MILESTONES
150 Games
- Luke Parker (Lethal Vipers)
100 Games
- Sam Docherty (Solomon’s Soldiers)
- Hugh McCluggage (Solomon’s Soldiers)
- Jordan De Goey (Threat Level Midnight)
50 Games
- Errol Gulden (Threat Level Midnight)
- Willem Drew (Threat Level Midnight)
- Jordan Clark (Taxmanian Devils)
What a stellar collection of names this weekend. A few Best & Fairest winners in that group.
But the main event is Luke Parker becoming the first player in the league’s history to reach the 150-game milestone, six games clear of his nearest competitor – Jack Macrae.
Parker has averaged 97.03 since being selected by the Roughnecks in the third round – pick 25 – in the inaugural start-up draft. Fun Fact, Parker scored 96 in his 2019 Grand Final appearance for the Roughnecks. He can’t be accused of not playing to his level on the day.
*Bruce McAvaney voice* What a warrior. What a legend.
GAME OF THE ROUND
Put very simply, this is the most intriguing close to a home & away season we’ve had. There are four games of real intrigue. This is final day of the English Premier League territory. Multiple TVs on territory.
Spots two through eight are all in flux. Permutations abound.
I’ve gone Sparkles v Vipers, but we’ll obviously discuss all the intricately connected match-ups this weekend.
Let’s start with the basics. If the Sparkles beat the Vipers, they will finish in 2nd place, secure the bye, and avoid the Soldiers until a potential Grand Final.
There’s no scenario in which they lose but keep second. It’s highly improbable they could lose and finish third. It’s second or fourth for the Sparkles this weekend.
If the Vipers win, they will be above the Sparkles regardless of other results. If the Roughnecks beat the Defenestrators, they could effectively swap places with the Sparkles and secure second spot and the bye for themselves. The Vipers have a lot of variance before them this weekend. They could finish as high as second or drop to fifth.
The Defenestrators are confronted with a similar range of possible outcomes. They don’t have their destiny in their own hands quite like the Sparkles though. They can finish second with a win, but will need a Sparkles loss.
If the Roughnecks beat the Defenestrators, they will finish above them regardless of the other result, thanks to percentage. The Roughnecks can’t finish 2nd though, as the Vipers have them covered on the percentage front.
A Vipers win, and a Roughnecks win, would likely see the Defenestrators finish 5th.
Now that the stakes are made clear, lets have a think about the actual games.
The Sparkles have lost Cerra, again. They’ll also likely be without Hawkins up front. But beyond that, they’re reasonably healthy. They have a handful of Tigers on their bench, including Jack Ross, who has pumped out some big scores since the bye. One suspects we’ll see a bit of looping from this side of the matchup.
The Vipers put up a positively mortal score last week, at least by their recent scorching standard. That score almost certainly won’t do against the Sparkles (who outscored them by 268 last weekend), so they’ll be looking for a massive lift from their forward line, and two former Roughnecks in O’Meara and the milestone man Luke Parker – who were very poor last weekend.
They’ll have to do without Touk Miller as well.
The Defenestrators beat the Roughnecks by a solitary kick when they last faced each other in round 12, so this should hopefully prove to be another entertaining encounter.
For the Roughnecks, they’ll be hoping Impey drops one of his 20s instead of one of his 120s (the man seems to deal exclusively in extremes). They’ll be hoping for a stodgy, low scoring battle-of-the-bridge between the Giants and Swans as well.
The Defenestrators will have a good sense of how their opponents have done by mid Saturday afternoon. Nearly all the Roughnecks headliners play Friday night, and Saturday afternoon. The Roughnecks will need to build a big lead early, as the Defenestrators will have the stronger hand on Sunday.
It wouldn’t be the first time the Roughnecks have spent a Sunday afternoon watching Max Gawn chase them down…
SNEAKY INTERESTING MATCHUP
The action isn’t just at the top (and middle) of the table this weekend. As it has been for much of the season, there are three clubs who could still squeeze into the last remaining finals position.
The current occupier, MaherShalalHashBaz, is in the box seat. Last year’s wooden spooners will play finals if they score victory over the Puttanesca Chiefs. It would represent an incredible turnaround from last season.
A shock loss would open an almighty door though. Lucky for everyone not named Jordan, the other two competitors for sixth spot face one another this week. If MSHB loses, the winner of this game is in – thanks to the microscopic percentage advantage TLM have over MSHB.
Those of us who have been round these parts for a while would no doubt garner some small satisfaction from seeing the Taxmanian Devils play finals for the first time in club history. They’re the least successful club in league history, and it’s not even close. They’ve never finished higher than 8th. They’ve won 28 games. 28 games total. The next worst is the club they’re facing this weekend, with 46.
They’ve lost their last 3 following a rousing victory over the Roughnecks back in round 17. Could things finally break their way this weekend?
Their opponents Threat Level Midnight seemed to resign themselves to a list retooling following back-to-back hammer blows against the Chiefs and MaherShalalHashBaz earlier this month. But yet here they are still, with an outside chance of making finals. Can they pull off a miracle?
STRAY OBSERVATION
Even the weekend’s seemingly pointless game has something worth keeping an eye on. Tim English leads the DangerGawn count by a single vote. He faces the Soldiers, the highest scoring team in the land.
Tim Taranto has led just about all season, but has had a lean month. Richmond play Friday night. They play the Western Bulldogs. So we’ll know very quickly how the two possible medal winners have fared personally.
Put simply, Taranto needs a triple digit score, and ideally 120+, to give himself the best chance of getting at least the solitary vote he needs to tie. And even that turns to dust if English puts up a monster score of his own, as he did last week. We’ll know if Taranto still has a pulse in this race by about 10:30pm Friday night.