<blockquote>Quote from Jolcon on May 15, 2012, 20:39 Thanks Terry! Just to clarify - do I get the Cup or the girl? Or both? </blockquote> You can have both. I am well stocked (see my thread). Careful she doesn't melt in the heat.
BLEATINGS FROM BIRDSVILE – ROUND 1 2012 Welcome one and all to the inaugural edition of ‘Bleatings from Birdsville’ where we try to keep you up to date with the latest Birdsville Battlers news. Last weekend saw the Battlers travel to the Whitsundays for a tough opening to its ORFFA campaign. It was a great weekend all round with some wonderful hospitality provided by the Warriors outfit. They have some wonderful facilities and it was tough to get everyone back on the plane to Birdsville! ORFFA was the real winner of the weekend and the Warriors have set a high standard for those hosting visiting teams. In the end the Battlers recorded a memorable first up win, defeating the Warriors 1169 to 1046. Memorable may be a stretch though. The post-match festivities went on well into the morning resulting in some sore heads and a few cases of grog-induced amnesia. There was a game played though, and as we'll do each week, lets look at the studs and duds from the game. We’ll start with the Duds Marc Murphy (73) – While winners are grinners, the coach was left decidedly unimpressed with his lack of effort to work through the Jones tag. Daniel Merrett (35) – The Sauce is on the chopping block. Bartram’s excellent form in the magoo’s should have him worried. Jarryn Geary (43) – Marginally better than the Sauce but not by much. Needs to lift. And now for the Studs Slammin’ Sammy Iles (127) – a magnificent 127 off the interchange bench. Displayed all of the attributes expected from a Battler, most notably a high score. Brad Ebert (109) – An excellent start to the year from the young man. Ben Howlett (97) – Another great effort off the bench has helped to strengthen his place in the Battler’s best 15. Adam Treloar (96) – A great reward for a risky selection. Tremendous effort from the rookie in his first game back from injury. A special mention to the skipper Jono Brown. With no ruckmen available, the big fella battled hard out of position. While it wasn’t a vintage Browny performance, the big guy left everyone in his wake at the post-match festivities where he was clearly BOG. This weekend the Battlers play host to the Dirigibles from Darraweit Gum who are on fire after a massive score of 1566 last weekend. So come on out and support the mighty Battlers. See you all next week.
And a warm Birdsville welcome to the boys from Darraweit Gum! Some good new Chris in the form of our recently completed stadium. It was a close call but we got it done just in the nick of time. We think you'll enjoy better than the red dirt infield of the racecourse/airport. <img src="http://www.onlineworldtraveler.com/images/countries/Turkmenistan/Olympic-Stadium-Desert.jpg" /> I'm hopeful that we'll have enough grog for tonight's official welcome party. It'll be a close call, but we should just be ok. <img src="http://image.made-in-china.com/2f1j00iMvQfrCqgclH/EU-Type-Beer-Keg-50L.jpg" />
But just in case, I've got some extras on the way <img src="http://newsadvertiser.com/wordpressmu/files/2011/08/tonysconvoyforhope2-1024x576.jpg" />
<blockquote>Quote from TerryinBangkok on May 20, 2012, 21:07 We are all new at this. The wins will come.</blockquote> True Terry. In the meantime, I'll just crack open another brew and have a laugh.
