The 2019 Initial Draft is hands down the biggest day of the year. We all spend the preceding weeks or months preparing to make sure that we don’t do something stupid (like pick Mafi before the 16th round)!

The Snake Draft order was decided during the Australian Domestic Cricket Big Bash competition on the 7th of February when the Hurricanes took on the Renegades. Whoever’s randomly allocated batsman scored the most runs would get the first pick. The Snake Draft means we pick 1st to 8th, then 8th to 1st, 1st to 8th and so on until we complete our full team of 23 players. The results looked like this:

Draft Pick	Manager	Batsman	Runs
1st	Wylie	Wade	58 Runs
2nd	Blake	Cooper	44 Runs
3rd	Cargie	McDermott	39 Runs
4th	Larry	Finch	35 Runs
5th	Nsync	Short	28 Runs
6th	Nabung	Harper	20 Runs
7th	Nelson	Jewell	4 Runs
8th	Harry	Harris	3 Runs

The Draft Picks

23 Man Teams

Initial OG Draft Highlights:

Best 1st Round Pick: Akira Ioane – No one expected him to go at 3rd pick, but with a drop of 7.8 points to the next ranked player Pablo Matera. He could prove to be of insane value. The reason he went under the radar; injury to Jean-Luc Du Preez and Mafi’s court case means his value over the rest of the field was maximised.
Worst 1st Round Pick: Ardie Savea – it’s always hard taking the 8th pick but Savea was ranked 27th on overall averages last year. He is going to need a big year to pay off.
Biggest Balls up: Amanaki Mafi – Somehow he went in the 2nd round as the 12th overall pick. Apparently his name being splattered all over the news for three months straight wasn’t enough for this Draft battler to catch on. To be fair, Nsync hasn’t played Draft since 2016, and he spends most of his time watching Rugby League. So even if he did know about Mafi’s court case, it’d be nothing unusual for the players he has grown up supporting.
Value Pick (Snuck through late): Warrick Gellant – picked at 44th, in the 6th round despite averaging 45.4 points in 2018 (which put at 15th overall). The only thing that could let him down now is a bad case of second season syndrome.
Most predictable: Malcolm Marx – he is just so far ahead of the chasing pack, 16.8 points per game to the second placed hooker to be exact. This makes him even more valuable than his main competition of McKenzie and Mo’unga who had 1.6 and 0.1 point higher averages respectively.
Best Smokie: Josh Ioane (62nd overall, 10.6 points average from 8 games). What do you do if you can’t get Reiko Ioane? Pick the unproven Josh of course! He may be locked in a battle with Banks and Gatland for the starting fly-half jersey, but if his 80 minutes in round 1 is anything to go by he could be an absolute find!
Best Sub: Bongi Mbonambi (4th ranked hooker, 32.4 point average). Clearly his injury for the bulk of 2018 scared off a lot of his potential managers, but we would have thought his undeniable talent would have definitely had him higher up peoples list then what he was!

Average Points Value per team ranked 1-8

Looking at the full squad of 23 we found the total value of each team from 2018’s stats to see who should be favourite this year.
(Note all new players were given the score of the VOLP or an average sub if they wont start games)

1st = 6th pick Nabung 705.9 point average
2nd = 1st pick Wylie 696 point average
3rd = 4th pick Larry 690.4 point average
4th = 7th pick Nelson 679.5 point average
5th = 8th pick Harry 672.4 point average
6th = 2nd pick Blake 659.7 point average
7th = 5th pick Nsync 638.3 point average
8th = 3rd pick Cargie 579.4 point average

Our picks as per the Pick order was:

Good luck with your 2019 picks, here is our full 2018 draft order, hopefully it might give you some insight into how Rugby Union Super Nerds might draft.

