Cradle Mountain Devils

Round 17 Cradle Mountain 1,219lost toWaikikamoocow 1,474 <p style='margin-bottom: 0pt;]
Cradle Mountain team
In: Shaun Grigg, Tyson Goldsack
Out: Dustin Fletcher (Groin) Nick Smith (late withdrawal with a back injury)
[span style='color: #333333;]DEF James Gwilt 85, Nick Smith DNP, Lee Spurr 90, Tyson Goldsack 66 (Nick Vlastuin 49) 290
MID Scott Pendlebury [span style='background: lime;]128, Steve Johnson 47, Dyson Heppell [span style='background: lime;]129, David Zaharakis [span style='background: lime;]104 408 (Ben Kennedy)
RUC Mark Jamar 52
FWD Dayne Zorko [span style='background: lime;]104, Michael Hurley 71, Adam Schneider [span style='background: lime;]109, Tom Boyd 28 (Jamie Cripps) 312
INTER Liam Shiels [span style='background: lime;]101, Shaun Grigg 54 (Sam Gilbert 75) 154

Players Award - Dyson Heppell narrowly from Scott Pendlebury.
<p style='margin-bottom: 0pt;]Player scores 125+ 2, 100-124 4, 75 - 99 2, 50 - 74 4, Under 50 3. <p style='margin-bottom: 0pt;]
<p style='margin-bottom: 0pt;]



In their final home game of 2014 Cradle Mountain hosted fellow finalist Waikikamoocow who easily accounted for the Devils by 255 points, 1,474 to 1,219 securing a second successive top three finish for the Cows.

After a disappointing performance last week normal transmission resumed for the Cradle Mountain midfield, combining for 408 points and winning this line by 31 points. Three Devils mids scored tons, Heppell (129), Pendlebury (128) and Zaharakis (104), with the first two named receiving the four and three Les W Medal votes respectively. Steve Johnson and Dan Hannebery went head to head and virtually took each other out of the contest with both players recording uncharacteristic sub 60 scores. Two Waikikamoocow mids added tons of their own, Fyfe (118) who picked up the one Les W Medal vote and Isaac Smith (104), whilst Ziebell (99) fell just short.

Waikikamoocow won the remaining four lines, two of them convincingly with Sam Jacobs in a best afield performance thrashing Mark Jamar in the ruck by 112 points, 164 to 52, whilst the Incorrigibles defense was sublime to combine for a midfield-esque 430 points including three tons from Harry Taylor (127), Paul Duffield (105) and Jarrad McVeigh (104) to easily eclipse the Devils forward line tally of 314.

The Waikikamoocow interchange narrowly won the line battle against Cradle Mountain by seven points, 166 to 159 with Zaharakis (104) and Brad Crouch (117) scoring a ton for the home and away side respectively.

Devils defenders combined for 286 including mid 80's from James Gwilt and Lee Spurr whilst the standout Cows forward was Stewart Cremeri with 104, leading his forward line to a tally of 337 points and a 51 point line win.

Despite back to back losses to finish the season Cradle Mountain conclude the 2014 ORFFA home and away season with a club best 10 wins, and sixth position on the ladder, level on wins with Tasmanian rival Charlies Opening but ahead on points for with 20,728 points to the Opening's 20,098 points, the Devils also rank sixth for points scored in the ORFFA.

Next Week
In the first week of the finals Cradle Mountain play Foul Bay, the 2012 and 2013 ORFFA premiers. Foul Bay had 15 wins and just two losses during 2014 to finish second on the ladder and ranked first for points scored with 24,068, equating to 1,416 points per game, close to 200 points above Cradle Mountain's average of 1,219. The two clubs did battle in Round 13 with the Chickens defeating the Devils by 139 points 1,409 to 1,270. The Cradle Mountain midfield and forwards won their line battle by 85 points and three points respectively, whilst the defenders, ruck and interchange each lost their line battles to Foul Bay by between 50 and 100 points.

The performance of the Cradle Mountain midfield led by smooth moving, composed left-footers Scott Pendlebury and Dyson Heppell will be critical to the clubs chances of causing an upset against the Chickens. However, in recent weeks too many Devils have recorded sub 75 scores, to have any chance of defeating Foul Bay all 15 Cradle Mountain players will have to play their role to a high standard and be prepared to take the league benchmark, Foul Bay on, particularly on the counter attack when the highly skilled Chickens outfit turn the ball over.

 

<p style='margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;]It has been a struggle this year juggling the Cradle Mountain thread, the two awards - Les W Medal and the ORFFA Rising Star, and writing feature articles for True Sainters. <p style='margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;] <p style='margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;]Yesterday I published an article on the 2014 True Sainters Player of the Year - Lenny Hayes, and wont have much more writing to do for True Sainters for the rest of this year so at least this is under control. <p style='margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;] <p style='margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;]2014 True Sainters Player of the Year - Lenny Hayes <p style='margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;]http://www.truesainters.com/true-sain... <p style='margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;]
Clinton Jones and James Gwilt were both delisted by St Kilda at the end of the 2014 Home and Away season. If they are not recruited by another AFL club later this year I will publish a feature article covering their careers with the St Kilda Football Club. <p style='margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;] <p style='margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;]During 2014 I have written a feature article on each St Kilda player that received a Rising Star nomination, and each player that played a milestone game of 100 games or more. I thought I might as well provide links to these articles in this thread in case any of you are interested in reading an article, especially if it is on a player you coach in the ORFFA. <p style='margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;] <p style='margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;]Articles are listed from newest to oldest: <p style='margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;] <p style='margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;]Lenny Hayes retirement article <p style='margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;]http://www.truesainters.com/inspirati... <p style='margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;] <p style='margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;]Jack Billings 2014 Rising Star nominee
http://www.truesainters.com/2014-risi...

David Armitage 100 games
http://www.truesainters.com/st-kilda-...


Nicky Winmar Tribute article http://www.truesainters.com/st-kilda-... Celebrating St Kilda playing Collingwood in indigenous round 2014, the feature article covers the career of St Kilda's all-time greatest indigenous footballer Nicky Winmar, focusing in particular on Nicky's stance against racism at the conclusion of the victory over Collingwood in Round 4 1993 at Victoria Park and the lasting impact this made on Australian Rules Football.

Adam Schneider 200 game article
http://www.truesainters.com/30-year-o... Article celebrating Adam Schneider reaching 200 games in the final game of 2013, belatedly published in May 2014 as I didn't have time to write it last year due to preparing an article celebrating Kosi's 200th game, a milestone he shared with Schneider, however it was also Kosi's last game so he got preference over Schneider.


Jarryn Geary 100 games
http://www.truesainters.com/jarryn-ge...

Luke Dunstan 2014 Rising Star nominee
http://www.truesainters.com/rising-st...


Half of the ORFFA coaches have submitted their Rising Star votes, I will send Private Messages to the coaches that are yet to submit their votes in the next day or two to make sure they know what they need to do.

I will try to post the Les W Medal positional and club leaderboards in the next week or so.

I will post the review of Cradle Mountain's final loss to Foul Bay and the best and fairest results in the next week. Other missing match reviews will be posted at a later stage.

 

Elimination Final - Foul Bay 1,436 defeated Cradle Mountain 1,116


Cradle Mountain team
In: Sam Gilbert, Jamie Cripps,
Out: Steve Johnson (Foot), Tom Boyd (Omitted)
[span style='color: #333333;]DEF James Gwilt 37, Lee Spurr 68, Sam Gilbert 73, Tyson Goldsack 40 (Luke Brown) 218
MID Scott Pendlebury DNP, Liam Shiels 75, Dyson Heppell [span style='background: lime;]119, David Zaharakis 97 (Zak Jones OOP) 291
RUC Mark Jamar 75
FWD Dayne Zorko [span style='background: lime;]162, Michael Hurley 90, Adam Schneider 66, Jamie Cripps 71 (Ben Kennedy) 389
INTER Nick Vlastuin 92, Shaun Grigg 51 (Tom Boyd) 147

Player scores 125+ 1, 100-124 1, 75 - 99 5, 50 - 74 5, Under 50 3.





<p style='color: black; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;]Cradle Mountain knew they were up against it in their Elimination Final final against the 2012 and 2013 ORFFA Premiers, the Foul Bay Chickens. Making the finals for the first time in their three year history the Devils players were encouraged to take the game on. Regardless of the result the game in the first week of the 2014 finals against the Chickens would be a great learning opportunity and provide Cradle Mountain with a first-hand experience of what finals football was all about which would be of great benefit for 2015 and beyond. <p style='color: black; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;] <p style='color: black; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;]Unfortunately things started to go awry for Cradle Mountain before the ball was even bounced to start the Elimination Final. Devils captain Scott Pendlebury who had an outstanding 2014 season, playing every game injured his quad in the warm-up and was a late withdrawal, resulting in his team playing a man short. It was a devastating blow for Cradle Mountain to lose their skipper Pendlebury who in 2014 maintained his status as one of the best players in the competition, having his second consecutive top six finish in the Les W. Medal. Pendles was forced to watch the game from the sidelines with two fellow members of the Devils best midfield quartet, Jack Redden and Steve Johnson. <p style='color: black; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;] <p style='color: black; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;]With the Devils missing Pendlebury and vice captain Jack Redden, Dyson Heppell captained the Devils admirably, scoring 119 points and being the third best player on the ground, leading his three player midfield to a total of 291 points with David Zaharakis and Liam Shiels scoring 97 and 75 respectively. A consistent Foul Bay midfield quartet scored 382 points led by Joel Selwood with 110. <p style='color: black; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;] <p style='color: black; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;]The Foul Bay Chickens forward line thrashed the Devils defenders by 168 points, 386 to 218 with Chickens key forward Matthew Pavlich being second best afield with 143 points and Patrick Dangerfield scoring 99. Sam Gilbert in his first senior game for Cradle Mountain since Round 2 was their highest scoring defender with 73 points. <p style='color: black; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;] <p style='color: black; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;]Foul Bay ruckman Shane Mumford comfortably won his ruck duel with Mark Jamar 112 points to 75 and the Chickens convincingly won the interchange line 199 to 143, with Chicken, Tom Liberatore scoring 102. <p style='color: black; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;] <p style='color: black; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;]For much of the season Cradle Mountain's forward line was a weakness, and in seven games they played one out of position forward, however the Devils forwards led by Dayne Zorko performed magnificently in the Elimination Final to register 389 points, their second highest score of the season and win the battle against the Chickens defenders by 29 points. <p style='color: black; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;] <p style='color: black; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;]Players Award - Dayne Zorko <p style='color: black; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;] <p style='color: black; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;]With the Devils midfield a man down Zorko rotated between his customary role as a small forward, and the midfield, playing a sublime game to clearly be best afield with 162 points, the second highest score by a Cradle Mountain player in 2014 behind Pendlubury's 182 in Round 2. Against Foul Bay Zorko had 15 kicks and 21 handballs including 15 contested possessions, nine clearances, laid five tackles, kicked two goals, had two goal assists and covered enormous territory to have four rebound 50s and eight inside 50s. <p style='color: black; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;]

