Recently featuring on the menu at the Bulls Hit Tavern have been (sponsor alert) Waipuk(arau) Mushrooms. In a word - magic. Just gorgeous, field grown and picked each morning; fabulous with a mature full bodied Pinot Noir. When in season a natural high light of the fine dining experience offered at the Bulls Hit. Had a large helping last night to get inspiration for the round seven review. Hope this makes sense, some of the results didn’t. Waikikamoocow Incorrigibles (8) 1074 vs Charlies Opening Spelunkers (12) 1353 Imagine a bucolic landscape into which a milk tanker spews diesel (a by-product of fracking) fumes. For you townies – after milking the unprocessed product from those beautiful animals goes in vat in a truck (the tanker) for the trip from the milking shed to the factory for processing. I am pretty sure we know which side plays the part of the tanker in this scene. And it crashed through the underperforming cows like a hot knife through butter. Andrew Brayshaw (121) BOG in a breakout performance, while nursing a knock to the ankle which, while painful, is better than a punch to the head. Most impressive from the cavemen. Foul Bay Chickens (4) 1338 vs Whitsunday Warriors (17) 1035 Close your eyes and visualise hordes of blue and white face painted Viking savages raping and pillaging the immaculately dressed, cocktail sipping denizens of the Tiki Bar. What a nightmare scenario. CR yelling “fight you buggers, fight – call yourselves warriors?” OMG, and we were just having a few quiet ones on a balmy tropical afternoon. We are lovers not fighters – right TiB? Joel Selwood (133) turned the clock back in the absence of his partner in crime Danger. Oh and Cunnington (145) and Tm Kelly (131) enjoyed themselves. For the visitors JJ (19) is not the player he was but Koschitzke (66) may well be better than the former at his peak. It’s all right TiB, next week’s opponents are less violent. Wagga Wagga Wombats (5) 1090 vs Iron Knob Codpieces (15) 1154 The marsupials (each female with a rear facing pouch) form a group known as a “wisdom.” Suffice to say Lenny’s wisdom was not impressed by the new look Knob clan’s representatives. Their stubby little legs, ably lead by Ed Langdon (120), tried to gain traction but there was to be no post-match grunting of allegiance to their spiritual leader: “Fatso the Fat-Arsed Wombat”. Jimbo’s knobbers showed how to go about a rebuild. There were heartening moments (in every rebuild there needs to be heartening moments) especially the performances of young hand Hunter Clark (106), warm hand Hugh Greenwood (142) and old hand Jack Darling (123). Definitely some ‘pieces to work with. Nowhere Else Wanderers (14) 1250 vs Marble Bar Misfits (3) 1274 Picture souped up, garishly painted FJ Holdens at the traffic lights on Saturday night. Racing in the Streets. Springsteen. Over active male hormones. Oh yeah. But what we got was an absence of hard men / boys. Injuries have cruelled not only the Misfits (think Whitfield, Sloane and Haynes) but also the Wanderers (think Cogs and the fit again ex-Misfit Ryder). What we got instead was mostly a bunch of B-graders rather than stars, and lacklustre efforts not consistent Academy Award winning performances. To balance the excellence of a Green (110) or Taranto (139) there was a Gunston (22) or Rowe (36). There were also some baffling selections by Dave (Son Son {83} as interchange E) and Len (no Whitfield {83}) which is in itself beautifully symmetric. We understand Len was left prostrate (cough) by the unwanted sight of an emerging giant playing for the opposition. Cradle Mountain Devils (6) 1165 vs Wineglass Bay Packers (13) 1193 I could venture something ethereal like: dmandrews cradled a fine glass of wine while watching his Devils work over the Packers. See his posts in the round 7 thread for detail. But that would be too simplistic. While Tracey’s side have put up some strong performances, they gelled against one of the Premiership favourites. They have some fine young players (Ash, Taylor, Lukosius, McGrath, Daicos, Collins) but too often have been short on mature, consistent performers. But not this week; Mummy (104) and Tom Lynch (102) provided the backbone. The Packers will improve further. (Well, there had to be at least one insight from my ravings.) PS – dmandrews also made this same point yesterday and it came back to bite him. Birdsville Battlers (11) 1046 vs Gundagai Grasshoppers (1) 1335 Battlers v ‘Hoppers - which Mad Max movie was it that featured life post apocalypse in the Wasteland? Oh yeah, all of them. The Birdsville mob (minus Witts, Cerra, Budarick) welcomed the ‘hopper outfit (minus Neale, Adams, young Curnow et al) to the sound of an ageing Tina Turner lookalike butchering “Simply the Best.” Perhaps “River Deep, Mountain High” would have been more appropriate. Tradesman like performance from the reigning premiers. At full strength they will be remain favourites in September. Encouraging signs from the Battlers for whom Doedee (102) and Sheed (106) put in good shifts. A little more quality will be there when the injury plague eases. Tina was wrong, JC’s mob proves the lie to “We Don’t Need Another Hero.” Mount Beauty Uglies (9) 1131 vs Nareewillock Nuffers (18) 797 We’ve all watched a game and thought of the performances of some players and secretly thought words along the