The WFB savior?
Tyrell Sloan has been thrust into leading contention for the starting fullback role at the Dragons after Cody Ramsey is struggling to recover following a ulcerative colitis diagnosis in November. With reports indicating he won’t be back for the early part of the season, is Sloan the cheapie WFB to save us?
Priced at close to basement price (250k) and with a starting spot in the 13, Tyrell Sloan should be at worst a slow burn money maker and some good break glass cover in the EMG’s. The problem is Tyrell is like the ALDI version of Tom Trapjevic in the way he scores points which is heavily reliant attacking plays and not base. In a team filled with offseason disruption due to injury and off field indiscretions, they are an injury to Ben Hunt away from being destined for the bottom 4, where attacking points are scarce in the doldrums of the NRL.
With nine 80min appearances at fullback across two years in the NRL as well fourteen appearances in NSW Cup, we have a decent sample of who Tyrell Sloan is:
| Base | Attacking | Demerits | TSR% | TA% | Average | |
| NRL (9 games) | 21 | 20 | -9 | 78% | 44% | 32 |
| NSW Cup (14 games) | 19 | 25 | -8 | 79% | 86% | 36 |
This isn’t positive reading for a young player in a potentially terrible team. Essentially what this means is that Tyrell Sloan is a very volatile fantasy scorer reminiscent of a player like Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow. With a floor of 4 and a ceiling of 83 thus far in his career, if he doesn’t score a try or set one up he will likely score in the range of single digits to the high teens. Of course even with a try Sloan is no guarantee for a solid score. In two separate games Sloan has scored a try and posted a score of 9 in round 20 2021 and 13 in round 2 last season. It’s important to note that both those disappointing scores came against the cream of the crop with Souths in 2021 and Penrith last year. The opposite side to this coin is Sloan is undoubtedly a dynamic attacking talent who can bust a game open and post 40+ scores. The case for optimism here is that after their round 1 bye, the Dragons only face two of last years top 7 teams before round 11, providing plenty of opportunity for Sloan to hit his “boom” game and hopefully offset any land mines.
Given Sloan’s ability to rack up demerits and reliance on tries doesn’t fill us with confidence but hopefully with another full preseason he’s improved his defensive game which could result in a reduction in missed tackles from 2.89pg to 1.5pg which would be a around a 4pt swing and beef up his base a little more as highlighted with Jayden Campbell. The bar isn’t set very high for Tyrell Sloan with a break even of only 17 and he certainly isn’t a player you want in your 17 (though may be the perfect loop option). Due to his volatility he likely isn’t going to be an amazing cash cow but he is priced low enough to eliminate a large amount of risk. BUY.
INTERN AUSTIN
Amateurs Fantasy Sports 