Rico’s Roughnecks (1796) Def. by The Love Sparkles (1808)
Well that was tense. In what is probably not best for his heart, the elder statesman of our league was involved in his second nail biter of the first three rounds – although at least this time he came out victorious. Two of Greg’s three games have a combined margin of 23, which to put in perspective, the next closest single game margin out of the first 15 games of our season was Nathan’s 89 point win over Max in week one.
Greg’s early success is stemming from a backline that is the envy of most, along with solid contributors across the board. Lloyd and Stewart have tonned up all three opening rounds, and show no sign of slowing down at this point. Rocky was looking in great touch to go big again before seeing stars, and if that had caused a loss in this game the cries of anguish would have been rather epic. As for Adam, I reckon there will be a couple of long sessions on the track this week trying to bring his guys back into form. 5 scores of 50 or less doesn’t help win many games, and so there will be fire in his eyes this week looking to bounce back. After two performances of 1900+, we’re happy to look at this score as an anomaly, however with a tough draw ahead (Soldiers, Defenestrators, and Chiefs), without a form reversal coach Ritchie could be sitting on a 2-4 record after a third of the season has played out.
Next up Greg comes home to play out the family rivalry. Will he have Rocky available is suddenly an enormous question, as that could well go a long way to see who in the Burgess family has bragging rights. Adam has the Soldiers in what is shaping as a far more interesting game than it looked after week one. 5 x sub 50’s you wouldn’t think will cut it again, but you never know.
MaherShalalHashBaz (1755) Def. Taxmanian Devils (1591)
This has to be the least impressive 2-1 start in recent memory. When Chris Mayne is in your top 3 averages after 3 rounds, you need to take a good hard look at your training standards. There did look to be the beginnings of a form reversal with 7 of MSHB’s 8 mids getting above 90, but given their start to the season we will need to wait and see if it was just the quality of opponent making them look better. An injury to McVeigh will have soured this win a little, but points on the board will still be valuable at season’s end.
For Max, while the team total still doesn’t inspire confidence, at least he got the 3-2-1 Dangergawn votes with some nice performances. Jeremy Cameron alone accounted for Jordan’s 3 lowest scoring forwards, and while Sinclair, Prestia, and first round selection Rozee tried their hardest, there were just too many passengers for anything resembling a score to come together.
Next week as alluded to above, Jordan hosts his dad in the battle for bragging rights. Can MSHB break the 1800 point barrier and move to 3-1, or will he fall short once again and languish mid ladder at 2-2. All I know is the fact the Greg is playing means it will be close. Max is coming up against an injured and/or suspended Chris, so will we see the first win of his new regime, or will he be alone and winless on bottom of the ladder after round 4?
Defenestrators (1903) Def. Shire Scourers (1753)
Another week, another win for the Defenestrators. Having been blown out last week, he was out to right the ship this week. While there was no stand out performances throughout the team (a high score of only 120 by coach’s favourite Sloane), every line carried its own to bring the team to a very respectable 1900. Sam Walsh has shown his worth as the number 1 pick already with a more than handy average of 93, racking up his first century in the process.
Over at the Scourers, we’re seeing some wildly fluctuating scores each week now. There are many players that have reached the highest highs (not partying with Mumford unfortunately), Jack Crisp for example hitting the 140’s last week, only to then fall back to earth with a follow up performance of less than 50. This shows that on any given week Nelson could go huge to beat anyone, but at the same time he could fall flat and leave you breathing room. Some form concerns for the big names Franklin and Lyons, but the season is still young.
Paul now has another game against a team he’ll start raging favourite in against Nathan. I’m expecting to see Walsh running around in the starting 8 mids this week Paul – show us his mettle. Nelson faces the daunting task of rebounding against Mark’s Chiefs. They can be beaten Nellie – though none of us know how yet, so if you manage to do it we’ll all be taking notes.
Puttanesca Chiefs (2110) Def. Redshins (1741)
Did I just say Mark can be beaten? Sorry about that folks, I get optimistic at times. A question here for 17 AFL coaches “Can someone, anyone, please tag Lachie Whitfield?!?!?!?”. Even without players like Laird, Swallow and Adams getting close to last year’s average, Mark still pulled out the second highest score of our season, only trailing his own efforts last week! Grundy seems to be back in form, and Dangerfield and Macrae are doing their usual thing, so now we just need to wait for something to go wrong. I’m cheering for a surfing accident personally.
This isn’t a week Chris will look back on fondly. Cotchin got injured, Martin got suspended, and the tigers were comprehensively beaten. Weirdly enough with all of this happening, Chris is one of only two teams to have gotten better every week so far this year, so as far as we know we are yet to see the total points that could be delivered. You would think it will be a hard ask without Cotch and Martin, but stranger things have happened (maybe…). Boak and Libba can continue to hold their heads high, as the rest of the team need to look to them to find inspiration
The Chiefs now take on the travelling Scourers in what may well be a must win game for the team from NZ. 1-3 would be a challenge to come back from, but nothing is impossible in fantasy footy. Chris has his 9th VS 10th battle with Max to see who remains the only team without a win in 2019. If current scoring trends are to be trusted Chris should be comfortable, but all streaks have to end at some point.
Solomon’s Soldiers (1933) Def. Such is Fyfe (1709)
Rumour has it that the best midfield coach in the land came to the Barossa this season, kicked out all the other coaches, and said we’ll score points in the midfield only. 5 midfielders from the Soldiers made the team of the week, while De Goey and Martin made the ton in the forward line to give this team some well-rounded performance. If this midfield can continue its charge through the record books, this team could cause a few upsets as the season wears on.
Such is Fyfe always look in a horrible position in their games when Freo are playing the late game Sunday afternoon, and sure enough in the dying minutes with the game well out of reach, Luke Ryan had to come along and strip Neale of the 3 Dangergawn votes. Is does seem karmically acceptable as that’s what Neale did to Crisp last week, but that doesn’t ease the pain. This list shows a lot of older talent maybe approaching the end of their fantasy premium scoring ways, and the inside word is they are thinking a fire sale may be in order. Keep your eyes open league, as there is still some solid scoring potential between some older individuals here.
Next week the rapidly improving Soldiers face a real litmus test in Rico’s Roughnecks. As mentioned before, after round 1 this matchup had no excitement, but with the Soldiers having a higher round 3 score than Adam’s mob, this might cause a sleepless night or 2. Nathan now has to take on the might of the Defenestrators. Back to back weeks against a Crouch brother isn’t something many people would relish, but let’s see how Nathan takes this challenge in stride.