the game was there to be won! The Dees Hawks game killed my chances. Good luck gents next weekend. On to the real stuff now, my Yackandandah U14s in the Qualifying Final this week .
Cheers for the updates. Great season overall. Looks like we both got hit by injuries and a bout of poor form at the business end of it. I'll need a minor miracle to pull off an upset in the Granny!!! Anything is possible - third time lucky!!!?..
Sliding Doors Round Grand Final ORFFU edition IF... Coach @Mick has a chance to win this weekend Then... He is going to need a miracle! I think Dusty will be well held and won't back up his 158 from last week. Hind, Perkins and Nic Martin are also coming up against some tough competition and will all need to lift if they are to be of any use. Can Dunkley, Steele and Kelly all pull a rabbit out of the hat and get the Blowfly's over the line? time will tell. IF Coach @bryzza wants to add more silverware to the cabinet Then... He will need to get his best available team on the park and hope they all score their averages or better. Any under performance is likely to open the door to let Mick through. Petracca, Crouch, English and Newman are all playing and scoring very well at the pointy end of the season and should help get the Vikings over the line. Prediction. Vikings by 85 points.
@bryzza @Mick Grand Final Preview Nuytsland v Korumburra The grand final matchup sees a replay of last years' decider with the Vikings again taking on the Blowflys. Nuytsland will play host to the boys from Korumburra with the home side looking to be the first ORFFU team to add a 3rd premiership cup to their burgeoning collection of silverware while Korumburra will be looking to become the 7th club to taste premiership success for the first time having fallen at the final hurdle twice before. How they got here The Vikings finished second on the table at the end of the home & away season followed by posting scores of 1414 & 1331 to get wins in the first 2 weeks of finals. Scoring was slightly down on the 1418 they averaged over the last 5 weeks of H&A season but still the highest of the teams to play finals. Korumburra have taken a very different path, finishing 6th and getting to play 7th in week 1 of finals winning with the 3rd lowest score of 1281 then giaing their place in the Grand Final with a 1213 in week 2. This may make it seem like the matchup this week doesn't even need to be played. It doesn't look too much prettier when we consider that out of 19 weeks of matchups this season only 3 times has Korumburra outscored the might of the Vikings. But! Diggining a little deeper, those 3 weeks where the Blowflys trumped the Vikings inlude the round 2 matchup between this pair and as recently as round 19. Selection table After scraping to just put 15 players on the park in recent times, the stars have aligned for the Vikings to actually have pressure at the table for the biggest game of the year. That has seen Luke Shuey even named as an emergency and only Will Powell & Mitch Duncan missing from the area of the field that management had expertly stacked with the most coverage of any line. Injuries to fringe forwards made the selection of F4 easier even if there were less options than they may have liked to be able to choose from. The Blowflys remain without their most impoortant asset in Nick Daicos while being let down by their old veterans Sloane & Ross not getting up for the big GF contest. However, Sam Menegola has miraculously been raised from the dead to play his one and only game for the year when it matters most. Is this minor miracle the start of something bigger?? 3 Keys 1. Viking forwards - Although the injuries the Vikings are dealing with in the forward line are indeed only to players that would have only been borderline selections, there is no doubt that management would have liked a greater deck from which to deal from. With Libba coming back to add to a midfield even the Buffaloes are scared of, the best ruckmen in the comp (sorry Big Row), and a backline as deep as the ORFFU has ever seen, if any area of the ground is going to cause Nuytsland trouble it can be found right here. And we don't have to look too hard to see how it could all go wrong. Although they have been in decent form of late, Isaac Heeney posted a 38 last time out against Melbourne and Lachie Schulz was only slightly better with an effort of 56 the last time he was matched up to Hawthorn. Harry McKay has only just comeback from a serious injury and could only muster a 55 on return last week while their last remaining option for F4, Jye Amiss, has had 8 scores under 40 this year. It may not matter with the power on display in the rest of the field but the Vikings will be hoping their forwards don't let them down when it matters most. 2. Blowflys midfield - While we shine the spotlight on particular areas of the ground, we need to take a moment to focus on the Korumburra engine room. While the form of Hind and Witherden might help them keep pace down back combined with Dunkley's last game as a forward & a potential vintage Dusty performance providing an edge in attack, it may all count for nought if their midfield cannot keep up with their star Viking opponents. A lot will rest on the shoulders of Tim Kelly who showed he was more than up for the fight in an epic preliminary final showing. Jack Steele will need to do his best work against a hardened Sydney outfit but it is Hunter, Menegola and Goldy that the team will be hoping can turn back the clock. Hunter and Goldy have shown they are capable of match turning scores at different stages through the year but they have been both on the positive and negative end of the spectrum while Menegola could do anything in his first game of the year from starring in an effort to show that he has still got it to flopping in a showing that demonstrates he really doesn't. 3. Defence wins premierships - Some might argue this is an uncontrolable. Others might suggest the writer has run out of things to try and make this matchup look interesting. I say that after copping the highest amount of points against during the regular season, maybe things are just evening out for the Blowflys. Is getting to play against the lowest scoring team in each week of the finals series just luck or are results just balancing out? Or is there even something greater at play here, Banchang of 2021 anyone? Prediction The Vikings go into this match as hot a favourite as we have seen in ORFFU grand final history. They have form over their opponents, as good an availability as you could expect at this stage of the year and get the Blowflys without their absolute star. There is genuine concern over the Viking forwardline but if Heeney can at least put in an average performance and bring even just one of his teammates along with him they should do enough to take out their 3rd grand final in 4 years. Korrumburra aren't without hope and we have seen stranger things happen but it would have to be the strangest of strange for an upset here. The final margin may be closer than averages would suggest but we are still predicting a Viking victory. Nuytsland 1325 v Korumburra 1280 to take out the grand final by 45 points.
What an amazing read, you have great insight into both teams and must have been reading my thoughts on the availability of Amiss v Humphries v McKay in the end an injury made the decision easy. When trading out Greene I honestly thought Cunnington would be his replacement but not to avail my forward line wouldn't look so weak Really appreciate the write up, no pressure to hold the cup three times.
Cheers Cunnington’s season has been pretty brutal. I remember feeling like I had no chance to match the Vikings when I saw that he was going to be a forward!
6/9 Little resistance from the flies, scores level but Vikings have 3 players up there sleeve NV 859/9/95 KB 860/12/71
7/9 two huge games from Martin and Kelly putting on some scoreboard pressure Taylor a late out no coverage in the backline NV 859/9/95 KB 1082/14/77
Commentators are calling this early its season over Blowflies , gallant effort but way too many passengers running out of legs at the final hurdle. NV 1159/13/89 KB 1138/15/75
Too good again this year @bryzza. Great team you've put together! Well deserved win after a dominant season. Shame my squad couldn't put up more of a fight in the end. We needed a minor miracle to be competitive but got the opposite unfortunately. Back to the drawing board for the Flys next season to have another crack! 4th time lucky?...
Report to come Congratulations to everyone on another year, a close competition that without everyone's support and input would not be here today.