Bleatings from Birdsville – Round 2 2012 Welcome to the second edition of ‘Bleatings from Birdsville’. Last week saw the Battlers host Dirigibles from Darraweit Guim. After a lively welcome function was enjoyed by all and sundry, we eventually got down the business of playing footy. In a gripping encounter, the Battlers lead for most of the game on the back of inspired performance from the skipper, with Browny turning back the clock to register an enormous 154. The boys from the Guim, though, showed tremendous grit to claw their way back and run out winners 1265 to 1235. And our congratulations to the Dirigibles on their tremendous win. While not wanting to take anything away from the visiting team, questions have been asked about the coach's decision to drop Sauce Merrett to the two’s, particularly given that his 177 would likely have sealed the win for the Battlers. The coach declined to comment in detail on that decision, stating only that the decision was taken on exposed form. Nonetheless, it’s certainly an early howler of a decision from the coach, and one he’ll be hoping to avoid a repeat of I’m sure. It’s a tough business this ORFFA. This week’s Winners Jonathan Brown (154) – An inspired performance from the skipper, who looks to be running into some form and fitness. Daniel Wells (143) – A hug effort by wells after a disappointing opening round. Sam Iles (104) – Backed up his impressive 127 in the first round with another great performance. Proving to be a bargain thus far. Daniel Rich (104) – Showed some nice improvement after a steady first round effort. The Sinners The Defense – Three of them failed to make it to 60. Screaming to get Fisher back from injury. Fair to say Merrett’s absence didn’t help the cause. The Coach - See above. Travis Cloke – A pair of scores in the 70’s. Not enough from the big man. And on a disappointing note, star midfielder Marc Murphy will be out of action for quite some time after undergoing surgery this week on his injured shoulder. We wish Murph a speedy recovery. It also means that 3 of the Battlers top 4 draft picks are currently out with injury. B&F I neglected to include the voting from the B&F last week so here’s the votes for both rounds and the leader board to date. Round 1 5. S Iles 4. B Ebert 3. B Howlett 2. A Treloar 1. D Rich Round 2 5. J Brown 4. D Wells 3. D Rich 2. S Iles 1. B Ebert Leaderboard 7. S Iles 5. J Brown, B Ebert 4. D Wells, D Rich 3. B Howlett 2. A Treloar This weekend the Battlers travel south to take on the in-form Venus Bay Vultures who are off to a great start with two impressive wins. Should be another tough game. See you all next week!
Now that the generous folks at the NBN have switched the internet back on here at Birdsville, normal transmission can resume. Just thankful it didn't affect the grog supply! Anyway, here are the B&F votes for the season. Round 3 5 Howlett 4 Treloar 3 Iles 2 Ebert 1 McGrath Round 4 5 Cloke 4 Wells 3 Ebert 2 Rich 1 Treloar Round 5 5 Iles 4 Ebert 3 Cloke 2 Howlett 1 Mayne Round 6 5 Ebert 4 Wells 3 Iles 2 Porplyzia 1 Houli Round 7 5 Wells 4 Mayne 3 T McDonald 2 Merrett 1 Cloke Round 8 5 Howlett 4 Brown 3 McEvoy 2 Wells 1 Rich Round 9 5 Mayne 4 Houli 3 McEvoy 2 Wells 1 Pfeiffer Round 10 5 McEvoy 4 Wells 3 Porplyzia 2 Howlett 1 Murphy Round 11 5 Merrett 4 Murphy 3 Porplyzia 2 Fisher 1 Wells / McEvoy Round 12 5 Murphy 4 Cloke 3 Porplyzia 2 Treloar 1 McEvoy Round 13 5 Treloar 4 McEvoy 3 Murphy 2 Fisher 1 Ebert Round 14 5 Murphy 4 Treloar 3 Ebert 2 McEvoy 1 Houli Round 15 No votes awarded - failed to arrive at venue Round 16 5 Ebert 4 Geary 3 Treloar 2 Petrenko 1 Rich / Houli Round 17 5 Cloke 4 Rich 3 Porplyzia 2 Ebert 1 Houli
So after all of that, the winner of the inaugural Birdsville Battlers B&F is...... Brad Ebert Congratulations to Brad on a terrific year. It must be said that Daniel Wells lead for much of the season before missing the last few rounds with injury to finish 2nd. Special mentions also to Marc Murphy for his 4th place finish despite missing almost half of the ORFFA season, and to Adam Treloar for his 3rd place finish in his rookie year. A future B&F winner in the making.
