Round 6 – AFL Round 6 Date: Friday 22nd April ANZAC Round Lest We Forget Cradle Mountain Devils v Gundagai Grasshoppers Dunsborough Dung Beetles v Marble Bar Misfits Larrikin Lagoon Lefties v Birdsville Battlers Iron Knob Codpieces v Wineglass Bay Packers Waikikamoocow Incorrigibles v Whitsunday Warriors Wagga Wagga Wombats v Mount Beauty Uglies Foul Bay Chickens v Charlies Opening Spelunkers Lovely Banks Lilacs v Venus Bay Vultures Gariwerd Cockatoos v Nareewillock Nuffers
Lefties defensive mess Def - Markov, Hardwick, Perryman, MacDonald * Mid - Worpel, Anderson, Simpkin, Berry Ruck - Ladhams Fwd - Thomas, Xerri, SPP, Brodie (JJones) IC - Hayes, Georgiades
Once again the Cows welcome TiB and the Whits for the annual Pinot Cup fixture. Very fitting that it should be Anzac Weekend this year as a lot of memories will be rekindled. Tentative home side: D - N Newman, R Burton, B Williams, M O'Connor (K Coleman) M - B Crouch, T Mitchell, D Prestia, B Parfitt R - R O'Brien F - J Dunkley, Z Bailey, B Close, T Sparrow (J Finlayson) I - R Bonner, N Cox (N Answerth)
Cradle Mountain Devils Round 6 team: Out: T English (hamstring), J Lever (HS protocols) In: A Naughton, L Breust Def: D Rich, N Vlastuin, D Heppell, J Bowey (T Duryea) Mid: J Steele, S Pendlebury, D Zorko, J Redden (B Cook) Ruc: R Marshall Fwd: J Gresham, T Membrey, H Morrison, A Naughton (J Gunston) Int: T Nankervis, L Breust (B Brown) Cradle Mountain host the Gundagai Grasshoppers in a blockbuster Anzac Round clash with the winner set to consolidate their place in the top four in what looms as a high-scoring encounter. The third placed Hoopers lead the ORFFA in points for whilst the fourth placed Devils now rank third in that category following their 1527 last weekend to register the league’s second highest score of the season. @Snoz’s Hoppers scored an ORFFA season-high 1639 in Round 2 and are one win and points for ahead of CMD. Cradle Mountain have been forced to make two changes with forward/ruck Tim English missing due to a hamstring injury and defender Jake Lever out as a result of the HS protocols. English has been in career-best form averaging 122 points per game this season to be the number one ranked player at the Devils. Aaron Naughtion has been recalled after an impressive performance at State League level last round and fellow forward Luke Breust who wears the number 22 jumper for the Devils becomes the 22nd player to represent the club in the ORFFA during 2022.
Battlers for round 6. IN: McDonald, Berry, Budarick OUT: Kennedy, Hunter, Chapman DEF: Luke Ryan, Tom Doedee, Alex Witherden, Josh Battle, (Chayce Jones) MID: Adam Cerra, Bailey Smith, James Rowbottom, Luke McDonald RUCK: Finn Callaghan* FWD: Harry McKay, Dylan Moore, Sam Berry, Curtis Taylor IC: Logan McDonald, Connor Budarick
Marble Bar Misfits taking on the Dung Beetles DEFENDERS Jake Lloyd, Caleb Daniel, Zachary Williams, Lachie Whitfield - Nick Haynes MIDFIELDERS Josh Kelly, Callan Ward, Lachlan Sholl, David Mundy - Jake Stringer RUCKS Matthew Flynn FORWARDS Tim Taranto, Adam Treloar, Lachlan Weller, Will Hayward - Harrison Himmelberg INTERCHANGE Lincoln McCarthy, Tom McCartin
As expected the Devils and Hoppers encounter has developed into a shootout, late in the third quarter both teams are averaging 95+ points per player. One more Cradle Mountain player has taken the field thus far which has contributed to the Devils leading, however the Hoppers are averaging 2.2 points per more player. Cradle Mountain Devils 1061/11 Average of 96.5 5 Tons including Nick Vlastuin 155 and Jack Steele 140 @snoz ‘s Gundagai Grasshoppers 987/10 Average of 98.7 5 Tons including Clayton Oliver 168 and the captain Patrick Cripps 134 on his return from a one week hamstring injury. The four Devils to take the field on Anzac Day in front of a passionate home crowd are Hawks duo Harry Morrison and Luke Breust followed by the two captains in the later game at the MCG in Dyson Heppell and Devils captain Scott Pendlebury. The five Hoppers to play on Anzac Day that will attempt to reel in the 74 point deficit are Callum Mills, Paddy McCartin and Jai Newcombe followed by Brodie Grundy and Jack Ginnivan. A Hoppers victory would move them to five wins and open up a two-game gap on CMD, however if the Devils win both teams will have a record of four wins and two losses with the Hoppers retaining the higher position on the ladder due to their points for advantage.
