For the big dance we have Gundagai Grasshoppers v Marble Bar Misfits Charlies Opening Spelunkers v Nareewillock Nuffers Foul Bay Chickens v Cradle Mountain Devils Mt Beauty Uglies v Venus Bay Vultures For the Get Stuffed Zac we have: Waikikamoocow Incorrigibles v Dunsborough Dung Beetles Wagga Wagga Wombats v Iron Knob Codpieces Lovely Banks Lilacs v Wineglass Bay Packers Birdsville Battlers v Gariwerd Cockatoos Larrikin Lagoon Lefties v Whitsunday Warriors Wow wee what a finals series Adam and the Chooks (sounds like a great name for a band) taking on the uber consistent @dmandrews led Devils We have the girls punching on Liz Cambage style, @snoz reckoning @Len 's mob are the easiest kill of the top 8, and a seriously tasty match between @bama & @HeavyMen 's Uglies vs @Fitzy And quite fittingly. @That KI Guy gets to take on the Warriors to determine who is more shit out of the two of them.
Crap. Going to get monstered by cave dwellers. Good luck Bandit - both of our mobs have improved a lot this season and happy that one of us will get through to the second week of finals.
Provisional Spelunkers team to take on @chris88, I am fairly sure this will change after teams are announced tonight
Provisional Warriors team to take on @That KI Guy, this too will change after teams are announced tonight
Nuffers provisional mob for the weekend. Let's see if there's any changes. Paddy Dow may get a game, creating another difficult list management decision for next season.
Daniels is suspended https://www.gwsgiants.com.au/news/1397855/giants-challenge-bedford-suspension-while-daniels-to-miss
Saw that re: Daniels, Tassie ... damn. Yet Murphy is somehow fit. Strange one .... I will have to do some shuffling.
Should have all bases covered for the big clash! Have extra cool rooms, a bus load of er …. Ladies coming (no pun intended ) from the big smoke, new bbqs for those who can eat between cans & a porta cot hidden in scoreboard for self. What could go wrong?
The defending premiers begin their assault on the Zac Dawson Who Cares Cup! Gariwerd Cockatoos @ Birdsville Battlers In: Buku Khamis, Jamaine Jones, Hugo Ralphsmith, & Touk Miller. Out: Chayce Jones, & Ben King. New: Jamaine Jones. DEF: Angus Brayshaw, Jamaine Jones, Hugo Ralphsmith, Buku Khamis (Ben King - oop) MID: Rory Laird, Touk Miller, Matt Crouch, Willem Drew (Harry Rowston) RUCK: Andrew Phillips FWD: Kade Chandler, Esava Ratugolea, Michael Frederick, Chad Wingard (Jack Buller) INT: Max Holmes, Sam Durham (Jordon Sweet)
Ahhhhhhh working late took my mind away tonight and didn’t change Fort out for Mcinerney…. That sucks haha. Made it hard for myself here ♂️
Cradle Mountain team for week 1 of the finals Out: J Hopper (concussion), S Sidebottom (foot) In: J Bowey, D Butler Def: N Vlastuin, J Lever, J Laverde, J Bowey (R Fox) Mid: J Steele, S Pendlebury,D Zorko, D Heppell (S Banks) Ruc: T English Fwd: A Naughton, L Murphy, J Gresham, D Butler (D Lloyd) Int: R Marshall, T Nankervis (J Riewoldt) Cradle Mountain have made two forced changes for their away final against ChiefRussell’s Foul Bay Chickens with midfielders Jacob Hopper and Steele Sidebottom out with concussion and a foot injury respectively. The Devils didn’t have any other pure mids to bring into the team so had to make some positional moves with defender/midfielder Dyson Heppell and forward/midfielder Dayne Zorko both moved into the midfield. Jake Bowey has been brought in to the 15 player team as a defender and Daniel Butler has been named in the CMD forward line. The Devils exploded out of the blocks in 2023 to be on top of the ladder after Round 2 with two wins and 2,805 points. After a second half fadeout 21 point loss in Round 3 to Charlies Opening in an all-Tassie battle Cradle Mountain consistently fell back through the pack for the remainder of the season. A Devils Round 17 win combined with a Wombats loss enabled CMD to sneak into the finals in eighth place with a record of nine wins and eight losses. After Foul Bay narrowly missed the finals for the first time in the club’s history with a ninth placed finish in 2022 the Chickens were on a mission to return to the finals. The Chickens finished third at the end of the 2023 home and away season with 14 wins and three losses. Amazingly it is the Chickens ninth top 4 finish from 12 ORFFA seasons. 