daily fantasy sports articles

We complete the Round 6 action with…oh wait, no we don’t. Our usual Sunday afternoon double header doesn’t finalise the round this week, but worth watching on it’s own for two interesting matchups. An earlier start sees the Sydney Roosters (3-2) welcoming the New Zealand Warriors (3-2) to the SCG at 2pm. Then straight after at 4:05 the St George Illawarra Dragons (1-4) take on the Newcastle Knights (2-3) at their WIN Stadium. None of these teams are at the pointy end of the ladder, but they all have reasons to believe and will be playing to win.

Draftstars has a $5000 contest with $679 to first place. The single game contests are set at $10,000 and $12,000. There are also several other contests including the Mini and the Micro. Don’t forget about that earlier start!
 

Team News

There are two changes for the Roosters, with the most simple being Sio Sua Taukeiaho coming back into the team on the bench for Dan Suluka-Fifita. The other is Sam Verrills replacing Drew Hutchison as the starting hooker. This is where things get a little complicated, as Verills is likely to play more minutes than Hutchison, which means Connor Watson needs to spend more of his time on the field playing as a middle forward. Throw in Taukeiaho’s extra minutes and there is going to be a big squeeze on playing time for the forwards. I expect Jared Waerea-Hargreaves, Fletcher Baker and Angus Crichton might be hurt the most by this.

Two changes for the Warriors also. Dallin Watene-Zelezniak replaces the suspended Marcelo Montoya on the wing, and Eliesa Katoa is back on the bench in place of Jack Murchie. No real structure changes, with Katoa likely to take some of Bailey Sironen’s edge minutes as Murchie did last week.

Two simple changes for the Dragons, with Josh McGuire back from suspension and George Burgess back into the team. They’ll both start on the bench, replacing Aaron Woods and Jackson Ford. Josh Kerr is promoted to the starting side as a result, which could help his prospects a little. Jack Bird continues to play in the halves, which is certainly hurting his fantasy output.

The Knights round out the set, also making two changes. Edrick Lee makes a long awaited return on the wing for the injured Dominic Young. David Klemmer is back from injury at prop, with Leo Thompson back to the bench and Jorah Momoisea out of the team with his own injury. The injury curse striking again has contributed to a drop in performance the last couple of weeks, and it’s hard to be excited about any of the team’s attacking players unless they start to turn things around.

Odds

Roosters $1.18 v Warriors $5.00

Dragons $1.65 v Knights $2.25

Overview

The bookies love the Roosters at home, and are also leaning towards the home team in the second game. I’d obviously be tipping the Roosters, but I think the Warriors can make a better game of it than the odds suggest. Did anyone see how close the Broncos got to beating this Roosters team last week!? They’re far from their best. I’d have the Knights as favourites, but I am a supporter of theirs so take it with a grain of salt. Even without 2 or 3 starters the team looks pretty solid, while the Dragons have a lot of middling players in new roles and just generally aren’t going that well.

Love It- Sitili Tupouniua $12,450

The young Roosters backrower has become a bit of a DFS darling, because his price never gets as high as it probably should. That’s likely due a penchant for minor injuries and/or being shifted into the centres to cover other players mid-game, meaning he has some pretty bad scores in his range of outcomes. But, the all important ceiling is there, with 60+ scores coming often enough to make him a slate-winner. With the price as good as it gets, and a pretty handy matchup, this could be a great spot to lean into a somewhat obvious play.

Love It- Ben Hunt $18,680

Hunt has only had one really big score so far in 2022, but he’s another that tends to pump out ceiling scores fairly often in the 75-80 region. His price has dipped a little after two down weeks, but coming into this game as favourites seems like a perfect spot for him to bounce back strong. Throw in the fact that his halves partner in Jack Bird is unlikely to steal many base stats, and it looks like a great way to spend up on this slate.

Love It- Kalyn Ponga $14,240

On the other side of the field to Hunt, Ponga is a slightly more concerning play as he’s battled injuries and is very good at getting himself hurt during games (because teams like to deliberately try to knock his head off). Having said that, he’s gotten very cheap and is still a ~50 point guy when things are going well. This could be a chance to buy early on a star player in a very winnable game, but it’s hard to say if the field will also be keen on him. Need to have exposure anyway, Ponga in a primetime Sunday afternoon game is a match made in heaven. Zac Lomax is perhaps a safer “cash” type play if you want someone else in the late game.

Hate It- David Klemmer $19,540

Klemmer is priced like it’s 2020 again…but it’s not. The big guy has struggled to stay fully healthy for the last couple of seasons, and often plays banged up. That led to a 5-10 point from off in scoring last season, and it’s not looking great this year after being injured in round 1. In his first game back and with 4 guys that can play as middle forwards on the bench, I think we’ll see lowish minutes and nothing close to a ceiling score in this one.

Hate It- Luke Keary $20,020

Somehow, 5 straight scores in the 34-47 range has led to a price increase for Keary. I’ve been trashing him at the lower price, but now he’s very early the most expensive player on the slate! (3rd, technically). This might be the easiest matchup they’ve had so far this season, but the Roosters aren’t exactly dominating so far. A big part of that is Keary struggling to stamp himself as the leader of the team, and his combination with Sam Walker (not to mention his ACL recovery). I can’t see anything changing significantly enough for Keary to get the 70 or 80 points needed to be relevant on this slate.

Who Knows- Moses Mbye $10,500

One of the truest utilities in the NRL, Mbye has already played 3 positions this year. The last two weeks at fullback have only returned 17 & 31 points, but he played the position a lot at the Tigers and didn’t score too badly. The expectation is only for a mid 30s average at best, but if the Dragons get on top in this game I could see him sneaking his way to a 40+ score. I doubt the field will have much interest with lots of other viable plays in the OB position, so this could be a super sneaky GPP play if indeed it does come of…it’s a pretty big if though.