Overview <p style='color: black; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;]Even with Cradle Mountain missing three of their four highest averaging players of 2014 in the Elimination Final the top five players on each side were evenly matched. The finals loss to the Chickens highlighted that whilst the Devils have the top-end talent they lack the consistency and depth in their squad to match the top four teams. Only one Chicken scored less than 79, and highlighting their consistency 10 players, equating to two thirds of the team scored between 83 and 102 points. On the other hand whilst Cradle Mountain had the best and third best player afield they also had the four lowest scores, being 51, 40, 37 and zero, a total of just 128 points.This grand canyon between the Devils best and worst players is highlighted in the table below, obviously the bottom 5 performance is exaggerated due to being a player short. <p style='color: black; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;] <p style='color: black; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;]Elimination Final CMD FBC Deficit <p style='color: black; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;]Top 5 562 566 4 <p style='color: black; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;]Middle 5 362 477 115 <p style='color: black; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;]Bottom 5 194 395 201 <p style='color: black; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;][span style='text-decoration: underline; color: #434343;] 320 <p style='color: black; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;][span style='text-decoration: underline; color: #434343;] <p style='color: black; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;]Cradle Mountain fell away as the season progressed, losing their last three games and had several of their key players suffer serious injuries in the second half of the season. Cradle Mountain Head of fitness and conditioning Nathan McRoosmire can count himself very lucky that he signed a two year contract in October 2013 when he commenced the role and still has a year remaining on this deal, but more on that when head coach Dean Andrews does his overall season review. Before that line reviews will be posted with comments from the Devils assistant coaches. <p style='color: black; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;][span style='text-decoration: underline; color: #434343;] <p style='color: black; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;]Having said all of that Cradle Mountain's 2014 season was definitely a success, both in terms of on-field results and player development with the club having 10 wins and playing in a final whilst also having five players make their ORFFA debut. It has been a magnificent performance by Cradle Mountain to improve from 12th in 2013 to sixth in 2014. The Devils now face an even tougher challenge, to go from finals participant to winner of a final, enabling them to progress to a Preliminary Final in 2015. <p style='color: black; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;]

 

Cradle Mountain 2014 best and fairest
The Cradle Mountain 2014 best and fairest was held last night with votes from Round 8 to the Elimination Final being counted. Votes for the first seven rounds were counted at the Devils mid-season function, the total votes after Round 7 are listed below followed by the Round by Round votes for the remainder of the 2014 season. <p style='margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; background: white;]Overall top 10 after 7 Rounds <p style='margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; background: white;] <p style='margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; background: white;]1 S Pendlebury 19 <p style='margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; background: white;]2 S Johnson 17 <p style='margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; background: white;]3 D Zorko 13 <p style='margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; background: white;]4 D Heppell 10 <p style='margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; background: white;]5 J Redden 9 <p style='margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; background: white;]6 T West 8 <p style='margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; background: white;]Eq 7 D Fletcher 5 <p style='margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; background: white;]Eq 7 J Gwilt 5 <p style='margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; background: white;]Eq 9 M Hurley 4 <p style='margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; background: white;]Eq 9 M Jamar 4 <p style='margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; background: white;] <p style='margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; background: white;]Other vote getters <p style='margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; background: white;] <p style='margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; background: white;]2 J Kennedy-Harris, 1 L Shiels, 1 A Schneider, 1 N Smith, 1[span style='padding: 0cm; border: 1pt none windowtext; color: black;]L Spurr , 1 N Vlastuin. <p style='margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; background: white;][span style='padding: 0cm; border: 1pt none windowtext; color: black;]Best and Fairest votes Round 8 to Elimination Final Round 8 Nunawading 1,197 defeatedCradle Mountain 1,173
Zorko 3, Fletcher 3, Redden 2, Pendlebury 2, Shiels 1 <p style='margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; background: white;]
<p style='margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; background: white;]Round 9 Powlett Plains 1,012 lost toCradle Mountain 1,124 <p style='margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; background: white;]
Zaharakis 3, Spurr 3, Redden 3, Zorko 2, Pendlebury 2
<p style='margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; background: white;] Round 10 Cradle Mountain 1,068 defeatedMount Beauty 1,023
Zaharakis 4, Pendlebury 3, Heppell 2, Spurr 2, Redden 1, Smith 1

Round 11 Cradle Mountain 1,048 lost toWagga Wagga 1,455 Pendlebury 2, Heppell 1, Hurley 1
Round 12 Gariwerd 1,054 lost toCradle Mountain 1,363


Pendlebury 3, Jamar 3, Zorko 3, Heppell 2, Johnson 2, Zaharakis 1, Shiels 1, Smith 1, Redden 1

Round 13 Foul Bay 1,409 defeated Cradle Mountain 1,270
Pendlebury 3, Kennedy 3, Zaharakis 2, Johnson 2, Heppell 1, Smith 1, Zorko 1, Hurley 1, Schneider 1

Round 14 Cradle Mountain 1,222 defeatedBirdsville 1,183
Johnson 3, Spurr 2, Zorko 1, Smith 1, Heppell 1, Fletcher 1, Pendlebury 1, Shiels 1 <p style='margin: 0cm 0cm 7.5pt; background: white;] Round 15 Charlie's Opening 1,132 lost toCradle Mountain 1,312
Zorko 4, Johnson 3, Jamar 3, Heppell 2, Gwilt 1, Schneider 1, Pendlebury 1, Hurley 1 <p style='margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; background: white;]
<p style='margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; background: white;]
<p style='margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; background: white;]Round 16 Gundagai 1,321 defeatedCradle Mountain 1,164 Shiels 3, Hurley 3, Pendlebury 1, Heppell 1, Jamar 1 <p style='margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; background: white;]
<p style='margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; background: white;]
<p style='margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; background: white;]Round 17 Cradle Mountain 1,219lost toWaikikamoocow 1,474 <p style='margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; background: white;]
Heppell 2, Zorko 2, Schneider 2, Pendlebury 2, Zaharakis 1, Shiels 1, Spurr 1, Gwilt 1 <p style='margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; background: white;] <p style='margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; background: white;] <p style='margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; background: white;]Elimination Final - Foul Bay 1,436 defeated Cradle Mountain 1,116 <p style='margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; background: white;]
Zorko 5, Heppell 2, Zaharakis 1, Hurley 1, Vlastuin 1 <p style='margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; background: white;] <p style='margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; background: white;]
<p style='margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; background: white;]Overall top 12 for Cradle Mountain 2014 Best and Fairest: <p style='margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; background: white;] <p style='margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; background: white;]1 S Pendlebury 39 <p style='margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; background: white;]2 D Zorko 34 <p style='margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; background: white;]3 S Johnson 27 <p style='margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; background: white;]4 D Heppell 24 <p style='margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; background: white;]5 J Redden 16 <p style='margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; background: white;]6 D Zaharakis 12 <p style='margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; background: white;]Eq 7 M Hurley 11 <p style='margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; background: white;]Eq 7 M Jamar 11 <p style='margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; background: white;]Eq 9 L Spurr 9 <p style='margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; background: white;]Eq 9 D Fletcher 9 <p style='margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; background: white;]Eq 11 L Shiels 8 <p style='margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; background: white;]Eq 11 T West 8 <p style='margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; background: white;] <p style='margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; background: white;]Other vote getters <p style='margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; background: white;]
<p style='margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; background: white;]J Gwilt 7, A Schneider 5, N Smith 5, B Kennedy 3, N Vlastuin 2, J Kennedy-Harris 2 <p style='margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; background: white;] <p style='margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; background: white;]Cradle Mountain Devils 2014 Award winners <p style='margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; background: white;] <p style='margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; background: white;]Most Improved player - Liam Shiels <p style='margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; background: white;] <p style='margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; background: white;]Player of the finals - Dayne Zorko <p style='margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; background: white;] <p style='margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; background: white;]The Dustin Fletcher Award (best defender) - The man himself Dustin Fletcher <p style='margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; background: white;] <p style='margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; background: white;]The Jude Bolton Award (best midfielder) - Scott Pendlebury <p style='margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; background: white;] <p style='margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; background: white;]The Steve Johnson Award (best forward) - Dayne Zorko <p style='margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; background: white;] <p style='margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; background: white;]Best and fairest - The Scott Pendlebury Award - Scott Pendlebury <p style='margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; background: white;] <p style='margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; background: white;]Runner-up Best and fairest - Dayne Zorko <p style='margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; background: white;] <p style='margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; background: white;]Third place Best and fairest - Steve Johnson <p style='margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; background: white;] <p style='margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; background: white;]Posts on each of the positional lines will cover most of the awards above in more detail, a separate post will be made covering the top three place-getters at the best and fairest. <p style='margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; background: white;] <p style='margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; background: white;]These posts will be drip-fed over the next couple of months. <p style='margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; background: white;] <p style='margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; background: white;]One of the award winners is covered below. <p style='margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; background: white;] <p style='margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; background: white;]Most Improved player - Liam Shiels <p style='margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; background: white;] <p style='margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; background: white;]In a make or break season midfielder Liam Shiels started 2014 in Cradle Mountain's Tasmanian Regional Football League team and played only two of the first seven games of the season in the ORRFA, however he was able to cement his place in the Devils &amp;lsquo;best 15' after the mid-season break with consistent performances, playing the last 11 games of the season in the ORFFA team. <p style='margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; background: white;] <p style='margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; background: white;]Liam Shiels was selected by Cradle Mountain with pick 145 in Round 9 of the inaugural ORFFA Draft in 2012, he was a regular in the Cradle Mountain ORFFA team during 2012 and the first 11 rounds of the 2013 season, however he injured his ankle in Round 11 2013, missed five games and played the last game of 2013 in the TRFL. In his 11 games in the ORFFA during 2013 primarily playing as a run with midfielder Liam averaged 61.4 points. <p style='margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; background: white;] <p style='margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; background: white;]Ex-Devils player Jude Bolton was appointed midfield (and forward line) assistant coach for 2014 and decided to go with a more attacking midfield, introducing Dyson Heppell from defense and Steve Johnson from the forward line to both play in the midfield alongside Scott Pendlebury and Jack Redden. These moves resulted in a change to the role that Liam Shiels performed with the Devils, performing a more attacking role after primarily being a run with midfielder in 2012 and 2013. On the eve of the 2014 ORFFA season Shiels signed a one-year contract with Cradle Mountain, with several trigger clauses which if met would result in an automatic one year extension. <p style='margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; background: white;] <p style='margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; background: white;]With the Cradle Mountain midfield group including David Zaharakis and Shaun Grigg in addition to the outstanding starting quartet, Shiels knew that his opportunities at senior level with Cradle Mountain in 2014 could be limited. Shiels played his first game at ORRFA level for 2014 in Round 2, after scoring 56 he was dropped for Round 3 and returned to the ORFFA side in Round 4, despite injuring the AC joint in his shoulder during the third quarter against Lovely Banks Liam displayed mental toughness to play out the game and score a very respectable 96 points. Liam missed the remaining three games before the mid-season break due to his shoulder injury but returned to the Devils ORFFA side straight after the mid-season break and played the last 11 games of the season in the ORFFA, Liam started on the bench for the first nine games after the MSB and then played the last two games of the season as a starting midfielder. Shiels finished equal 11th in the Cradle Mountain best and fairest with 11 votes, one vote outside the top 10 with the three games missed due to his shoulder injury in all likelihood costing him a top 10 finish. <p style='margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; background: white;] <p style='margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; background: white;]During 2013 one of Cradle Mountain's biggest weaknesses was the output of their two players that started each game on the interchange, with sub 50 point scores from at least one of these interchange players not being uncommon. In his 13 games in the ORFFA during 2014 Shiels averaged 86 points a game an increase of 40% on his 2013 average and was very consistent, only scoring below 70 once, in his first game of the season in the ORFFA, Round 2. Liam scored over 90 five times with a season best of 130 against Gundagai in Round 16 to earn two Les W Medal votes. Cradle Mountain took great confidence locking Shiels into one of the two interchange spots each week after the mid-season break knowing that he would perform his tole for the team and score at least 70 points each week. <p style='margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; background: white;] <p style='margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; background: white;]Midfield assistant coach Jude Bolton comments on Shiels' 2014 season <p style='margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; background: white;]Arguably the turning point of Cradle Mountain's season occurred in the third quarter of the victory against Lovely Banks. After winning their opening game of the season Cradle Mountain lost in Round 2 and 3 and had just had a comfortable half-time lead against Lovely Banks whittled down to a narrow advantage when Liam Shiels, running back with the flight of the ball took a courageous mark 20 metres out from the Lilacs goal whilst being met solidly but fairly by Lovely Banks 198 centimetre swingman Jake Carlisle. Shiels injured his shoulder in the marking contest and despite being in obvious discomfort played out the game and played a pivotal role in the Devils victory, both with his on-field performance and the inspiration he provided to his teammates by taking the gutsy mark and playing out the game despite his injury. <p style='margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; background: white;] <p style='margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; background: white;]The injured AC joint in his shoulder resulted in Liam Shiels missing the remaining three games leading up to the mid-season break, however with Shiels sitting on the sidelines his team-mates knew that taking a backward step was not an option. Cradle Mountain won a club record four straight games from Round 4 to Round 7 which set up the club's first finals appearance. <p style='margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; background: white;] <p style='margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; background: white;]Shiels applied himself diligently to the rehabilitation process and made his return in the first game after the mid-season break and flourished to play the remaining 11 games of the season providing Cradle Mountain with much needed consistency from the interchange bench. Whilst Shiels was utilised in a more attacking manner in 2014 he still provided us with versatility, a few times he was asked to revert back to being a run-with player for short stints to curtail the influence of a red-hot opposition midfielder. <p style='margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; background: white;][span style='font-size: 14px; color: black;] <p style='margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; background: white;]Shiels met the automatic trigger clauses to earn himself a one-year contract for 2015, however Cradle Mountain could not have asked anything more of Shiels both on game-day and on the training track during 2014. In recognition of this 23 year-old Liam was offered a two- year contract, which we are delighted to announce he has signed, securing Liam Shiels as a Devil for the 2015 and 2016 seasons.

