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Wh…wha? What happened? Robbo just woke up from an epic Thailand bender and he’s got the worst hangover of his life!! That last double espresso martini jager bomb red bull was pretty tough on the ole ticker, maybe Robbo should’ve called it a night after the sixteenth round. Geez it’s awful quiet across the hall in Warney’s room…
He’s probably fine. Get out the slide rules and sharpen the pencils Robbo fans, Robbo’s got work to do reviewing this 2022 draft!
In first round order:
CB Transport Truckers
Yawn. Nathan Cleary takes this team a hell of a long way, but it’s a bit of a snooze-fest from there. In between the old stagers, Coach Crubbs found some talent with real breakout potential like Stephen Crichton, Kobe Hetherington, and Xavier Savage. This team is a stay on 16, it’s the sensible move but it’s no blackjack.
Best Pick: Jordan Rapana R6 - 77
Worst Pick: Daniel Tupou R4 - 56
Value Pick: Jared Waerea-Hargreaves R11 -152
Make or Break: Alex Johnston R7 -91
Grade: C
Newcastle United Gunners
In the end an excellent Gunners draft from the consistent Coach Wini. Looked very wobbly early with misfires on Tohu and Chaddy, but recovered so well that Chaddy doesn’t even make the starting lineup. Papenhuyzen will need to stay fit and the Gunners will need to hit paydirt with Genko, the Sneeze, and Perrier Sparkling Water, but on paper this looks like a real contender.
Best Pick: Jeremy Marshall-King R8 - 113
Worst Pick: Chad Townsend R4 – 55
Value Pick: Reuben Cotter R12 - 155
Make or Break: Ryan Papenhuyzen R1 - 2
Grade: A
XIII
Passed up a goalkicker for Turbo, bold call and the right move. Kept passing on goalkickers until Wacko Jacko, shit call and the wrong move. Turbo is supported by a decent but not amazing core in Macca, Kez, Mofo, and DSaf, a couple of strike backs in Rava and Ronaldo, and some value down the draft. A well-balanced effort from the XIII with one major misstep.
Best Pick: Tom Trbojevic R1 - 3
Worst Pick: Jackson Hastings R7 - 94
Value Pick: Jai Arrow R6 - 80
Make or Break: Luke Keary R3 - 40
Grade: B
MacLaren’s Dingos
Red hot start from the Dingos but fell away rapidly leaving Robbo wondering where are the points gonna come from? Garry will kick a thousand goals, Munster’s got his head on straight, Frizz is a solid pick if a little early…and then the wheels fell off in classic Luke Brooks style. TPJ is a loose cannon, Aitken is a centre out of his depth in the forwards, Josh Papalii is well on the decline. Fortunately a little bit of value from Rudolf, Averillo, CT saves this from complete disaster.
Best Pick: Cameron Munster R2 - 25
Worst Pick: Euan Aitken R6 - 83
Value Pick: Toby Rudolf R10 - 136
Make or Break: Tevita Pangai Junior R5 - 58
Grade: D
London Werewolves
Poor little Aurora, favourite for next sacko baby after this schemozzle of a draft. Traded up to massively over-draft Latrell, steadied with Murray and Hughes… and that must be where Coach Shanks research ended for 2022. Klemmer has long since gone soft, Ken is at the Tigers now and going MIA to lose grand finals, and Big Marty’s got a real bad back. Will Kennedy is a young talent, Dylan Brown is good but unreliable, but they’ll be out of contention by the time Fog returns. The best thing you can say about the rest of this draft is that it’s over now.
Best Pick: William Kennedy R7 - 92
Worst Pick: Ken Maumalo R5 - 63
Value Pick: Jahrome Hughes R3 - 38
Make or Break: AJ Brimson R9 - 121
Grade: F
Liddle Rams
Huge improvement from the wildcard Swinging Richards of 2021, Coach Bryce-o held it together through 16 rounds before his astonishing final round pass left coaches flipping through the rulebooks. Strong core with value found early as Nofo, Charnze, Browny, and Gags all fell too far, some decent long shots taken late in the draft, the only black mark being Bradman Best the walking injury, this was an impressive effort in a comeback year.
Best Pick: Charnze Nicoll-Kolkstad R5 - 65
Worst Pick: Bradman Best R8 - 107
Value Pick: Dane Gagai R 7 – 90
Make or Break: Liam Martin R9 - 126
Grade: B
Oxford United Boxes
Trademark draft from the boxes, establishing a solid core of PMs and forwards with goalkicking depth before even thinking about the backline. Robbo writes the same thing every year for the Boxes, they’ll make the finals with a strong team but where’s the strike power to get them through the big one?
