Defenestrators (2015) vs Redshins (1683)
According to the preseason survey, this match saw the 2017 premier face off against the 2017 wooden spooner. Paul won this game by 332 points. I think we’re all pretty cluey.
Paul’s team is just really strong. Let’s give some credit to Luke Shuey, who has taken that next step. He used to average between 90 and 100. This season he has stepped that up to 117. And hey, as an eagles supporter, I’m all in favour of this improvement.
So with the Defenestrators being so good and the Redshins being not-quite-so-good, how can we spin this into a positive for the yellow and black? Well, Chris won the battle of the Tom Lynches 132 to 83. The Redshins also had a lot more goal-kickers, with individual bags of seven, five and four, totalling 27 goals….just imagine your team kicking 27 goals – that’s 162 points, before counting behinds. Moreover, despite being an emergency, Sam Mayes scored 93 – boy does he like to play Paul’s teams. See, there are many positives.
Another odd observation – Richmond played great football on the weekend…yet Chris’s six tigers could not manage one hundred between them. Maybe if the tigers lose, the individual scores will be higher.
Rico’s Roughnecks (1871) vs Such is ‘Fyfe’ (1834)
Match of the round. I changed my tip several times over the course of the weekend. It all culminated in a thrilling Easter Monday clash. Both teams had three players and the Roughnecks had a slender advantage of 16 points. Then…
| Rico’s Roughnecks | Such is Fyfe |
| Luke Hodge 128 | Joel Selwood 105 |
| Isaac Smith 123 | Mitch Duncan 113 |
| Ryan Burton 71 | Andrew Mackie 83 |
| Total: 322 | Total: 301 |
With vote-getting super scores, Hodge and Smith parachuted Adam’s team to victory when the purple army looked to have the edge in class. Credit to Rico’s Roughnecks for recovering from a 0-2 start and a swarm of low-scoring swans players on the Thursday.
I would like to point out that Nathan and Greg are comfortably the two highest-scoring coaches – yet they have four losses between them. I would also like to point out that Sandilands recorded 53 hit-outs and Martin posted 52 hit-outs. Wow!
In Gore WE Trust (1598) vs General Soreness (2159)
General Soreness is back in a big way this year. I had them pegged as “in the fight for the top six”. Scrap that. They are genuine premiership contenders, if not favourites.
I really don’t want to discuss this game. Alex’s scores were so pitiful and Dad’s scores were just so high – almost record high – that it’s depressing. Who wins a game by 561 points? That’s unheard of…in 2016.
The General Soreness had ten players score hundreds, three score 90s, no one score less than 50 and had an average player score of 98.1 – so now I’m just going to go back to putting my fingers in my ears and singing “la la la la la”
I also think Rocky is angry at being left out of Slurphy. Slurphliff anyone?
Stranger Danger (1941) vs The Bailout Plan (1722)
Last week, Stranger Danger posted 1727. Even that score would have been enough to get the win this week. The Bailout Plan just had a shocker. Having Liam Picken as a reserve did not pan out well, a he recovered from concussion well enough to post a triple. However, too many people were just average – Robbie Gray 74, David Mackay 74, Luke McDonald 74. Too many players went meh.
The coach of Stranger Danger will feel a lot better. Scoring in the 1900s instead of the 1700s has that effect. The Adams-Laird-Docherty trifecta in defence is indeed as scary as it seemed to be preseason. They are averaging 123.5, 107.0 and 104.8 respectively. Yes, they are the top three defenders in the whole competition. Note that Mark had six players get centuries this week, he may want to have a chat about the nervous nineties with his mob – he had six 90s as well. Yet there is lots to smile about over at Stranger Danger. Grundy is consistently amazing, Oliver has come from nowhere to be Melbourne’s best midfielder and one of his two Swallows seems to fire every week. Seriously, look at this table.
| David | Andrew | |
| Round 1 | 104 | |
| Round 2 | 89 | 54 |
| Round 3 | 120 | 48 |
| Round 4 | 47 | 91 |
Last weekend, Stranger Danger got the lowest score in the competition. Now, they sit second on the ladder. I like this league.
MaherShalalHashBaz (1878) vs Champs16 (1961)
Here’s a stat for you. I have won 10 of my last 13 games. All three losses have been against Champs16. They seriously have the wood over me. I mean, there are five teams I am yet to lose to and three teams I have only lost to once. Yet Champs16 keep beating me repeatedly. Must be a match-up issue.
I had better give some credit to the reigning premiers. They play well as a team. Even performances are a hallmark of Champs16 campaign in 2017. The table below shows all the different men who have stepped up for a hundred from week to week.
| Round 1 | Round 2 | Round 3 | Round 4 |
| Sidebottom | Wines | Sidebottom | Sidebottom |
| Tuohy | Yeo | Henderson | Grigg |
| Grigg | Jacobs | Wines | Scully |
| Parish | Franklin | Menegola | Kennedy |
| Kennedy | Reid | Watts | Jacobs |
| Wines | Mumford | ||
| Franklin | Yeo | ||
| Yeo | Menegola |
That’s 13 individuals who have scored at least one hundred this season. No one has scored four centuries, but eight players have at least two tons. Craziness! Nelson’s team has now moved to 3-1 and are well primed to defend their title.
The evenness of the performance however ought not to detract from some great scores this weekend. Eight of his players scored hundreds including twin big men Sam Jacobs and Shane Mumford. Poor Jake Spencer never stood a chance.
As for me, a loss stings, but there are obvious scapegoats. Lachlan Plowman getting 37 and Jesse White getting 24 sucks. However, there are positives. I got the 3, 2, 1 in the Dangergawn. Dayne Zorko (139) has been amazing all season and has scored four consecutive hundreds. He leads my best and fairest as we speak. Dylan Roberton (134) has finally shown the promise that made me draft him in the thirteenth round of the draft last year – his big score gets his 2017 average above 100. In addition, Merrett (134) is a beast. Nelson has had a lot of success with his “spreading the load” strategy, particularly against me. Nevertheless, I am going to stick to my “guns and gumbies” strategy, leaving the bulk of the heavy lifting to my elite few.