Ultimate guide to winning your SuperCoach NRL Draft league

The time to start planning your path to the title is right now.

Serious Draft players know the true secret to winning your league is your finals strength of schedule.

To illustrate the point, let me ask you a question.

Who would score more SuperCoach points; James Tedesco against Penrith, or Jordan Rapana against the Tigers?

Answering this is tough, right?

Even with a 30-point difference in season average, we all know that match-ups matter, and when it comes to the Finals past form doesn’t matter.

And herein lies the secret to how to win your league.

Because while the overall difference in points over a whole season is crucial, in a H2H finals format, match-ups are everything.

So if you’re lucky enough to progress to the final of your league in that round, having the match-ups in your favour will give you a major advantage.

Your finals will typically run for four rounds and it’s important to check your league settings to know when they start and finish.

It could be 22-25, 23-26 or 24-27.

Good luck if it’s a round 27 final which will mean you’re also factoring in restrings.

Now match-ups have a different impact for each position on the field.

Largely in the forwards, tougher games do not have as big of an impact on scoring.

But in the backs and halves, the big scores can have a huge say with major scoring variations.

Finding players who can play above their value when it matters is one of the critical components of winning your league.

And with less than 10 rounds to go until Finals start, now is the time to be leveraging the Waiver Wire and Team Trades to build a team which can win when it matters.

With fourteen rounds in the books, we now have a decent enough sample size of data to know the good and bad teams in SuperCoach.

Yes, things can change between now and then but to gain an advantage in your league, now is the time to strike and plan ahead.

As it stands there are six teams we consider that are ‘hard’ match-ups based on their defence; Bulldogs, Roosters, Panthers, Storm, Sharks and Broncos.

There are seven sides we consider ‘easy’ match-ups based on conceding a lot of points; Dragons, Tigers, Raiders, Knights, Eels, Titans and Bunnies.

And while we know in draft, grabbing the best players with the best draws isn’t as straight forward as picking them up in free agents, the advantages you can gain in your Trade and Waiver strategy by looking ahead can give you a major leg-up against your opponents.

Let’s take a look at the good and not so good draws for the various Finals Systems.

Round 22-25 Finals

The Good

Sharks: An absolute dream run with four ‘easy’ match-ups. A team to target via waiver and trades as soon as possible.

Panthers: The Storm matchup in the preliminary final (r24) shapes as a difficult game, but the bookended match-ups are very solid for a team who know how to score points.

Bulldogs: Two easy games and two ‘moderate’ games. A side whose overachieved on pre-season form whose attacking players might still be gettable via waivers or trades.

Sea Eagles: The round 22 bye is a banana peel, but winnable games exist either side. A grand final against the Tigers is every clubs dream.

Roosters: The round 23 bye is tough; games against the Eels and Titans look anything but.

Broncos: Another side with a bye during finals, but post Origin this team could fire and they’ve got some high scoring match-ups during that time.

Tigers: Not many relevant SuperCoach players but the draw doesn’t look too difficult.

The Bad

Eels: Doesn’t get much harder than their round 23-25 run. Could hurt if you’ve got high round picks from this club like Dylan Brown, Moses or Gutherson.

Titans: Three tough games and an easier one against the Dragons in round 24.

Dolphins: A brutal run home, and given all they’ve achieved early it remains to be seen how they’ll go against the best sides. Perhaps their player stand tall, but perhaps selling them on a high is the move.

Dragons: Another club with three tough games.

Raiders: The two best defensive sides in their four games makes the Raiders a tough team to be heavily invested in for Finals.

Cowboys: The bye in the grand final makes them a very difficult side to be invested in. Could be time to cash out if you own the high flying Drinkwater, Val or Dearden.

Round 23-26 Finals

The Good

Sharks: Three ‘easy’ ones and a game away against the Warriors in the Grand Final. That’s about as good as it gets.

Panthers: Another three ‘easy’ ones, the round 24 blockbuster against the Storm however may prove difficult however. That being said, the Panthers can beat anyone on their day.

Roosters: Taking out the bye in 23, their run is juicy. It is likely they’ll be aiming to win well too late in the season and push into the top 4.

Knights: Another side who you’d expect will have a lot to play for late in the season. A round 23 match with the Tigers and games against the Rabbits and Titans could be high scoring affairs with none of those teams showing any defensive instincts.

Sea Eagles: In pre-season this looked like the best draw of the lot. That was until the Bulldogs came out as the new best defensive side in SuperCoach. That makes the grand final a tough prospect, but the other three games are awesome.

Bulldogs: Only one ‘easy’ game, but thankfully no ‘hard’ ones on current form.

The Bad

Dolphins: The play three of the best defensive teams to finish the season. On current attacking form it might not slow them down, but it might.

Eels: Panthers, Roosters and Broncos in a row doesn’t get much harder. A grand final against the Dragons looks good but it may be hard to get there.

Raiders: The round 25 and 26 match-ups don’t get much harder, albeit the Sea Eagles and Cows games could be decent for scoring.

Warriors: Two ‘hard’ games isn’t ideal, but another side who could be matchup proof if they’re on song.

Cowboys: Broncos, Storm and a bye make them a very difficult team to be reliant on during this period.

RD 24-27 FINALS

The Good

Roosters: It simply doesn’t get any better than this. Four ‘easy’ ones for a side we know will be playing hard football at this time to finish as high up the ladder as possible.

Sharks: Two nice games against the Knights and Dragons precede slightly tougher ones against the Warriors and Sea Eagles.

Panthers: A tough opening encounter against the Storm is offset by through beauties. They may rest players in round 27 against the Titans if they can afford to but otherwise that’s a great grand final.

Dragons: Three ‘easy’ ones and a tougher one against their local rival the Sharks.

Knights: Should finish strongly against the Rabbits, Titans and Phins.

The Bad

Warriors: Bulldogs, Sharks and the bye in the Grand Final. It could be time to sell your Warriors stock now if this is your grand final.

Cowboys: Another side with a bye round at a bad time, plus the Bulldogs in the Grand Final. Far from ideal.

Dolphins: Three ‘hard’ ones to begin finals before the Knights in 27.

Raiders: Taking on the Panthers in finals is less than ideal. The Roosters aren’t much easier at the moment either. A grand final against the Dragons is OK but you’ve got to get there.

Broncos: A bye in the opening round of Finals is rough, as is a Grand Final against the Storm.

So there you have it. Hopefully this in-depth knowledge can help you in navigating your way through to glory in your league.