Get expert knowledge of NRL with The Fantasy Lab podcast

Nova Entertainment has joined forces with former NRL player Tim Moltzen and fantasy football fanatic Josh Halling to create NRL Fantasy and Supercoach podcast, The Fantasy Lab.

Launching today, the Nova original podcast promises to be the bible for NRL Fantasy and Supercoach Leagues, providing insights and stats to improve strategies.

With the first two episodes dropping today and Thursday, 23 February, listeners will have access to pre-season prep in the lead-up to season kick-off. During this time, fantasy football fanatics start refining their strategy, finalising their salary cap and making final decisions on which players to draft, trade and captain each round.

Keep or trade players? Each week, Tim and Josh will provide fresh stats and data to secure the edge over competitors and gain bragging rights over mates. They’ll also bring the most important news of the week to consider for upcoming rounds, from injuries to top-five scorers.

“It’s exciting to dip my toe back into the footy world. And I’m stoked to be sitting in an air-conditioned studio as opposed to on the field, much less running and much less chance of getting injured, but with my luck, who knows,” Tim said.

Tim Moltzen is a former professional rugby league player who played for the West Tigers. 

Making his first grade debut in 2008, he was named the club’s rookie of the year soon after. Unfortunately, Tim was forced to retire in May 2016 due to a chronic knee injury. Nowadays, the father of one is a property buyers agent for Cohen Handler in Sydney but still considers himself a league fanatic.

Josh said everyone who doesn’t play fantasy sports is missing out.

“There are reportedly 1.5 million Aussies who play fantasy sports. The other 25.2 million don’t know what they’re missing. This podcast is for both. We’re going to save the average fantasy competitor one hour per week by listening to a 20-minute podcast,” Josh said.

“The Fantasy Lab will dive into the 2023 NRL Season, and provide the stats and data you need to craft a winning fantasy league team. We’ll be incredibly serious about it too. No laughs or your money back.”

Born in rugby league heartland in Western Sydney, Josh Halling attended his first Penrith Panthers game in 1989 and has been hooked ever since. 

He was on High Street Penrith in 1991 when the Panthers took home their first title and experienced his first taste of rejection when he tried to get into the Leagues Club to celebrate with the boys, only to be turned away because he was 12.

After studying Actuarial Studies at Macquarie University, Josh realised stats weren’t for him unless they were related to sports, so he left the course and channelled his love of numbers into NRL fantasy sports in 2003.

After two decades of pretending to do work while he’s actually been checking his fantasy stats, Josh thought it was time to channel that energy into a podcast.

The Fantasy Lab launches today and Thursday 23 February, with new episodes dropping every Thursday. 

The podcast is available here, on the Nova Player or wherever you access your podcasts.