 

Given that three rounds of the 2015 ORFFA season have been completed and the Cradle Mountain media department haven't provided any updates on the 2014/15 off-season and the 2015 home and away season for six months the media department are obviously running well behind. This has led to accusations that other areas of the club are also behind schedule, most notably the work that the fitness and conditioning staff have done with the Devils players, with the Devils being unable to run out games and showing a tremendous propensity to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, especially in Round 3 against arch-rival Charlie's Opening there may some truth in this unfortunately.

Anyway the media department will attempt to make up lost ground over the next few weeks, please find below details of the Cradle Mountain arrivals and departures during the 2014/15 off-season.

Trades

Cradle Mountain traded Mitch Honeychurch and 2015 PSD pick 31 to Gundagai for 2015 PSD picks 19 and 37 to the Gundagai Grasshoppers

During the 2014/15 pre-season Cradle Mountain were looking to reduce the number of small forwards that they had, having six players under 184 centimetres that were pure forwards or forward-midfielders including three such players 21 and under, along with Jamie Cripps who would turn 23 in the opening round of the 2015 season. Whilst the Devils rated Mitch Honeychurch highly, when Gundagai suggested this trade the club decided to do the deal, allowing the Devils to strengthen their draft position whilst also diversifying the type of forwards they had on their list, both in terms of height and age. Honeychurch made his debut for Cradle Mountain in 2014 after being selected with pick 43 at the 2014 PSD.

Cradle Mountain traded Jamie Cripps and 2015 PSD pick 37 to Charlie's Opening for Drew Petrie

During recruiting discussions early in the 2014/15 pre-season Cradle Mountain identified a need to recruit a more experienced forward, ideally a key forward who could fill the number 2 forward role, complementing small forward/midfielder Dayne Zorko who is the clubs standout number 1 forward. The recruiting manager suggested a &amp;lsquo;Drew Petrie type' with 2-3 years left in his career would be a great fit for the club and would assist with the development of the clubs young forwards. When Charlie's Opening put Drew Petrie on the trade table the Devils were quick to enter the fray and ended up winning a spirited auction to secure Petrie's services. In 2014 Michael Hurley mentored young key forward Tom Boyd with Hurley then to move to defense in 2015. Although Petrie is 32 years-old the club were confident that Petrie would be a valuable addition to the club both on and off the field and play for at least two years. Petrie will mentor fellow key forward Boyd in 2015 with Drew having signed a two-year contract with the club as player/key forward coach and when Petrie does retire Boyd would be able to assume the mantle as number 1 key forward. Petrie averaged 79 points per game in 2014, having a slow start to the season, and averaged 94 points per game in the second half of the season, having averaged at least 94 points per game in each season from 2011 to 2013. In recent seasons Petrie has also been very durable, only missing one game from 2011 to 2014. Cradle Mountain were always prepared to offer a third-round draft pick for Petrie, and ended up adding small forward Jamie Cripps to this offer.

To get down to the maximum list size of 24 Cradle Mountain made the following delistings:

Luke Brown, defender
Adam Schneider, forward
Liam McBean, forward

Schneider is playing for Cradle Mountain in the TRFL in the first half of 2015 and has got a mentoring role with the Devils young small forwards.


Cradle Mountain's selections at the 2015 ORFFA Pre-Season Draft:

[span style='padding: 0cm; border: 1pt none windowtext; color: black;]Jack Steele, Forward/Midfielder, 19 years old, selected with pick 13
[span style='padding: 0cm; border: 1pt none windowtext; color: black;]
[span style='padding: 0cm; border: 1pt none windowtext; color: black;]Playing three games for NSW/ACT at the 2014 under 18 National Championships Steele averaged 20.7 disposals and 2.0 goals per game, he was superb with his ball-use, having a disposal efficiency of 79.0% despite winning 11.7 contested possessions per game, resulting in him frequently being under pressure when disposing of the ball. At 188 cm and 86 kilograms Steele is a great-size for a modern midfielder, and utilises his size to great effect with marking being another strength, with 5.7 marks per game, including 1.7 contested marks per game, exceptional for a midfielder/forward. Steele was named on the interchange bench of the 2014 under 18 All-Australian team along with two NSW/ACT team-mates, Isaac Heeney who was selected at number 1 by Lovely Banks at the 2015 PSD, and Callum Mills who was not eligible for the 2015 draft due to being too young, but is expected to be an early selection in 2016. Steele's statistics and level of performance at the 2014 National Championships were very similar to number 1 pick Heeney, with both players winning an award at the championships, Steele as NSW/ACT MVP and Heeney winning the Harrison Medal as the best player in division 2. The long term plan is for Steele to take over Steve Johnson's role in the midfield, however he will be given time to develop in the Tasmanian Regional Football League and is likely to spend more time playing in the forward line than the midfield in the next couple of years.
[span style='padding: 0cm; border: 1pt none windowtext; color: black;]
[span style='padding: 0cm; border: 1pt none windowtext; color: black;]Jake Lever, Defender, 19 years old, selected with pick 19
[span style='padding: 0cm; border: 1pt none windowtext; color: black;]Excelling as an under-age player at the 2013 under 18 National Championships, Lever played predominantly as an attacking key defender, playing four games for Vic Metro and averaging 17.5 disposals per game with a disposal efficiency of 72.9%. His profile in the 2015 ORFFA prospectus published by Champion Data comments on his 2013 championships Lever &amp;lsquo;was the only key defender to rate elite for contested possessions and uncontested possessions per match, and was also in this category for metres gained.&amp;rdquo; Lever missed the entire 2014 season due to a knee reconstruction, however he strengthened his already strong leadership skills in 2014 by taking on a mentoring role and assisting his team-mates at his TAC Cup club, the Calder Cannons. Lever may develop into a key defender however, in his debut season he will play as a more attacking defender and be mentored by Cradle Mountains playing defensive assistant coach, Dustin Fletcher who has vast experience in this role.
[span style='padding: 0cm; border: 1pt none windowtext; color: black;]
[span style='padding: 0cm; border: 1pt none windowtext; color: black;]Adam Goodes, Forward, 35 years old, selected with pick 49


