ORFFA Round 2 - Teams & Banter

Tentative cows side to play the reigning premiers - tentative because hoping for some sign that two-time Brownlow medalist will improve over last week's game. Debut game for recent trade acquisition Braeden Campbell - good luck amigo.
D: N Newman (105), J McGovern, R Burton B Campbell
M: B Crouch, T Mitchell, D Prestia, Z Bailey (B Williams)
R: R O'Brien
F: J Dunkley, B Close (48), T Papley, N Fyfe
I/C: M Owens, T Sparrow (C Taylor)

2023 PSD pick 50 Cooper Whyte came off the E bench last night and was granted a measly half of the last quarter by Brad Scott. Disrespectful to young talent - lift your game ya flog.

 

Round 2 against Mount Beauty

DEF - Thomas Jonas, Jed Bews, Darcy Moore, Callum Wilkie
MID - Mason Wood, Darcy Parish, Karl Amon, Shai Bolton (EMG) Elijah Hollands
RUC - Rhys Stanley
FWD - Samuel Switkowski, Isaac Heeney, Tyson Stengle, Nick Larkey
INT - Liam Ryan, Hayden McLean (EMG) Marlion Pickett

 

Chris might pay more attention if you stop calling him by his brother's name.

 

Very fair call JC, very fair. Was so annoyed my sub-conscious took over. Thank you for grounding me.

 

Cradle Mountain Round 2 team

Out: Z Fisher (omitted), J Gunston (omitted)
In: D Zorko, J Riewoldt

New: J Riewoldt (from Iron Knob Codpieces)

Def: N Vlastuin, D Rich, D Heppell, J Lever (J Bowey)
Mid: J Steele, S Pendlebury, J Hopper, S Sidebottom (R Ginbey)
Ruc: T Nankervis
Fwd: J Gresham, A Naughton, D Zorko, J Riewoldt (Z Fisher)
Int: T English, R Marshall (J Laverde)

For the Devils first away game of the 2023 ORFFA season they travel north to play the Birdsville Battlers. Cradle Mountain and Birdsville both had victories in Round 1 scoring between 1,240 and 1,260 points so it shapes as a close game.

Whilst the Devils four forwards battled to an aggregate score of 211 points in Round 1 Birdsville defenders dominated to score 457 points at an average of 114.25 points per player led by 171 points from Luke Ryan. After the forward line misfired last weekend Cradle Mountain have made two unforced changes on this line, omitting Zac Fisher and Jack Gunston. CMD veteran Dayne Zorko returns after recovering from a hamstring injury and Jack Riewoldt becomes the third mature age recruit from the 2023 PSD to make their club debut for the Devils this season. The Devils forward line quartet will be aiming to increase their offensive output but also need to limit the drive provided by the Birdsville defenders.

Cradle Mountain have two Tasmanians in their Round 2 team, Toby Nankervis and Jack Riewoldt. A third player from Tasmania, defender/midfielder Sam Banks is in the Devils development squad, having been selected with pick 33 at the 2022 PSD.

 

Battlers line up for their clash against the Devils ended up as:

D: Ryan, Doedee, McDonald, Chapman (Young)
M: Cerra, Kennedy, Smith, Berry (Hunter)
R: De Koning
F: Moore, Flanders, McDonald, McKay (Breust)
IC: Rowbottom, Witherden (Battle)

All the best, Dean. I've already left a 99 on the bench by demoting Hunter, so fingers crossed things improve from there!

 

Thanks @JC. You haven’t had much luck this weekend with a 99 from the demoted Hunter and having a match against the Devils who have played one of the best games in the club’s decade plus history and shown no mercy on your Birdsville Battlers.

Birdsville Battlers 817/10 (average of 81.7)
Trail
Cradle Mountain Devils 1,520/14 (average 108.6) with defender Dyson Heppell to play

Birdsville players to take the field today are forwards Dylan Moore, Sam Flanders and Logan McDonald as well as interchange players James Rowbottom and Alex Witherden.

It was a very straight forward selection meeting to determine Cradle Mountain’s Round 2 team for the away game against Birdsville. Before the 2023 ORFFA PSD Cradle Mountain had 12 players that were automatic selections in the club’s best 15, with the D4, M4 and F4 positions up for grabs. For this weekend’s game against Birdsville the Devils had the full complement of a dozen automatic selections playing. Jake Lever and Steele Sidebottom were given the opportunity in the D4 and M4 position respectively in Round 1 and each scored 80+ to raise their hands to retain their places in the side for in Round 2. Two players in the Devils forward line had sub 35 scores in Round 1 – Jack Gunston and Zac Fisher. With Dayne Zorko recovering from a hamstring injury and Jack Riewoldt scoring 89 in the seconds last weekend it was an easy choice to bring this duo into the team for Gunston and Fisher.

The major concern Cradle Mountain had for the Round 2 game was the line battle between Birdsville’s defenders and the Devils forward line. The CMD forward quartet excelled in their task of increasing their offensive output from a lacklustre Round 1 but also limiting the drive provided by the Birdsville defenders. In a massive turn around from the respective line performances in Round 1 the Devils forwards took the honours against the Birdsville defenders in a close contest 366 to 330. Luke Ryan continued his red-hot start to the season to score 122 to be the clubhouse leader for Birdsville’s best player for the second week in a row. The Magician Dayne Zorko dazzled with his full repertoire of tricks in the Devils forward line in his return from injury to score 138 points.

The seven Cradle Mountain players who rotated through the middle of the ground comprised of four midfielders, one ruck and two interchange players scored 867 points between them at a phenomenal average of 123.9 points per player. Pre-season mature-age recruit Steele Sidebottom thrived in the midfield to score 146 points in a (provisionally) best afield performance and was joined in triple figures by the CMD ruck trio of Tim English (139), Rowan Marshall (129) and Toby Nankervis (118). In the off-season Scott Pendlebury stood down as Devils captain but continues to show leadership on and off the ground and scored 120, being joined in triple figures by fellow midfielder Jacob Hopper (119). New Devils captain Jack Steele (96) had a very good excuse for falling just short of triple figures, bravely returning to the field after suffering a broken collarbone in the third quarter.

Defenders Jake Lever (114) and Nick Vlastuin (104) increased the Cradle Mountain ton count to 9. Ryan was joined in Birdsville’s best by midfielders Matt Kennedy (110) and Bailey Smith (87) along with ruck Tom De Koning (93) and defender Tom Doedee (82). Birdsville are on track to have a final score of about 1,250 points for the second week in succession.

It is rare for an ORFFA club to have all of their best dozen players available for a game and Cradle Mountain took full advantage of it to score 1,500+ against Birdsville. CMD skipper Jack Steele will undergo surgery on his broken collarbone tomorrow and is expected to miss at least four games. Reuben Ginbey and Jake Bowey each scored 80+ playing in the seconds in Round 1 and are the two players in contention to replace Steele for Round 3.

@JC, wishing you the best of luck with Birdsville Battlers selection calls and with the team in general for the remainder of the 2023 ORFFA season.

 

That's a lot of words to say you're giving me a good old-fashioned arse kicking!

 

well done @anthak - close go but your guys were too good.