MILESTONES
100 Games
- Rowan Marshall (Puttanesca Chiefs)
- Alex Neal-Bullen (Love Sparkles)
50 Games
- Harry Himmelberg (Defenestrators)
- Lachie Schultz (Lethal Vipers)
GAME OF THE ROUND
First takes on second – it ain’t rocket science folks! This looks to be a grand final preview, and both teams are going in mostly healthy.
The Devils have lost Rankine for the next month but will otherwise field a largely unchanged lineup.
On the other side of the fence, the big question for coach Burgess will be whether he promotes Steele Sidebottom into the best 22 after his 128 last weekend. These are always good problems to have, even if they nearly always manifest in annoyance come Sunday afternoon when someone on the bench inevitably outperforms someone on the field (related note: can the Devils find a spot down back for Idun?)
The winner here will have one hand on the minor premiership, and will have to be quite unlucky to not end the season in the top 2. With both the Roughnecks and Defenestrators having reasonably favourable matchups this weekend, the loser will only have a game separating them from the chasing pack. This would be a good one to win – for more than just confidence reasons.
Last time these two met
They put on a show, with the Devils winning a high scoring affair by 59 points.
The Sparkles had 9 players tonne up – and 6 of them also went over 110. But Tristian Xerri was well below his usual level, delivering a 57. Tom Stewart underperformed with a 64. Oh, and Jack Hayes served up a 12 (and was presumably banished from the club forever more)
The Devils got a 30 from Treacy (where was that last week buddy…) but otherwise won they way they’ve often won this year – off the back of a cable of stars (Crips, Butters, Cripps and Martin all went over 120) and only 1 player dragging the chain.
DangerGawn votes
- 3 votes: Nick Daicos (Sparkles) – 131
- 2 votes: Jack Steele (Sparkles) – 131
- 1 vote: Jack Crisp (Devils) – 130
SNEAKY INTERESTING MATCHUP
These two teams are separated by 0.33% heading into the weekend. That 0.33% is the difference between playing finals (Midnight) and the season ending a month early (Chiefs)
This one won’t necessarily be season defining – things are so tight at the foot of the ladder, and the Vipers are charging (and have the percentage advantage), that it’s impossible to say this will be the difference. But it could very well be – and you probably wouldn’t bet on the loser of this one being the sixth-place finisher.
A glance through the likely lineups this weekend leads to an instinctive gut feel – Midnight, obviously. If you stack up the top 5 fantasy players in this game, the Chiefs only have 1 – Marshall. Midnight are loaded…. at the top end of the list at least.
But this is the tale of TLM season at this point. If you want to get a sense of how the Chiefs could win in the face of this firepower, well, just look at the last time these two faced off…
Last time these two met
The Chiefs emerged victorious by 69 points, in a much less high scoring affair than the other matchup mentioned earlier in this preview.
Lets get the most extreme thing out the way. Jack Petrucelle scored a 4 for Threat Level Midnight. That is not a typo. The man laid a tackle and went ‘that’s good’ and hit the showers. Jack Graham wasn’t much better, only scoring 26. But compared to a 4 that seems like a colossal effort.
The Chiefs were unencumbered by such disaster – their lowest scorer was Mark Keane with a tolerable 47 (also Brodie Smith with… 47. Perhaps the lesson, as it so often is, is avoid the Crows).
This competency, with a helping serve of 164 from the Chiefs last remaining bonafide superstar (RIP Clayton Oliver), helped with Chiefs win despite TLM having more than double the number of triple figure scores.
DangerGawn votes
- 3 votes: Rowan Marshall (Chiefs) – 164
- 2 votes: Christian Petracca (Midnight) – 134
- 1 vote: Marcus Bontempelli (Midnight) – 126
STRAY OBSERVATION
The Vipers have featured prominently in the weekly previews since the byes, and with good reason – they keep winning.
Granted, they’ve had pretty favourable matchups over that span. But they’ve won what they’ve needed to – including over the two teams in this week’s sneaky interesting matchup. This weekend’s game, against finals-bound MaherShalalHashBaz, will be a sterner test.
And they’ll be doing it without Touk Miller, long-time Viper and I assume the heart and soul of the club (despite not wearing purple on weekends) for the remainder of our home & away season. That makes things tougher. But they do have Jye Caldwell, who is averaging a lazy 133 during this winning streak. Maybe Mills will get a tagging job in his first game back…