[span style='padding: 0cm; border: 1pt none windowtext; color: black;]The Devils decided to select another experienced forward with pick 49 and took a calculated risk in picking 35 year-old Adam Goodes who is the third oldest player in the ORFFA, ranked behind only Cradle Mountain team-mate Dustin Fletcher and Darraweit's Brent Harvey. In four seasons from 2010 to 2013 Goodes averaged at least 84 points per game in each season, peaking with 108 points per game in 2011. Adam had an injury interrupted start to 2014 but didn't miss any games with injury for Iron Knob after Round 6, however his games were split between the seniors and reserves. Although Goodes averaged only 65 points per game at senior level in 2014 we were confident he could improve on this in 2015 with an injury free pre-season and fellow elder statesman Fletcher able to provide some valuable tips on how to remain a valuable player in the second half of your 30's.
[span style='padding: 0cm; border: 1pt none windowtext; color: black;]

[span style='padding: 0cm; border: 1pt none windowtext; color: black;]Before playing in the ORFFA Goodes played for the Sydney Swans in the AFL and won the Brownlow Medal twice. Having played his career predominantly as a forward/midfielder Goodes has a mentoring role with Devils forward midfielders Dayne Zorko, Ben Kennedy and Jack Steele, unfortunately after a slow start to the year Goodes was actually playing alongside Kennedy and Steele in the TRFL in Rounds 3 and 4.
[span style='padding: 0cm; border: 1pt none windowtext; color: black;]
[span style='padding: 0cm; border: 1pt none windowtext; color: black;]Daniel McStay, Forward/Defender, 19 years old, selected with pick 67
[span style='padding: 0cm; border: 1pt none windowtext; color: black;]
[span style='padding: 0cm; border: 1pt none windowtext; color: black;]McStay played nine games for the Brisbane Lions in the AFL during 2014, spending time playing as a key position player, both in the forward line and defense. At TAC Cup level in 2013 McStay played 16 games, averaging 103 points per game playing a similar role to the one he played the following year at Brisbane, playing as a key position role, both in the forward line and defense.In 2015 McStay is being mentored by two key position players, Petrie (forward) and Hurley (defense) to work on both roles he will play. McStay will split his time between the ORFFA and TRFL in 2014/15 and adds depth and versatility to Cradle Mountain's key position stocks.
[span style='padding: 0cm; border: 1pt none windowtext; color: black;]
[span style='padding: 0cm; border: 1pt none windowtext; color: black;]
[span style='padding: 0cm; border: 1pt none windowtext; color: black;]
[span style='padding: 0cm; border: 1pt none windowtext; color: black;]
[span style='padding: 0cm; border: 1pt none windowtext; color: black;]

 

As I haven't been very active on Too Serious for the past few months and are yet to make the Round by Round posts on the Rising Stars thread for the second half of the season I thought I better provide an update and confirm that I am still committed to competing in the ORFFA during 2016 and beyond.

As Len is well aware of last year True Sainters shut down. After True Sainters had closed I had nowhere to publish my feature articles celebrating St Kilda players reaching milestones. I wanted to continue writing but needed to find somewhere to publish my articles, in the end I decided to set up a new website ‘Milestones and misses’ which publishes articles celebrating the milestones of sportsmen and sportswomen. Milestones & misses will focus on three teams in particular, the St Kilda Football Club in the AFL, the Jayco Dandenong Rangers in the WNBL and Australia’s Women’s National Basketball Team, the Opals.

A link to the Milestones and misses website is below:

http://milestonesandmisses.com/

Most of the articles on the site will either:

1)comprehensively cover a players entire career, or

2) celebrate a player winning an award such as a best and fairest or MVP, these articles will comprehensively cover the player’s award winning season and summarise the rest of the player’s career.

So far I have mainly published basketball articles on Milestones and Misses but it will be a massive start to the AFL season with Leigh Montagna playing his 250th game for the Saints in Round 1, Nick Riewoldt reaching his 300th in Round 2 and a couple of feature articles on retired AFL players to be published in the first month of the season.

If you want to find out more about Milestones and misses:

http://milestonesandmisses.com/2015/12/04/about-this-site-2/

Whilst I haven't posted anything in the Rising Star thread for quite a while I have done some more work on that and will make a post in the Rising Star thread.

 

Cradle Mountain 2015 season in review - Part 1

The pre-season

After breaking through for their first ORFFA finals appearance in 2014 expectations for the Cradle Mountain Devils were high at the start of 2015 – both internally and externally. No-one on the Cradle Mountain list retired at the end of 2014 and they were able to strengthen their draft position and playing stocks in the 2015 pre-season trade period by trading out Jamie Cripps and Mitch Honeychurch, with the former involved in the trade with Charlie's Opening for key forward Drew Petrie, who although in the twilight of his career had been recruited to play the F2 role at Cradle Mountain. In the 2015 PSD the Devils drafted two talented teenagers in the top 20, midfielder/forward Jack Steele at 13 and tall defender Jake Lever at 19. Adam Goodes was selected with pick 49 to along with Petrie help mentor the young Devils forwards whilst final selection – 19 year-old Daniel McStay at 67 had the ability to play key-position at either end of the ground.

ChiefBet’s Premiership odds at the start of the 2015 season had Cradle Mountain as equal sixth favourite at $11 with their comment on the Devils being:

11.00 Cradle Mountain
Managed to draft a beauty in Jack Steele and while long in the tooth, was able to acquire Petrie and Goodes to provide a short term fix to the forward line, giving time for the likes of Boyd and Kennedy to develop. Has six genuine 90+ midfielders, the top 4 of which are all capable of averaging between 110 - 120. That will be too good for a lot of teams, despite the weak ruck division.
Read more at http://tooserious.net/forum/threads/2015-orffa-premiership-odds.83483/#wiU6SZkbCXBdUW5d.99


Slow start results in an early season crisis meeting and the implementation of a leadership group

Cradle Mountain lost each of their first three games of the home and away season by less than 1oo points, with a lack of composure in pressure situations and in an inability to run out games being key factors in the Devils tremendous propensity to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. A Round 1 81 point loss on the road to Venus Bay was followed by losses at home to Nunawading by 31 points and arch-rival Charlie’s Opening by 27 points in Rounds 2 and 3 respectively. Each week the confidence level of Cradle Mountain dropped from the week before, the Devils played with a defensive mindset and didn’t match the work-rate of their opponents. The annual ORFFA home and away game between Cradle Mountain and Charlie’s Opening is one of the biggest events on the sporting calendar in Tasmania, always drawing a passionate capacity crowd. Charlie’s Opening midfielder Marcus Bontempelli was one of the form players of the competition – polling eight Les W Medal votes in the first two rounds, with Bontempelli being a late withdrawal forcing his side to play one man short Cradle Mountain grabbed the early ascendancy. A 14 man Spelunker side trailing for most of the game finished full of running, led by athletic duo Stephen Hill and Mark Blicavs who propelled the undermanned Spelunkurs to a great fight-back road win over Cradle Mountain by 27 points. The loss was the low-point of the Devils season, being the third consecutive losses to start the season and second in a row by less than 35 points.

Cradle Mountain had a crisis meeting in the week following the loss to Charlie’s Opening which resulted in several changes being made including the implementation of a five-man leadership group and the Devils form improved from that point on.

In Cradle Mountain’s first season in 2012 the Devils match committee implemented an old-school leadership structure – appointing Number 1 draft pick Scott Pendlebury as captain and fellow midfielder Jack Redden as vice-captain, and the Devils didn’t have a leadership group. During the crisis meetings after Round 3 the Cradle Mountain players stated that the playing group was entitled to a say on who the Devils captain and vice-captain were and questioned why the club didn’t have a leadership group.

The Cradle Mountain match committee agreed to an introduction of a leadership group for the remainder of the 2016 season as voted by the players. The leadership group would contain four or five players including at least one player from each of the three line-groups, defense, midfield/ruck and forwards. The captain and vice-captain would then be selected by the match committee and playing group from the four or five member leadership group. Cradle Mountain’s leadership group from Round 4 to Round 17 2015 was:

M Scott Pendlebury - Captain
M Dyson Heppell - Vice captain
M Jack Redden
F/M Dayne Zorko
D Michael Hurley

 

The rebound falls just short of finishing in the top eight – Part 2 of 2015 season review

In their first game after the crisis meeting Cradle Mountain hosted the Foul Bay Chickens- the best performed club in the ORFFA during the leagues first three seasons, going back to back as premiers in 2012 and 2013. The game-plan for the Devils was to be pro-active and not be concerned if they made mistakes against the Chickens. Cradle Mountain responded in phenomenal fashion to record the best win in the club’s ORFFA history, defeating Foul Bay by 106 points, 1,347 to 1,241. Newly appointed vice-captain – 22 year-old midfielder Dyson Heppell thrived with the increased responsibility to be best afield, scoring 150 points. The captain Scott Pendlebury was the second best Devil with 119 points, however the driving force for the improved performance was a more consistent effort across the board with six other players including the three remaining leaders, Redden, Zorko and Hurley also scoring more than 80 points.

Cradle Mountain maintained a high level of performance in Round 5 to score 1,296 points, however it wasn’t enough against a Birdsville Battlers outfit in brilliant form with a score of 1,415 points. The Devils defeated Mount Beauty by 126 points and Whitsunday by 166 points in Rounds 6 and 7 respectively to get their record to three wins and four losses to be back in finals contention.

Cradle Mountain’s list management team took a calculated risk with their midfield in 2015 going with a smaller midfield group of seven than most teams in the ORFFA and backed in the quality and fitness of this group, allowing the club to have more numbers on the three other lines which didn’t match the quality of the midfield group. This list management decision came back to bite the Devils against reigning ORFFA premiers Iron Knob in Round 8 with two-time runner-up in the Cradle Mountain best and fairest Jack Redden being a late withdrawal due to a back injury which resulted in him missing Rounds 9 and 10 as well. With Devils midfield emergency Jay Kennedy-Harris also being unable to play Cradle Mountain battled admirably with 14 players against a 15 man Iron Knob Codpieces outfit. Ultimately it was the strength of the emergencies that decided the outcome as Iron Knob had two late withdrawals, Ricky Henderson in defense and Jackson MacRae in the midfield who were replaced by emergencies Cameron Suttcliffe and David Mackay who scored 52 and 82 points respectively in Iron Knob’s 44 point victory – 1,226 to 1,182.

