Round 14 (AFL 17) 14/7 - 16/7 Bleak Week In the Southern Hemisphere, the third week of July is considered the Bleak Week. No better way to celebrate the cold, miserable Australian winter than chasing a bag of wind through the ankle-deep slush of a Tasmanian footy paddock. Nunawading Nuffers v Charlies Opening Spelunkers Gundagai Grasshoppers v Venus Bay Vultures Wineglass Bay Packers v Larrikin Lagoon Lefties Lovely Banks Lilacs v Birdsville Battlers Whitsunday Warriors v Mount Beauty Uglies Foul Bay Chickens v Waikikamoocow Incorrigibles Iron Knob Codpieces v Cradle Mountain Devils Darraweit Guim Dirrigibles v Wagga Wagga Wombats Marble Bar Misfits v Gariwerd Cockatoos
Cradle Mountain Devils Round 14 team In: S Gilbert, T Lynch Out: T Membrey (suspended) M Boyd (achilles) Def: M Hurley, Z Jones, J Lever, S Gilbert (L Spurr) Mid: S Pendlebury, D Zorko, D Heppell, S Grigg (Mitchell Hibberd) Ruc: T Nankervis Fwd: J Steele, T Lynch, W Hoskin-Elliot, C Pedersen (J Gresham) Inter: D Zaharakis, L Shiels (S Johnson) Cradle Mountain make two compulsory changes with forward Tim Membrey missing due to a two week suspension and defender Matthew Boyd out with an achilles injury. Tom Lynch returns from illness to replace Membrey whilst Sam Gilbert replaces Boyd. Sitting seventh on the ladder Cradle Mountain have lost to the top five sides and have won all their games against sides that are below them on the ladder. At the start of the season one of the Devils goals was to finish in the top 6, this weekend they play the side that is currently sixth – the Iron Knob Codpieces on the road and the result of this game will be pivotal to whether the Devils achieve their top 6 goal. CMD also need to prove to themselves and the rest of the ORFFA that they can defeat one of the top 7 sides
As the Marsupials from Wagga venture to the cold, windswept plains and hills of Darraweit, ground staff have watered up The Paddock nicely to create a 3-5cm layer of mud atop the ground. Whether this helps the home team - devoid of two of its leading midfielders - by slowing down the opposition, we shall see. If all else fails, we'll just give the ball to Michael Walters and hope for the best. D: May, Rance, Astbury, Mackie (Brand) M: Atkins, Jack, Newnes, Lyons (Dale) R: Smith (Naismith) F: Hrovat, Brown, Walters, Hill (though with Hill in doubt, the James Parsons Project may come in as an emergency) I/C: Edwards, McDonald-Tipungwuti
This could get ugly. Warriors. DEF: Suckling, Tarrant, Johanissen, Harmes (Mcintosh) MID: Wines, Boak, Smith, Gray (Ainsworth) RUC: Cameron (Lobb OPP) FWD: Cameron, Lambert, Patton, Kennedy (Butler) I/C: Gibson, Douglas
And the bleak descends upon the Goon Def - Duryea, Baguley, McKenzie, Berry Mid - Ross, Langford, Scooter, Perryman Ruck - K Langford* oop Fwd - Knight, Weller, Clarke*, Simpkin I/C - Atley, Wagner * denotes wishful thinking
Misfits have been assembled to defend Marble Bar from the Cockatoos DEFENDER Rory Laird, Jake Lloyd, Adam Tomlinson, Zachary Williams - Nick Haynes MIDFIELDER Marc Murphy, Lachie Whitfield, Callan Ward, Josh Kelly - RUCK Patrick Ryder - FORWARD Joe Daniher, Orazio Fantasia, Devon Smith, Matthew Kennedy - Ben Keays INTERCHANGE Daniel Rich, Jamie Elliott - Caleb Daniel Club record of 8 Giants named
Packers team... DEFENDER Nathan Wilson, Lachie Henderson, Andrew McGrath, Conor McKenna MIDFIELDER Rory Sloane, David Mundy, Tom SCULLY, Alex Neal-Bullen - (Anthony Miles) RUCK Majak DAW FORWARD Tom Lynch, Sam Reid, Alexander FASOLO, Sam Kerridge INTERCHANGE George Hewett, Eric Hipwood - (Jack Silvagni)
Spelunkers: DEFENDERS: Cale Hooker, Oscar McDonald, Shane Savage, Luke Brown (Jake CARLISLE) MIDFIELDERS: Zac Merrett, Marcus Bontempelli, Mark Blicavs, Stephen Hill (Liam Duggan) RUCKS: Ben McEvoy FORWARDS: Jack GUNSTON,Mitch McGovern, Jack Lonie, Mark LeCras, (Jack Bowes) INTERCHANGE: Sean Darcy, Sam Petrevski-Seton (Darcy Tucker)
Tyson out, Mackie out late withdrawal, May injured and done after 10 minutes, Lyons injured 15 minutes in, done since half time. Brad Hill a probable late withdrawal. That's just this week. I don't get easily discouraged, but I'm pretty much gonna 'play the kids' the rest of the year. So very disappointing. Disheartened.
