NRL Supercoach cheapie analysis: Forward bargain buys

Ben Ioehu become a shout? Does he become relevant now with the injury to Cheese. Robson out for a set amount of time. Similar price, doesn’t result in you having to blow up your team to find the extra 100-150k to go to a Mahoney/Hayward?

All Supercoaches know the secret to early success is nailing your cheapies.



It’s not everything, but it’s vitally important.



Not necessarily from a points perspective as you’ll largely sit them outside your starting 18, but certainly from a perspective of saving early trades.



If you start the wrong cheapies, you’ll inevitably be trading them by round 3 – the first price rises of the season – for the ones you’ve missed.



Nail them and you’ll be sitting pretty watching them bank cash while others scramble to get them.



Further, it allows you to focus early trades on other areas of your team that may require patching up.





I’ve gone through and ranked the best cheapies in order for round 1, separating the rankings into two articles, backs and forwards.



It goes without saying, but the first major team list Tuesday of the season will be very telling and shake up this order.



While I could rattle off another 30 players, the reality is that anyone not on this list is probably irrelevant to begin the season, pending TLT.



I’ve considered a cheapie as any player under $350k, factoring in everything from price, to job security to scoring potential.



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<h2 class="wp-block-heading">FORWARD CHEAPIE RANKINGS</h2>



1. Josh Patston I $275,000 I 2RF



Patston is the front-runner to start on the edge for Titans which would make him an absolute lock for round 1 as a potential 80 minute man.



I&#8217;m surprised he&#8217;s owned by just 25% of coaches as it stands.



Job security will be an issue like all cheapies, but provided he retains the starting role he’ll make big coin.



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2. Jesse Colquhoun I $332,500 I 2RF-FRF



Colquhoun recently re-signed long-term for the Sharks who reportedly fought off plenty of interest from rivals, signalling their belief in him.



He’s priced on a 34 point average from 31 minutes per game.



In games over 35+ minutes he averaged 46.2 points and an excellent 42.8 in base stats.



An uptick in minutes to say 45+ would see him make some decent money, 50+ would make him one of the better cash cows early on in the season.



With Cam McInnes unavailable to start the season he should get extended minutes.



Huge TLT watch for me.



3. Ativalu Lisati I $269,400 I 2RF or Joe Chan I $309,900 I 2RF 



Lisati burst onto the scene last season in a bench role for the Storm.



With Eli Katoa out for the season, Nelson Asofa-Solomona departed and Trent Loiero suspended for the first two games, minutes should be there for him to evolve into a starter in 2026.



He’s battling with Joe Chan for a spot, while Shawn Blore hasn’t been sighted this pre-season and isn&#8217;t expected back until at least round 2.



The back-row is a significant TLT watch!



I&#8217;d prefer Lisati, but both will be tempting despite a concern over minutes.



People are going cold on Lisati, currently owned by 37%, but he&#8217;s a bargain at $269k with likely big minutes early that could continue long-term.



Further, he&#8217;s a strong Supercoach scorer and will be a serious play in starting teams each week provided he&#8217;s starting.



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4. Taniela Paseka I $328,600 I FRF



Paseka looms as a very popular bench FRF option to begin the season after playing just three games through injury in 2025.



With his price reduction from limited games he starts at just $328k.



In 2024 he averaged a reasonable 45 points per game, and a very healthy 54 points per game in 2023.



Returning from a lengthy injury I think he’ll be a slow burn in cash that’d be a risky play in 17s each week, but as a plug at third FRF I like his cash generation potential.



Manly look fairly light through the middle this year so I suspect he’ll build his minutes as match fitness returns.



As it does, he’ll provide a serviceable starting FRF option when needed before cashing in at his peak.



5. Brandon Smith I $235,600 I HOK



Cheese starts cheap at $235k and should earn some good money in what will likely be a 50-60 minute role for the Rabbitohs.



It appears he may have jumped Peter Mamouzelos as the starting hooker for South Sydney, making him a lock and load for round 1 and a potential playing option.



Smith may not score as well as some players below, but he has great job security and is near bottom dollar.



Update: Smith will miss the opening stages of the season, returning either in round 3 or round 5 after their bye. It&#8217;s an awkward time frame, with very few cheapie hooking options available you could still start him, but what minutes will he see on return? I&#8217;m tempted to chase a cash cow hooker elsewhere, then downgrade to Smith prior to his first price rise. He was ranked number two before the injury.



6. Bailey Hayward I $343,900 I HOK



Hayward earnt the big minute hooking role late in 2025 as the likely successor to the outgoing Reed Mahoney.



He looks a decent reserve HOK to begin the season, although I do feel a Smith/gun combo is a the play early.



The concern on last year’s numbers though was that his starting output wasn’t great.



He’s priced on a 35 point average, but managed just 38 points per game starting at 9.



He does benefit with additional tackles under the new stats system which helps.



He averaged 55 minutes per game last season, I&#8217;d expect this to rise to 65-80 to begin 2026.



