ORFFA Round 4 - Bye Bye Byes (not you, NSync) Round "As the AFL conducts its traditional South Australian gathering, ORFFA teams and their coaches are having their own celebrations by waving bye bye to the byes of the first few weeks of season 2025. Full slates of nine games are now the norm for all rounds left in the ORFFA season (bar that pesky Round 11 just before mid-season). So no more checking the bottom of each week's AFL fixture to check which gaps need to be filled in our squads. Full strength squads! Yes! Full strength squads hampered only by injuries! Yes! Full strength squads hampered only by injuries and selection dilemmas! Yes!" - chris88....................................... Cradle Mountain Devils 1290 def Wineglass Bay Packers 1126 Both teams keep their streaks alive with the Devils undefeated and the Packers winless through the first 4 games of the 2025 season. Despite being at opposite ends of the ladder, the Packers put up a good fight in this one, led well by Lachie Ash (137) and George Hewett (132), both scoring better than the Devils best Tobys, Toby Greene (127) and Toby Nankervis (125). Larrikin Lagoon Lefties 970 lost to Lovely Banks Lilacs 1143 Commish did a good job picking the Lilacs team whilst their team staff are away on holiday, as they got back on the winners list after two straight losses their last two games. This result keeps the Lefties winless from their 4 games despite scoring more overall points than the Packers' team immediately above them on the ladder. Both teams had two centurians each this game, with the Lilacs Isaac Heeney (118) and Archie Roberts (107) too good for the Lefties Noah Anderson (113) and Sam Powell-Pepper (101). And what is going on with Tristan Xerri who couldnt even take advantage of the Lilac's first choice ruck Mason Cox not getting up for this game, scoring just 83 for the Lefties against the Lilacs makeshift ruckman Lachie Jones (37)! (I feel so stupid trading him into my supercoach team after round 1 ) Birdsville Battlers 1214 lost to Charlies Opening Spelunkers 1428 Birdsville were very close to being this week's highest scoring loser, but they couldnt contain a rampaging Spelunkers outfit who won this one by 214 points! The Spelunkers are smashing everyone this year so far and currently hold the best % in the FA, with an average winning margin of 307.5 points per game! The Spelunkers were well led in this one by Andrew Brayshaw with a massive 155 and 5 other centurians, whereas the Battlers weren't disgraced but couldnt keep up with just 4 centurians, their best being Bailey Smith with 126. Gundagai Grasshoppers 1406 def Waikickamoocow Incorrigibles 1087 The Grasshoppers are averaging 1383.25 points per game so far this season to be the FA's highest scoring team thus far, by quite a margin on 2nd. Their high scoring style of play has helped them to 4 straight wins to sit atop the FA ladder at this stage of the season. The Incorrigibles have also been scoring quite well this season but havent been able to convert those performances into wins as they sit in 11th place on the ladder despite having the 7th best points total. The Hoppers best this game was Hugh McCluggage (135) and best for the Incorrigibles was Josh Treacy (130). Venus Bay Vultures 928 lost to Mount Beauty Uglies 1411 A massive win by the reigning premiers, achieving the biggest margin of all games this week of 483 points! The Vultures are looking like they'll be the whipping boys of the comp this year as they go into full tank mode for the first time ever. They are currently this season's lowest scoring team and also have the most points against! Not a good combination! They even struggled to field a side this week without byes affecting their squad! The Vultures best this game was Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera with 133, whilst the Uglies were led brilliantly by this year's Les W Medal front runner, Max Gawn, with a massive 145 in the ruck. Nareewillock Nuffers 1217 lost to Gariwerd Cockatoos 1274 The Nuffers are this week's highest scoring loser and will be disappointed with their first loss of the season coming against the Cockatoos who are up and about in the early season, this being their 2nd win so far after having won just 4 and 5 games in the last two total seasons. Gariwerd had four players in this game who were part of their 2022 premiership side and all of them scored 100s this week, led by Max Holmes with a massive 147. The Nuffers were undersized in the ruck with Harrison Jones (24) struggling against the Cockies' ruck tandem of Jordon Sweet (114) and Sam Draper (110); whilst Matt Rowell was the Nuffers' best with 126. Wagga Wagga Wombats 1149 def Dunsborough Dung Beetles 1117 This week's closest game with a margin of just 32 points, saw the Wombats come out victorious over the Dung Beetles! The Wombats are flying so far this season with 3 wins from the first 4 rounds, but what is even more remarkable is that their % is just 91.4 despite having just one loss (a huge 612 point loss to the Devils last week!) - its by far the lowest % of the top-8 teams. In fact these two teams have a very similar % with the Dungbeetles sitting on 89.6 from one win and three losses. Whilst the ruck duel was fascinating in this game with the Wombats' Will Setterfield (55) taking on the Beetles' Mac Andrew (25), both teams were fairly even all across the field. The exception was the Wombats Connor Rozee who stared with BOG honours, he started the game on the interchange but I hear he played predominantly down back after he came on field in a new role which he thrived in. Beetles best was Tom Green (113). Iron Knob Codpieces 889 lost to Junee Jaguars 1132 Junee are this week's lowest scoring winner, but they did enough to beat the lowly Codpieces by 243! The Codpieces have won just 18 total games from their last five seasons combined (an average of 3.6 wins per season) and their fans and team staff must be wondering when they will get out of this rut! Hopefully the performances of Jack Sinclair and Nic Martin give them some hope as they each scored 108, but they were no match for the Jaguars' best, Caleb Daniel (116) and Josh Kelly (115).
Well done Ant! My mob need to pull their collective fingers out. Really disappointing season thus far, not help by injuries to good players and my young Richmond ruck/Fwd Samson Ryan not getting a game despite killing it in the VFL. Tom Brown has taken a step forward, and Bailey Dale has been excellent. Forwards have been all over the place and hurt by injury absences too. Already looking to the mid season trading/chopping block, as a couple of my forwards need a change of scenery I think.