A relatively good week for the Donors this week, not quite the lofty standards that we set ourselves last week, but still, a 2157 and 15,859 ranking for the round isn’t too bad. This score helps us continue our rise up the ladder, this week climbing 2,290 spots to be 9,312 overall (so we’re now finally in the top 10k!). We lost our game in Ucantbetooserio to be 12th in that league, and won all our others, to be 2nd in Ucantbe TS and TS Igotatheory, 4th in TS Pine Warmers, and 10th in the TS WA League.

So, how did our individual team go, and how are we shaping up for the future going into the bye rounds? Join me over the break to find out.<!--more-->

The round 9 team looked just like this:

1. Deledio,DEF,117
2. Goddard,DEF,97
3. Broughton,DEF,74
4. Shaw,DEF,105
5. Clarke,DEF,50
6. Lake,DEF,78
7. Bugg,DEF,48
8. Pendlebury Vice Captain,MID,118
9. Kennedy,MID,122
10. Selwood,MID,110
11. Ablett Captain 111 x 2 ,MID,222
12. Horsley,MID,75
13. McDonald,MID,74
14. Cox,RUC,68
15. Giles,RUC,92
16. Sidebottom,FWD,142
17. Dangerfield,FWD,87
18. Franklin,FWD,73
19. Roughead,FWD,109
20. Martin,FWD,119
21. Porplyzia,FWD,62
22. Treloar,FWD,115
,,
1. Morris,DEF,57
2. Darley Emergency,DEF,23
3. Smith,MID,71
4. Kennedy Emergency,MID,17
5. Redden,RUC,0
6. Pattison,RUC,0
7. Milera Emergency,FWD,57
8. Adams,FWD,55

Once again starting in defence and we had Deledio leading the way on 117 as the Tigers shocked pretty-much everyone to give the Hawks a pasting! Shaw followed him home on 105, being our only two defenders to break the ton this week. From there we had Goddard on 97, Lake on 78, Broughton on 74, Clarke on 50, and Bugg on 48. On the pine we had Morris on 57, and our emergency Darley on 23 points. Had have we picked Morris over Bugg we would have picked up an extra 9 points, but thats the only selection change that would have netted us more points in defence this week.

Moving onto the midfield, with Kennedy bringing it home with 122 points, not nearly as much as we’d want as our top score in the mids. He was followed by VC Pendlebury on 118, then Captain Gazza on 111 (doubled to Richie Benaud’s favourite number – 222), and Selwood on 110. Only the four tons this week, with Horsley on 75 and McDonald on 74 rounding out the 6. On the bench was Smith’s 71, and emergency Kennedy’s lowly 17, so no extra points to be made there unless we changed our captain.

In the rucks we had Cox and a very un-Cox like score of 68 points, and Giles on 92 points. On the bench were the two donuts of Redden and Pattison. Clearly not a good performance from the ruck division this week.

Up forward there was some pretty decent scoring this week, so finally our forwardline started pulling their weight! We had Sidebottom top-scoring with 142, Martin hopefully hitting some form with a 119, Treloar doing really well with 115, and Roughead showing our ruckmen how its done with a 109. The failing to top the ton we had a couple of disappointments in Dangerfield on 87, and Franklin on 73, with Porplyzia rounding out the team on 62 points. Our bench selections of emergency Milera (57) and Adams (55) were our two lowest scores up forward, so some great selections this week.

As mentioned, we missed out on 9 points down back, and swapping the big C from Gazza to Sidey would have made us an extra 31 points, so in all we only missed out on 40 points in Round 9.

As for our trades last week, we sent Ellis packing, and although he scored 50 points, he los $19k, which is the cardinal sin of a cash cow! As a replacement we traded in Darley, who is on the bubble this week, and only managed a lowly 23 points this week. He will go up in price next week, and we do have more cash in hand now, but the points might hurt us if they continue as they did this week (and Ellis is tipped to come back up soon anyway).

So, speaking of cash generation, Marty Clarke lost $4k this week, and Bugg lost $15k, while Morris only managed to go up $1,500 this week. Hardly inspiring stuff down back! The mids were a much better affair, although we did have Kennedy drop $5k this week. Countering that were Horsley (up $39k), McDonald (up $38k), and D. Smith (up $41k). In the rucks Giles just keeps on keeping on, this week rising a further $27k, to have him up $321,200 on the season. In the forwards we have Treloar up $58k, Adams up $18k, and Milera up $7k.

So what will our team look like going into round 10? Make your way over to the donor forum to have your say on who’s in, who’s out, and whether Gazza gets to keep the BIG C.