Birdsville are happy to consider all trade offers, however, please be aware that it would take a pretty good offer for us to consider trading the following players: Marc Murphy Ben McEvoy Brad Ebert Adam Treloar Tom McDonald and to a lesser extent Daniel Wells Daniel Rich Travis Cloke. That said, feel free to pitch anything you consider a fair and reasonable offer for any of our players and we'll certainly look it over. Here's a breakdown of the remainder of our list by position: Def: Fisher, Houli, Malceski, Merrett, Geary, Blake, Bartram Mid: Howlett, Petrenko, Iles, Pfeiffer (m/f), Varcoe (m/f) Ruc: Redden Fwd: Brown, Porplyzia, Mayne, Callinan, McGrath Unfortunately the Birdsville trade committee will be unavailable until the second week of the trade period. Until then you can send any proposed trades or enquiries by PM if we've already done the whole befriending thing. Cheers! JC
Updated squad: Def: S Fisher, B Houli, D Merrett (D/F), J Geary, J Blake, T McDonald, Mid: M Murphy, D Wells, Brad Ebert, D Rich, B Moloney, B Howlett, A Treloar, K Hunt, D Pfeiffer Ruck: B McEvoy, Z Clarke Fwd: J Brown (c), T Cloke, J Porplyzia, C Mayne, T Varcoe (F/M), A McGrath (D/F), I Callinan Currently homeless:[span style='font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.3;]S Iles, [span style='line-height: 1.3; font-size: 13px;]C Bartram (ret.) Draft picks: 12, 32, 50, 66, 84, 102
<img alt='' class='ForumImage' src='http://www.freesmileys.org/smileys/smiley-eatdrink011.gif[/img] Just checking Relton still lives on!
The Battlers are pleased to introduce the 3 new faces who have arrived so far since the end of last season. Zac Clarke arrived from Charlie's Opening after a trade involving Jarrad Redden and an exchange of draft picks in the 2013 pre-season draft. Brent Moloney and Karmichael Hunt joined us after we struck a deal with Venus Bay's notoriously trade happy management. Venus bay received Nick Malceski and Jared Petrenko in the deal. So welcome aboard gents! Birdsville would also like to thank Nick, Jarrad and Jared for their efforts and for being a part of our inaugural season. We wish them all well with their new teams - except when they play the Battlers of course!
Would you part with the bum Cloke ( I can say that being a pies man) Have a ton of young, up & coming defenders
Probably not for a defender Snoz. Cloke's about the only fwd I have who can go big. The rest are fairly solid but are less likely to go 'large', although Browny still has the odd day out now and again.
The Batter's management would like to thank the following players, who have unfortunately been delisted in accordance with ORFFA requirements, for their service to the club: Sam Iles Jason Blake Clint Bartram Darren Pfeiffer We wish them all the best in their future endeavours.
So at the end of the trade period and mandatory delistings, these are the 22 proud Battlers eagerly awaiting the arrival of their new, soon-to-be-drafted team mates and the start of the 2013 ORFFA season. BRL Daniel Merrett D/F BRL Ash McGrath D/F STK Sam Fisher DEF RIC Bachar Houli DEF STK Jarryn Geary DEF MEL Tom McDonald DEF STK Ben McEvoy RUC FRE Zac Clarke RUC CAR Marc Murphy MID NTH Daniel Wells MID PTA Brad Ebert MID BRL Daniel Rich MID BRL Brent Moloney MID ESS Ben Howlett MID GWS Adam Treloar MID GCS Karmichael Hunt MID GEE Travis Varcoe F/M BRL Jonathan Brown FWD ADE Jason Porplyzia FWD COL Travis Cloke FWD FRE Chris Mayne FWD ADE Ian Callinan FWD
The Battlers proudly welcome our 4 newest players, selected in the 2013 ORFFA pre-season draft. Pick 12 - Jesse Lonergan (GCS) MID Pick 32 - Shannon Byrnes (MEL) FWD Pick 50 - Jordan Russell (COL) DEF Pick 66 - Matt Jones (MEL) MID Following their final pick in the draft, Birdsville Football Manager, JC, said 'We're rapt to get Jesse at pick 12. We think he's one of the best prospects in the draft[span style='line-height: 1.3;]and will be a key figure in Battlers' midfield for many years. In addition to Jesse, Byrnes and Russell add some much needed depth to our FWD and DEF lines. We tossed up going with youth with our last pick, but Matty (who's only 25 anyway) should see some game time this year in a young and developing side and he rounds out our midfield nicely'.