Round 11 Dream Teams
Round 11 Team of the Week
Tim Lafai… Tim Lafai. Yep. Rings a bell. Had a pretty unspectacular first season at the Dragons last year but more memorably scored 91 NRLCEO points including 11 tries for the Dogs in 2014. Well he’s back in a big way and was the top scoring player for the week with 14 points.
The next highest scorer was Jason Taumalolo with 13 points. The most significant thing about this return is not so much the number of points he scored (he’s scored 13 or more on three other occasions) but the number of involvements! 67 tackles and runs combined is ten more than his previous highest of 57 in Round 2 this year. It gave him his first ever double workhorse and added to his pretty regular double metre eater too.
Three players scored 12 points but the most significant was Kalifa Faifai-Loa. In his first game back in first grade since Round 19 last year he scored two tries, two line breaks and be a metre Eater for a 12 point return. It was his fourth ever double and second highest ever NRLCEO score.
Here is the rest of the Team of the Week:
- Jack Wighton (9)
- Kalifa Faifai-Loa (12)
- Tim Lafai (14)
- Dylan Walker (11)
- Akuila Uate (10)
- Anthony Milford (12)
- Ash Taylor (9)
- Andrew Fifita (9)
- Api Koroisau (9)
- Ben Matulino (9)
- Jake Trbojevic (12)
- Trent Merrin (11)
- Jason Taumalolo (13)
Points based on: Tries (4), Workhorses (4), Double Workhorses (8), Metre Eaters (2), Double Metre Eaters (4), Try Assists (2), Line Breaks (1), Line Break Assists (1), 40/20s (1), Field Goals (1), Sin Bins (-2) and Send Offs (-4).
Overall Dream Team
We have a new Most Valuable Player! Hands up if you thought Paul Gallen was still up to it? Now keep your hand up if you thought he’d be the top scoring player after 11 rounds. With no Origin duties this year it gives Gallen a great opportunity to go even further ahead at the top of the leaderboard too. Gal has only missed a workhorse once so far when he had 37 involvements but it’s his metre eater tally that’s really valuable. 11 metre eaters including three doubles so far with only three games where he missed out of 150 metres or more.
There are just two new entries to the Dream Team this week. Firstly, let’s start with Cameron McInnes. Plenty of people talked up his chances of going big in NRLCEO this year down to the fact the Dragons were only likely to carry one hooker, but even after having him in my team last year I talked down his chances. Silly me. With McCullough going down injured this round he’s taken the opportunity to go ahead. His workhorse total sits at 10 from 11 rounds with just one miss (38 involvements) but it’s his work around the ruck where he’s kicking ahead. Two tries, five try assists, two line breaks and four line break assists add 24 points to take his total this year to a very handy 64.
The next entry has been in and out, but it’s worth recognising Jake Trbojevic’s try scoring prowess this year. He scored four tries in total in 2016 and three in 2015 so to see his total at four tries already is very promising. His metres gained have also improved and if he misses out on Origin selection that will be very handy for Jurbo owners.
Here is the Dream Team at the conclusion of Round 11 (with total points in brackets):
- Tom Trbojevic (75)
- Suliasi Vunivalu (64)
- James Roberts (65)
- Tim Lafai (72)
- Jordan Rapana (74)
- Cody Walker (58)
- Mitch Pearce (49)
- Paul Vaughan (71)
- Cameron McInnes (64) – NEW
- Ryan James (63)
- Sam Burgess (75)
- Jake Trbojevic (69) – NEW
- Paul Gallen (80) – MVP
Points based on: Tries (4), Workhorses (4), Double Workhorses (8), Metre Eaters (2), Double Metre Eaters (4), Try Assists (2), Line Breaks (1), Line Break Assists (1), 40/20s (1), Field Goals (1), Sin Bins (-2) and Send Offs (-4).
JB
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