia. some mess up with flights or something to that effect.

I don't know how he's expecting to do both jobs haha, the RLWC is on at the same time that Argentina will have their end of year tests.

Last year Argentina's first EOY test was on the 6th of Nov which is the same weekend as the World Cup quarters. Maybe he's just banking on them being knocked out by then.

Finger Puppet Mafia wrote:Who is this Kennedy everyone is talking about?

It's not that spud from the Sharks is it?

16 BE is more palatable than 41 for a recent 80min -4pt scorer

Loomer wrote:

16 BE is more palatable than 41 for a recent 80min -4pt scorer

Who's this now?

Bit late but 4 thoughts/unpopular things I believe

There is more than enough talent for 18 teams, I don’t believe the coaching/administration is good enough, prime example is North Queensland, last couple of years been atrocious, their major signings a journey man centre (Hiku) a veteran 7 who was discarded by cronulla and warriors in the same season, but their coach was able to implement his defensive philosophy (admittedly it took a year), instill good habits in his young players, coach the vets back into form (holmes), ensure his forwards do the right things, and get them fit, there was no drastic overhaul of playing talent, he’s getting the best of what he has, many coaches simply fail to do all of the above, especially fitness, defence, good habits and discipline

Two, png is the most under utilised nursery of talented players, there is a nation of physically gifted, rugby league fanstics, who all dream of playing NRL, if a team did what the raiders did with young English lads, or spent some serious time scouting and integrating PNG talent it’s an almost completely untapped market, I’m aware there are a few players in the NRL, but a club could/should make it a priority (especially one with poor juniors) and could see it as a real point of difference

Three, clubs should loan their best young prospects to a super league club for a year, in that in between stage when they are playing Qcup but can’t get into the top 30, the standard in England isn’t amazing, a year playing experience in the key spine positions, would be phenomenal, any forward would toughen up playing against proper men, the English season is 28 games so that’s plenty of matches, being away from home is also a huge lesson in maturity, in the way that nrl clubs have official relation ships with feeder clubs in their own state, the first to do this with a super league club would be of great benefit

4, clubs completely screw themselves on salary cap by over paying, I can’t understand it, the disparity between top earners and bottom woth in the top 30s makes so little sense, some of the hardest working and best players are completely undervalued, I think an advanced analytics and more proportional team paying model could be implemented by a club and they could get a much stronger roster and smash it, currently so many players are paid far too much on potential than what they deliver, fifita, ponga etc any club that avoids this trap is in much better stead,

Thanks for coming to my ted talk

Revraiser wrote:



No way to the way kick restart 10m thing. U would just have teams huddling at the kick off, kick it 1 metre and charge forward to clash with the opposition 13 guys huddled in the same one metre spot. Like an orgy  !

An offload might be handy there  

ShadowSabre wrote:

Who's this now?

Same guy? Kennedy.

Kennedy is the kinda guy that will pull out a -6 in 65 minutes in Round 17 for his loyal owners

Milchcow wrote:

Good luck Robelgordo. Hope its a mild case for you.

Today my covid isolation finished and I am allowed in the world again

Thanks mate

I'm actually fine - wife has been sick 3-4 days (but only took the test yesterday) and the youngest has like a cold.

As far as returning to the world goes, eh, you probably haven't missed much

Liverpool_Bulldog wrote:

Same guy? Kennedy.

Kennedy is the kinda guy that will pull out a -6 in 65 minutes in Round 17 for his loyal owners

Certainly possible

robelgordo wrote:

Thanks mate

I'm actually fine - wife has been sick 3-4 days (but only took the test yesterday) and the youngest has like a cold.

As far as returning to the world goes, eh, you probably haven't missed much

That's good to hear. Heard of 30 somethings fully boosted getting bad dose but my over 80 parents both had month ago and only mild cold and Dad has emphysema. I guess depends on viral load contracted

Revraiser wrote:

No way to the way kick restart 10m thing. U would just have teams huddling at the kick off, kick it 1 metre and charge forward to clash with the opposition 13 guys huddled in the same one metre spot. Like an orgy  !

The opposition being able to catch the ball within 10 meters on the kickoff works perfectly in Union.

GarethEllisismyDad wrote:Bit late but 4 thoughts/unpopular things I believe

Thanks for coming to my ted talk

Excellent post. Nothing to add to 1 and 2, 3 is a fucking superb idea that I've honestly never even thought of before.

