Updated: 18 September 2026
Friday night update: Nathan Sobey is OUT of Saturday’s game against Perth with back tightness. Development player Pat Ryan replaces him for the trip west, and Sobey will be reassessed before Monday’s game in Tasmania. That removes Sobey from Round 1 captaincy consideration for now: PJC remains No. 1, Skylar Mays is our preferred vice-captain, and Sam Mennenga is the next-best alternative.
Round 1 captaincy in NBL27 SuperCoach is not complicated in theory.
It is just unusually important.
South East Melbourne and New Zealand are the only two teams playing twice in the opening round. Every other club plays once. Because your SuperCoach captain scores double points and a double-game player banks the cumulative score from both matches, the armband should almost certainly come from one of those two clubs.
That immediately narrows the real conversation to a small group: Parker Jackson-Cartwright, Nathan Sobey, Skylar Mays, Sam Mennenga and Charles Bediako.
If you want the short version, our current call is Parker Jackson-Cartwright as captain, Skylar Mays as vice-captain.
But there is enough uncertainty around role, price and preseason evidence that the decision is worth unpacking properly.
For the broader schedule picture, keep our NBL27 SuperCoach Fixture Guide open alongside this. If you are still building the full squad, our current Round 1 team and Round 1 injury report cover the structure around the captaincy decision.
NBL27 SuperCoach Round 1 captain rankings
| Rank | Player | Team | Price | Round 1 games | Captain view |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Parker Jackson-Cartwright | New Zealand | $405,200 | 2 | Best overall captain |
| 2 | Skylar Mays | South East Melbourne | $277,000 | 2 | Best vice-captain / Phoenix option |
| 3 | Sam Mennenga | New Zealand | $303,100 | 2 | Strong FWD/CTR alternative |
| 4 | Charles Bediako | New Zealand | $277,000 | 2 | High-upside big |
| 5 | Dash Daniels | South East Melbourne | $115,000 | 2 | Aggressive POD only |
| — | Nathan Sobey | South East Melbourne | $379,600 | 1 maximum | OUT Saturday; reassess before Monday |
The important thing here is not pretending the No. 1 and No. 2 options are miles apart. They are not.
The real gap is between the established double-game stars and everybody playing once.
1. Parker Jackson-Cartwright: the captain we would pick
Price: $405,200 | Position: GRD
Parker Jackson-Cartwright is expensive, but Round 1 is exactly why you pay for him.
He averaged 39.06 SuperCoach points across 33 games last season and did not miss a game. In his two Blitz appearances he produced the sort of lines that translate cleanly to SuperCoach, including 23 points and eight assists against Tasmania and 15 points, seven rebounds and seven assists against Sydney.
That matters because PJC does not need 30 real-life points to produce an elite fantasy score. Assists are worth two SuperCoach points, steals are worth three, and his role guarantees repeated chances to create both.
The Breakers open at home against Illawarra on Sunday, then travel to face Brisbane on Tuesday. Two games in three days is not nothing, but this is the player New Zealand wants controlling the offence.
There is one wrinkle: Jackson-Cartwright missed New Zealand's final preseason game against Melbourne. That is why the injury and selection news still needs watching through lockout week.
As of 13 September, there has been no indication that his Round 1 availability is in serious doubt.
Buckets call: Captain if named and fully available.
Nathan Sobey: ruled out Saturday, so take him off the armband
Price: $379,600 | Position: GRD
Sobey is no longer a Round 1 captaincy option for us. South East Melbourne confirmed on Friday that he will miss Saturday night’s game in Perth because of back tightness, with development player Pat Ryan replacing him on the trip. Sobey will be reassessed before Monday’s game against Tasmania.
That destroys the main reason to captain him: the guaranteed two-game volume. Even if he returns Monday, you would be putting the multiplier on a player coming straight off a back issue for one game.
The fantasy beneficiary is Skylar Mays. With Sobey unavailable Saturday, Mays should carry more creation responsibility against Perth and still has the second game in Tasmania on Monday. Dash Daniels and the wider Phoenix guard rotation also gain opportunity, but Mays has the clearest combination of role, price and ceiling.
Buckets call: Remove Sobey from captain and vice-captain consideration. PJC is the captain; Mays is the preferred vice-captain.
3. Skylar Mays: the best value captain
Price: $277,000 | Position: GRD
Mays is where this gets interesting.
At $277,000, he gives you access to the Round 1 double without paying premium-guard money. He also looked immediately comfortable at the Blitz, scoring a projected 57 SuperCoach points across 51 minutes, better than a point per minute.