Update: I don&#8217;t think Hayward will necessarily rise more in cash than Bai or Flegler, but the injury to Cheese sees Hayward as the next best cheapie hooker, increasing his relevance



7. Cooper Bai I $235,600 I 2RF



I suspect Cooper Bai will be an excellent cheapie this season, but it may take some time.



With Jaimin Joliffe out for the season it could see Tino Fa’asuamaleaui shift to prop.



Regardless, there’s minutes to open up and Bai is highly regarded by the club.



Round 1 team lists will be fairly telling, but I suspect he’ll be eased into action off the bench, I’m just very unsure of his minutes early on.



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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">Tom Fleger was impressive in his first NRL game back in 677 days 🔥 Where will he play in 2026 for the Dolphins? 🐬<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/nrl?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#nrl</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/nrlsupercoach?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#nrlsupercoach</a> <a href="https://t.co/SAEYrFuByj">pic.twitter.com/SAEYrFuByj</a>&mdash; SC Playbook I Supercoach NRL (@scplaybook1) <a href="https://twitter.com/scplaybook1/status/2023550609094484175?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 17, 2026</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
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8. Thomas Flegler I $346,200 I FRF



I loved what I saw from Tommy Flegler on return from a two year lay-off, he dead set didn’t look like he’d missed a beat.



I’m wary early on as I feel from the lengthy lay-off, coupled with a STACKED Dolphins pack, he’ll be eased into bigger game time.



I can see why you’d start with him, and there’s a world where people are flocking to grab him in round 3 prior to price rises, but I’ll likely be waiting.



I feel as he peaks in game time he could be ripe for picking at a similar price come round 6 or 7.



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9. Ryan Couchman I $235,600 I 2RF



I have a funny feeling that Ryan Couchman is flying under the radar a little on the cheapie front.



The cheapie crop for round 1 looks pretty decent, especially at 2RF, otherwise I’d be happy enough to start him as a slow burn cash cow.



Minutes will be the issue at the Dragons, but he gets through plenty of work and appears to be a favourite of Shane Flanagan.



10. Siminone Laiafi I $201,400 I FRF



The rookie Manly bopper will be fighting for a round 1 bench spot after reportedly flying throughout the pre-season.



Unlikely to feature in Supercoach relevance early, but he’s a huge watch early in the season.



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<h2 class="wp-block-heading">WATCHLIST: On the fringe</h2>



Brendan Piakura I $305,300 I 2RF



I feel like we have the Piakura chat every pre-season, and typically it ends in disappointment.



Mixed form and injury saw the Broncos back-rower average just 31 points last season.



The reality is though if you can get a premiership winning forward, playing 80 minutes on the edge with attacking upside at $300k, it’s a pretty hard case to ignore.



Head knocks and injuries are always the concern, but he doesn’t have to start in your team at all which takes away some of the risk.



He’s priced on a 31 point average from 52 minutes per game, in nine games over 60 minutes last season he averaged 43.4 points per game.



At the price I’ll find him very hard to ignore barring a plethora of 2RF cheapies emerging.



He would be far higher up this least but a pre-season injury concern has him in doubt for one, making him an early season watch only.



Blake Mozer I $216,800 I HOK



As it stands Mozer probably doesn’t make the 17, but he is touted as their future number 9 and he’s been waiting in the wings for a while now as he develops his game.



Walters is injured, so if anything happens to Ben Hunt or either of the halves he could catapult into the starting 9 role ahead of Cory Paix which would make him a round 1 must.



Benjamin Te Kura I $235,600 I FRF



Te Kura may be a beneficiary out of Kobe Hetherington’s departure, although Ben Talty and Aublix Tawha may have leap-frogged him in the pecking order.



The Manly-bound forward averaged a healthy 42 minutes per game last season, and somebody will need to fill the void.



Te Kura scored at a strong 1.15 points per minute in just 17 minutes per game last season, and 1.38 points per minute in 21 minutes per game in 2024.



If he can elevate his minutes to say 30+ he’ll likely be a nice slow-burning cash cow to plug in your FRF reserves.



If any Broncos middles went down injured it’d make Te Kura more viable should more game time open up.



A watch for now…



Jack Hetherington I $235,600 I 2RF-FRF



Hetherington likely needs an injury or two in order to inflate minutes, but with key middles leaving the club he could earn some decent game time.



Kurtis Morrin I $260,400 I 2RF-FRF



Morrin is another who likely needs an injury or two to get enough minutes to make him relevant at the Titans.



James Walsh I $201,400 I 2RF-CTW



Unfortunately, James Walsh picked up a season-ending ACL injury during the pre-season.



Without breaking out into another full scale article on strategy, the six man bench introduction makes auto-emergency players on the fringe of starting squads very risky.



As such, if you want a good ole fashioned ‘nuff’ to start the season, you want someone who has no chance of featuring on that six man bench.



Which unfortunately leads to injured players, and Walsh is that man.



He is dual position, bottom dollar and won’t feature this year oddly making him extremely relevant to round 1 teams.

NRL Supercoach cheapie analysis: Forward bargain buys

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