Cradle Mountain split their two remaining games before the mid-season break with a 232 point win against Gundagai followed by 342 point loss to the Cows. At the mid-season break after Round 10 Cradle Mountain had four wins and six losses to be 11th on the ladder.

Round 11 was abandoned and their Devils fourth loss for the season under 45 points in Round 12 with a 23 point loss against Gariwerd meant that the Devils were rank outsiders to make a second successive finals appearance. Again a list management decision and lack of depth was a critical reason for the loss with young ruckman Toby Nankervis being a late withdrawal and replaced by forward Tom Boyd being played out of position, Boyd could manage only 32 points – halved to 16 due to being OOP. Like the Iron Knob loss in Round 8 Gariwerd had two late withdrawals which they replaced with emergencies including mercurial forward Chad Wingard who scored 99 points.

With the pressure off the Devils finished the season strongly with four wins from five games, including a much needed close win by two points over the Marble Bar Misfits in Round 13, 1,297 to 1,295. Cradle Mountain’s ability to field 15 players in position proved critical, with young ruckman Nankervis although beaten in the ruck by Ryder making a contribution of 58 points. Ex-Devil Devon Smith did his utmost to get the win against his old-side with one of the best performances by a forward for the season – scoring 170 points. The player received by the Devils in the 2013 mid-season trade of Devon Smith – Shaun Grigg made a solid contribution with 106 points to be one of five Cradle Mountain players that registered a ton.

In the final round of the home and away season Cradle Mountain had their best performance of the season with 1,418 points to defeat the Larrikin Lagoon Lefties by 210 points. In the comprehensive victory 11 Devils scored at least 89 points comprised of six midfielders (two started on the bench), three defenders and two forwards.

Cradle Mountain won 50% of their games in 2015, having eight wins and eight losses to finish one game and percentage behind their Round 17 opponent the Lefties. Cradle Mountain scored 19,617 points with their points for ranking of 11th matching their ladder position. The Devils averaged 1,226 points per game, only 25 points less than the sixth ranked Darraweit Guim with 1,251 points per game. With so little separating the teams ranked sixth to 12th points per game, coupled with a 1-4 record in games decided by 50 points or less the Cradle Mountain match committee vowed to transition from a list-build strategy to a balance of building for the future and focusing on the present in 2016 to attempt to move up into the top six teams.

After the 2015 home and away season concluded Cradle Mountain took part in a competition for the non-finalists – for a piece of silverware that has a few different names - ‘The Who Cares Cup’, ‘The Plate’ and ‘The Zac Dawson Cup.’ The Devils were impressive in their first two victories scoring 1,346 and 1,287 respectively to advance to the best of the rest Grand Final in an all Tasmanian battle against Charlie’s Opening. Several of the Devils players thought they were meant to emulate Zac’s scoring output which resulted in a score of 1,078 with 14 players in position and Jordan Roughead playing out of position in the ruck. Despite the low score Cradle Mountain emerged victorious to the tune of 51 points due to the Charlie’s Opening only fielding a 13 man side – being a player short in both the midfield and the interchange. Cradle Mountain’s coach Dean Andrews and captain Scott Pendlebury were the least impressed duo accepting a cup since Grant Thomas and Lenny Hayes were on the dias receiving the Wizard Cup after St Kilda’s victory of the AFL pre-season competition in 2004.

Andrews and Pendlebury were left to rue the Devils slow start to the season and the lack of line balance in the Devils squad. The weakness in the ruck division as mentioned by ChiefBet led to an out of position player regularly performing this role as the Devils main two rucks, West and Jamar struggled to get on the park. The midfield was the standout line with four players averaging in excess of 90 points per game – Pendlebury (116), Heppell (104), Redden (95) and Shiels (92) with another two averaging more than 80 in Grigg (89) and Stevie J (84). Only three players that weren't specialist midfielders averaged more than 80 points per game, defender Hurley with 94 and forwards Zorko and Petrie with 100 and 85 respectively. All of these averages include mid-season practice games and Zac Dawson cup games so are slightly different to the players home and away average.

Les W Medal

Captain Scott Pendlebury was the top ranked Cradle Mountain player in the Les W Medal for the best and fairest player in the ORFFA, polling 24 votes to finish equal 14th overall. Pendles remained very consistent in the midfield during 2015, however he didn’t have as many standout games as in 2014 when he finished sixth overall, and although he polled in eight games during 2015 Scott wasn’t judged to best afield in any of them.

Cradle Mountain’s pre-season recruitment of 32 year-old key forward Drew Petrie for 2015 PSD pick 37 and Jamie Cripps (who would have been delisted by the Devils if he wasn’t traded) created much discussion in the pre-season. Petrie exceeded Cradle Mountain’s expectations to poll 17 Les W Medal votes to finish equal 36th overall and be the second ranked specialist forward in the ORFFA behind Foul Bay Chickens small forward Luke Dalhaus with 20 votes. Petrie had a Cradle Mountain season-high three best afield performances in 2015 including two in the final four rounds and provided the much needed key forward target that the Devils were after. On a heavily performance based contract Petrie performed significantly better in the home and away season averaging 94 points in his 15 games, whereas in the six practice games his highest score was 87 which partly explains his better than expected performance in the Les W Medal.

Midfielder Dyson Heppell and midfielder/forward Dayne Zorko polled 16 votes and had one best afield performance each. More detail will be provided on Dyson and Dayne’s 2015 season in the post celebrating Scott Pendlebury winning his fourth successive Devils best and fairest.

Les W Medal votes CMD top 10

24 Scott Pendlebury M – 0 best afield games
17 Drew Petrie F – 3 best afield games
16 Dayne Zorko F/M – 1 best afield game
16 Dyson Heppell M – 1 best afield game
10 Liam Shiels M – 1 best afield game
8 Steve Johnson M – 0 best afield games
7 Shaun Grigg M – 1 best afield game
6 Michael Hurley D – 0 best afield games
6 Jack Redden M – 0 best afield games
4 Sam Gilbert D

 

Scott Pendlebury wins fourth consecutive Cradle Mountain best and fairest in 2015

For the second season in a row sublime Cradle Mountain captain Scott Pendlebury won the club’s best and fairest award by five votes from small forward Dayne Zorko. Pendlebury, the number one overall pick in the inaugural ORFFA draft in 2012 maintained his record of winning every Devils best and fairest award, extended his winning sequence to four seasons, however Pendlebury wasn’t as dominant as in previous seasons, winning the 2015 award with 27 votes – the lowest tally of his ORFFA career. The top five players in 2015 were separated by only eight votes with defender Michael Hurley and midfielder Dyson Heppell finishing equal third on 20 votes followed by high profile key forward recruit Drew Petrie in fifth place on 19 votes.

In Cradle Mountain’s first two seasons midfielder Pendlebury won each best and fairest by more than 10 votes with his winning margin being 11 votes in 2012 and a phenomenal 16 votes in 2013. Even though Scott only won by five votes in 2014 he was never seriously challenged with a fast finishing Zorko closing the gap late in the season. Throughout the 2015 count it was a very different story with Pendlebury being challenged by several team-mates. After the Devils lost their first three games of the season a crisis meeting resulted in several changes being implemented including the introduction of a leadership group and a change in vice-captain from Jack Redden to 22 year-old Dyson Heppell. In his first game as vice-captain Heppell scored 150 votes to poll four votes – the equal most votes polled in a game during 2015 to increase his tally to eight votes and move into the overall lead, one vote ahead of Pendlebury.

With a scintillating performance in Round 5 Scott Pendlebury quickly reminded everyone that he was still the main man for the Devils, amassing 32 disposals, four goal assists and kicked two goals against Birdsville to score 158 points – setting a Cradle Mountain season high to receive four votes and regain the overall lead on 11 votes, three ahead of Heppell who didn’t poll a vote in Round 5. At the mid-season break after Round 10 left-footer Pendlebury had polled 17 votes to lead by three votes from Dyson Heppell, followed by Michael Hurley on 13 votes Drew Petrie on 10 votes and Dayne Zorko in fifth place on nine votes.

Round 11 of the ORFFA was abandoned, reducing the number of home and away games after the mid-season break to six. Key defender Michael Hurley had back to back three vote performances in Rounds 12 & 13 to increase his tally to 19 votes, just one vote behind Pendlebury. The duo each polled a vote in Round 14 and it looked for the first time that a Cradle Mountain best and fairest would go down to the wire, however this didn’t eventuate, with a knee injury keeping Hurley on the sidelines for the final three games of the home and away season.

Cradle Mountain Devils 2015 best & fairest top 10

1. 27 Scott Pendlebury M
2. 22 Dayne Zorko F/M
eq 3. 20 Michael Hurley D
eq 3. 20 Dyson Heppell M
5 17 Drew Petrie F
eq 6. 13 Jack Redden M
eq. 6 13 Shaun Grigg M
8 10 Steve Johnson M
9 9 Liam Shiels M
10 6 Dustin Fletcher D

The profile of Pendlebury in ORFFA* Prospectus 2016 said “Since 2012, Pendlebury is the only player that rivals Gary Ablett, ranking second for Champion Data points per game. He makes good decisions with ball in hand, recording the best disposal per turnover rate of the top-50 ball winners.”1 Although Pendlebury ranks second behind Ablett for Champion Data points per game during the first four seasons of the ORFFA Cradle Mountain remain very satisfied with their selection of Pendlebury at number 1 in the inaugural ORFFA draft given that Pendlebury is three and a half years younger than Ablett and has missed only four ORFFA h & a games due to injury from 2012 to 2015 compared to Ablett’s 17.

Entering the 2015 season five players had finished in the top 10 of Cradle Mountains best and fairest in all three seasons, these five players all finished in the top eight in 2016 to extend their sequence to four seasons. Each season the top 10 in Devils best and fairest receives points, with the winner receiving 10 points down to 10th receiving 1 point. A list of the top B & F points accumulators in the Devils history is displayed and updated each year on the Cradle Mountain honours board. The five players who have finished in the top 10 each season fill the top five positions on the overall table at the end of the 2015 season being:

Pos Player Points

1 Scott Pendlebury (M) 40

2 Jack Redden (M) 28.5

3 Dayne Zorko (F/M) 28

4 Steven Johnson (F/M) 26

5 Dyson Heppell (M/D) 24

Pendlebury is a clear-cut leader, however second to fifth is very tight which has resulted in a lot of banter going back and forth between these four players with most of it involving Stevie J.

