Groote Eylandt Barracudas 1,381 defeated by Korumburra Blowflys 1,478 With a top 4 finish to the regular home and away season, Stanley and Houli back in the line-up the Cudas were feeling confident regardless of who they were up against in the elimination final. With the last two team names left in the barrel the Barracuda’s will face out with the Blowflys. This time it will be on our turf. Tipu kicks 5 goals, the locals thought they were still practicing but not they all count. The Cudas raced out from the change rooms and Stanley pulled his calf on his way to the next bounce up, he was done. From the defence Lloyd ever so reliable collecting 30 plus touches running off half back, Houli was back after a injury layoff and perform well shadowing Walters for the day while Frawley played a lock down role on Hooker. In the hot pot of the middle the visiting Blowflys took the advantage with their hot dynamic duo Ablett and Menegola including 3 goals from the little master and the tackling machine of Sam. The Barracudas Zorko and Phillips were handed a footy lesson today as they were out classed and out gunned. The Bont was fantastic even with landing on his back in the first quarter from a heavy Redden bump. The Corn Boy fought it out with Sloane for possession it was a sight to see. The surprise of the day from the visitors was Hewett, running off the wing, collecting a heap of possessions and free kicks. Dunkley marked all day. For the locals, Tomahawk, Waite & Cripps of the Jamie variety were good but it was nothing compared to Jack of the Riewoldt clan, kicking the first for the Cudas, and then another, another ……… by the end of the match his leg was severely red from leather poisoning racking up the most goals in one match for the season 10 goals! Now you would think that was the end of the story and that that the locals would be singing “We can’t be beaten” by Rose Tattoo. Vlastuin in defence kept a lid on it for coach @Mick and then the man mountain Gold-member shone, slicing, dicing and tapping the living day lights out of the pill with a massive 34 hit-outs and just about all of them to advantage. Even off the bench for the Cudas Lewis and Burgoyne couldn’t swing it their way with 25 plus possessions. It was a high scoring match and at the end of the day the quick start by Korumburra kept them in front all day to finish off taking the win to advance to the Semi-Finals and left the Barracudas wondering what they needed to do to have another crack at the premiership.
A rematch of the inaugural FU Grand Final! Ararat are the final frontier for the Bulls as the only FU club we are yet to defeat holding a 6 - 0 h2h. Bring it on!
Elimination Final - Christmas Island 1262 defeated by Nuytsland 1274 Apologies for the delay @bryzza , been one of those weeks. ***** Excitement was in the air, as the Smugglers had achieved their highest regular season finish, and would be hosting a first-week final for the first time in the Club's history. The Vikings had been invited to play, and despite the clash early in the season going the way of Nuytsland, the home crowd were quietly confident of reaching a third preliminary final. Both sides were hot early, with the visitor's Seb Ross owning the ball, racking up 43 disposals and a BOG 152SC. Dyson Heppell did a solid job matching the Viking, with 137SC of his own. The midfielders went blow-for-blow: Smugglers - Beams (102), Vikings - Crouch (107), Smugglers - Grigg (109), Vikings - Shuey (95), but the crowd was focused on one match-up - Dusty versus Titch. Mitchell had toyed with the Smugglers in the regular season, with 192SC, but Dusty had started to come into form in the last month, and the Smugglers' fans were expecting something special. Unfortunately for the viewers these superstars negated each other, with 91 (Martin) and 102 (Mitchell) not being the game-altering score both coaches where hoping for. With the midfields evenly matched, both coaches threw some of their smaller forwards into the guts to try and swing the match in their favour. McLean's 112 was a welcome return to form for Bryzza, but was countered by a surprising 114 from Daisy. Heeney (Vikings) and Robbie Gray (Smugglers) both tonned up and again there was nothing between the sides, with the Smugglers shading the forward contest 346-338. In the back half, both teams struggled, with D1-3 on both sides falling short of their averages. For the visitors Pearce's 68 at D4 (compared to an average of 50) seemed inconsequential at the time but ultimately was a game-winner. The Smugglers' coach made the decision to concede ruck contest early, allowing Grundy to amass 35 hitouts and 121SC before unleashing a returning Matty Kreuzer to score the final 12 points the Smugglers required. Unfortunately rumours started to go through the crowd - "Matty's at the pub - he thought we had this one dusted". It turned out to be true, there would be no Kreuz missile, but the home crowd remained confident - "we've got several playing emergencies, any of their out-of-position scores is enough to see us home, surely the head coach wouldn't be such a friggin idiot as to not name a ruck emergency to cover the guy who's been a late out several times this season and is under an injury cloud". The Smugglers coach is a friggin idiot. So the Vikings held on to win an absolute thriller, and deservedly head through to the second week of finals. They'll do so with the support of the Christmas Island Football Club, being a fellow FU Man and nautical themed team. Best of luck Vikings!! The Smugglers will undertake a thorough list review once the list returns from a Vegas/Bali/Frankston end of year trip.
The Dillos with the lead as the Bulls and Dillos trade blows early AA 127/2/63.5 SFB 109/1/109 @insider
@Mick If you could post updates that would be great, again working the weekend. If not ill post after tonight's games have finished
@Mick Viking 707/10/70.7 Blowflies 642/8/80.25 Some shocking scores by the Vikings and with numbers like 19,32,31,42 all by players who would not normally make your best 15 sums up our season.
The travelling Bulls are taking it up to the Dillos in what is shaping as an intriguing contest, the Dillos have some guns to rollout on Sunday AA 590 / 8 / 74 SFB 975 / 12 / 81 @insider
I’ve got you all out @tyze1 for 1125 and me 1112 at 3/4er time of crows kangas. Trying my hardest to lose with Mason Wood the worst ranked on the field with 20 and Ziebell with 39. Even Anderson’s 52 hasn’t covered himself in glory. Ain’t over til it’s over as they say
Too consistent mate, too many passengers at the Bulls it was there for the taking! Well done @insider deserved grand finalist!