Then came another strong final tune-up against New Zealand: 19 points, nine assists and two steals.
That stat profile is basically a SuperCoach advert. Scoring helps, but assists and steals are where Mays can separate himself.
The risk is simply that we have not seen him play an NBL regular-season game yet. Preseason rotations settle differently once the games count, and South East Melbourne has one of the deepest backcourts in the league.
Sobey, Dash Daniels, Angus Glover and Tanner Krebs all need touches and minutes.
Still, this is not a speculative cheapie. Mays is an import lead guard with an obvious role.
Buckets call: Best captain for coaches who want to spend the extra $100K-plus elsewhere. He is the strongest argument against forcing both PJC and Sobey into your starting structure.
4. Sam Mennenga: the underrated captain option
Price: $303,100 | Position: FWD/CTR
Mennenga might be the most strategically useful player on this list.
He is dual-position, cheaper than PJC and Sobey, and coming off a season in which he averaged 29.22 SuperCoach points. More importantly, his final preseason form was outstanding.
He scored 25 points against South East Melbourne, then 26 against Melbourne United in New Zealand's final hit-out.
The concern is that his fantasy production is naturally a little more scoring and rebounding dependent than PJC's. He will not touch the ball on every Breakers possession, so a cold shooting night can lower the floor.
But the two-game round smooths some of that volatility.
Mennenga is also already one of the most popular players in the game. That is not a reason to captain him by itself, but it does tell you the broader SuperCoach market has recognised the combination of price, dual-position flexibility and Round 1 volume.
Buckets call: Excellent alternative if your squad structure already includes him and not a premium double-game guard.
5. Charles Bediako: the ceiling play at centre
Price: $277,000 | Position: CTR
Bediako is the high-variance option we actually like.
His final Blitz game produced 40 projected SuperCoach points from 13 points, 10 rebounds, two steals and two blocks.
That is the centre scoring profile you want: rebounds create a floor, while blocks and double-doubles create spikes.
The reason he sits behind Mennenga is role certainty. Bediako is still adjusting to New Zealand's offence, and centres are more vulnerable to foul trouble and matchup-specific minutes.
But if you are already starting him at centre, the captaincy is not crazy.
Two games means two chances at a double-double and two chances to hit the defensive-stat jackpot.
Buckets call: A genuine POD captain, especially if you are fading the expensive guards.
6. Dash Daniels: fun, but do not get too clever
Price: $115,000 | Position: GRD
Daniels was excellent at the Blitz, with projected scores of 21 and 34, and his steals give him serious SuperCoach upside.
He is also 18 years old, priced at $115,000 and playing in a backcourt containing Mays, Sobey and Glover.
That makes him a terrific cash-generation play.
It does not make him the best captain in Round 1.
Could Daniels outscore one of the premiums across two games? Absolutely. That is why fantasy is fun.
But captaincy is where we want to remove unnecessary volatility, not manufacture it.
Buckets call: Start him if he fits your team. Do not needlessly put the armband on him.
What about Bryce Cotton?
This will be the obvious question.
Cotton is the best pure SuperCoach scorer in the league, costs $473,900 and averaged 45.7 last season.
He also plays once in Round 1.
That makes him a worse captaincy bet than the double-game stars even if you think he is likely to produce the highest individual game score of the round.
A 50 from Cotton becomes 100 with the captain multiplier.
Two modest 30s from PJC become 120.
That is the maths you are fighting.
There will be Adelaide double-game rounds when Cotton becomes the obvious armband. Round 1 is not one of them.
If you are paying for him anyway, do it because you want to hold him into Adelaide's strong Rounds 2-4 run, not because you need him as the opening captain.
Read our full premium-player guide for the wider Cotton decision.
Round 1 captaincy: ceiling versus structure
The biggest mistake here would be treating captain selection as an isolated decision.
It changes the whole team.
PJC costs $405,200. Mays costs $277,000. That $128,200 difference can turn a floor-price bench player into a useful rotation option or upgrade a questionable starter somewhere else.
So the real question is not simply:
Who scores more, PJC or Mays?
It is:
Does PJC plus the cheaper player elsewhere outscore Mays plus the upgrade I can afford with the saving?
That is why Mays is such an important option.
PJC is still our No. 1 captain because the role and historical scoring are stronger. But if squeezing him into your team forces two bad selections elsewhere, you have defeated the point.
