The prelims are The Stony Ponys vs Sherwood Magpies - the teams first finals clash - last time they met was Rd9 with the Magpies 1316 defeating the Ponys 1220 - the Magpies make the preliminary final debut in the competition's 10th season while the experienced Ponys outfit will be looking to roll out a gameplan that has withstood the finals pressure cooker in many big matches Neptune Island Noahs vs Mt Thirsty Boozers - a replay of the 2024 Grand Final - last time they met was Rd6 with the Boozers 1336 defeating Noahs 1266 - there hasn't been much separating the sides across the competition's last 2 seasons and the 2 sides have star power galore and coaches who will be rotating the magnets throughout a slugfest to decide who moves through to the 2025 big dance Good luck to all those in the final 4 A reminder that full lockout applies on the first game on Friday night (post Sunday teams).
For those following at home the prelim final tally for all teams over the ORFFF's opening decade is 8 - Noahs 6 - Woylies 4 - Virgins and Ponys 3 - Ducks and Boozers 2 - Dropbears, Atoms, Whales and Shags 1 - Fugs, Bucks, 29ers and Magpies 0 - White Pointers and Power
It looked like you had your 12 highest average players onfield in the semi final with a few fringe players unavailable. Grundy is a big loss but one of your 5 other rucks will take his place. Finals are meant to be hard and someone has to eventually beat the Noahs in a prelim (they are 7-0) so why not the Boozers?
With Oscar's back and Grundy's head, who would have thought I would be relying on a ruck duo of Fort and Ladhams. Ladhams gets the callup from an OOP def emerg to leading the ruck line with Fort
And Laird suspended now unless McGovern makes a return, we won’t have enough numbers to field a full defender line for this important clash.
Noahs head in unchanged against the punch drunk Boozers Def - Lloyd, Clark, Maynard, Amon (Turner) Mid - Viney, Libba, Dawson, Powell (Gresham) Ruck - Gawn Fwd - Kennedy, Warner, Moore, Neale (Wright) IC - Dempsey, Sweet (McKay)