More NRL action on Friday with double-header action for Round 14. It’s around this time every season that coaches are sacked, players are injured and teams are starting looking to next year. And this season is no different! The two game slate kicks off at 1800 AEST on Friday with the Warriors ‘hosting’ the Panthers at Gosford. Following the featured match between the 3rd placed Eels taking on the 13th placed Dragons at Bankwest Stadium.

 

Draftstars is the home of NRL Daily Fantasy and provides multiple contests including the feature $8,000 contest between the Eels and the Broncos. A $3,000 contest is available for the 2-game slate and a further $7,000 contest is available for the Warriors and the Panthers. If you are playing the double-header remember to utilise the “player-swap” feature if we receive a surprise omission when the final 17’s are released.

  


 

Market Odds

Warriors (6.80) v Panthers (1.11)

Spread - 16.5

Total Over/Under - 42.5

 

Eels (1.23) v Dragons (4.25)

Spread - 11.5

Total Over/Under - 40.5

 

In fantasy relevant team news, the Warriors lose Jack Hetherington to suspension. While the Panthers are unchanged unless Dylan Edwards can return from a hamstring injury.

For the Eels, Ryan Matterson returns after his concussion. The Dragons have lost their coach (well after the game) and also lose Tariq Sims, Jackson Ford and Trent Merrin. Corey Norman returns at five-eight pushing Ben Hunt to Hooker and Cameron McInness to Lock. 

 

Fantasy Plays

With two big favourites you will need to stack Eels/Panthers attacks as I can’t see the Warriors or Dragons handling these hot teams. 

 

WFB: Two 10+ favourites means we need to look at options from the Eels and Panthers. On first look the underdog full-backs in Matthew Dufty $10,660 and Roger Tuivasa-Sheck $11,450 are the expensive options but these two will be good contrarian plays if you can get up to him. Josh Mansour $9,940 only had the 1 tackle break last round so expect him to bounce back and plenty will be on him. Watch if Dylan Edwards $10,980 returns for Caleb Aekins $7,000 and if Edwards does return, then once again a low owned play awaits. Is it time to jump back on Maika Sivo $7,880? Gee whiz under $8K with a mega ceiling but a pretty poor floor. I failed to mention that the Eels played in the torrential rain last Sunday, so I wouldn’t read into the Eels W/FB scores last week.     

 

CTR: There are some quality fantasy options here but they have been priced up due to their high floors. Dragons pairing of Zak Lomax $12,040 and Euan Aitken $11,830 are fine if you have saved the salary, especially Aitken who is averaging 50+ in his last 5 matches. Has the ability to rack up big scores from attacking raids. If you need cheaper options then look towards Eels options (Michael Jennings $9,240) and Panthers centres (Tyrone May $8,170, Stephen Crichton $10,760) if you believe the books having this as a blood bath.  

 

HALF: Gulp! Nathan Cleary at $17,000! He has been massive and so is his salary. Not often a fantasy player can go 99.6 and 106.3 in the past 4 games and gets the soft matchup against the Warriors. If you can get there then you are going to have Cleary at low ownership because everyone else will be on Mitchell Moses $11,850. Moses did play 2nd fiddle to Dylan Brown $14,810 last week with Moses only contributing through Kick Meters and tackles. But that sub-12k price tag is very tempting. Dylan Brown was huge in the wet against the Eagles and should have fun against the Dragons. Warriors halves in Kodi Nikorima $9,590 and Chanel Harris-Tavita $9,360 were very good at their cheap salary in their win, but they are up against the Panthers and I would probably fade.   

 

2RF: If you saved your money, then you can go nuts here. Cameron McInnes $16,210 being back at Lock doesn’t seem to hurt his fantasy production and at $16K you can bank 60+ barring injury. Ryan Matterson $16,180 returns but I’ll probably leave him after being very good prior to injury. Premium options such as Tohu Harris $15,620, Isaah Yeo $14,980, Jazz Tevaga $14,560, Nathan Brown $13,520, Tyson Frizell $13,490 and James Fisher-Harris $13,150 are all here! So hard to pin-point any of these but if you are already stacking Panthers/Eels options then you will need to target at least one of them here. If you are paying down then Shaun Lane $11,300 will be popular on crunches as his salary is just a bit cheap.    

 

HOK: 3 ½ quality options at Half with the exception of Karl Lawton $12,570 who still has Wayde Egan $8,640 as a handcuff. Ben Hunt $15,790, Reed Mahoney $14,120 and Api Koroisau $15,080 are all on track for 60+ but will go for Koroisau as he does have a knack on scoring try assists (4 in his last 5 games). 


 

FRF: While you get 35-40 minutes out of him but Jamayne Taunoa-Brown $8,340 will be popular at his price tag as we need to pay down somewhere. Everyone’s favourite bench player Moses Leota $9,460 is creeping up in price but I always love playing him. Just goes a million miles an hour and squeezes out all the fantasy points in his 30-40 minutes of work. If you do manage to save some cash for premium options then Junior Paulo $13,070 and Reagan Campbell-Gillard $13,840 at their big price tags could be in another smash spot without Paul Vaughan to run at.   

 

Final Word: As you can tell, the salaries are now settled that the great options are expensive and the ordinary ones are not. The Dragons are a mess so it could be party time for the Eels. I wouldn’t be too cute here. Good luck!  

 

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