There really isn't much to complain about this week. The score of 2,598 is our best this season, and the best I can remember (but there's been a few scotches consumed over the years, so don't trust my memory...). This gave us a ranking of 2,117 for the week. Our aggregate is now sitting at 30,875 which gives us an overall ranking inside the top 10k for the first time in 2015, in 9,396th place!

Lets have a look at how the team performed:
Defence
L Hodge 165
J Gibson 131
H Shaw 119
K Kolodjashnij 107
B Smith 69
B Houli 65
Bench of J Lever 64 and J Hamling 0.
Clearly some excellent scores there, with four tons and a 165 from Hodge. With Gibson, Shaw, and even Kolo doing the job, maybe we're starting to get our defence right. Having said that, we traded in Houli this week, and his disappointing 65, and traded in Smith a few weeks ago expecting a premium and getting below average on a consistent basis. No lost points in defence though, as Lever was the lowest scorer, sitting on the pine.

Midfield
P Dangerfield 156
D Beams 142
J Kennedy 126
J Selwood 103
S Pendlebury 96 (VC)
P Cripps 88
N Fyfe 80
L Parker 77
Bench of N O'Brien 87, J Nelson 0, and T Dumont 0.
We must have had one of the worst performing midfields in the league this week. While Danger was exceptional in a very moving game (which was a joy to attend, I must say), and Beams and JPK did well, the rest were below par. It was nice to see Selwood top the ton, for the first time since round 10, and the first time since he joined our team, Fyfe, Pendles, and Parker were complete disappointments. We'll let Cripps off for being a kid, but a combined 253 from the three amigos” when they're averaging a combined 100 points more than that, was a huge let down. To think we almost gave Fyfe the captaincy! Even the new recruit O'Brien outscored Fyfe and Parker, with his 10 points over Parker being missed opportunity that we wouldn't have taken.

Ruck
T Goldstein 145 (C, 290)
N Naitanui 132
Bench of M Cox 0.
After Pendles failed to fire, and a little deliberation, we put the C on Goldy, and were more than happy to see a 145 point haul. Ably backed up by NicNat with 132, the popular ruck combo showed why they're in so many teams this year. Who could fault a performance like that?

Forward
M Bontempelli 142
D Swan 130
R Gray 113
T Mitchell 109
L Franklin 90
D Martin 68
Bench of J Steele 94 and J McGrath 0.
It looks like the Bont has staved off the circling vultures for atleast another week, with a huge performance. Swan in his milestone was great, while Gray and Titch did the job we wanted. Buddy showed why he's so hit and miss, while Dusty had a terrible match, giving his Tigers teammate Houli a run for his money as lowest score in the side. Steele saw himself moved to the forward line, where he outperformed both Buddy and Dusty, his 94 points equating to 26 points of missed opportunity.

Our captaincy this week was given to our third highest scorer, with both Danger (11 points) and Hodge (20 points) outdoing Goldy, and costing us potential points. We wouldn't have picked Danger in such an emotional game, as it could just as easily have gone the other way, while the Hawks and Freo just had too many opportunities for large scores to take any of them seriously enough. Either way, any of our missed opportunities would have allowed us to break the 2,600 point mark, but none of them would have been picked over the team we selected, so we can't complain.

Trades
As has been mentioned, the two trades this week were to bring in Houli and O'Brien, with the rookie mid unexpectedly outscoring the premium defender by 22 points. They came in for McLean (who had a one-week stay in the side) and Saad, both of whom didn't play. That was an easy 152 potential point gain for the round, even though we didn't use O'Brien's score.
We're still haunted by the Wines to Smith trade, which has now cost us 299 points and $148,800. Those of you who kept Newnes should be thanking us, as he's topped the ton every week since we gave him the flick! You can't plan that kind of quality trading...
Overall, we're now 2,964 potential points ahead for the year, and $627,200 ahead thanks to our trading prowess! Clearly we could do better, but we could also do much, much worse!!!

Looking to Round 16
We're getting near a fully upgraded side, and nearing the end of our desired trade usage, with only a few planned to stay in the back pocket for late season finessing and general soreness” cover.
The big question this week, since we still have a spot open, is: Do we bring in Gazza? Come join us in the Donor forum to help make the decision.