NRL Tips – Round 8, 2019

The big news of the last couple of days is that Kodi Nikorima is set to leave the Broncos and join the Warriors. Those of us who are Broncos fans are pretty happy about it, although I’d be happier if we were getting one of the Warriors’ three halves in return and not blooding an eighteen year old in his place. A bit of experience combined with some competence (*ahem*Blake Green) wouldn’t go astray at the moment.

If you’re wondering what Nikorima’s regular season PPG/all season WARG slashline looks like:

2015: 17 games, PPG .064, WARG -0.1
2016: 16 games, PPG .069, WARG 0.0
2017: 16 games, PPG .084, WARG +0.1
2018: 23 games, PPG .085, WARG +0.2
2019: 7 games, PPG .087

Those numbers suggest that he’s fine at what he does, and indeed improving, but he won’t be challenging for a place in the Hall of Fame. I wouldn’t have thought he was even rep material based on his slashline but he is New Zealand’s starting halfback, a position I think he will struggle to hold with the rise of Chanel Harris-Tavita.

That said, he was on a relatively low salary so represented value for money for Brisbane. He would struggle to find a contract under a points-based cap system. Whether he brings that value to Auckland at twice the price for the next three years remains to be seen.

Here are the tips for this weekend’s action: