Ranta ‘23 Team Tracker

great score mate, well done!

Been a tough week for trades.

Have 124k ITB and the following trade out candidates:

- Carty (think regardless of starting he’s locked for 60 mins and has peaked)
- Carrigan (he’s a trade at Origin regardless - originally planned to hold and trade to Tapine or Tohu or Matterson pending form/Origin section. Thinking his cash would be better used here )
- Alamoti (maybe peaked, likely has more in him but needs a big score to kick it off)
- Loiero (low BE - can easily trade next week on bye unless he goes huge)
- Warbrick (low BE - can easily trade next week on bye unless he goes huge)
- ITT (there may be cash there and does play rd 13. Last traceable option)

Trade ins considered:

- Tedesco and/or Manu - both tempting but both have high BEs. Need to play Warbrick if I don’t trade one in.
- JDB - rd 13 player. Hoping last week is a sign of things to come and would replace Carrigan for MID depth
- Fifita - base is up. Attacking upside still untapped. Could play his way into the Origin team but those performances would be great to have on my fantasy team.
- Host - cash cow with good job security. Not exciting but plays 13 and is a decent 18/19th man that I don’t have to play.
- Crossland - cash cow that plays rd 13. Some risk with Ponga coming back affecting his minutes but should be okay to play in reserves for a few weeks.
Hynes - best player in fantasy not on my team….. nuff said. Can’t afford him.

Trades are locked in:

Carty -> Host
Carrigan -> Fifita

Have to play Warbrick as my WFB3 so have some time to decide if it waits till next week to upgrade Loiero to Teddy/Manu after seeing this new spine and if it sticks on TLT or if I use my bank to go Alamoti to Tedesco this week.

JDB can prove 65+ minutes this week wasn’t a fluke and I’ll figure that out next week I’m running with no mid cover but I can fix that right up till Saturday when Alamoti locks Or on Sunday if Smith/Ford were long term injured pre game……..

If I feel better about Crosslandon Saturday I may trade him in for Alamoti as well for that tiny bit of extra cash to trade Loiero to a rooster HLF/CTR/WFB of my choice next week.

Team lines up

Kenny
Haas(vc), Smith, Ford
Fifita, Hosking
Cleary(c), DCE
ITT*, Lemuelu
Turbo, Walsh, Warbrick

Wilton, Preston, Loiero, Bird*
Host*, Boyd*, Alamoti, IKatoa

*weekly ITT CTR loop. If host goes 45+ I won’t play Boyd. Or I can toss up Boyd vs Loiero… Pretty sure this is a pointless loop but will set it up just in case as I see no better option.

As always and thoughts, criticisms or ideas welcome.

Im very jealous you are gettig fifita in, there will be a huge score around the corner,

Dont think the loop is pointless, it gives you better options of maximising points,

with the plethora of edges you have, one can beused to improve the mids when you see fit

Quick turnaround and a busy week so only a short write up:

Rd 8 Score: 919
Overall Rank: 2461

Host was a flop of a trade in but didn’t play him in the 17 so not as scarred as others. He was viewed as a reliable 18th I could plug in though so this week he may have to play. As of team list Wednesday I have 17 players with Haas, Loiero, Warbrick and ITT out.

Trades this week:

Wilton -> JDB (Don’t think Wilton will elevate to keeper levels and need a Mid with Haas out)

Warbrick -> Bula (Finished cow for a fresh one)

Thompson -> Manu

Have decide to keep Turbo for now. Need a player this week and my only other option would be to play Bula at WFB so I’ll hope another soft game has a good score….


Team lines up as

Kenny
Smith, Hass*, Ford
Fifita (vc), Hosking
Cleary (c), DCE
Bird, Lemuelu
Turbo, Manu, Walsh

Boyd, Preston, IKatoa, Alamoti*

JDB*, Host*, Loiero, Bula*

* Looping JDB as my only mid cover for Haas as he locks out last. Can look at Host then Bula or ride Alamoti with JDB and Loiero for my 17th player.