Our preferred Round 1 captain and vice-captain combinations
Safe build
Captain: Parker Jackson-Cartwright Vice-captain: Skylar Mays
This is the cleanest setup if the cap allows it.
Balanced build
Captain: Parker Jackson-Cartwright Vice-captain: Skylar Mays
You keep the premium captain while using the cheaper Phoenix guard to protect the vice-captain slot.
Value build
Captain: Skylar Mays Vice-captain: Sam Mennenga
This frees significant salary while keeping both multiplier options attached to double-game players.
Big-man build
Captain: Sam Mennenga Vice-captain: Charles Bediako
Unconventional, but structurally useful if your money is concentrated outside guard.
Should your vice-captain also play twice?
Yes, if you can reasonably do it.
The vice-captain is insurance. If your captain is a late withdrawal and does not play, the multiplier moves to your vice-captain.
In Round 1, there is little reason to put that insurance on a single-game player when several strong double-game options exist.
Do not overcomplicate this with loophole thinking borrowed from other SuperCoach codes. The useful job of the vice-captain here is straightforward: protect your multiplier.
Round 1 captaincy checklist
Before lockout on Saturday 19 September, we would check five things:
- Is PJC confirmed available? His absence from the final preseason game makes this the key piece of selection news.
- Are Mays and Sobey both in the expected Phoenix roles? No concern yet, but official Round 1 line-ups matter more than preseason assumptions.
- Has New Zealand changed its frontcourt rotation? Any shift in Bediako or Mennenga minutes affects the alternative captain options.
- Does your captain choice damage the rest of your team? Do not spend $405K purely for the letter C if it creates two weak starters.
- Is your vice-captain also from New Zealand or South East Melbourne? It should be unless team structure makes that impossible.
Buckets verdict
If Round 1 locked right now:
Captain: Parker Jackson-Cartwright Vice-captain: Skylar Mays
PJC combines the highest historical SuperCoach floor among the Round 1 double-game options with elite playmaking and a secure role. Mays is now the clear vice-captain choice after Sobey was ruled out of Saturday’s opener. Mennenga is the next safest alternative and can genuinely change your team structure, while Mennenga and Bediako are much better captain options than their positions on most casual draft boards suggest.
The most important rule is simpler than any ranking, though:
Do not willingly captain a one-game player when premium two-game options are sitting in your side.
That edge is too large to give away in the opening week.
NBL27 SuperCoach Round 1 captain FAQ
Who is the best captain for NBL27 SuperCoach Round 1?
Parker Jackson-Cartwright is our current No. 1 captain. New Zealand plays twice, and PJC averaged 39.06 SuperCoach points last season across all 33 games.
Should I captain Bryce Cotton in Round 1?
We would not. Cotton is the league's premier scorer, but Adelaide plays once while New Zealand and South East Melbourne play twice. Save the Cotton captaincy for Adelaide's double-game rounds.
Is Skylar Mays a good Round 1 captain?
Yes. At $277,000, Mays is our best value captain. He scored 57 projected SuperCoach points across two Blitz games and followed that with 19 points, nine assists and two steals in South East Melbourne's final preseason game.
Can I captain Sam Mennenga instead of a guard?
Absolutely. Mennenga is cheaper than PJC and Sobey, has FWD/CTR flexibility and finished the preseason with consecutive 25-plus-point real-life scoring performances.
Why are double-game players so important for captaincy?
Your captain scores double their round total. When a player has two games, both game scores count before the captain multiplier is applied.
When does NBL27 SuperCoach Round 1 lock?
The first lockout is 7:30pm AEST on Saturday 19 September 2026, when Melbourne United hosts Adelaide.
What to read next
- NBL27 SuperCoach Best Starting Team: Our Round 1 Team Reveal
- NBL27 SuperCoach Round 1 Injury Report
- NBL27 SuperCoach Fixture Guide: Double-Game Rounds & Best Early Schedules
- NBL27 SuperCoach Premiums: Who Is Actually Worth Paying Up For?
- NBL27 Projected Starting Fives: Every Team's Lineup & SuperCoach Outlook
Sources
Round 1 fixtures and game times use the official NBL schedule. SuperCoach prices, last-season averages and double-game captaincy rules use the current SuperCoach NBL Classic material published by NBL.com.au and basketball.com.au. Preseason scoring references use basketball.com.au's projected SuperCoach calculations from official NBL box scores.
Buckets is an independent fantasy basketball platform and is not affiliated with SuperCoach or the National Basketball League. SuperCoach is referenced for analysis and scoring comparison.
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