There is plenty up in the air with the 5/8 position this season, so rankings could easily change before TLT.
Five-Eight Rankings
1. Cameron Munster
The big daddy in the 5/8 position. Coming off an average of 70 in 2025 (and 62, 71, 81 & 74 in previous seasons) Munny is your safest bet. With 5 scores of 90+, he has the ability to go large with the added benefit of an elite scoring floor for a half – shown by his low score of 41 in 2025. His coefficient of variance rivals that of forwards, let alone halves.
Projected AVG 68-72 – Overall Pick 25-30
2. Fletcher Sharpe
A real ballsy pick here ranking him at #2 after a breakout season in 2025 and no confirmed position for 2026. We expect him to feature on the left wing – an edge which likely includes Dylan Brown, Dylan Lucas & Bradman Best. Talk about stacked. The Knights can’t be any worse than they were last year and Sharpe is just a genuine footballer. I am confident he makes the position his own. If he does start at CTW as predicted, he will also get dual status which is incredibly valuable in Supercoach Draft.
Projected AVG 62-67 – Overall Pick 45-55
3. Daly Cherry-Evans
Daly Cherry-Evans finds himself at a new club in 2026 – the Sydney Roosters. We have the Roosters as a huge chance of Top 4 this season which bodes well for his output. Unfortunately, he does lose wrecking ball Haumole Olakau’atu off his right hip – so all things considered a similar average should be achievable.
Projected AVG 62-67 – Overall Pick 45-55
4. Blaize Talagi
Blaize averaged an impressive 59 points in his debut season at Penrith. Coming into the side in Round 6, he made the position his own and continued to improve throughout the year. We are tipping Penrith to bounce back this year, and Blaize Talagi should be a beneficiary of that.
Projected AVG 60-65 – Overall Pick 60-70
5. Ethan Strange
This is a write up I deliberated over for a long time. On one hand, Ethan Strange improved as the year went on, leveraging his strong running game with smart ballplaying on an edge featuring Hudson Young. He averaged 62 for the season, however he did start 2025 quite slowly. From Round 14 onwards, he averaged an incredible 78.4 as his Raiders came away with the minor premiership. An average anywhere close to this likely has him as the highest averaging 5/8 in 2026. Now for the negatives. The Raiders miss Round 26 (likely most comps GF) as well as only having 1 bye during the Origin rounds. This means he has the worst finals schedule and a less than ideal bye schedule for draft. On top of this, the Raiders are expected to regress and we are tipping them to finish 7-10th.
Projected AVG 60-65 – Overall Pick 60-70
6. Ezra Mam
Ezra Mam averaged 60 in 2025, which is a decent increase on his historical averages. This also included an injury affected game of 1 in 21 minutes. Despite an impressive 2025, he has never been overly Supercoach relevant, however the Broncos will be the team to beat in 2026 and anyone playing with Reece Walsh is a chance of some serious high scores. Not someone you need to reach for, and should represent value later in the draft.
Projected AVG 55-60 – Overall Pick 80-90
7. Matt Burton
The Draught Sports team are all fairly low on Matt Burton this season from a Supercoach perspective. He has the pedigree and has 2 season averages in the high 60s, but we expect Stephen Crichton to continue goalkicking which is detrimental to Burton’s draft stocks. An average of 57 in 2025 which included 8 games kicking goals isn’t anything overly exciting. The caveat here is – if he does win the goal kicking he would shoot up to an expected average of 62-65 which is far more desirable.
Projected AVG 52-57 – Overall Pick 90-100
8. Cody Walker
Another really tough position to pick. Cody Walker has had seasons of huge relevance – most notably averaging 84 in 2021 and 69 in 2023. Outside of these seasons, he boasts averages of 57 in 2022, 57 in 2024 and 41 in 2025. Injuries have really dented his appeal and he isn’t getting any younger. It remains to be seen whether his body is able to last a full season of NRL footy. Unfortunately, Cody Walker is copping a fair injury tax here and is further down the list than we would usually have him.
Projected AVG 52-57 – Overall Pick 90-100
9. AJ Brimson
AJ Brimson spent 10 games at #6 last season for an average of 51.4. This run included a whopping 7 tries which is very underwhelming all things considered. The Titans do throw the ball around and look to score points but you need to be prepared for potential sub 30 scores if he doesn’t cross the white stripe. If anything were to happen to Kini and he moves to Fullback, he becomes more appealing.
Projected AVG 50-55 – Overall Pick 95-105
10. Sandon Smith
Sandon Smith is expected to win the #7 jersey for the Knights as well as taking on goalkicking duties. Smith averaged a solid 52 at the Roosters in 2025 – obviously in a better team than the Knights – however this included games of 7, 27 and 55 minutes. If he is not kicking goals, I have less than zero interest owning him.
Projected AVG 50-55 – Overall Pick 95-105
Smokey – Cody Walker
We know what Cody Walker is capable of if he can stay fit. Unfortunately, multiple injuries in 2025 has me very pessimistic about his chances of getting through a season unscathed. However, if he is able to do so, he will be on an edge featuring David Fifita, Latrell Mitchell, and Alex Johnston vying for the NRL tryscoring record. He won’t have to do much to rack up points passing to those big units. Historically speaking, Cody Walker doesn’t like to use his back rower much. With David Fifita playing outside him, that must change. One for the risk takers!
Avoid – Kodi Nikorima
Nikorima averaged 61 in 2025 and therefore features quite highly in pre-draft lists. On top of this, the Dolphins scored a ridiculous amount of points last season and it is hard to imagine they can do so again. For these reasons, I expect Nikorima to be drafted at a way higher spot than he should be and therefore represents poor value in this position. He is also a chance at not making the 13 with rumours Jake Averillo will play #6 to accommodate Hamiso Tabui-Fidow and Trai Fuller in the run on side.
Positional Strategy
This isn’t a position that I would like to prioritise on draft day. If someone like Munster or Sharpe are still available when they shouldn’t be, I am happy to pounce. Outside of this scenario, I would much prefer to leave my 5/8 choice to the latter rounds. We are predicting around 10 point variance between high picks such as Talagi and value picks late on such as Cody Walker. I would prefer to fill my team with tougher positions like CTW, 2RF and FRF in the early rounds and then look to get some value late on from a lower tier pick.
Let me know in the comments whether you agree or disagree with my rankings.