2023 is the seventh season in a row commencing in 2017 that the Devils and Chickens have each finished in the top half of the ladder however during this time the two clubs didn’t play each other in the finals and consistently finished close to one another on the ladder. In 2017 and 2018 Foul Bay and Cradle Mountain both finished fifth to seventh and in three consecutive seasons from 2019 to 2021 the Chickens and Devils both finished in the top four. This weekend will be the second time that Foul Bay and Cradle Mountain have met in a final, with the first finals encounter being in the first week of the 2014 finals when the sixth placed Devils in the first finals appearance in the club’s history were thrashed by the first placed Chickens by 320 points, 1,436 to 1,116. Chickens best: Matthew Pavlich (143), Shane Mumford (112), Joel Selwood (110), Tom Liberatore (102), Patrick Dangerfield (99), Chris Judd (99). Devils best: Dayne Zorko (162), Dyson Heppell (119), David Zaharakis (97), Nick Vlastuin (92), Michael Hurley (90). History repeats nine years later with the Chickens again finishing five places higher than the Devils and the two clubs meeting in the first week of the finals. Each club has two players featured in their best players back in the 2014 final playing again in 2023 – Liberatore and Dangerfield for the Chickens along with Zorko and Heppell for the Devils. After injuring his quad in the warm up for the 2014 final against the Chickens Devils midfielder Scott Pendlebury gets an opportunity to play a final against Foul Bay in 2023. @ChiefRussell well done on another magnificent season for the Chickens, good luck for this weekend’s final.
Cheers @dmandrews , made the change. If it’s controversial in anyway I’ll accept McInerneys points being subtracted. Clearly meant to make the change though but life sometimes hey!
I won't post the whole Nuffers final team here, but the lovely Mr Murphy has been shuffled into the lineup for the suspended Mr Daniels.
Progress score at end of Saturday night. Foul Bay Chickens 1,199/13 Average 92.2 Lead Cradle Mountain Devils 572/7 Average 81.7 The Chickens top 10 players so far have scored 4 tons, 5 90’s and an 89 to accumulate 1,068 points. Foul Bay’s quartet of defenders were phenomenal to combine for 464 points with tons to rising star Harry Sheezel (135), Adam Saad (132) and Brennan Cox (108). The trio of Foul Bay midfielders to complete their game so far added 321 to the tally comprised of 125 to Patrick Dangerfield and matching 98’s for Tim Kelly and Blake Acres. Ben Cunnington in his last ever ORFFA game was impressive for Foul Bay off the bench to kick two goals and score 95 SuperCoach points. Another Chicken in his final ORFFA season Jack Ziebell scored 90 from the F1 position and was joined in the 90’s by F2 Kyle Langford (98). A 65 and two sub 40 scores from Foul Bay’s bottom three players to date has kept the door slightly ajar for the Devils to record a fightback victory. Most critically 2015 Les W Medal winner Todd Goldstein scored only 39 points in the ruck, well down on his average of 103 - ranked second for the Chickens. Although he has handed the captain’s armband on Scott Pendlebury continues to provide leadership for the Devils and scored 111 from the M2 position. Another two inaugural Devils were moved into the midfield to cover for CMD injuries suffered last week and both scored 85+, Dayne Zorko (94) and Dyson Heppell (89). Only one player from each of the four player lines at either end of the ground for this weekend’s final averages 75+ for CMD this season. In the match-up against Foul Bay the three defenders and one forward that are back in the change rooms combined for 278 points at an average of just under 70 points per player. Jayden Laverde who spent most of the season as an emergency made the most of his late season elevation into the 15 player team to score 86 from the Devils D3 position. Five of Cradle Mountain’s eight players in action on Sunday average 90+ comprised of D1 Nick Vlastuin, M1 Jack Steele and ruck trio, 2023 Les W Medal winner Tim English, Toby Nankervis and Rowan Marshall. On the flip side the forward line has been CMD’s biggest weakness all season and three forwards are playing on Sunday – Aaron Naughton, Jade Gresham and Daniel Butler with the latter two each averaging less than 70. If @ChiefRussell’s Foul Bay Chickens maintained their current advantage of 10.5 points per player they would record a convincing 158 point victory over Cradle Mountain. Five of the Devils six 90+ players are still to play so CMD are likely to lift their scoring rate to make a late charge and reduce the margin. If the 10 players in action on Sunday across the two teams played to their season to date averages Foul Bay would win by 84 points, 1,387 to 1,303. The Chickens duo playing on Sunday are small forward Jack Higgins and Foul Bay’s spiritual leader Tom Liberatore who averages a team-high 121 points in the midfield.