Three players had their first top 10 finish in Cradle Mountain’s best and fairest in 2015, Drew Petrie (fifth), Shaun Grigg (equal sixth) and Liam Shiels (ninth). Michael Hurley finished in the top 10 for the third season in a row and Dustin Fletcher snuck in for 10th in his final season – recording his third top 10 finish, only narrowly missing out in 2013 when he finished one vote behind three players who finished equal ninth.

1 Champion Data, ORFFA* Prospectus – The essential number cruncher for season 2016, 11th edition, page 99

AFL*

 

Milestones and misses & ORFFA awards

Given that St Kilda’s 2016 season is over and their best and fairest has been held I hought I should provide an update on the articles I have published on Milestones and misses. Since I set Milestones and misses up in early December 2015 I have published 16 articles celebrating the achievements of sportsmen and sportswomen comprised of the following:

St Kilda – 8
AFL - 1
Dandenong Rangers – 3
Opals and/or WNBL - 4

Below is a link to the homepage from which you can click on any of these articles as well as an about this site post towards the bottom:

http://milestonesandmisses.com/

Before December 2015 I had only published articles about St Kilda players so it has been a bit of a juggling act to expand my hobby of sports writing to include articles about an additional two teams, the Dandenong Rangers in the WNBL and Australia’s Women’s National Basketball Team, the Opals.

St Kilda & AFL

It was a very hectic start to the AFL season with four articles being published in the first month of the 2016 season to celebrate Leigh Montagna’s 250th AFL game, Nick Riewoldt’s 300th AFL game, Robert Harvey being elevated to legend status in St Kilda’s Hall of Fame, and to mark the 23rd anniversary of Nicky Winmar taking a stance against racism.

To celebrate the AFL’s Sir Doug Nicholls Indigenous Round in 2016 I published an article on the career of Adam Goodes. In the past two and a half months I have published three articles on St Kilda players to celebrate Shane Savage’s 50th game for the club, David Armitage’s 150th AFL game and Jack Steven winning the 2016 best and fairest.

Dandenong Rangers

During the 2015/16 WNBL season articles were published on two Rangers playing milestone games with Jacinta Kennedy and Amelia Todhunter both reaching 150 WNBL games. At the end of the season an article was published to celebrate Steph Cumming winning the Rangers 2015/16 MVP award and the WNBL defensive player of the year award.

WNBL & Opals

During the 2015/16 season articles were published on two WNBL players who were in contention for the Opals 2016 Olympic Games team – Abby Bishop and Rachel Jarry. At the end of the season an article was published on Suzy Batkovic winning the 2015/16 WNBL MVP award.

The Opals team for the 2016 Rio Olympic Games was a bit different to what I expected when I was preparing the articles on the above three players and in the end Jarry was the only one of the trio that made the Opals Olympic team with both Batkovic and Bishop being overlooked. During the Rio Olympics I published an article marking Penny Taylor’s achievement of reaching 50 games at major championships for the Opals.

St Kilda website

Trimmed down versions of the Milstones and misses articles on Nicky Winmar and Shane Savage were published on the St Kilda Football Club’s website. Links to these articles are provided below:

http://www.saints.com.au/news/2016-04-19/23-years-ago

http://www.saints.com.au/news/2016-07-22/savage-chalks-up-half-ton-in-red-white-black

ORFFA awards

Articles will be published on Too Serious on the 2016 Les W medallist and 2016 ORFFA Rising Star award winner later this year. 2016 has been a bit of a transition year with the automated process set up for these ORFFA awards and me doing more sports writing than in previous years.

The start of the 2017 AFL season will be far more sedate in terms of me publishing articles on Milestones and misses as no St Kilda player will be reaching a milestone of 100 games or more in the first two months of the season.

My plan in 2017 is to revert back to making round by round posts on the Les W medal award as I was in 2015 with some info on the leaders including a player in focus each round.

Let me know if you have got any comments or suggestions about Milestones and misses and/or the articles on ORFFA award winners.

 

I have got significant catching up to do with the Cradle Mountain Devils updates before the 2017 season starts.

Cradle Mountain 2016 season in review - Part 1

The pre-season

Two and a half months before the 2016 ORFFA season commenced the Cradle Mountain Devils had a massive set-back as on 11 January 2016 three key members of the Football club were suspended for the entire 2016 season due to their involvement in the much publicised supplements saga. The three Devils suspended were current CMD players - Dyson Heppell and Michael Hurley along with defensive assistant coach Dustin Fletcher who retired as a Devils player at the end of the 2015 season.

Cradle Mountain were not the only ORFFA club impacted by the supplements saga suspensions however no other club was impacted as greatly as the Devils with Heppell and Hurley both being amongst the top handful of Cradle Mountain players, in terms of both their playing performances and their leadership. During the 2015 season Heppell was appointed Cradle Mountain’s vice captain and Michael Hurley was selected in the club’s first ever leadership group which had five players in it. Hurley and Heppell each had outstanding 2015 seasons to finish equal third in Cradle Mountain’s best and fairest on 20 votes, behind Dayne Zorko on 22 votes and captain Scott Pendlebury who polled 27 votes to win his fourth Devils b & f in succession.

In part 2 of Cradle Mountain’s 2015 season review we wrote “With so little separating the teams ranked sixth to 12th for points per game, coupled with a 1-4 record in games decided by 50 points or less the Cradle Mountain match committee vowed to transition from a list-build strategy to a balance of building for the future and focusing on the present in 2016 to attempt to move up into the top six teams.”

After the suspensions were handed down a consensus was reached by the match committee that Cradle Mountain would be unlikely to achieve the previous goal of finishing in the top six in 2016 so a decision was made to abandon the transition in list strategy and revert back to the list-build strategy that had been in place during 2015. The ability to remain competitive was important in 2016, however the match committee were going to be judged just as heavily for the ability to develop the squad and rectify some weaknesses in the list composition, enabling the Devils to commence the 2017 season with a balanced squad across the four positional lines.

Leadership Group 2016

The Devils had a five man leadership group in 2016 with midfielder David Zaharakis and defender Nick Vlastuin being voted into the group to take the place of suspended duo Hurley and Heppell. Scott Pendlebury, Dayne Zorko and Jack Redden all remained in the leadership group from 2015. Once the leadership group had been selected all players voted for who should be the captain and vice-captain with Scott Pendlebury being comprehensively voted in as the Devils captain, his fifth year in the role. Small forward Dayne Zorko became Cradle Mountain’s third vice-captain in less than 12 months, succeeding Redden and Heppell.


M Scott Pendlebury C
F/M Dayne Zorko VC
M Jack Redden
M David Zaharakis
D Nick Vlastuin

Coaching group

Due to the suspension of defensive assistant coach Dustin Fletcher, Cradle Mountain made changes to the responsibilities of their coaches for the 2016 season. Jude Bolton moved from being the midfield line coach to the defensive line coach. The plan was to broaden Bolton’s coaching skills before he returned to being the midfield line coach in either 2018 or 2019. Brad Green moved from being the development coach to midfield coach. Brandon Bolt who played over 200 games in the Tasmanian Regional Football League for the Devils retired as a player at the end of the 2015 season and was appointed the club’s development coach in the off-season. Dean Andrews and Steve Johnson retained their position as head coach and forward line coach respectively. Stevie J would continue to play for Cradle Mountain in 2016 and would become a full-time line coach for the club after he retired. Dustin Fletcher would return to CMD as a line coach in 2017.

Head coach – Dean Andrews
Defensive assistant coach and senior assistant coach – Jude Bolton
Midfield coach – Brad Green
Forward coach – Steve Johnson
Development coach – Brandon Bolt


2016 Pre-season draft

With their first selection in the pre-season draft Cradle Mountain selected midfielder Jacob Hopper with the eighth selection overall. Hopper was one of the top five players on the Devils draft board however the club hadn’t ranked these five in order, believing that they would have been drafted before the Devils first pick. Cradle Mountain were even more fortunate with their second selection as with pick 26 the Devils head recruiter Jack Timberlake was able to call out the seventh player on the CMD draft board – another midfielder in Jade Gresham.

Before Heppell and Hurley’s year-long suspension the club planned to select two teenagers and two experienced players with their four selections at the Pre-season draft, however after adopting a longer-term strategy following the suspensions the Devils decided to change the mix to three teenagers and one experienced player. After selecting two midfielders with their first two picks Cradle Mountain selected two forwards with their last two picks, Harrison Himmelberg at pick 44 and Josh Walker with pick 62.

Below is some info on each of the Devils selections at the 2016 PSD – age is at the start of the 2016 season:

Jacob Hopper, Midfielder, 19 years old, selected with pick 8

Hopper earnt selection as a midfielder in the 2015 under 18 All-Australian team after rating elite for disposals, metres gained, contested possessions and clearances at the National Championships. At the championships Hopper played three games for NSW/ACT, averaging 27 disposals and 16.3 contested possessions per game to win his state’s MVP award. Hopper’s profile in the ORFFA* Prospectus 2016 said “Champion Data has captured 28 games of Hopper across his junior career, and all signs point to an elite midfielder. He averaged 23 disposals, 13 contested possessions, five clearances, five tackles and 122 Champion Data ranking points per game. He has also kicked 34 goals.” From 2016 onwards the Devils first selection at the ORFFA Pre-season draft would wear Dustin Fletchers old number, this tradition commenced with Hopper wearing number 31 for CMD in 2016.

Jade Gresham, Midfielder, 18 years old, selected with pick 26

Gresham played five games for Vic Metro at 2015 AFL Under-18 National Championships, averaging 23 disposals, six marks, five tackles, five clearances and more than a goal a game to earn his state’s MVP award and selection in the forward line of the under 18 All-Australian team. Gresham’s profile in the ORFFA* Prospectus 2016 said “Despite his small stature, Gresham produced the best numbers of any midfielder in the TAC Cup last season, winning 146 Champion Data ranking points per game, the most of anyone to play at least five games.”

Harrison Himmelberg, Forward, 19 years old, selected with pick 44

Himmelberg was a NSW/ACT teammate of Hopper’s and also played three games for his state at the National Championships, averaging 14 disposals and six marks per game. Himmelberg’s profile in the ORFFA* Prospectus 2016 said “He averaged 116 Champion Data ranking points at the 2015 AFL Under-18 National Championships – the second-most of any key forward. He excelled at ground level, ranking equal No. 1 of all key forwards for groundball gets per game and equal second for pressure acts and tackles per game.”

