Small punchy headline
Taane Milne is flying under the radar in NRL Fantasy with only 0.4% ownership – owing largely to his 6-week suspension which he picked up for a swinging arm against Spencer Leniu in the 2022 Preliminary Final. However, due to the RLWC loophole – Milne was able to serve all but one of these games due to Fiji making the quarter finals of the competition – meaning that he will be re-eligible for selection in R2 of 2023 (i.e. only missing one match).
His suspension is awkward for your initial team selection as Izack Thompson will likely have first crack at the wing spot in R1 – and there is no guarantee Milne returns to the side. However we fully expect him to win back his position which he excelled at in 2022.
Milne is your prototypical Fantasy relevant winger. He is a big body (pushing 100 kegs) who takes a lot of carries in a quality side (the Amateurs project the Rabbits to knock on the door of the top 4, coming 5th/6th in 2023 and slightly improve on their 7th position in 2022).
Milne played a total of 22 games for the Rabbits last year (including three finals appearances), which can be broken down as follows:
- Right Wing – 11 games – 31.1 avg
- Right Centre – 4 games – 18.8 avg
- Left Centre – 5 games – 23.4 avg
- Interchange – 2 games – 10.5 avg
Taane Milne averaged 31.1 in his 2022 starts on the right wing. If we exclude his injury-affected 6-point game in 27 minutes in R11 (where he failed an HIA) and the Preliminary Final where he was sent off (3 points in 63 minutes), (i.e. games where he plays over 65 minutes) you can push this average up to 40.5.
In these games, his base stats were 19 points (including 5.9 tackles and 132.1 run metres per metres). This represents a fairly low floor for a fantasy scorer (like most actual wingers). As we know, he’s no stranger to a very low score (including scores of 7, 6, -1, and 9) and/or a brain explosion (including the hit on Leniu and a sin-bin in R7). Perhaps these indiscretions are just part of his base?
But these stats must be read against his undeniable attacking prowess on the right side – which is impressive considering he’s competing for attention with notable try-scorers and game-breakers, Alex Johnston and Latrell Mitchell. As an attacker, Taane Milne loved a brace – scoring 2 tries on 4 separate occasions. Applying the same filter above, he averaged nearly 3 tackle busts, 1.25 line breaks, and 0.88 offloads to hand per game.
Milne is priced at 363k or 25.4 points, partly due to the aforementioned low scores and a couple of starts off the pine in 2022. We think that he’s potentially undervalued between 6-11 points (or 90k-160k) based on our current range of projections (between 31-36 points).
We appreciate the lack of job security makes starting with Milne a risky proposition, but it might be a risk that pays off for you. As set out in our Game Theory article, one area where you may want to take increased risks is with DPP players, or players that are on the fence in terms of value. We recommend you proceed with optimistic caution.
AMATEUR (IRREGULAR) ROB
Amateurs Fantasy Sports 