Captains Call: Round 25

Welcome to Grand Final week of Captains Call

Congratulations to all those who made their respective Grand Finals.

What a close final race we have. Eight teams separated by four points makes this the closest top eight that I can remember. Who wants to win it? The top three have stumbled and look far from convincing while the fourth placed Sharks look to be timing their run well. Panthers and Dragons will most likely drop out first week unless they are playing each other. Warriors and Broncos are playing well but have to come from a fair way back.

Another year of Captains Call done and one thing to remember besides always naming Cook as Captain, is stick to what you think will work or what will you think will give you the best result.

The moment you start second guessing, things can unravel quickly.

For me, pick and stick is what I like to do because generally every team has at least one player that consistently scores points.

For me it was Damien Cook in one comp, Cameron McInnes in another and Cameron Smith in my Supporters comp. Others like to run the risk and pick back line players who generally have a higher ceiling than forwards but can miss some weeks.

Let’s review the five from last week:

1. Martin – 0 ❌
2. Leilua – 4 ✅
3. Stimson – 5 ✅
4. Yeo – 4 ✅
5. Moeroa – 4 ✅

Very quick and easy this week. Martin limped off early with a knee injury which may see him miss the last round. The other four managed a workhorse with Stimson adding a line break assist.

Let’s review the season that was and out of the 121 choices previewed, 76 were safe bets and 45 were risk and reward. Out of those 76 safe bets, 60 produced four points or more and 16 scored less that four, 79% success rate. Of the 45 risk and reward, it was about even with 22 scoring four or more and 23 scoring less than four, 49% success rate. The result was 82 successful picks out of 121, that’s about a 68% success rate overall. Proof there, stick with safe bets.

Captain Cook! There’s been a few calls for hooker involvement requirements for a workhorse to change off the back of such a dominant year by Damien Cook. Now while he’s had a great year, you can’t really justify changing the whole dynamics of one position because of one player having a great year. Cook has helped NRLCEO coaches make the finals and some into grand finals, but his affect hasn’t seen everyone who has him make the Grand Final.

In the Champions League comp, neither team has him. Here is a look at his affect on the main public competitions.

Champions League: No

Wally Lewis: Yes

Andrew Johns: No

Clive Churchill Yes

Arthur Beetson: No

Allan Langer: No

Mal Meninga: Yes

Darren Lockyer: Yes

Matty Bowen: No

Stacey Jones: Yes

Supporters #1: No

Supporters #2: No

Supporters #3: Yes (Dogs)

Supporters #4: No

Supporters #5: Yes (Cows)

Supporters #6: No

Supporters #7: No

Supporters #8: No

Supporters #9: Yes (Cows)

Tookey Cup: Yes

Let’s look at six for this week and I’m just going to give you names, I think the reason I picked them is self-explanatory and it’s likely that if you are in a Grand Final, you will have at least one of these players. Good luck to everyone this weekend.

Damien Cook

Tom Trbojevic

Ryan James

Valentine Holmes

Blake Ferguson

Jake Trbojevic

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Adam Hewat

Adam Hewat, coach of the mighty Pest Control. Playing NRLCEO has become an obsession more than a hobby. He's either ingesting as many stats as possible or carefully monitoring each play of each game. Obsessed? Maybe just a little.

Latest posts by Adam Hewat (see all)

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