Josh Walker, Forward, 23 years old, selected with pick 44

Walker was a mature age player recruited from the Geelong Football Club, having played 16 games as a key forward in 2015, averaging 10 disposals and 1.2 goals per game.

AFL*

2016 Premiership Odds with ChiefBet

16.00 Cradle Mountain

Cradle Mountain were ranked equal 13th with Gundagai and Wineglass Bay in the 2016 ORFFA Premiership odds by ChiefBet who commented on the Devils:

“Cradle Mountain has been the club most disadvantaged by those cheating pricks down at BomberLand losing arguably the two most valuable Dons in Heppell and Hurley. This has stopped the Devils from pushing for a finals berth this year, although baring any other misfortune, ChiefBet expects them to make a big push next year, particularly if some of their young forwards make the leap this year.”

The Devils thought the commentary from ChiefBet was accurate and although the club wasn’t confident about their 2016 finals prospects they expected to rise up the ladder in 2017.

 

Cradle Mountain have got some serious catching up to do with their updates. The good news is that in the present the Devils appear almost certain to make the finals in 2017, having a record of eight wins and five losses after Round 13, with four of these losses being by less than 30 points.

Cradle Mountain 2016 season in review - Part 2

The home and away season

Only two of the seven Devils to average more than 90 points for the club during 2015 played in Round 1, 2016 against Birdsville, being Scott Pendlebury and Jack Redden, with Michael Hurley and Dyson Heppell suspended for the entire season, Liam Shiels and Shaun Grigg missing due to injury and Dayne Zorko serving a one game suspension. Birdsville outclassed the Devils in their Round 1 encounter to win by 177 points 1,321-1,144. With several players back in Round 2 CMD squared the ledger by defeating the Wineglass Bay Packers 1,340 to 1,267. Cradle Mountain maintained their loss, win sequence for the first six rounds, having a thrilling Round 4 victory over the Wagga Wagga Wombats by two points.

The Devils recorded back to back victories for the first time of 2016 in Round 7, playing their best football of the season to defeat the Marble Bar Misfits by 438 points, 1,373 to 935 to be one of only three teams to score in excess of 1,300 points for the Round. After Round 7 Cradle Mountain were seventh on the ladder with a record of four wins and three losses, and were also ranked seventh for total points scored. Having a game and points scored advantage over Charlie’s Opening in eighth position the Devils looked well placed to seriously contend for a finals position however ultimately it proved to be a mirage with the Devils winning only one of their next seven games to have a record of five wins and nine losses and fall to 13th position on the ladder after Round 14.

Throughout their history in the ORFFA Cradle Mountain had earned a label as the consistently mediocre Devils, however a couple of articles were published by the Tasmanian press saying the Devils weren’t even good enough to be considered mediocre in 2016. The Cradle Mountain players took exception to these articles and promptly went on their longest winning sequence of the season to win their last three games of the season to finish with a record of eight wins and nine losses to finish in 11th position on the ladder, one game and points scored behind the Venus Bay Vultures in eight position. Cradle Mountain averaged 1,170 points per game – ranked 12th in the league and only scored in excess of 1,200 points per game four times.

After five seasons in the ORFFA the Cradle Mountain Devils had a home and away record of 42 wins and 42 losses, had never finished higher than sixth, nor lower than 12th to prove that they were well and truly deserving of the label – consistently mediocre Devils.

At the mid-season draft Cradle Mountain delisted two ruckman – Trent West and Jake Spencer and recruited Tim Membrey and Billy Longer with MSD pick 6 and 24 respectively. Membrey had previously spent a year on Cradle Mountain’s list having been selected with pick 21 at the 2013 expansion draft but got delisted at the 2014 mid-season break without playing a game. Devils head recruiter Jack Timberlake who hadn’t been involved in the decision to delist Membrey was ecstatic to get him back to the club, believing that his accuracy around goal, marking ability and aerobic capacity would complement the other players in the Devils forward line. This certainly proved to be the case as Membrey finished 11th in the Devils best and fairest on six votes despite joining the club two thirds of the way through the season.

Two Cradle Mountain Devils players – captain Scott Pendlebury and vice-captain Dayne Zorko represented Victoria/Tasmania in the inaugural ORFFA State of Origin game during the 2016 mid-season break, Pendlebury averaged 119 points in 2016, ranked second in the ORFFA behind fellow midfielder Patrick Dangerfield whilst Zorko was ranked second of all forwards in the league with an average of 109. Only three other Devils averaged more than 80 points per game in 2016, midfielders Shaun Grigg and David Zaharakis with 93 and 87 points respectively, along with veteran forward Steve Johnson who averaged 85 points per game. To make their second ORFFA finals appearance in 2017 Cradle Mountain would require a significant increase in the number of players averaging 80+ points per game.

At the mid-season break Cradle Mountain engaged external consultant Tim Toogood to undertake an extensive review of Cradle Mountain’s first five years in the ORFFA and provide some recommendations. Details on the outcome of this five-year review will be provided in a later post.

Les W Medal

In all three seasons from 2013 to 2015 Cradle Mountain Devils captain Scott Pendlebury finished in the top 15 of the Les W Medal, having finished third in 2013, sixth in 2014 and equal 14th overall in 2015. Given that two of Cradle Mountain’s best four players were suspended for the entire season in Michael Hurley & Dyson Heppell, reducing the competition for votes, 2016 was likely to be Pendles best chance of winning the prestigious award.

Whilst two Devils were on the front page of the Les W Medal after Round 4 Pendlebury wasn’t one of them, forward/midfielder Dayne Zorko had polled 13 votes including a best afield performance in Round 2 to be equal second on 13 votes, one vote behind the leader - Gary Ablett. Relishing being one of the Devils starting midfielders David Zaharakis was best afield in Rounds 1 & 4 to poll 12 votes in the first 4 rounds and be fifth overall.

Pendlebury played exceptional football in the middle of the season and had back to back best afield performances in Rounds 7 & 8 yet hadn’t been able to join Zorko on the front page of the leaderboard. Zorko had polled 19 votes to be equal fourth overall, three votes behind Dangerfield. In Rounds 9 and 10 Zorko and Pendlebury both featured in the votes to increase their tally’s to 24 and 23 votes respectively, placing them within striking distance of the leader – Dan Hannebery on 27, Zorko was equal fourth with Pendlebury in sixth place.

Pendlebury polled four votes in Round 11 followed by a best afield performance in Round 12 to increase his tally to 32 votes and be in outright second place three votes behind Dangerfield and two votes ahead of Ablett. A best afield performance from Pendlebury kept his Les W Medal hope alive, moving to 38 votes, level with Max Gawn in equal second place, seven votes behind Dangerfield with two rounds remaining.

Pendlebury and Gawn each polled four votes in Round 16, however Dangerfield was best afield to wrap up the Les W Medal. Pendlebury finished third in the Les W Medal for the second time in his career, polling 42 votes – a new personal best surpassing his 41 votes in 2013 to finish eight votes behind Dangerfield and three votes behind Gawn.

A Cradle Mountain player was best afield 10 times in 2016 comprised of four for Pendlebury, three for Zaharakis and one each for Zorko, Shaun Grigg and Steve Johnson. Despite only one best afield performance, consistently featuring in the votes resulted in Zorko polling 33 votes to finish equal seventh. Zaharakis was the opposite of Zorko, being very much hit or miss throughout 2016, he had three best afield performances but didn’t pick up many minor votes to poll 21 votes and finish equal 30th overall.

During 2016 11 Cradle Mountain players polled a total of 130 Les W Medal votes with Zorklebury accounting for 57.7% of the Devils votes.

CMD’s Les W Medal vote-getters in 2016

42 Scott Pendlebury M – 4 best afield games
33 Dayne Zorko F/M – 1 best afield game
21 David Zaharakis M – 3 best afield games
13 Shaun Grigg M – 1 best afield game
9 Steve Johnson F – 1 best afield game
5 Tim Membrey F - 0 best afield games
2 Jordan Roughead R
2 Sam Gilbert D/M
1 Ben Kennedy F
1 Jake Lever D
1 Liam Shiels M

 

With the 2017 season almost over and the Devils finals bound I thought I better finally make a post on the CMD 2016 best and fairest.

Cradle Mountain Devils 2016 best & fairest

After spending some time out of Cradle Mountain’s best 15 in 2015 David Zaharakis relished the opportunity to play as the Devils M2/M3 during 2016 and got off to an absolute flyer polling three votes in Rounds 1 and Round 2 to be a convincing leader on six votes, ahead of Ben Kennedy on four votes with midfielder/forward Dayne Zorko and forward Stevie J in equal third position on three votes. After missing Round 1 with suspension Zorko polled at least two votes in each of his first five games of the season to have a tally of 11 votes after Round 6 to be the outright leader ahead of Zaharakis on nine votes, Devils captain Scott Pendlebury in third position on eight votes and Stevie J in fourth place on seven votes.

The Amazing Zorko extended his sequence to games with at least two votes to nine to have 20 votes after Round 10, despite this Pendlebury was level with Zorko due to polling a total of 10 votes in three games from Round 7 to Round 9. The maximum votes a Cradle Mountain player can receive for a game is five which no-one achieved in 2016, Pendlebury’s four votes in Round 8 were the equal most a player polled in 2016. Zorko polled single votes in both Rounds 11 and 12 whilst Pendlebury polled two votes in each game to lead at the mid-season break after Round 12 on 24 votes, two ahead of Zorko. Zaharakis held third place on 14 votes ahead of Shaun Grigg on 13 and Stevie J on 10.

Pendlebury and Zorko both polled a vote each in Round 13, however with Zorko polling two votes in Round 14 to Pendlebury’s one, the margin was reduced to just one vote. The margin remained the same with the duo each polling two votes in Round 15. In round 16 Pendlebury polled three votes to increase his lead to three votes as Zorko polled a single vote. Zaharakis and Grigg both failed to poll a vote from Round 13 to Round 15, two votes from Stevie J in Round15 increased his tally to 12 votes – one behind Grigg and two behind Zaharakis. In Round 16 Johnson delivered a phenomenal performance to poll four votes, the equal most for the Devils all season along with Pendlebury in Round 8, to catapult himself from fifth place to third in the b & f. Johnson polled one vote in Round 17 to finish in third two votes ahead of Grigg who polled two votes in the Devils last game of the season whilst Zaharakis faded as the season progressed – polling only three votes after Round 7 with none of these votes being after Round 12 to finish in fifth place on 14 votes. Pendlebury failed to poll a vote in Round 17, however he held on to win with a tally of 31 votes, two votes ahead of Zorko.