Best Pick: Stefano Utoikamanu R8 - 108
Worst Pick: Brian Kelly R9 - 116
Value Pick: Brandon Smith R4 - 50
Make or Break: Tesi Niu R7 - 89
Grade: B
Punters
The strongest start to a draft the Punters have made in years, went back to the well a couple times too many, but gave it a decent shot and might even have found some late value. Strapped ‘em on the first bold pick of their XRL career to take Teddy in the first round, Reedy is up there with the best PMs, Cliffy looks good, Staggs looks like finally living up to the hype, and Reece Walsh completes a core with stellar strike power. Kikau and Luciano are big misses, but Foxx, Tapine, Verrills, Finucane, and Cotric get things back on track with 5 rounds of quality picks, a rare feat for the Punters but the second time they executed it this draft alone. The fresh Tassie air is doing wonders for this team.
Best Pick: James Tedesco R1 - 8
Worst Pick: Viliame Kikau R6 - 79
Value Pick: Dale Finucane R11 - 153
Make or Break: Kotoni Staggs R4 - 49
Grade: B
Downtown Druggies
With Coach Shazman back from London and meeting Co-Coach Karlo face-to-face for the first time, team cohesion was at an all-time high going into this draft, and whilst it wasn’t perfect there is a lot to like in this draft. Cherry was the right move but Johnson probably wasn’t, some strong picks completed an impressive core with great value found in Jayden Campbell and Josh Curran. Base points and strike combined from all phases of this draft, and the Co-Coaches found some rare stamina to take Keaon K, Sami, CHN, and Su’a as the draft wore on, giving this team positional balance.
Best Pick: Josh Curran R6 - 81
Worst Pick: Herbie Farnworth R7 - 95
Value Pick: Phillip Sami R9 - 122
Make or Break: Jayden Campbell R5 - 60
Grade: B
Rocket Scientists
What an interesting mix of great picks, decent if unremarkable picks, and real head-scratchers. Nicho Hynes was a good get at 10, Isaiah Papalii probably just keeps getting better…but then Jesse Ramien in the third round? Really? Even if he is that great, no one was taking him for another two rounds. Rox might want to check Patty Carrigan’s performances last year pre-ACL too, but it’s all reasonable enough down the draft from there. The backline is completely dependant on tries but should score a few, it’s not a bad team overall, but honestly some of these guys Robbo has never even heard of.
Best Pick: Isaiah Papalii R2 - 19
Worst Pick: Jesse Ramien R3 - 33
Value Pick: Charlie Staines R16 - 221
Make or Break: Hudson Young R6 - 73
Grade: D
Miami Monsters
A brave draft that paid off when Valentine Holmes fell to them in the sixth, the Monsters assembled one of the top cores in the league with To’o a pointscoring machine, and Haas, McInnes, and JDB ready to return to the top echelon. This draft was nearly a home run before a series of underwhelming picks left their second half well short of the morning’s highs. Base points and strike power won’t be an issue, but depth might.
Best Pick: Jack de Belin R4 - 46
Worst Pick: Brad Schneider R10 - 129
Value Pick: Valentine Holmes R6 - 84
Make or Break: Josh Hodgson R5 - 67
Grade: B
Coal Miners
A well-crafted balanced draft, this team should do well with plenty of strike power on a solid platform. Not a lot of mistakes here, the Sexman could be a revelation, Ponga went cheap, Edwards is solid, and Lolo and Matterson went cheap for their potential. Laurie and Dufty bring the strike, if the Miners have dug up some gems in Suaalii and Naden it’s a killer backline and this team could go far.
Best Pick: Ryan Matterson R5 - 59
Worst Pick: Josh Mansour R11 - 184
Value Pick: Kalyn Ponga R2 - 17
Make or Break: Toby Sexton R1 - 12
Grade: A
Bondi Wet Sox
Heavy is the head that wears the crown, and the Tri-Premiers showed the strain with a risky draft to defend their record-breaking title. Heavy on the strike power but a very strong core, the Wet Sox struggled to address positional balance and basically gave up on the forward pack as the draft progressed. Momo will kick 110 goals, Gutho always gets it done, and Bunt and Fish will lay the platform for Sloan, Cody, and the Hammer to race in plenty of points. Scratchy from there, the Sox took some too-long shots in Croker, Taaffe, and Flanagan late when there was still quality out there, this team will need the chips to fall just right in the chase for the mythical Quad.
Best Pick: Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow R7 - 86
Worst Pick: Tyrone Peachey R9 - 125
Value Pick: Cody Walker R6 - 72
Make or Break: Tyrell Sloan R5 - 69
Grade: B
Coolangatta Cougars
A masterful draft from the old lions, the silver heads played the turn of the first and second rounds to perfection, took an underrated goalkicker, and kept the hits coming down the draft. Cook and Fifita will outscore many first/second round pairings, Fifita in particular a massive steal, and the Cougars got a senior citizens discount for Lomax in the third round. AFB, Tino, Bird, Wighton, Coates, this team could end up the envy of the draft with base points and strike power to spare. Found value throughout before an early bedtime saw the geriatrics duff the final round, nodding off early mattered little as the wise ones showed the whippersnappers a thing or two about how things used to be.
Best Pick: Zac Lomax R3 - 29
Worst Pick: Reimis Smith R11 - 149
Value Pick: David Fifita R2 - 15
Make or Break: Tino Fa’asuamaleaui R5 - 67
Grade: A