MILESTONES
100 Games
- Cam Guthrie (Threat Level Midnight)
50 Games
- Nick Daicos (Love Sparkles)
GAME OF THE ROUND
If last week’s collection of matchups was an enticing slate across the board, this weekend’s are…. less so.
But there is a far and away leader for game of the round. And it’s two teams coming off a loss.
These two teams lost against close rivals in the top half of the ladder, and will be keen to right the ship. For the Defenestrators, a win would give them a two-game gap on the Sparkles. In turn, obviously that means a Sparkles win would draw them level again.
The Defenestrators might take some heart from the fact they only lost by 75 points against the high flying Devils, despite not getting a single century from their midfield or their ruck. The forward line, the theoretical weak spot of this outfit, would’ve been shooting daggers at the rest of the squad during training this week I reckon. Dixon was the only forward of the six to score less than 85.
The Sparkles had some of their stars firing, none brighter than Anderson with a massive 142. Langford was the only real pain point, with a 39 (I think coach Burgess must be on the verge of developing a complex about Langford. He seems to disappoint every time he puts him on field, and then score strongly the games he’s benched)
This remains a potential grand final preview. Will be watching with interest over the weekend.
SNEAKY INTERESTING MATCHUP
This one wins by default because it’s 4th v 6th on the ladder. This is a finals matchup baby!
I’m the only person in the known universe pursuing this “Chiefs finals?” angle. But in fairness to me they’ve won as many games as they’ve lost and they’ve got a game on Midnight in the battle for 6th place. I’ll keep pushing this barrow until it’s no longer relevant. Rowan Marshall has missed the rebuilding memo and is playing like his life is on the line (maybe it is? I don’t know coach Buscumb’s methods but historically they’ve worked pretty well)
The Roughnecks finally got a signature win by toppling the Sparkles by 47 points. They’d expect to win this one. They’ll be disappointed if they don’t, because the jostling for top two spots is going to be fierce in the back half of the season…
STRAY OBSERVATION
With the Soldiers abdication we are staring down the barrel of the most heated fight for a top two spot we’ve seen in some time.
The Taxmanian Devils have knocked over the Defenestrators and Love Sparkles in consecutive weeks. They’re the highest scoring team in the league.
MaherShalalHashBaz scored 2059 last weekend. 1881 remains their lowest score over the past month of fixtures. They’re now only a couple of hundred points scored behind the current top four. Nobody would want to be on their side of the draw…
Seemingly all of the games between the current leaders have been quality. Very few fullblown blowouts.
As it stands I think there are 5 teams who could win the league. And I don’t think it’s out of the realm of possibility Threat Level Midnight could string together 3 consecutive box office scores. So perhaps it’s 6. Very exciting for the league!