Have 95k ITB so have options to get Teddy in next week.

Very happy with last week. Saw some low scores and monster scores so pretty happy to have gotten through without much harm.

Rd 9 Score: 933
Overall Rank: 1459

Trade out of Wilton hurts a bit given he got a try and boosted his cash making but JDB, Bula and Manu were all great trade ins so I can’t complain.

This week I decided to get Hynes. I think he’s the captain choice and his average will outstrip any other player combo.

Alamoti -> Oloapu (stalled cow for a fresh one. Bit risky JS but should go okay.)
Hosking -> Hynes (Hosking is probably an edge keeper but think Hynes is worth it.)
Preston -> Luki (Restocks my EDG stocks with a rd13 player who has high potential)

If I had one more trade I’d consider Turbo -> Tedesco but Tom is almost bottomed out so May as well hold and hope for good games or Garrick/Drinkwater can cover him during bues.

Team this week:

Kenny
Haas, JDB, Ford
Fifita (vc), Loiero
Hynes (c), Cleary
Bird, Lemuelu
Turbo, Walsh, Manu

DCE, Boyd, Smith, Luki
Katoa, Host, Bula, Oloapu

hynes captain can outscore both of the edges you binned together,

I think Hynes is essential and its not like you don't have good edges in Fifita and Loireo

good luck this week

Good process, bad luck with Hynes. He's a season long keeper and will be top 2 average by seasons end. No real bad time to get him from a process perspective. His 115 next week will ease the pain. Good luck!

Nice team Ranta, a few different picks there but the results are what counts

Turbo is tricky, he doesn't look right but still keeps playing and even on one leg can make a big play.
Can't blame for holding these types as they usually banner when you finally move them on

All the best this season, this is the interesting period so these next moves will be important

Thanks for all the replies Gaz's son, snatch and CH.

Was a tough pill to swallow as I felt really good about my team entering the weekend but it just all went wrong on the captain pick and the trades being a net negative.

Hynes (c) 74 + Luki 19 + Cleary 92 = 185
Cleary (c) 184 + Preston 60 + Katoa 46 = 290

The 105 lost points were brutal and cost me crossing the 1000 .

Rd 10 score: 911
Overall Rank: 1896

Overall a tough week with the tinkering costing but as said Hynes should be a top 2 average player by seasons end. Also the positivity motivated me to actually do some bye planning

Trades pondered this week:

Kenny -> Tedesco. Kenny is just diabolical with negatives. Tedesco should be a season keeper WFB. Ultimately I'm deciding against this as I really need bye coverage and Tedesco just adds to my problems.

How much do you have in the bank mate? I think you're right that Kenny needs to go, but Teddy probably not the right move right now when you already have Turbo, Walsh, Manu, Bula.

81k ITB.

Teddy was the top of the range for that in a single trade.

Could move Ford as well and get one of my trade in targets of Robson, Hopgood, Brown/Moses, Tohu. Tapine or Horsborough could be options but think I'm too late on Horse and I'd like to see a good game from Tapine first.

Feels like I'd need to trade in Te Whare to have the cash. Not sure its worth the risk this week if Te Whare is dropped next week. Can easily grab these guys when I sell DCE in rd 13. Playing Hopgood/Brown/Robson over Kenny sounds really good this week though.

If my maths is right, you can do Kenny + Ford -> Billy Smith + your choice of gun up to 757k?

Alternatively I think you can do those two to Tatola + Horse/Tohu, which I quite like. That would probably get my vote.

Thanks for the great suggestion. Not confident in Tatola personally and Smith has big risks for me (I.e he’s lose his job if many goes back to ctr. He’s also not a EF 13 player and I currently have

Blank
JDB, Ford, blank
Luki, Host
EKatoa, Blank
Bird, Lemuelu
Walsh, Turbo, Blank

So 7 players with two origin maybes. I don’t want to carry Ford for two weeks for one score and my only trade outs that add to this list are Kenny and DCE (misses 13, 14 and 16)

Have decided to move DCE early so I now have

DCE -> Brown (low BE mean it makes sense this week with Moses out should go close to matching)
Ford -> Horsburgh (could have gone Hopgood or Matterson but hoping they won’t get away as the others have lower BEs.