#	Actual Pick
1	Malcom Marx
2	Richie Mo’unga
3	Akira Ioane
4	Damian McKenzie
5	Brodie Retallick
6	Israel Folau
7	Reiko Ioane
8	Ardie Savea
9	Damian Willemse
10	Anton Lienert-Brown
11	George Bridge
12	Amanaki Mafi
13	Waisake Naholo
14	Ben Lam
15	Pieter Steph-Du Toit
16	Ngani Laumape
17	Lodewyk De Jager
18	Samu Kerevi
19	Manasa Mataele
20	Ricky Riccitelli
21	Michael Little
22	Jack Goodhue
23	Solomon Alaimalo
24	Pablo Matera
25	Andre Esterheizen
26	Armand van der Merwe
27	David Pocock
28	Duane Vermeulen
29	Jesse Kriel
30	Dane Coles
31	Aphiwe Dyantyi
32	Damian de Allende
33	Marnus. Schoeman
34	Rob Thompson
35	Eben Etzebeth
36	Jeff Toomaga-Allen
37	Jordie Barrett
38	Codie Taylor
39	Kwagga Smith
40	Folau Fainga’a
41	Jeronimo de la Fuente
42	Luke Jones
43	Lukhanyo Am
44	Warrick Gellant
45	Tyler Ardron
46	Taniela Tupou
47	Steven Kitsoff
48	Beauden Barrett
49	Dan Du Preez
50	Luke Whitelock
51	Michael Hooper
52	Isi Naisarani
53	Handre Pollard
54	Bernard Foley
55	Robert Valetini
56	Tom Banks
57	Guido Petti
58	Robert du Peez
59	TJ Perenara
60	Will Genia
61	Curtis Rona
62	Josh Ioane
63	James Parsons
64	Ben Smith
65	Toni Pulu
66	Emiliano Boffelli
67	Tevita Kurindrani
68	Joe Powell
69	Henry Speight
70	Jackson Hemopo
71	Ramiro Moyano
72	Marvin Orie
73	Melani Nanai
74	Bill Meakes
75	Caleb Timu
76	Nathan Harris
77	Warren Whiteley
78	Matt Phillip
79	Tendai Mtawarira
80	Matt Todd
81	Patrick Tuipulotu
82	Shaun Steverson
83	Etene Nanai-Seturo
84	Scott Barrett
85	Pari-Pari Parkinson
86	Sekope Kepu
87	Makazole Mapimpi
88	SP Marais
89	Dalton Papali’i
90	Jordan Taufua
91	Jack Dempsey
92	Tetra Faulkner
93	Ruhan Nel
94	Ma’a Nonu
95	Sia Kolisi
96	Andries Coetzee
97	Thomas Du toit
98	David Havili
99	Whetu Douglas
100	Dane Haylett-Petty
101	Adam Ashley Cooper
102	JD Schickerling
103	Otago Desio
104	Augustine Pulu
105	Dylan Smith
106	Jason Jenkins
107	Craig Millar
108	Quad Cooper
109	Lauchlan McCaffrey
110	Allan Alaalatoa
111	Gareth Evans
112	Wilco Louw
113	Angus Cottrell
114	Ryan Crotty
115	Jake Gordon
116	Tyrel Lomax
117	James Slipper
118	Tevita Li
119	Bryn Hall
120	Kieran Read
121	Bongi Mbonambi
122	Kurtley Beale
123	Grant Hattingh
124	Sam Whitelock
125	Brandon Paenga-Amosa
126	J Petiaia
127	Coenie Oosthuizen
128	Elton Jantjies
129	Jack Maddocks
130	Louis Schreuder
131	Tyler Paul
132	Batista Delguy
133	Lachlan Boshier
134	Agustin Creevy
135	Jean-Pierre Smith
136	Vince Aso
137	Gonzalo Bertranou
138	Jed Holloway
139	Richard Hardwick
140	Rahboni Warren-Vosayaco
141	Hayden Parker
142	Hendrik Tui
143	Andrew Makalio
144	Brad Weber
145	Ned Hanigan
146	Christian Lealiifano
147	Jordan Uelese
148	Marcos Kremer
149	Embrose Papier
150	Matt Proctor
151	Nyakane
152	Vaea Fifita
153	Tei Walden
154	Otere Black
155	Dillyn Leyds
156	Sonny Bill Williams
157	Bailyn Sullivan
158	Aaron Smith
159	Liam Squire
160	Owen Franks
161	Nick Groom
162	Sam Carter
163	Bryce Hegarty
164	Blake Gibson
165	Nehne Milne-Skudder
166	Diaz Bonilla
167	Liam Coltman
168	Bryn Gatland
169	Harry Johnson-Holmes
170	Chris Eves
171	Ofa Tumungafasi
172	Anaru Rangi
173	Jano Vermaak
174	Atu Moli
175	Adam Coleman
176	Tom English
177	Damien Fitzpatrick
178	Mitchel Drummond
179	Rene Ranger
180	Angus Taavao-Matau
181	Joe Moody
182	Ross Cronje
183	TTT
184	Toby Smith

Written by Harrison Dale.