AFL Round 20 – Thursday 24th July ORFFA Round 15 - The Final/s Countdown Ah, the final countdown has returned for another season. The joy. That earworm ... delightful! "Its the final countdown. De-ne-ne-ne. Duh-duh-duh-det-dah. De-ne...." This week is indeed the final/s countdown. For some it is a countdown to finals with top four spots on the line. For others it is the last chance saloon to make the top eight. For other others, it is an excuse to limber up for the Zac Dawson Cup or start the countdown for a high PSD pick. Whatever your countdown may be, may it be enjoyable, entertaining and not involve too much hair, leather or really bad plays on words like the name of this round. Charlies Opening Spelunkers v Cradle Mountain Devils Lovely Banks Lilacs v Waikickamoocow Incorrigibles Wineglass Bay Packers v Mount Beauty Uglies Larrikin Lagoon Lefties v Gariwerd Cockatoos Birdsville Battlers v Dunsborough Dung Beetles Gundagai Grasshoppers v Junee Jaguars Venus Bay Vultures v Iron Knob Codpieces Nareewillock Nuffers v Wagga Wagga Wombats
The Spelunkers are appreciative of the FIXture committee minimising the travel for the team in the final home and away round. The short bus trip to Cradle Mountain will be a welcome relief to the long flight across to New Zealand this week. The Spelunkers are considering lobbying the Association for permission to play all games in Tasmania next season... and the ORFFA commissioner has been rumoured to be in violent agreement... but apparently there is some conflict of interest. Anyway... provisional Spelunkers team to take on @dmandrews and the Devils this weekend.
Speaking of bad hair, I offer Luke Jackson and Gryan Miers as my submissions for bad hair. @anthak has me beat though I reckon. Special mention to Will Ashcroft, who has hair that is both bordering on offensive, but also makes me incredibly jealous! If only I could have carried that when i was his age
A number of Nuffers have pretty boring hair. I think perhaps Chad Warner might lead the way in terms of questionable hair ... Mason Redman and Ollie Hayes Brown not far behind.
Couple of changes this week and a bit of ruck lotto. D - Dale, Clark, Idun, HH M - Rowell, Gulden, Serong, Richards R - Sims for now, pending selection fun F - Warner, Ross, West, Voss I/C - Redman, Kelly If at the start of the season anyone had've nominated those four players as my starting forwardline I might've laughed. But Ross and West have been really encouraging this season, while Voss has earned another game. They'll have to keep it up - don't think Daniels or JHF will be back in time for ORFFA finals.
I’m curious to see the final points for/against % for the top-8 teams at the end of this round. Looking through the honour board thread, from all the years we posted % results, the lowest % for a top-8 team was 98.08. It looks like at least two teams will be lower than that this season.
WTH happened with that last free kick? Melbourne couldn’t get their shit together even after they had a second chance
I am actually really confused about what was happening. The ump called them back to set up and then just paid the free kick anyway. It was weird. The saints players were onto it more than Melbourne’s, that’s for sure.
Congratulations @Bandit on an unbeaten H&A season. Don't think it's been done before. When the cows won the premiership in 2017 their H&A record (under the old 18 team comp) was 16 wins and 1 loss. We lost the first game of the season to the (then) Misfits, before winning the remaining 19 games.
In 2025 the Charlies Opening Spelunkers have become the fourth team in ORRFA history to have an undefeated Home and Away season. Details of these teams and whether they won the premiership is provided below: ORFFA teams that have been undefeated during a home and away season Season Club H&A Finals 2012 Foul Bay Chickens 17-0 No finals played, won premiership 2014 Iron Knob 17-0 Won 3 finals and the premiership 2018 Venus Bay 17-0 Lost in week 1 of the finals 2025 Charlies Opening 15-0 To be determined The first team to have an undefeated home and away season was the Foul Bay Chickens in the inaugural 2012 season however due to the late start to the season there were no finals so the Chickens won the premiership by winning all 17 home and away games. Two years later Iron Knob Codpieces became the first and so far only ORFFA team to win all 20 games in a season, going 17-0 in the h & a season and 3-0 in finals to win the 2014 premiership. Strangely Iron Knob didn’t even have the highest points for in 2014, that honour went to the Foul Bay Chickens, having the edge over the Codpieces 24,068 to 23,862. This equates to a Chickens advantage of 12.12 points per game over the Codpieces. The most recent ORFFA team to have an undefeated home and away season were the Venus Bay Vultures in 2018. At the very first finals hurdle the Vultures plummeted back down to earth, being defeated by the seventh placed Devils in one of the biggest upsets in ORFFA history. The Devils went on to make and host the 2018 Grand Final only to be defeated by the 8th placed Marble Bar Misfits. I Six of the 12 GF berths from 2013 to 2018 were filled by teams that finished 7th (3 times) or 8th (3 times), incredibly including two 7 vs 8 Grand Finals which were both won by 8th. Whilst the Cows fell one win short of going 17-0 in the 2017 h & a season they had their revenge over their Round 1 nemesis by defeating the Misfits by 20 points in the Grand Final. From 2019 to 2024 the underdogs haven’t fared as well with no team that finished 6th to 8th making a Grand Final. The home and away top dog hasn’t been able to reach the summit on ORFFA Grand Final day from 2018 onwards. The Cows in 2017 are the last minor premiers to win an ORFFA Grand Final. From 2018 to 2024 the away side won all six ORFFA Grand Finals (there was no GF in 2020 due to COVID-19). Whilst form is on the side of Charlies Opening recent ORFFA history is not. The Spelunkers will have to defy recent history and the minor premiers curse to strike from pole position to win the club’s maiden ORFFA premiership. Congratulations @Bandit on Charlies Opening winning the 2025 ORFFA minor premiership and becoming the first team in seven years to have an undefeated ORFFA home and away season. 2025 is the third consecutive season that the Spelunkers have finished in the top two at the end of the home away season with the club breaking through to win their first minor premiership this year. Whilst the Vultures didn’t win the premiership in 2018, they were delayed not denied and won the ORFFA premiership the very next year ear after finishing fifth at the end of the 2019 home and away season. I am very confident that Charlies Opening will become an ORFFA premiership team but can they follow in the footsteps of the Codpieces and win all 3 finals this season to have a 20-0 season or will they lose a final in 2025 and face a longer journey to get redemption and reach the summit in a later season like the Vultures? If the Spelunkers win the 2025 Grand Final they will be the first ORFFA club to achieve the season treble of 1) having an undefeated home and away season, 2) winning each final they play to win the ORFFA premiership and 3) being ranked first for points for during the home and away season. More detail on ORFFA finals history will be provided in my Week 1 Finals review.
I call phooey - The Hoppers have 1000 more points against than these Spelunker wannabe's..... Actually, every team 2nd thru 8th has so much more points against - so get stuffed Bandito