Trade Talk: Keep or Sweep?
We will again start this week by looking at how I faired with my predictions a month ago: Partly to be consistent but mostly because they make me look good.
Players to Sweep from 7th April
| Player | Avg pts 2014 | Avg pts Rd 1-4 | Avg pts Rd 5-8 | Was I right? | Comment |
| Sam Perrett | 1 | 4 | 2 | Yep | Perrett is just as useless for NRLCEO coaches at fullback as I expected. He will have value again soon once BMoz returns, but not yet. |
| Brett Stewart | 5 | 3 | 0 | Yep | Stewart has been injury prone and missed some games, but hasn’t looked great at all this year. He has lost a step of pace, but I expect him to pick up a little soon. Might be becoming a nice ‘buy-low’ candidate? |
| Jamie Buhrer | 4 | 2 | 4 | Nope | I backflipped on this call myself not long after. Buhrer was looking like a worldbeater, the best backrower in the game, before a season ending injury. Shame. |
| Cooper Cronk | 5 | 3 | 2 | Yep | Cronk has just looked flat. There is plenty of talk about him even losing his Test jumper by the next time Australia lines up. NRLCEO coaches who bailed on him early will be ecstatic. |
Players to Keep from 7th April
| Player | Avg pts 2014 | Avg pts Rd 1-4 | Avg pts Rd 5-8 | Was I right? | Comment |
| Jarrad Kennedy | 2 | 3 | 5 | Yep | Kennedy has been a machine this year, racking up big numbers consistently. I’ll be watching him with interest this weekend after he missed a workhorse last start for the first time since round 1. |
| Dylan Napa | 1 | 3 | 3 | Yep | Napa is a beast on the field and has a high workrate for the minutes he plays. He will be even better in years to come and is a great guy to have if you run a keeper league. |
| Tyson Frizell | 2 | 4 | 6 | Yep | Frizell is still yet to miss a workhorse and is about to return from a nice freshen up courtesy of the judiciary. He is the most-improved NRLCEO player this year for mine. |
| Aiden Tolman | 5 | 4 | 6 | Yep | Tolman has picked up work like I expected he would with all of the judiciary woes of the Bulldogs. Graham will return and Tolman is likely to see a slight reduction in minutes, but you aren’t trading him away any time soon. |
Now on to this week…
Players to Sweep
Boyd Cordner
Five workhorses from eight starts is not what I envisioned for Cordner this year. As one of the most potent hole-running backrowers and hitting workhorses in seven out of the last eight games last year I expected really big things. I fell for the trap of looking at points rather than involvements- he only was scraping in a lot of workhorses last year and this year his workrate is down. Whilst he is still averaging 4 points per game it just isn’t good enough. Good luck getting decent value for him though.
Dan Tupou
I simply expected more from Tupou. Surely the Roosters improve, and surely he is a beneficiary of that. But how much longer can you wait? Maybe you bench him and hold out a little longer, but if a decent offer comes around I’d be taking it. I’ve had no luck trying to trade him myself so far.
Michael Jennings
Copy and paste what I wrote for Tupou, and then add in missed games for Origin. Most leagues will have someone who still has wood for Jennings and I suggest coaches do everything they can to find that person and palm Jennings off now.
Players to Keep
Dean Whare
The Panthers will have nearly everyone back from injury within a fortnight and Whare was averaging 5 points per game over the early rounds. He is a good centre and a preferred option in attack. I expect decent things from him, and with him missing some time due to injury over the last month some coaches may have forgotten just how valuable he was early on. I know I had until I checked his numbers weighing up a trade offer!
Ben Matulino
Matulino has been incredibly damaging- one of the best props in the competition this year. He isn’t ever going to score you a double workhorse, but he is consistent enough at at-least hitting 40 this year. He has turned 26 this year which is the age a front rower is considered ‘developed’ and I see no reason he won’t keep up the great work.
Tom Symonds
Symonds should be a major beneficiary of the injury to Jamie Buhrer. He is a threat to score tries and gets workhorses often enough to keep a coach happy.
He also might be a free agent in some leagues and is worth enquiring about in trade before his value grows even more on Sunday.
Twitter Questions
@aussiepiston more rumours that Adam R might be back this week. Adam is a free agent, I have Shaun Johnson, worth the risk switching?
— Adrian (@Barney7070) May 7, 2015
Shaun Johnson was disappointing to start the year, but seems to have found form with 17 points over his last three matches. He has also picked up his efforts with the boot on the back of a more potent Warriors attack, kicking four goals in each of his last three games.
Adam Reynolds isn’t much of a noted point scorer in NRLCEO aside from his goal kicking, but being an accurate marksman for the reigning premiers he does average over four goals per game. If you are high on him aiding Souths in returning to form, then his goal kicking alone makes this worth considering.
My verdict on this one however is to stick with Johnson. The trade itself is a coin flip, but it would be much worse as a coach to watch if you drop Johnson only for him to flourish with another team! Johnson also is capable of going off for 20 in any given week, something I just don’t see Reynolds doing all too often.
Ryan
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