Round 9 saw Serengeti hosting the Monarchs of King Island in a contest between two sides battling to stay in touch with the top 8 and keep finals aspirations well and truly alive. @Tylo Mason Redman (76) was a welcome returnee for the visitors and he slotted back seemlessly into a well functioning backline led by the resurgent Wayne Milera (127). Ed Richards (117) was inspired by the defensive efforts of the team and did his best to sway the battle in favour of the Monarchs. There were a few Monarchs that failed to catch the vibe being set though and when Joel Amartey (29), Nick Haynes (50), Jackson Macrae (59), Matt Kennedy (60) & Kyle Langford (63) all failed to deliver there were question marks of disunity amongst the squad. That was until an eerily similar output was produced by the passengers making up the numbers for the home side with the bottom 5 efforts of Sam Switkowski (25), Adam Saad (52), Liam Henry (56), Harry Himmelberg (57) & Jordan Clark (72) providing a solitary extra point. So instead of disunity within each squad, there were fears of unity that was too strong between the two squads and rumours of match fixing were beginning to swirl. Unfortunately for any potential black market operators it takes more than a third of a squad in this game to influence a result and after the dismal bottom 5 efforts, the rest of the team performed much more consistently, headlined by 6 tons and a BOG effort from the red-hot Bailey Smith (130). The Monarchs didn't have enough teammates to support Milera and Richards with the drop off after those top 2 far too great to put up a competitive score on the day. That consistent top end did the job for Serengeti in the end and the home town Buffaloes were able to run out 92 point victors. Final Scores Serengeti 1262 def King Island 1170 BAFFU votes 3 Bailey Smith 130 (SB) 2 Wayne Milera 127 (KIM) 1 Lachie Neale 121 (SB) Big Tap English 103 def Williams 71
Round 9 Bunyips 1280 def Vikings 1271 Another battle for the ages.. 9 points, what a close match. It is never an easy match when you host the Vikings as they have been one of the best teams in the competition for quite a while now. Down back both sides were pretty evenly matched with most players pumping out their averages, but Bailey Dale (128) took the honours, winding the clock back. In the Mids it was up for grabs as the homeside played with only 3 players after Matt Rowell decided to go on a bender and failed to show up the ground. Levi Ashcroft (109) for the visitors was outstanding, blitzing his season average. Captain Dawson (115) is hopefully back for the rest of the year and another excellent performance from LDU (131) in a close to BOG performance. But it was the big man, the peoples beard, Max Gawn (134) taking the BOG and Big Tap win over Jordan Sweet (82) to keep his overall lead on the competition. Up forward it was the Harry McKay (132) show kicking 3 lovely goals and clunking 10 marks to show the rest of the competition he can still be a 1 man show up forward. The homeside bench stunk it up with Atkins and Keays well under performing and are on the chopping block come selection time, whilst Garcia and Humphrey did all they could to get their team a win... albiet a smidgen short. BOG - Gawn McKay LDU Big Tap - Gawn