In scene reminisces of a Rambo movie, Groote Eylandt is in lock down, flares are being set off, the score board is on fire, there's people everywhere. What was the score? What it a draw? Nobody knows, we'll have to await the official score. Please, please stay calm, no need for further blood to be spilled @Mick
Early calculations have the Smugglers slumping to 893, while the Grenades hit 1314 in a 421 point demolition @DamoH
No wondering the Groote Eylandt was on fire and everyone was going apeshit. Final score Cuda's 1,373 defeated by the Blowflys @Mick 1,377
BUNYIPS WIN Blanchetown Bunyips 1,192 def Hughenden Prairie Dogs 1,129 Yes Hughenden choked yet again in the last 3/9ths of a game, handing the Bunyips a win. There were wild scenes at Blanchtown as it has been a while since the Bunyips have won a game and this victory meant a lot to the coach and players. Despite a solid start from the usual Hughenden players Yeo (132), Shepard (109), Oliver (96) and Shiels (96) the rest may as well of not turned up, with average to sub par performances all over the park which allowed Blanchtown to claw their way back into the game for a win. The game was tough affair but it was the Ruck replacement O’Brien (123) in only his 7th game that swung the game in Blanchtown’s favour with no Hughenden ruck to oppose him, he was dominant with 35 hitouts and 17 disposals. His first use of the ball allowed Steele (98), Walsh (89) to feed the ball freely to the forwards with Cameron (101) having another outstanding game after his injury problems of 2018. The backline did their job led by Houston (92) with the Hughenden forwards starved of opportunities. The Bunyips finally break the drought, much to the relief of the coach and it will be a long week of celebrating for the Blanchtown faithful. Hughenden fans are left to lament another season of lost opportunities and who they can pick up from the 2020 draft pool of youngsters. BAFFU Awards 3 Yeo (132) – HPD 2 O’Brien (123) - BB 1 Sheppard (109) - HPD
Congrats @martyg !!! I don't have my file with me to confirm the length of the streak but glad you've earned yourself a well deserved win.
So Gisborne and Cow Bay are in the top half of the ladder, @martyg and his Bunyips have won a game - surely next we see Ararat not make finals!?!
Match Report Bulls Vikings In a clash more likely to remembered for who didn't play rather than those who took to the field in an uninspiring, dour affair wherby the Vikings ran out 1232 to 1106 winners. Mitchell, Viney, Deledio, Newman and Roberton all failed to suit up for the Vikings whilst not to be outdone Whitfield, Weller, S Hill Vandenberg and Scrimshaw all missed for the Bulls with the defensive crisis seeing Josh Thomas deployed down back. The Vikings were just that bit better across the field in what both coaches will be hoping was a blip in terms of their scoring. To add some perspective approx 125ml fell on Mill Park on Thursday rendering the ground utterly useless. This didn't help the key forwards as both Rich Lynch (26 points) and McKay (6 points - surely close to an all time low for a non injured player) both struggled to deal with the boggy conditions. Grundy just shadowed McEvoy in the ruck whilst understudy English also shadowed Lobb as the Vikings won the hit outs 61 - 56 . In the guts Shuey, Ross and Crouch got the better of McCluggage, Coniglio and Rockliff. Maynard and Harbrow defied the conditions and provided ample run off half back for their respective teams. McLean and Adel Lynch were the best of some ordinary forward scoring. All in all it was ugly. 3 - Shuey - 133 2 - McCluggage - 126 1 - Harbrow - 116 Bring on Round 8! @bryzza
How to sum up the Prospectors season in one pic: ...and as it was once again when the Buffalos came all the way from Serengeti, should have been knackered and jetlagged, and instead walked away comfortable although not convincing winners. @wrightbrendan Coolgardie 1068 / 2 donuts / 82.1 Serengeti 1123 / 1 donut and half a ruckman / 83.2 No-one really knows what was going on during this game, but it certainly wasn't anything spectacular! The home side turned up with three emergencies, but then sent one home (J Smith) before the first bounce. The other two warmed up, but then when they were needed to replace the late withdrawal of forward O Fantasia, and the MIA interchange J Aish, the reserves were no-where to be found. Terrible planning and team management really. Having said that, there must have been something in the air, because Buffalo management promptly followed suit, by having two MIA players of their own (mid J Kelly and ruckman M Lobbe), but fortunately for the visitors, a little foresight had forward B Brown warming up in the middle, and he was quickly called upon to face up to the home-side's ruckman, big Stefan! This meant that the ruck contest became a no contest, with Stefan Martin thumping Big Ben all over the ground, taking out the giant tap award by 84 points, 117 to 33 (halved). Amazingly though, with such ruck dominance, you'd think that the Prospectors mids would have flourished, but they floundered, dramatically. J O'Meara was the best, with a paltry 75 points, while an injured B Ebert (can we please, please, PLEASE get through one game with a full healthy 15 players???) managed only 37, and looks highly unlikely to leave his bedroom this weekend. On the flip side of the coin, the contagion continued, with the 3-man Buffalos midfield being lead by Z Merrett on a below-average 94, while S Powell-Pepper