Red Dot Finder

The cheapest way to buy a loop. Round 23.

What's a loop, and why buy a red dot?

A red dot is a player who won't score this round — injured, dropped, not named, or on a bye. Sitting on your bench he's not dead weight: he's the hole a loop runs through. Because he scores nothing, an emergency's score gets promoted into his slot, so a bench player you'd otherwise waste ends up counting.

What makes a red dot good has nothing to do with his points. It's how long the hole stays open. You can only move a player before his own game kicks off, so a red dot whose team plays the last game of the round leaves you the whole weekend to see who scores. A red dot whose team has the bye is better still — he has no kickoff at all, so the hole never shuts.

That's why the ranking here ignores projected points. It's the same rule the lineup optimiser uses to choose the buffer on your own bench — this page is the market-wide version, for deciding who to buy. Once you own one, play the week out in Loop-o-Matic.

Season-long buffer One-week looper
≤ $230k ≤ $250k ≤ $300k
One-week looper — out this round but back next. Everyone here played last round, which is the evidence he's a real player rather than a permanent reserve, and he isn't named this round. Ranked by how late his club plays this week. A return date isn't published, so "back next week" is an inference from him playing last round, not a promise.
# Player Price Why he's a red dot Hole shuts Last round
1 Junior Tupou
Wests Tigers WFB 		$250k Bye Never — bye 30
80 min
2 Charlie Murray
Wests Tigers MID 		$247k Bye Never — bye 7
3 min
3 Jai Bowden
Storm HOK 		$230k
floor 		Not named 4 games after his 7
9 min
4 Riley Price
Warriors MID 		$246k Not named 6 games after his 18
13 min

Prices and team lists come from fantasy.nrl.com and update through the week — a red dot named late in the week stops being one.