MILESTONES
50 Games
- Jamie Elliott (Taxmanian Devils)
- Bailey Williams (MaherShalalHashBaz)
That’s right – no new milestones. Big woof for this section this week.
In my desperation for something I went looking and, uh, this is what I got. Macrae’s Bevo-ing means Jake Lloyd has jumped him and is now 1 game closer to that 150 milestone. Bontempelli and Jack Crisp have also drawn level with Macrae. The race is on…. or something.
GAME OF THE ROUND
Not much debate here – this is a humdinger. Both teams kicked off their campaigns with solid wins last week, with the Defenestrators in particular reminding everyone how good they can be with 8 tons and a league leading score of 1884 last weekend.
The Sparkles had a comfortable win, with the third highest score of the round, underpinned by 5 tons.
This matchup was a quasi baton-passing watch last year, and if the coaches’ survey is anything to go by, is again this season. Last year it was the Defenestrators who featured in the grand final yet again, convincingly vanquishing the Sparkles when it mattered in the Prelim, despite the pre-season predictions favouring the Sparkles. Heading into the new season, the Sparkles are again the club most favoured (to be the runner-up).
Will the baton actually be passed? Or will the Defenestrators send yet another reminder that they’re still here.
SNEAKY INTERESTING MATCHUP
Unexpected finals upset revenge match!
The Vipers were riding high heading into the second week of August 2023. In the elimination final preview, the person currently writing this surveyed the form guide and wrote the following:
You’d be annoyed if you were the Vipers and you lost this weekend. That’s all I’ll say on the form front.
And also this:
The Vipers will justifiably go in as strong favourites. But the Devils’ best is certainly capable of defeating the Vipers’ worst.
You all know what happened folks. The Devils won by 459 points.
Sixteen Devils scored 90 or more. SIXTEEN. They droped 2152. Amon led the way with a 138. Nic Martin had 129. Seb Ross 122. Butters 121. Cripps 120. Clark 114. Rozee 112. JHF 107. Jackson 102.
Lol. Lmao. And so on. What are you meant to do with that?
Much has happened since then – despite not many games having taken place. The Devils are now the much more fancied club. Half the league has tipped the Vipers to fall out of finals.
Facts that support this bleak outlook for the Vipers – they were the second lowest scoring team last week.
Facts that support a more optimistic reading – they are top of the ladder.
The Devils fell short against the Defenestrators last week. They’ll be keen to right the ship this week and will go in favourites.
Oh, almost forgot about whipping boy watch. Toby Bedford dropped a stinky 24 and was promptly dropped himself. Now all eyes are on Kieran Briggs. Not a hot start for last season’s breakout ruck…
STRAY OBSERVATION
Threat Level Midnight featured in last week’s observation, and then duly delivered (and with some big scores from some young guns to boot). This week I’m turning that same energy towards my Roughnecks. Can’t afford to lose this one if they fancy being a player with the big boys in 2024. They only scored 8 more points than the Chiefs did in round one…
Eliminator
Did this last year, figured I’d track it again – fun little side game for the first half of the season.
Last week’s lowest score was Te Puke Pukekos, with a 1339. They’re gone!
Still in it:
- Defenestrators
- Lethal Vipers
- Love Sparkles
- MaherShalalHashBaz
- Puttanesca Chiefs
- Roughnecks
- Solomon’s Soldiers
- Taxmanian Devils
- Threat Level Midnight