4 is a tricky one. Inherently, some clubs will always be able to pay unders - whether that's Storm, Roosters, Rabbitohs, Broncos being able to offer off field TPA type stuff due to rich owners, also players will often take unders to play in a winning side, example Manu taking less to play centre at the Roosters rather than chase 7 figures at fullback for the Warriors. If the Tigers and Roosters offered you an identical contract, same position, same role, same salary (same super contribution), you'd take the Roosters offer unless you were a psychopath. Cellar dwellers will always need to pay overs for players like Ponga, JAC and Burton to use them to attract more talent to jump on board as a result. Also some clubs are geographically disadvantaged such as Cowboys (Townsend on 750k, allegedly, says it all) and Raiders, because who wants to live in Townsville or Canberra, honestly. The less we say about the Warriors here the better. Player managers and social media don't help with player values too, this kinda stems back to point 1 you made where there's a lack of talent in coaching staff and they are dumb enough to pay overs for the wrong player.

Salary cap is a tricky beast and not something that can be tackled easily because capitalism within the comp will always be there no matter how hard you try to equalise things.

Liverpool_Bulldog wrote:Something I’ve always thought was very strange, why don’t they look for distance when kicking for touch. So often they advance the ball 5-10 metres. Is it harder to attack from closer to the line?

Always confused me

Edit: Is the risk of not getting the ball into touch too great?

A few things going on here

Firstly, the majority of coaches are super conservative and over value possession. Making an error that loses your team the ball is an inexcusable crime that most coaches would like to punish by death penalty. Because of this it's better to under estimate and ensure you keep the ball so you can have a full set on the attack.

Secondly, a penalty is a huge advantage in the context of game flow. Typically before you get a penalty the opposition have run to your end of the field and made a few tackles. With defense taking more energy than attack, a penalty is effectively an offload that grants you an extra 6 tackles in terms of making opposition "waste" tackles.

Thirdly, defensive structures completely change once you are in the opposition 20 so most structure based tries are going to start from outside the 20. Once you get into the 20 modern defenses (starting with 2013 Roosters) will play with 1 marker (attack less likely to come back through the ruck) AND the fullback starts up in the line. Attacking against a 12 man line makes it much harder for set plays(which typical rely on creating number advantages) to actually work. You will still see tries scored but these are primarily from either defensive errors OR attacking players generating a play the ball too quick for the defense to react. Because of this you typically want to have your kick for touch land about 30 metres out from the opposition line so you get 1 or 2 tackles to get the defense on the back foot before you lose the ability to run set plays

Ponga Yeo the Mann wrote:Another convo starter with rep round on is who is your world 17?

The likes of JFH, taumalolo, Manu are certainties but who else makes the side. Any English players a chance? John Bateman out of sight out of mind these days

I'm going to exclude players like Latrell and Turbo that can play another position at a high level but wouldn't make it in their primary position. This also means the likes of Murray will be primarily treated as a lock

I'm still of the opinion Bateman is the best second rower in the world, although I haven't watched him play at all this year

1. Teddy
2. Addo-Carr
3. Manu
4. Gagai
5. To'o
6. Munster
7. Cleary
8. JFH
9. Grant
10. Welch
11. Kikau
12. Bateman
13. Yeo
14. Murray
15. Tino
16. Taumalolo
17. Tapine

Most controversial ones are probably Welch, Bateman and the utility. Prior to injury Welch was the number 1 prop in the world IMO and I'm assuming he comes back the same. Utility I wanted to pick someone that has proven ability to play multiple positions at a high level. Murray has covered middle, edge, centre and has the ball skills to cover halves in an emergency

my tv broke wrote:

expansion is over-rated.

at very least they are going about it all wrong.

The AFL has shown the blueprint for how an expansion should work. New club needs to be in a desirable area with little competition but an established fan base. The club needs to be given salary cap concessions for multiple years and first crack at young talent as well as almost guaranteed blue chip players that can contribute right now. You need the team to not immediately be a cellar dweller, while also showing enough from the youngsters to have a promising future. Should have seen an NRL top up contract on an elite level spine player with links to the area like Grant, Munster, Ponga. You probably also need a few years advanced notice to build out the roster rather than just 1 year of off contract players.

robelgordo wrote:

The non-Aussies being underrated is obvious, and Haas being overrated is related to the other side of stats heavy guys being overrated.

but I like your specialist goal kicker idea. I generally think teams don’t take the 2 for penalties enough. When you knock back a penalty, you’re hoping for (on average) about 5.5 points (4 for the try plus 75% conversion rate). For that to be worth it, you need to be scoring a try about 37% of the time you tap. I doubt many teams are doing that? Definitely needs more analysis

It's hard to get tangible results because there is also a fatigue element to taking a tap. Probably need to see more shots at goal but if you have just had 14 tackles in a row from a few 6 agains or a drop out you are probably more likely to score the try than you are on play 2 or 3 on the attack

Revraiser wrote:Love the Mantellato reference @Multiple.scorgasms

True and he is a perfect example.

Last I saw he was playing local league in our neck of the woods. Haven't watched any of his games but I imagine he is a superstar