spent more time explaining to the fans why his name is hyphenated, on his way to a terrible 54 points. It was worse than watching the Cows and the Dorkers. Down back for the locals, J Sicily had an average 80-point game, L Duggan pulled half his finger out with 76, J Macmillan held his own with 93, while the man so good they named him twice (thanks Wagga), Aliir, thumped his way to 116 points. The Buffalo forward line was the perfect Yang, with J Cameron (134) and D Parish (110) kicking goals left, right, and center (well, actually just center, because left and right are behinds), to drag their team to the win. This was contrasted with J Daniher raising more questions than answers on his way to 47 points, and the biggest surprise of the game, which managed to make its way onto Youtube (which is amazing, seeing as there were no cameras at the ground on the day, thank's to Ch7 not caring enough about regional footy), when P Dangerfield decided not to use his feet at all, for the entire game, and was seen handpassing the ball through is own goal (some say he was trying to give it off to a teammate, but I've seen the vision, and that's just wishful thinking!). This unusual tactic was ineffective, much like his handpassing in general, as he scored a worst-on-ground 26 points! At the other end of the field, the Prospector forwards were all at sea with Fantasia not out there, and Smith not stepping up when called upon. The three amigos managed 84, 69, and 56 points each, for a total of only 209 points... just not good enough in today's footy (it was amazing the similarities between this contest and the Cows-Dorkers game, considering neither team has any players associated with those two misfit AFL clubs). The Buffalo defence took it in pairs, with J Ridley (58) and C Ballard (53) spending all day in lockdown roles, while T Langdon (94), and D Thomas (96) taking turns being the loose man in defence and repelling multiple Coolgardie attacks. T Dumont found himself sitting on the bench by himself, but was good enough to take it upon himself to score enough for two players, all by himself, with a BOG 139 points. That was very good of himself, even if I do say so, myself. The opposition bench had double the firepower, and showed it, with T Thomas (107) and J Elliott (98) both performing well above expectations, but that wasn't a huge surprise when there were so many holes all over the field, and so many poor performances in the middle of the ground. This was definitely the spectacle of the match, watching the interchange players fight it out. To the votes: 3 - T Dumont, Coolgardie, 139 2 - J Cameron, Serengeti, 134 1 - S Martin, Coolgardie, 117 All in all, it was one for the books... the black book of "don't ever mention that game again" notoriety. Both teams and coaches will want to move on as quickly as possible. Talking about moving on, next week sees Coolgardie on the road to FARRRRQ, sorry, far north Queensland, to fight it out with the Crocs of Cow Bay. Meanwhile the Tanzanians will be continuing their weight-loss road trip to country Victoria, as the try to squash the insect-eating Armadillos in Ararat. Good luck to all four teams.
Cheers for the write up @JPK Definitely not one for the memory bank, although 66 was actually Ben Brown's already halved score of 131.. Management wasn't smart enough to switch players around and fill the other empty spot so we could take advantage of the big-haired one's massive score
Well there you go. I was looking though the TSL page to get my summary, as I hadn't completed my spreadsheet, and couldn't be bothered. Clearly I should, to not make mistakes like that in the future. Either way, Stefan won the ruck contest, the Buffalos won the game, and we'll never talk about any of it ever again!
Gisborne Grenades 1312 defeated Christmas Island Smugglers 893 It was a very dark weekend for the Smugglers. I believe 893 is the lowest score in franchise history, and the only sub-900 score for the Smugglers - @DamoH may or may not like to correct me if and when he comes out of hiding. From the start it looked all wrong, with only 13 men out on the park, and it didn't get better from there either. On the other side of the spectrum, Gisborne inflicted one of their most punishing victories, scoring above 1300 for the 6th week running and winning game number 6 in a row having never won more than 3 consecutively. Unfortunately for the men from Christmas Island, there were losers all over the park. 1 ton from 13 players isn't enough to win you many, if any, games especially not in the ultra-competitive current FU climate. The only slight shining lights came in the form of Westhoff, Martin and Hurn. The Hoff turned his poor form around and scored a team high 108; Dusty continues his lean trot but still managed to rack up 98; Hurn continues his rebound year with a 99. Names such as Heppell, JJ Kennedy and Beams all failed, and there was not much help elsewhere around the field. Bonner and Taylor may as well have not turned up, both turning in stinky 40~ scores, and Ratugolea's injury certainly didn't help Christmas Island's feeble claim at victory. The other side of this coin, the ying to Christmas Island's yang, is the continued emergence of the Grenades as a genuine contender in the FU for 2019. No huge tons were scored this week by the 'nades, but Kelly, Harmes, Ellis-Yolmen, Neale, Witts and Pittard all got into that magic 3 figure territory. It wasn't the usual suspects that got the BAFFU votes either, a