ORFFA Round 14 (AFL Round 20) - Rage Delist Round - teams and chat

does not quite match your description @chris88 but Kiddy Coleman is the one who if I don't pick him (if and when he is available, which has not been often this year) posts a monster score. And when I do pick him, gets injured early. I wonder what he will do this round?

edit: just an emergency, not even in the playing 23. Darn.

 

Cradle Mountain have made two changes to their team for their final home game of the 2026 ORFFA home and away season. After suffering injuries during the Round 13 victory against the Jaguars, forward/midfielder Toby Greene (quad) and forward Shaun Mannagh (hamstring) are both out. The Devils medical staff passed Mannagh fit to take his place against the Spelunkers, however the club’s selection committee opted to be conservative and have him spend a week on the sidelines. Defender Jake Lever and forward Aaron Naughton are the two inclusions.

For their penultimate game of the 2026 ORFFA home and away season the third placed Cradle Mountain Devils are hosting fellow Tasmanian team Charlies Opening Spelunkers who are second on the ladder. The Devils have a record of nine wins and four losses and rank fourth with 1,237.6 points. @Bandit’s Spelunkers average an ORFFA-high 1,373.2 points per game and have had 11 wins and two losses to lock in a top two spot with two rounds to go. The 135.6 points for per game advantage that Charlies Opening have over Cradle Mountain is slightly greater than the 130.8 point gap from the fourth ranked Devils to the 15th ranked Uglies (1,106.8 points per game). In the first round after the mid-season break Cradle Mountain lost to Mount Beauty by 51 points in the highest scoring game of Round 11. After winning their first 10 games of 2026 up until the mid-season break the Spelunkers also had a stumble after the mid-season break, suffering back-to-back losses to the Shark Bay Tigersharks by 44 points in Round 11 and to the ladder leading Gundagai Grasshoppers by 121 points, 1,379 to 1,500 in Round 12.

The Round 14 game between the Devils and Spelunkers is the first time they have played against each other since they met on the biggest stage of all, the ORFFA Grand Final in 2025. A dominant Charlies Opening team won their first 17 games of the 2025 season comprised of 15 home and away games and two finals to advance to the Grand Final. Cradle Mountain finished fourth on the ladder in 2025 with 10 wins and five losses and could draw on the experience of winning the 2021 Grand Final. The highly talented Spelunkers on the other hand were playing in their first ORFFA Grand Final in 2025. The first half of the 2025 Grand Final was a shoot-out with the underdog Devils holding a 23 point lead at half-time, 721 to 698. The third quarter is often refereed to as the premiership quarter and it proved to be the case in the 2025 ORFFA Grand Final. The Spelunkers responded to their biggest challenge of the season to outscore the Devils 279 to 225 points in the third quarter to gain the ascendancy and a 31 point lead at three quarter time. Charlies Opening and Cradle Mountain were evenly matched in a thrilling last quarter and the Spelunkers defeated the Devils by 26 points 1,306 to 1,280 to win their first ORFFA premiership. The best two players on the ground were the Spelunkers M1 and M2 – Marcus Bontempelli (148) and Nick Daicos (133).

Now in 2026 the Spelunkers are the hunted after having one of the best ORFFA seasons of all-time in 2025. One of the take aways for the Devils from the 2025 Grand Final was that it was going to be extremely difficult to defeat Charlies Opening competing player vs player, especially in the midfield where five Spelunkers averaged 100+ points per game in 2025. Cradle Mountain have a more versatile team in 2025 having increased their number of DPP’s which has enabled them to rotate more players through the midfield. The Devils 2025 Grand Final included two DPP’s in the 15 player team, defender/midfielder Sam Banks at M4 and F/M Ryan Maric at F2. The Charlies Opening Round 14 team doesn’t include any DPP’s whilst their opponent, the Devils have six DPP’s including three F/M’s, Jordan De Goey, Darcy Wilson and Ed Langdon. The other three DPP’s in the CMD 15 player team are ruck/forward duo Rowan Marshall and Peter Wright along with mid season swingman recruit, D/F Darcy Byrne-Jones. Three of the Devils emergencies are DPP’s with 2025 Grand Final team members D/M duo Banks and Maric being joined in this category by F/M Tyler Sonsie.

Charlies Opening and Cradle Mountain have very different team structures in terms of DPP’s and age-profile. The Spelunkers have four players born in the 2000’s that are entrenched in their team, midfielders Nick Daicos (2003) and Will Ashcroft (2004), along with ruck Luke Jackson (2001) and defender Nick Blakey (2000). The oldest players in COS’ Round 14 team are midfield duo Marcus Bontempelli and Zach Merret who were both born in 1995. Conversely there are players born in the 1980’s than the 2000’s in Cradle Mountain’s team. The Devils have the two oldest players in the ORFFA – 37 year old defender Dayne Zorko (1989) and 38 year old midfielder Scott Pendlebury (1988). The solitary player born in the 2000’s that is in the CMD team is 20 year old midfielder/forward Darcy Wilson (2005). The players that complete the podium for youngest Cradle Mountain players in their Round 14 team are 26 year old forward Aaron Naughton (1999) and 27 year old defender Josh Battle (1998).

Charlies Opening have seven players in their Round 15 team that are averaging triple figures, a significant advantage over the Devils that have two players in this category. On the flipside the Devils have an advantage in terms of players averaging 80+, 12 to 10. CMD have seven players with an average in the 80’s compared to one Spelunkers player.


Average CMD
100+ 2
90-99 3 (5)
80-89 7 (12)
Sub 80 3

Average COS
100+ 7
90-99 2 (9)
80-89 1 (10)
Sub 80 5

Cradle Mountain Devils team and progress score for Round 14 home game against the Spelunkers

Out: S Mannagh (hamstring), T Greene (quad)
In: J Lever, A Naughton

Def: D Zorko, J Battle, D Byrne-Jones, J Lever 87 (S Banks) 87/1
Mid: J Steele 94, J De Goey 65, S Pendlebury 94, D Wilson (R Maric) 253/3
Ruc: T Nankervis
Fwd: R Marshall, E Langdon 70, P Wright, A Naughton (S Mannagh) 70/1
Inter: T English, N Vlastuin (T Sonsie)

410/5 Average 82


Charlies Opening Spelunkers

Def: L Whitfield, N Blakey, J Short, L Duggan (S Grlj)
Mid: M Bontempelli, N Daicos 143, W Ashcroft, A Brayshaw 91 (O Florent) 234/2
Ruc: L Jackson 94
Fwd: G Miers 52, J Waterman, A Neal-Bullen 65, B Close 86 203/3
Int: Z Merrett, L Meek (J Berry)

531/6 Average 88.5

Cradle Mountain Devils 410/5 Average 82

Trail

Charlies Opening Spelunkers 531/6 Average 88.5