Which NRL fantasy is for you?

If you’re reading this article then you’re probably like us too. A fantasy footy addict.

So many of us now live and breathe fantasy and it has changed the way we watch the games forever. The hand instantly goes to the pocket every few minutes just to see if Andrew Fifita’s tackle count has jumped up or is James Maloney was awarded the last try assist for his kick to the corner.

There are a number of extremely popular fantasy platforms for NRL in Australia. Both launching this week, NRL SuperCoach and NRL Fantasy are the market leaders with hundreds of thousands of users, but there are a number of independent platforms out there too including NRLCEO on TheBench, Ultimate League and The Real Dream Team.

Each platform has their own pros and cons but no two platforms are the same when it comes to scoring systems. So let’s take a look at the top ten scorers in three of the platforms and analyse how and why different players dominate each platform.

* NRL Fantasy and SuperCoach scores from Fan League. NRLCEO scores from www.TheBench.com.au.

NRLCEO on TheBench

www.TheBench.com.au

NRLCEO has been around since 2009 and has traditionally been very simple in its scoring concept whereas the other major platforms have scoring options for a lot more real life actions. After a merger three years ago, the game is now powered by TheBench.

The game is based on a more realistic scoring compared to the NRL. Games where users pick 17 players traditionally finish between 40 and 60 points with 100 points being a fantastic week. Instead of points scored per tackle and hit-up scores are based on reaching a certain target. A player scores a ‘workhorse’ by achieving 40 or more tackles and runs combined (there is even a double workhorse for 60 or more tackles and runs). Other scoring options include tries, try assists, line break assists, line breaks, goals, forty-twenties and more.

Starting at the top of the NRLCEO rankings, Semi Radradra was the king pin last year after his dominating try scoring feats, but compare him to NRL Fantasy where he finished 72nd and NRL SuperCoach (13th). This goes to show the power of try scoring in NRLCEO compared to the consistency of scoring needed in NRL Fantasy where his average score was 28th highest but he was let down by playing the third least amount of games in the top 100.

The next most dominant player in NRLCEO was also a try scoring hero. Curtis Rona went undrafted in most leagues at the start of the year and was quickly snapped up in the lead-up to Round 1 when he was named on the wing for the Dogs. It shows the value of a top try scorer in an NRLCEO team, but it’s also a lottery to pick them. Note that Semi was also largely undrafted the year prior too.

Shaun Fensom was the first forward to appear on the NRLCEO list in equal third after a consistent year of workhorses coupled with a few double workhorses and bonus tries. His consistency in all games saw him finish as one of only four players who finished in the top ten in all three formats. He had the fouth highest tackle count of all NRL players and was 29th ranked for offloads too.

NRL Fantasy

https://fantasy.nrl.com/

NRL Fantasy is the official fantasy game of the NRL run on the official website.

It’s the second biggest fantasy NRL game in Australia with just under 100,000 users reported in 2015. It’s been around in its current format since 2014 when they changed developers, changed their name from Dream Team and lost a few fans in the meantime.

They offer a salary cap based game which is by far their most popular version but they also offer draft versions as well. Their salary cap of $6.8 million is reflective of the real life NRL salary cap which is a nice touch.

NRL Fantasy is very driven by base stats with seven of the top ten scorers being forwards. Four of the top tackles in the NRL finished in the top ten which says a lot about the workhorses of the game, but picking a great backline is the difference between a good team and a great team too.

Warriors captain Simon Mannering was the highest scoring player on NRL Fantasy last season, but only just ahead of the next best. His enormous tackle count after moving from the second row to lock meant that he scored consistently high every week. He finished second on the overall tackle count with 1,092 tackles at an average of 45 per game!

The next best player was fantasy mainstay Cameron Smith. As the NRL Fantasy fanatics would say, “what’s the first rule of fantasy?” Always captain Cameron Smith. The safe option. He finished behind Mannering and Andrew McCullough to be third highest tackler of 2015. He doesn’t run as much as he used to but he still finished the year with ten try assists and 11 line breaks.

Roger Tuivasa-Sheck was just freakish with his running metres last year which saw him dominate all the fantasy platforms and finish as the top back on NRL Fantasy. Making a ridiculous 240 metres per game for the Chooks as well as 11 tries and 12 try assists. Now that he has a bit more freedom at the Warriors he will likely be the top fullback once again.

NRL SuperCoach

http://nrlfantasy.dailytelegraph.com.au/

NRL Fantasy is run by News Corp which owns the Daily Telegraph and Courier Mail. In 2015 they had just over 100,000 users making it the most popular NRL Fantasy game in Australia.

This year they are offering $128,000 in prizes. The majority of users play the salary cap game but they also offer a draft version too. In the salary cap game, users have $6.5 million to fit 25 players in their squad.

In terms of game play and scoring, forwards are where most users turn their focus as they perform the most consistent work week in, week out. Attacking stats are very valuable which means backs have a higher scoring potential, but lack the consistent scoring each week with less hit ups and tackles to be made. With that in mind though, there was an even split of five backs and five forwards in the overall top ten scorers last season.

The top scoring player last year was Roger Tuivasa-Sheck who had an incredible year finishing with the highest ever metres gained in an NRL season with almost 2,000 metres more than the next best player! He scored at a rate of 0.97 points per minute for an incredible average of 77 per game. He had the best base stats of any fullback in the game and his value could incredibly increase at the Warriors if their attack clicks.

Fellow fullback James Tedesco was the next best scoring player in 2015 with 1,782 points. He was the most consistent player across all three platforms finishing in the top seven for each game. These scores were obviously helped by his 17 tries which put him fourth in the try scoring list in the NRL and 13 try assists for his team mates.

The leading forward of last year was Simon Mannering with 1,658 points. His points came from being the second top tackler in the NRL, the fifth top offloader as well as great base stats in run metres too. Add that to the fact that he doesn’t play Origin and he doesn’t get injured.

As you can see from these lists above, there is a little bit of cross over, but the top ten vary across these three formats. In saying that, there were still a few players that appeared consistently across each game.

Shaun Fensom, Andrew McCullough, James Tedesco and Simon Mannering were the only players who made the top ten in all three formats showing that their consistency and value which should continue again this year barring injuries. Let’s analyse each platform further below.

So tell us - which fantasy platform you prefer and why do you enjoy it?