It’s all heating up – State of Origin Round 2 Now that the ORFFA has moved on from the MSD (in record time, well done Len), attention shifted to Round 2 of the State of Origin series. This week the Vic/Tas guys kicked back in the Lazy boy and only fielded a team of 11, whilst the Rest fielded 13 of their so called best, with Dangerwood the only players sitting on the pine this week. After the games have been reviewed under PriceWaterHouse scrutiny, the Vic/Tas boys took the chocolates this weekend, also taking over the lead sitting on 1655 with The Others sitting on 1642. As it stands right now, if the remaining players from both sides play to their averages in Round 3, the Vic/Tas team will be champions on 1748, with the Rest stumbling to a 1706. The Ebert v Merrett played out it’s second act on the weekend, with Zach coming out and telling @anthak to get stuffed with a 135… maybe not the 141 that Ebert posted, but with Brisbane flogging Freo I am not sure the Head will improve on his first round score… so we will call it a draw. The Hits : Aside from Merrett, @Fitzy 's Venus Bays boys stood up for Vic/Tas this weekend, Docherty with a 144 and Kreuzer making Mummy look silly with a 132. @Jen 's sole Lovely Banks representative Zorko the Magnificent also went large posting a 129. For the Rest, Laird responded to @Len 's threats to post an outstanding 134, Iron’s Knob’s Jack McCrae belted a first up 123 and @snoz 's Lachie Neale a serviceable 125 after seeing Len in the local pub. The Misses : Rory Sloane was an abomination for the Vic/Tas guys, failing to improve on his round 1 score of 89 with a very ly 66. The Bont was down with a 92, and Mitch Wallis coughed and splurted to an 82. For the bad guys, Taylor Adams showed he can’t walk the talk, posting a 68 after sledging the Dees during the week, Murphy, Roberton and McDonald were all down but Jeremy Cameron hasn’t repaid the faith, notching up a huge 50 to support his 87 the week before. Scores for round 2 are below for those interested…. Names in brackets are how many points each player will improve if he plays to his average. Round 2 Vic / Tas : 1655 Sam Docherty 144 Michael Hurley 118 Kade Simpson 82 Rory Sloane 66 Scott Pendlebury 96 Marcus Bontempelli 92 Matthew Kreuzer 132 Mitch WALLIS 82 Isaac Heeney 131 Dayne Zorko 129 Zac Merrett 135 Still to come: S. Docherty, K. Simpson (9), A. Rance (26), M. Bontempelli (19), D. Martin, M. Kreuzer M. Wallis (19), E. Yeo (5), T. Nankervis (15), I. Heeney, D. Zorko The Others : 1642 Taylor Adams 68 Rory Laird 134 Dylan ROBERTON 83 Tom MCDONALD 67 Tom Mitchell 113 Marc Murphy 86 Sebastian Ross 101 Shane Mumford 99 Jackson Macrae 123 Luke DAHLHAUS 103 Jeremy Cameron 50 Lance Franklin 95 Lachie Neale 125 Still to come: D. Roberton (20), T. McDonald (18), P. Dangerfield, M. Murphy (25), S. Ross (1), J. Macrae, L. Dahlhaus, L. Franklin, J. Selwood
Nothing else for it but to resign and hang my head in shame. Sorry to the members of the Best - I failed you.
Impressive, shame that poor planning means you need 3 trips to get a team across, we'll still lap you
State of Origin : Round 3 My name is Maximus Decimus Banditus, commander of the Armies of the South, General of the Spelunker Legions, loyal servant to the true emperor, @Len of the Marble Bar. My fellow southern Generals assembled a team of men so powerful, so intimidating, that it reduced the lauded Northern Knights to mere mortals. We knew that if it bled, we could kill it, and boy did it bleed. Legions came from far and wide to represent the south. The Gariwerd counsel was heard to mutter “We know we can fight, but it's our wits that make us men, we should go with the Ebert, not the Zerrett”, but his pleas fell on deaf ears, aside from his friend from Darraweit. I shall take that mistake to my grave, however I am more than happy to write that, after three weeks of blood being spilt, the spoils of victory belong to the Vic/Tas squads, with an absolute belting… 1843 to 1723. Alas for our fierce rivals from the North, a large serving of get stuffed pie was dished up nice and hot from them to chow down on. Joel Selwood and Dangerfield can hold their heads high, posting 149 and 151 respectively, but the selection of only one ruckman came back to bite, with Mummy (99) being beaten up by The Nank (83) for then big Kreuzer (144) to stomp all over. Line by line here are the results with the numbers in brackets the performance against their 2017 average: Defence: Vic-Tas/The Others Sam Docherty 153 (+34) / Taylor Adams 105 (-2) Michael Hurley 118 (+20) / Rory Laird 134 (+27) Kade Simpson 142 (+46) / Dylan Roberton 119 (+15) Alex Rance 109 (+19) / Tom McDonald 103 (+17) All players can hold their heads high except for Adams who was well held. Docherty and Simpson activated beast mode, and Rory Laird responded well to his first round 59 posting a massive score to shut the naysayers up Mids: Rory Sloane 89 (-27) / Patrick Dangerfield 149 (+23) Scott Pendlebury 112 (-4) / Tom Mitchell 113 (-3) Marcus Bontempelli 92 (-18) / Marc Murphy 97 (-13) Dustin Martin 165 (+48) / Seb Ross 120 (+17) Vic/Tas had more misses than hits in the mids, with Sloane Dog Millionaire and The Bont stinking it up. Dusty offset Paddy Dangerfield and then some, but the chocolates go to The Others in the guts Ruck: Matthew Kreuzer 144 (+34) / Shane Mumford 99 (-5) As mentioned earlier, running with a single ruck left Mummy with too much to do. Forwards: Mitch Wallis 114 (+10) / Jackson McCrae 123 (+22) Elliot Yeo 117 (+8) / Luke Dahlhaus 103 (+4) Toby Nankervis 83 (-13) / Lance Franklin 95 (+3) Isaac Heeney 131 (+28) / Jeremy Cameron 87 (-6) The Nank was busy getting into scuffles with Mummy, and didn’t churn out the results @dmandrews had hoped for. Jeremy Cameron was serviceable, but didn’t pull out the joker The Others had hoped for in JJK’s absence. Bench: Dayne Zorko 143 (+28) / Lachie Neale 125 (+10) Zac Merrett 135 (+23) / Joel Selwood 151 (+39) All bench players went hard at it and certainly justified their selections. Ebert outscored Merrett but only by a handful of points. That’s it for this years SOO Carnival… back to the normal stuff for the rest of the season!