lines of “Some Mothers Do Av Em.” And there were some delightful attempts to mimic early, vintage Michael Crawford (Lenny and Fitzy you might need google help here). For the home side Darcy Fogarty and Thomas Berry forgot to turn up, Redman (33) at least turned up and Zurhaar (41) put in an appearance for his 50th game. The efforts by Paddy Dow (18, admittedly injured affected) and Brent Daniels (22) for the visitors were woeful. To be fair there were classical Michael circa the Phantom of the Opera Crawford incarnations. For example, Ellis (143) and Walsh (130) were Beautiful. While for the visitors Brad Hill (124) and Charlie Cameron (112) trod the light fantastic. Venus Bay Vultures (2) 1159 vs Gariwerd Cockatoos (7) 1080 A-well-a everybody's heard about the bird! Bird bird bird, b-bird's the word * If a bird is lop sided it has trouble flying. And, so did this match – have trouble flying that is. The reincarnation of Jesse Hogan (92) might just have been what secured the W for Fitzy’s 13 birds against ant’s 11 cockies. Apart from the numeric advantage Gaff (123) and Dale (112) – sounds like a Veterinarian practice – feasted on the offal of missing bodies. Houli (143), Drew (129) and Guthrie (132) served the Gariwerd name proudly. (Who was the mug who de-listed Willem?) Larrikin Lagoon Lefties (16) 1045 vs Lovely Banks Lilacs (10) 1197 An ‘ell of a match up (I will find my own way out) if ever there was one. Fresh off a 1500+ score could Jen’s delights back up or would Mike’s mugs prevail? A hopeful headline if I have ever seen one. Predictably, the Syringa Vulgariss (that’s the plural of the botanical name you heathens) prevailed without having to put up a huge score. Shai Bolton (121) continues to impress; pity he is a Tiger. Perryman (111), Simpkin (103) and Worpel (110) – nice name for a firm of plumbers - suggested Mike’s (fifth?) rebuild might be heading “In the Right Direction.” I think it was Dragon who had an almost hit with a song of that name, or was “This Time?” A word for the LLL mob: Inculcate - to teach or instil something in a person by repeating the lesson over and over. But let’s not jump ahead, too often with SC we extrapolate when, if only for an evening, we should interpolate and enjoy the moment. I’ll close with an enigmatic “maybe the Nuffers are Cursed?” * Surfin’ Bird – The Trashmen 1983 – google utube version if you don’t know the song.
Spelunkers top score for the round #tankingisso2020 Since I’ve been called out... I originally delisted Willem Drew
Great stuff mate, some intersting games, SC was a dogs breakfast and a lot of that flowed through to us.. And seriously, wtf can't we name Sunday teams an hour before the first bounce Saturday
Pure prose @graeme. Perhaps we should consider a mushroom cup this coming round? BTW, no one seems to have noticed that for the last 3 rounds we have been called the Whitsunday Worriers. Conversely I topped 2200 in SC, so swings and roundabouts. Just be grateful for Giant things and domestic bliss @Len.
Thanks, @graeme. The Battlers need several more heroes at the moment! We were rank outsiders this week even at full strength, so no surprises with the result.
An excellent, witty and dare I say far too intelligent write up @graeme for us orffans. Loved it - cheers mate !
Teams look set to be once again named on Thursday night after a raft of complaints from media and fans. An AFL spokesperson confirmed Tuesday the issue was an agenda item at its meeting with club chief executives on Tuesday. It’s understood the push is being led by AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan. The spokesperson said the league was aware of the backlash after a policy change this year allowed clubs to name their teams the night before their game. Historically, teams for the round were all named on Thursday night. Tipping and SuperCoach competitions were drastically affected by the new policy. It’s not expected to be in place this Thursday night, but it’s possible a return to normal teams night will come in for Round 9. Results Should Thursday night teams be brought back? Yes 95% No 5% 855 Voters “I think the AFL is looking to bring that back in and the clubs were fine with that. I’m not sure how quickly they’re going to do it, but they’re certainly heading down that path,” Brisbane Lions CEO Greg Swann said on Tuesday. “It was certainly discussed today and everybody was in agreement so I assume someone will be working on how that happens and we’ll get a memo asking for the teams on Thursday and that’s what we will do,” he said on SEN. “It’s a strange one, we know why (teams were named the day before a game last year) because of four or five days breaks but now we’ve gone back to a more traditional draw that it’s going to come back in.”
Michael Crawford did require a google, correct. Hahaha. A bit lucky to get the W this week, sad to see Adam Tomlinson do his knee just as he had locked away his spot in the team and found some form, and I missed the JOM soreness. Also, I've been pretty poor on my replies to these reviews but a thanks to everyone who's done one so far! Always a good read.
What a piece of prose, well done Graeme Bama starting to fly & I thought “Free Bird” worth a listen (lengthy I know) but a nice build up by Lynyrd Skynyrd (Although someone obviously taking the piss when choosing the band name )