The leading trio of Pendlebury, Zorko and Stevie J all had their equal best finish in a Cradle Mountain best and fairest, whilst Grigg had the best finish his career, with his fourth placed finish surpassing his previous highest finish of equal sixth in 2015, Zaharakis fading out late in season prevented him from equalling or surpassing his previous best finish of equal fourth in 2013. Reliable defender Lee Spurr had the third top 10 b & f finish in his fourth season at the Devils – finishing in sixth position, Spurr had finished 10th in 2013 and equal ninth in 2014 after being a third round selection by the Devils at the 2013 PSD. Jordan Roughead relished his move into the ruck during 2016, playing every game for the Devils and finished in seventh position.

Whilst the top seven in the Devils b & f were all 25 years of age or older the three players completing the top 10 were all under 23 with the trio all having been selected in the top 30 of a PSD by the Devils. 20 year-old defender Jake Lever who was selected by the Devils with pick 19 at the 2015 PSD finished eighth with eight votes. The Devils first two selections from the 2013 PSD finished equal ninth on seven votes being defender Nick Vlastuin (pick 9) and forward Ben Kennedy (pick 27). Roughead, Lever and Kennedy all recorded their first top 10 finish in the Devils best and fairest whilst Vlastuin had his second top 10 finish, having finished eighth in his debut season of 2013. Pendlebury, Zorko and Stevie J are the only three players to finish in the top 10 of the CMD best and fairest in all five seasons.

Cradle Mountain Devils 2016 best & fairest top 10

1. 31 Scott Pendlebury M
2. 29 Dayne Zorko F/M
3 17 Steve Johnson F
4 16 Shaun Grigg M
5 14 David Zaharakis M
6 10 Lee Spurr D
7 9 Jordan Roughead D/R
8 8 Jake Lever D
eq 9 7 Nick Vlastuin D
eq 9 7 Ben Kennedy F/M


First Scott Pendlebury

An incredible hot streak from Round 5 to Round 9 during which he polled 14 best and fairest votes set up Pendlebury’s fifth successive Cradle Mountain’s best and fairest, during this period he polled three votes or more in a game four times. Highlighting the stratosphere Pendelbury performed in during this hot-streak, no other Devil had more than two games with three or more votes for the entire season. In Round 8 Pendlebury had 15 kicks, 19 handballs, 10 inside 50’s, nine clearances, 17 contested possessions, three goal assists and used the ball superbly to have a disposal efficiency of 82%, scoring 157 points to an earn a Devils equal season-high four votes. The profile for Pendlebury in the ORFFA* Prospectus 2017 said “He was involved in 34% of scoring chains, ranked fourth in the ORFFA* and second of all midfielders behind Nat Fyfe. His kick rating of 10.1%, was elite and 6% higher than any other elite ball winning midfielder. Pendlebury was one only two midfielders to rate elite for intercept possessions and score assists and his consistency for disposals per game ranked No. 1.”1 Whilst Pendelbury has won five successive Devils b & f’s the competition he has faced from his team-mates – most notably Dayne Zorko has increased during this time, having won by double figure margins in 2012 and 2013 he won by five votes in both 2014 and 2015 with Zorko being the runner-up in the latter two seasons. Whilst Zorko was able to reduce the margin even further to just two votes in 2016 Pendlebury maintained his perfect record of winning every Devils ORFFA best and fairest. During 2016 Pendlebury played all 17 games for Cradle Mountain and averaged 118.7 points per game – ranked second in the ORFFA behind Foul Bay’s Patrick Dangerfield.


Second Dayne Zorko

For the third successive season Dayne Zorko excelled in his role as forward/midfielder to finish runner-up in Cradle Mountain’s best and fairest behind Pendlebury. In the closest Devils best and fairest Zorko polled 29 votes in 2016 to finish only two votes behind, having finished five votes behind in both 2014 and 2015. The Amazing Zorko was a model of consistency throughout 2016 to poll votes in a Devils best 16 games for the season, giving him a phenomenal 100% strike-rate as he missed Round 1 due to suspension. Zorko’s profile in the AFL Prospectus 2017 said “He does not have a weakness in his game, and was the only midfielder to rate elite for goals, score assists, kick rating and pressure. He also rated elite for metres gained and above average for intercept possessions.”2 Zorko played 16 games for the Devils in 2016 and averaged 109 points per game – ranked second of all forward eligible players behind Charlies Opening’s Zach Merrett.

Third Steve Johnson

After playing as a pure midfielder during 2014 and 2015 Johnson returned to play as a forward in 2016, the position he had commenced his ORFFA career in during 2012. Due to spending more time in the forward 50 he averaged less disposals in 2016 however he made a significant impact on the scoreboard through kicking goals himself and setting them up for teammates. Stevie J’s profile in ORFFA* Prospectus 2017 said “Of the players to play at least 10 matches, 21 averaged two or more goals per game and Johnson was one of them, but he was one of only five players to average two goals and 1.4 or more score assists per game.”3 It was the fourth time that Stevie J had finished in the top four of the Devils B & F, having previously finished fourth in 2012, and third in 2013 and 2014. Johnson’s four top four finishes in the CMD B & F ranks second in the club’s history behind Scott Pendlebury with five top four finishes. Suspension and injury had previously cost him a top two finish in the Devils best and fairest, most notably in 2013 when he missed multiple games due to both injury and suspension and finished the Devils best and fairest in third place just one vote behind Jack Redden. During the Devils time in the ORFFA there had been much banter amongst him and his team-mates regarding Johnson’s b & f finishing positions, and just as he had been very opportunistic throughout his career around goal to produce an enviable highlight reel Stevie J sensed an opportunity late in the 2016 season to secure another top three finish in a Devils best and fairest in the twilight of his career and started commenting on the training track to his team-mates that he was about to deliver one of the greatest ‘Stevie J Shows of all-time’. In Round 16 Johnson backed his words up to deliver a phenomenal performance to worth four b & f votes, the equal most for the Devils all season along with Pendlebury in Round 8, to catapult himself from fifth place to third in the b & f, a position he retained at the end of the count much to his delight.

Fourth Shaun Grigg

Shaun Grigg was one of Cradle Mountain’s most consistent performers throughout 2016, only scoring less than 80 twice and scoring seven tons. With Heppell suspended for the entire season Grigg spent more time playing as an inside midfielder in 2016 than he had in his first couple of seasons at the club. In the 2013 mid-season Grigg was recruited by the Devils to play the role of M4, however as a result of a loss of form, his average dropping to 71 and Heppell and Stevie J being moved to the midfield Grigg found himself out of the CMD best 15 in 2014. Grigg was placed on the trade table in the 2014 post-season, after no interest from rival clubs he was the last player retained on the Devils list before the PSD. Grigg has transformed into a fixture in the Devils best 15, finishing equal sixth in the club’s 2015 b & f, and then surpassing that performance with a fourth placed finish in 2016. The profile for Grigg in the ORFFA* Record Season Guide 2017 said “He averaged career-high inside 50s (4.3), clearances (4) and contested possessions (8.9), with his 24.3 disposals a game his highest since 2012. Appreciated by his teammates for the selfless work he does Grigg can be relied on to produce every week.”4

Fifth David Zaharakis

Despite David Zaharakis not being a regular member of Cradle Mountain’s best 15 in 2015 his team-mates showed great confidence in him by voting him into the club’s five man leadership group for the 2016 season. This was a factor in the Zaharakis swagger returning during the pre-season and the outside midfielder started 2016 in exceptional fashion at M2 to poll 16 Les W Medal votes in the first seven rounds to be in equal fourth position overall, four votes behind Patrick Dangerfield. Recognising the superb form of Zaharakis and the drive he was providing for the Devils, opposition clubs started to tag him and were able to curtail his influence. After polling B & F votes in five of the first seven games he faded badly to poll in only two more games for the rest of the season which led to some friendly banter from his teammates who gave Zaharakis a new nickname ‘Skydiver’ due to hitting great heights early in the season but then plummeting quickly to earth. The profile for Zaharakis in the ORFFA* Prospectus 2017 said “He dominated early, ranking in the top 10 in the ORFFA* for disposals and uncontested possessions from Round 1-7, but then the taggers came. He never won more than 13 disposals in the five games he was tagged from Round 8 onwards.”5

Cradle Mountain b & f all-time leader board

Five players had finished in the top 10 of the Devils best and fairest in all four seasons from 2012 and 2015, however two of these players failed to finish in the top 10 in 2016, being Jack Redden due to form and Dyson Heppell due to a season long suspension. The top three from the Devils 2016 b & f - Pendlebury, Zorko and Stevie J are now the only three players to finish in the top 10 of the CMD best and fairest in all five seasons. Each season the top 10 in Devils best and fairest receives points, with the winner receiving 10 points down to 10th receiving 1 point. A list of the top B & F points accumulators in the Devils history is displayed and updated each year on the Cradle Mountain honours board. After the Devils 2016 best and fairest the all-time standings were:


Pos Player Points

1 Scott Pendlebury (M) 50
2 Dayne Zorko (F/M) 37
3 Steven Johnson (F/M) 34
4 Jack Redden (M) 28.5
5 Dyson Heppell (M/D) 24
6 David Zaharakis (M/F) 18.5
7 Michael Hurley (D/F) 15
8 Shaun Grigg (M) 11.5

After not finishing in the top 10 of the 2016 b & f Jack Redden has slipped from second to fourth in the all-time standings with Dayne Zorko and Stevie J each rising one position. Despite being suspended for the entire 2016 season Heppell and Hurley have retained fifth and sixth position. The top seven were all recruited at the Inaugural Draft in 2012 whilst Shaun Grigg was acquired with a trade during the 2013 mid-season break.

1 Champion Data, ORFFA* Prospectus – The essential number cruncher for season 2017, 12th edition, page 102
2 Champion Data, ORFFA* Prospectus – The essential number cruncher for season 2017, 12th edition, page 67
3 Champion Data, ORFFA* Prospectus – The essential number cruncher for season 2017, 12th edition, page 199
4 ORFFA*, ORFFA* Record Season 2017, page 278
5 Champion Data, ORFFA* Prospectus – The essential number cruncher for season 2017, 12th edition, page 127

AFL*

 

Thought Cradle Mountain went really well at Randwick yesterday. Six wins from 10 starts is strong off season form in anyone's language. Don't leave it all on the training track Dean.