MILESTONES
150 Games
- Jake Lloyd (Love Sparkles)
- Marcus Bontempelli (Solomon’s Soldiers)
50 Games
- Jack Higgins (Puttanesca Chiefs)
- Trent Rivers (Te Puke Pukekos)
- Cam Rayner (Threat Level Midnight)
Big milestone weekend this one!
GAME OF THE ROUND
We got ourselves a Grand Final rematch folks.
This is the third successive showing for the Soldiers in this category. That’ll happen when you’re top dog and every challenger faces you in consecutive weeks though.
They play the Vipers next week, so the game-of-the-round streak likely ends.
The Defenestrators have four players locked in for the final opening round makeup bye – all solid scores – but no tonnes. The Soldiers have a 123 from Jack Viney already in the bank. And a 95 from Petracca.
The team in pink have lost Coniglio to injury, while the Soldiers are fielding Bailey Williams in the ruck with Nankervis on bye (and not taking the field in Round 0). Gawn’s only giving an 87 though, so this may not be a punishing mismatch for the Soldiers after all.
I think the Soldiers go in favourites. It’s hard enough to beat them – I think it’s borderline impossible when a guy like Viney has dropped a 120+ score.
Friday update: strong Thursday night for the Defenestrators. Sinclair the only disappointment, and it wasn’t disastrous. Soldiers only had the one player, but Bontempelli delivered (I’m ignoring Wilkie and the botched loophole. Coach Bridge will be putting his faith in someone he’d probably rather not)
SNEAKY INTERESTING MATCHUP
Fourth taking on fifth is the story here.
That perhaps betrays things a little though. The Devils have demonstrated much higher fire power than MSHB so far this season – they’ve scored around 700 more points than their opponents this weekend. They would expect to win here.
But MSHB have topped 1800 a fortnight ago – they can put up scores that can knock over the top challengers.
Both teams are going in relatively clean this round. Only Short and his 103 are already locked in for the Devils. MSHB have a few players in the Thursday night game, and will be hoping to get off on a strong foot.
Friday update: solid but unspectacular start for MSHB. Bonner mildly disappointing, but hard to complain about the scores from Darcy, Wilson and Bramble.
STRAY OBSERVATION
I think Vipers v Threat Level Midnight is an interesting one, and I considered itfor sneaky interesting matchup.
A loss for the Vipers might be the final nail in the coffin for their season, and a win for Midnight would keep them right alongside the other current combatants for that sixth finals spot. The inverse keeps things bunched up in that part of the ladder.
Eliminator
The Vipers finally succumbed after a couple of close calls. We’re now firmly in only finalists (or, would want to be finalists) remaining territory now…
Still in it:
- Defenestrators
Lethal Vipers (Round 5)- Love Sparkles
MaherShalalHashBaz (Round 3)Puttanesca Chiefs (Round 4)- Roughnecks
- Solomon’s Soldiers
- Taxmanian Devils
Te Puke Pukekos (Round 1)Threat Level Midnight (Round 2)