Kenny could still be playable over Host/Luki so adds some value this week in the loop and hopefully holds more value this week and next in scoring 17 than Ford. I could trade him to anyone 605k or less but can’t see the value.

Next week if Te Whare starts can do Host to Te Whare (can only play 1 in rd 13) and do Kenny to Robson.

Thanks @mrbrownstone - your advice was really helpful.

So after a round off as I got busy and missed the window to trade Kenny again I just sat on my team and it paid dividends.

Rd 11 Score: 988
Rd 11 overall rank: ???

Rd12 score: 997
Rd12 overall rank: 832

So close to two 1000s so still seeking my first of the season. Bird as a late out hurt as I played with 16 but thanks to Cleary, Turbo and Hynes doing some heavy lifting some dud scores and 16 didn’t hurt as much as it should.

Plans this week are pretty simple

Kenny -> Ponga
BSmith -> Tohu

Tossing up one more trade of Loiero to Robson.

Team is currently

Boyd
JDB (c), Tohu, Horse
Luki, Host
Brown (vc), IKatoa
Bird, Lemuelu
Ponga, Walsh, Turbo

Cleary, Hynes, Fifita, Haas
Manu, Loiero, Bula, Oloapu

So playing 10 or 11 pending if I do the last trade or not. Not the best team but shouldn’t lose much ground and hopefully my origin players back up and help in the minor bye rounds where we play 17.

Think I’ve just convinced myself to trade Loiero, Robson plays 16 as well and should be more valuable positionally in the meantime as a backup HOK. Any thoughts or opinions are appreciated.

Been smashing it bro, good to see. Looks like you have it all sorted, hopefully Ponga can stay on the park and win some games for the Knights! Same with Tohu to be honest, hopefully the bye was a good rest.

For what it's worth, I'd trade in Robson if you're willing to drop Loiero. There is no doubt it's an upgrade, despite his fluctuating scores. Plus if you end up having to keep him till the end then you could do a lot worse.

Your team is boss, I think there's a chance you gain ranks in fact. Best of luck bro

All the trade chat made me think about my bye planning.

Cook is a better trade than Robson as:

- he scores better and is more consistent with a higher ceiling
- i.e. I see Cook as final 17 worthy whereas Robson would be fringe
- rd 16 I have Boyd, Brown and Oloapu. Rd 19 has all 3 again available so no major rd bye difference
- cooks next bye is rd 20 whereas Robson is rd 15

Only risk is Cook may work his way back to Origin selection and he has more byes remaining but I can manage that on the final stretch.

Two trades now locked in

Smith -> Cook
Kenny -> Ponga

Only issue is I can’t afford Loiero to Tohu. I had 0k ITB with my previous trades.

Currently I have 6 Origin players (Cleary, Hynes, Fifita, Haas, Walsh, Turbo). Probably need to be realistic that they all won’t back up every game and Haas/Fifita are the most likely to be rested. I’m leaning Haas as Fifitas value over replacement is way higher and his byes will be finished at rd 19.

Even with the extra money I’ll be trading in Tohu over Hopgood as I’m thinking he doesn’t have a bye next week (Turbo, Ponga, Brown). I’d also like to trade out IKatoa and Host next week and the cash may prove significant in upgrading / facilitating those moves (217k). Also while Hopgood will score better in the short term I think Tohu is more locked in as a final 17 option while he will still score well over the coming weeks.

So bit of a small tweak but this should be better including Loiero being useful cover from rd 14-18.

Feel free to chime in and let me know if my trades now are better or worse or if they are just both terrible

Titans have a bye in 16 so no Boyd.

Classic - knew I messed something up. Thank you filth