Bloody stupid insects...we lose Curnow & Simpkin last week, now Lachie Neale. Ugh ! Hate this game sometimes. Good Luck @dmandrews Out: Lachie Neale, Calsher Dear In: Tom McCartin, Lawson Humphries DEF: Saad, Mills, Powell, Zuthrie MID: Oliver, Dawson, Cripps, McCluggage RCK: Grundy FWD: Coniglio, Peatling, Rankine, McCartin I/C: Humphries, Newcombe
Spelunkers out of the gate early, 247/2... @chris88 's guys didn't bother turning up for the Pies vs Hawks, something about coming home like a freight train on Sunday, with 6 of his 15 playing Sunday
Nuffers mob to take on the Spelunkers D: HH, Idun, Dale, Clark M: Serong, Richards, Gulden, Rowell R: Brown x 0.5 F: Ross, Warner, West, Voss I/C: Redman, Keane No ruck for the Nuffers this week though I don't think it'll make much of a difference. Good luck Bandit, though I have an inkling you won't need it
Cradle Mountain Devils preliminary final team Out: W Milera (omitted), J Elliot (omitted) In: R Laird, T Greene Def: D Zorko, R Laird, N Vlastuin, J Battle (W Milera) Mid: S Pendlebury, J Steele, J Hopper, S Banks (R Ginbey) Ruc: T English Fwd: R Maric, S Mannagh, A Naughton, T Greene (P Wright) Int: T Nankervis, R Marshall (J Elliot) The Cradle Mountain Devils have made two changes to the team that had a home victory against reigning premiers, the Mount Beauty Uglies. Two high profile recruits during the past 18 months return to the CMD team for the road preliminary final against Gundagai, defender/midfielder Rory Laird and forward Toby Greene. Two players selected in the 2025 mid-season draft have both been omitted, forward Jamie Elliot and defender Wayne Milera with this duo demoted to being emergencies. Cradle Mountain have some flexibility across defense and the midfield with Laird and Sam Banks being def/mids. After scoring a ton as a starting mid last week Banks will again start in the midfield this week but will rotate positions with Laird throughout the game. The split in role will depend largely on who performs better in the match-up on Hoppers forward/midfielder Izak Rankine and what Rankine’s position playing time split is. Over the past five rounds the Hoppers have three players ranked in the ORFFA’s top 11 – ruck Brodie Grundy (1) along with midfielders Jordan Dawson (9) and Hugh McCluggage (11) so the Devils will have greater defensive accountability than normal. The Devils don’t have anyone in the ORFFA’s top 11 for this five round period but do have three players ranked from 12 to 22, ruck duo Tim English (15) and Rowan Marshall (22) along with defender Nick Vlastuin (18). This weekend the Devils play a road final against the Gundagai Grasshoppers for the third time, with the two teams having met previously in a 2021 preliminary final and a 2024 semi final. On the previous two occasions Cradle Mountain were closer to full strength which contributed to them upsetting the Grasshoppers. History is repeating with the Hoppers being without several best 15 players including midfield gun Lachie Neale, the Devils on the other hand are at full strength. Best of luck for the preliminary final @snoz, hopefully your Hoppers used all their bad luck before the start of the game and get a clear run at it over the weekend.
Going into the final block of games and the Spelunkers appear to have too much fire-power for the Nuffers. 1250 or so from 12 players vs 850 or so from 9. I can't fault how gallant the Nuffers have been. My half arsed forward line has again pulled off some improbable scoring - Ross and Voss, bravo - in the absence of higher credentialled (injured) teammates while Rowell and Serong have been brilliant in the midfield. The Nuffers just don't have the cattle, and even then, we'd need plenty of luck ... but we aren't going to get any as Bandit's brilliant team crank out ton after ton. If we reach 1400 I'll be overjoyed, and it'll confirm that the different path I took with this team at mid-season was the right way to go. Then we get to delist and trade the excess - and there's already a half dozen players identified there - and go again at the PSD. Hopefully that, as well as guys returning from injury, will set the path forward.
The preliminary final with Gundagai Grasshoppers hosting Cradle Mountain Devils has had several lead changes so far. At close of play on Friday night: Gundagai Grasshoppers 294/3 Ave 98.0 Trailed Cradle Mountain Devils 298/3 Ave 99.3 The Grasshoppers fought back yesterday to gain the lead and at the close of play on Saturday which equates to the start of time-on in the third quarter: @snoz ‘s Gundagai Grasshoppers 919/10 Ave 91.9 lead Cradle Mountain Devils 872/10Ave 87.2 Each club has five players taking the field on Sunday: GWS vs North Melbourne, 1.40 pm AEST Grasshoppers S Coniglio Devils T Greene Melbourne vs Western Bulldogs, 3.15 pm AEST Grasshoppers C Oliver Devils T English & A Naughton West Coast vs Adelaide, 5.10 pm AEST Grasshoppers J Dawson, I Rankine & J Peatling Devils R Laird & R Maric Both teams have two players averaging 95 + in action on Sunday, midfielder Dawson (113) and forward/midfielder Rankine (99) for the Hoppers versus ruck Tim English (110) and defender/midfielder Laird (100) for the Devils. The Hoppers vs Devils preliminary final shapes to be a thriller and the game might be decided in time on of the last quarter.