promising sign of a balanced team. Elsewhere, Marty Hore continues to impress, but it would be nice if Rory Laird could move up from scoring 90s most weeks! Still, he is the 9th best defender in the comp with much more room to grow, and if he does grow then who knows how high Gisborne can climb. Perhaps the only disappointment this week is Gresham's regression to last years scores, indicating it is still a year too early for him to really dominate the comp. A 419 point demolition usually does have a dark and light side, and in this case Gisborne were the sith lords sabering away at all of Christmas Island's jedi. Christmas Island have a lot of work to do, and the mid-season draft can't come quick enough to try and get 15 players on the park. They have King Island next week, and I'm tipping an Islander win in that one. Gisborne have Pakenham, and in 8 rounds will have played the bottom 6 teams. The run home won't be easy, but a couple of wins here and there should lock in a maiden finals birth. Big Tap Witts 107 defeated no-one BAFFU 3. Kelly GG 120 2. Harmes GG 116 1. Ellis-Yolmen GG 109
Final Score at Eden Sporting Complex Banchang 1159 def Eden 1039 The top half of the side performed well but we can't really do much with half the crew missing. On the positive side, we got Phillips back and Pendles, Williams and Papley have found form but when 8 players score under 60, there's a problem. Meanwhile, the Barcrawlers weren't without their own problems with a backup backline and a few players missing form. But their midrange did better and kept them within a win of the top. BAFFU: Williams 3, Pendles 2, Cunnington 1 Giant Tap: Sinclair 76 def Phillips 75
Cheers for the write-up mate, as you say plenty of "records" for the Smugglers this week - lowest ever score, first score below 900 and highest losing margin! I'm pleased to say however that the coach has the "full support of the Board".
Groote Eylandt Barracudas 1,373 defeated by Korumburra Blowflys 1,377 The Cuda’s are at home after a heart-breaking loss last week away, sitting in 10th spot just below the Blowflys who make their way to the Eylandt. Both these teams are scoring well so far this season and love a grudge match with the usual push and shove. Not a good sign for the visitors with Tuohy a late out and young Webster coming in who had a couple of touches but received a hand injury early in the second quarter. Hodge had some good possessions; Dougal Howard was on Mihocek and Vlastuin had a solid game even though he rolled his ankle in the first quarter. For the home side Mihocek was held to 2 goals, Petruccelle had 12 touches but couldn't put it through the big sticks, whereas Cripps of the Jamie variety started deep forward, bagged 1 goal and had plenty of touches and Hawkins was on fire with 2 goals, 19 touches, 10 marks and 3 tackles. Goldy wrapped up the Big Tap contest as the hit-out king smashed out 34 of them and 2 goals to boot, with Stanley tapping out 32 hit outs but not all were to advantage. Things started to heat up in the middle, players inside and out were jostling freely to make their mark and the best midfield group. It was age verses beauty; take that whichever way you want. The experience of the Blowflys in JPK the gun tackling machine, the Sloan Ranger with 33 touches, Redden who was on fire as the inside mid, with 21 touches and a couple of big tackles and the little Master who slotted 2 goals and was amazingly reported for striking……..a pose. Up against the youth and power of Phillips who was on target with 31 touches, Zorko the magnificent with 29 possessions and a goal, Corn Boy Cripps, a gun, a star with 2 goals, lots and lots of touches and The Bont the gun booted 3 goals and came away with leather poisoning. This game is not for the faint hearted. The rotations off the bench for both sides worked well with the home sides Berry 1 goal, doing jobs around the midfield and Lewis, who was just too slow. Blowfly Ainsworth had a couple of touches while Miles snapped 1 goal and had plenty of the pig skin. The Cuda’s defenders had a pretty big job ahead of them, Houli was solid with 18 touches however went to the rooms early in Q4 but all good, Weitering showed maturity with 7 contested marks, kick in king Lloyd played off half back and even kicked 1 goal, while Guthrie played run and carry cracking the first goal of the match. It was fast and furious out there, they managed to keep Walters to a single goal, Menegola and Dunkley the cherry pickers made it look easy, from the centre to the big white sticks, D even squeezing out 3 free kicks but the man of the match was Mad Mundy, he was everywhere, 36 touches and 6 big, I mean big tackles which in the dying seconds of the match lead to a snap from the boundary 40 meters out……… .... and then started, there was jubilation and anger, the scenes got wild, the swell of the crowd got bigger and bigger, security were overwhelmed, the players had a lucky escape though, loud banging noises could be could heard for miles, star bursts filled the skies and for all to see the scoreboard managed by the MJD Foundation caught fire and went up in a blaze of Glory, well no it didn’t cause we bloody lost that snap sealed the win for the visitors @Mick. After a 12 hour lock down of the Eylandt the Blowflys buzzed home, it will certainly be a match that will traumatise all the players regardless of the result. The lock down might have been lifted but the fuzzy wuzzy angles are standing watch until the place gets cleaned up.