If it makes you feel better, Chris, I could only manage to field 13 this week. Well 12 I guess - Josh Battle's princely sum of 8 from last night hardly counts, does it? So unless there's a spare miracle lying around somewhere, it's a pretty safe bet that it'll be three on the trot for the Lilacs.
Yeah, it is just the worst to not have 15 to even field .... I mean, Wagga have got Hardwick playing OOP in the ruck, so having 15 to start with is at least something. Though, it would be nice to have 15 fit players finishing the game too!!
Mine is no one's fault but my own. I went a bit skinny in the fwd line this year and have been relying on a handful of guys to get games all year. Have been waiting for it to bite me tbh.
Great attitude JC - can only applaud you for that. In the midst of a struggle with CR, albeit he has somewhat of a sleeper hold on me. By my calcs the chooks are 1147/12 with M Johnson, Dahl and S Mitchell to come. The cows are 1010/11 with the gov, Fyfe, McLean and L Jetta to come. What intrigues me is that chief and I have made some poor selection decisions. For example, he went with Roughy (36) rather than ?, while I went with Burton (57) rather than Dan Menzel (95). I have a feeling the game might come down to who was able to select a team closer to their optimal team. Would really appreciate your feedback CR. And, yes I am aware that optimisation of this kind is a first world problem. On an historical note the 2015 round 9 H&A match between the cows and the chooks featured a battle between fyfe and danger played out in adelaide. Danger recorded a relaxed 188 and Fyfe 158 (but he did get the Brownlow votes!). Chief's side won. This time the real afl battle saw danger (141) against tmitch (136) at the G. Not quite the epic mano o mano of 2015, but still memorable in itself. It might even occupy a higher spot in the danger CV. And looks like the same bloody ORFFA result. Hope everyone has both players in their SC team and the C on one of them.
It was Tomahawk rather than Rough with the putrid 36, but yes, my season has been marred with poor selections. The Hawkins/Matt Wright selection at F4 has haunted me every week. I think I have got my defenders right this week for a change. Godly has been a disappointment (61 this week) and is making my trade of Seb Ross looking even more foolish. Still, the last two weeks since Bandit wrote me off have been a bit more positive. I'm still not going to beat the Buddy-powered Vultures and will probably struggle against some other top 4 sides too as I have a lower floor than I used to, but the ceiling is still relatively high when the players and the coach get it right. Had a feeling I was going to need 1400+ this week (like last week). Proving to be the case.
Wow, some irony I missed @ChiefRussell. I delisted Wright and you picked him up in the 2015, or was it the 2016 PSD (?); you delisted Menzel and I picked him up in the 2015 MSD. Small world.
Think Darraweit and Wagga have fought out a nil-all draw. The groundskeepers clearly overwatered The Paddock pre-match. Injuries, half a ruck and some low low scores from players who are usually better. Just one of those match-ups.
So I needed 1400+. Didn't get it though. Matthew Wright over Tommahawk would have tipped it. Shane Biggs over Michael Johnson would have helped too. I clearly jinxed things by saying that I thought I had the defenders right. Well played Graeme.
Nice to see my boys broke the 1500 barrier. I think it's been a while since the Cockies have done that.