At the request of @TerryinBangkok the Pinot Cup match has taken place at our second ground in Bannockburn (Central Otago). Nothing is too good for one of the fathers of ORFFA. The game has seen quite a few lead changes with (worryingly) the visitors busy with Witts (143), Cameron (131), Lobb (120), Boak (118), and Ainswerth (115) having season best (or near season best) games. Luckily, a few cows were also in form - Dunkley (146), Bailey (135). O'Brien (133), and Prestia (105) getting amongst it. So as Anzac Day dawns TiB's men have totaled 1197 and trail by just 28 with McInerny (Justin not Oscar) to play. Titch has yet to play for the cows, who have 1225 on the board. Corned beef with white onion sauce - why break with tradition - will be served at the formal dinner this evening. Not the famed Bulls Hit Tavern version, but an advance tasting suggests it will be very acceptable. Oh, and three of the finest local pinots will be available. Not sure whether to go for the Valli "Out of the Shadows" 2012, the Carrick Excelsior 2017 or the 2018 Felton Road Block 3. Maybe we should "sample" all three and compare notes?
Official scores Cradle Mountain Devils 1,363 Lost to Gundagai Grasshoppers 1,549 By 186 points There had been much speculation during the first five rounds about what potential positional changes ORFFA coaches would make for Round 6 and beyond. Cradle Mountain elected to make veteran pure midfielders Scott Pendlebury and Dayne Zorko midfield/defenders to provide some additional flexibility whilst the Grasshoppers brains trust discussed long and hard whether to make pure mid Jai Newcombe a mid/fwd but in the end opted to enable Newcombe, still in his first 12 months of ORFFA football to concentrate purely on his midfield craft for now. These positional allocations proved to be the centrepiece of a tactical battle between the Devils and Hoppers throughout their Round 6 encounter. Whilst Pendlebury and Zorko both started in the midfield they both had stints in defense, enabling CMD to create a plus one in defense which was often Nick Vlastuin. Rather than having a plus one in defense the Hoppers decided to use their extra player at the stoppages which was frequently Jai Newcombe. Realising he will face strong competition for his spot in the Hoppers best 15 Newcombe decided that a better course of action than going ball chasing was to play a team-oriented role to put legal blocks on the opponents of his midfield teammates which contributed to Mills, Oliver and to a lesser extent Cripps running amok and combining superbly with ruck Grundy to win clearances at boundary throw-ins and around the ground stoppages. With the plus one in defense the Cradle Mountain defenders easily defeated the Hoppers forwards, however on the flipside the Hoppers were making full use of their extra player at the stoppages to dominate in the midfield. With five minutes remaining in the third quarter the Devils trailed the Hoppers by 20 points in a shoot-out, however Gundagai then started to get on top, extending the lead at three quarter time to 61 points – 1,140 to 1,079. CMD continued with their positional experiment in the last quarter only to be smashed by the Hoppers in the fourth term 284 points to 409 which resulted in Gundagai being convincing winners by 186 points. Congratulations @snoz on an extremely impressive Hoppers performance and much deserved victory. Gundagai’s starting quartet of midfielders combined for a mammoth 629 points – a 155 point improvement on their imposing season to date average of 474 points to the end of Round 5. Callum Mills (214) led the way with an extremely rare double ton whilst Clayton Oliver (168) and Patrick Cripps (139) combined for more than 300 points between them which meant that the Hoppers three highest scoring mids for the game racked up 521 points between them. The other three Hoppers mids combined for just over 300 points comprised of Lachie Neale (108) and interchange duo Hugh McCluggage (113) and a team-oriented Jai Newcombe (83), resulting in the Hoppers midfield six-pack accumulating 825 points at 137.5 points per player. Mills and Oliver were the first and second ranked players in the entire ORFFA for Round 6 with Mills registering a new ORFFA season-high. Devils M1 Jack Steele (140) won the head to head dual with Lachie Neale and Scott Pendlebury scored 109 splitting his time between midfield and defense however Zorko and Redden each scored less than 75 which resulted in the Devils four starting midfielders combining for 378 points, 251 points less than the Hoppers with their Mills led midfield masterclass. The Cradle Mountain defenders outscored the Gundagai forwards by 193 points, 448 to 255. Three Devils defenders scored tons - Nick Vlastuin with a team-high 155 along with Daniel Rich (106)and Jake Bowey (106). Jack Ginnivan (80) was the pick of the Hoppers forwards, kicking five goals. THIRTEEEEEEN (in Huddo voice) of the 30 players in the shoot-out at a strike rate of 43.33% reached triple figures comprised of six Devils and seven Hoppers. Players in this category that haven’t been mentioned above are Gundagai Grasshoppers defender Jacob Weitering with 119, an 83% improvement on his season to date average of 65 after Round 5 and two rucks – Hoppers sole ruck Brodie Grundy with a season-high 129 and Devils ruck Toby Nankervis with 107 after starting on the bench. Grundy was extremely unlucky to be relegated to the sixth best player on the ground and missed out on a Les W Medal vote, being behind teammates Mills (214 – 5 votes), Oliver (168 – 4 votes) and Cripps (139 – 1 vote) as well as Devils Vlastuin (155 – 3 votes) and Steele (140 – 2 votes). The Hoppers tally of 1,549 was the second highest score of the ORFFA season, surpassing the Devils score of 1,527 last round whilst the Hoppers/Devils combined tally of 2,912 is the highest aggregate this ORFFA season surpassing 2,811 from the Hoppers-1,639/Warriors-1,172 Round 2 game. After Round 6 the Grasshoppers are in third position on the ORFFA ladder with five wins, one loss and a league leading 1,393 points per game to be very well placed to record their sixth consecutive top four finish. Cradle Mountain’s ledger is balanced at three wins and three losses and they are in a log-jam of seven teams with this record from sixth to 12th which is partly due to some upset results early in the ORFFA season. The Devils rank third for points for with 1,310 points per game to be sixth on the ladder however have conceded a league-high 1,270 points per game and will have an increased focus on defense and being more accountable in the coming weeks. In Round 7 the Devils host the Lefties who are on a two-game winning streak and like CMD have a record of three wins and three losses.
1190? What is my team doing? Nowhere near good enough to beat Ant's parrots but they're going to start having delusions of adequacy.
Even a couple of spud efforts in the Chief's backline weren't enough to get the Spelunkers over the line. Well done @ChiefRussell
Two quite interesting statistical aberrations. Exactly the same points for (7556) for the season to date as @Len 's Misfits. Exactly the same points (1330) for round 6 as @anthak 's Cockies.
One of the best reviews ever written @dmandrews - thank you kindly sir, a lovely read. Oh and Callum Mills apologizes