By Buzzmo
GAME OF THE ROUND
As a guest host, you never want to come out and be too controversial in such write-ups… But in a round where 1st plays 7th and 2nd plays 9th, picking a game of the round is not necessarily an exercise in picking low hanging fruit.
The way I see it, I think the one to watch this is week is Nathan’s Vipers playing off against Greg’s Love Sparkles. I think these two clubs are quite easy to compare:
- The Sparkles are averaging 82 points a week more than the Vipers but have one less win to show for it.
- Both clubs have faced off against similar opposition – each with early season games against the Defenestrators, Roughnecks and Pukekos.
- Nathan holds a 2-1 record against these teams as opposed to Greg going 1-2 – the Defenestrators being the point of difference.
- While Nathan hasn’t quite set his lineup yet, Keeper predictions plus the players I think he will name suggest there might only be 20-30 points in it.
If I had to pick someone here, I’m honestly not sure who I’d go for. Weekly results for both clubs have been somewhat sporadic, so it may come down to the players with a penchant for being unreliable. Nathan will be keenly watching which versions of Ross, Sparrow, Cumming and Florent come out to play, while Greg will be doing the same with Crouch, Simpkin and, dare I say it… Maybe even Xerri and Daicos, who haven’t perhaps hit their straps yet this year?
Key Outs
Vipers: Caldwell, O’Driscoll
Love Sparkles: None
Last time these two met
We only have to go back to the final round of the regular season in August last year, where the Sparkles put up a rather hefty 1944 to the Vipers 1810.
Both teams had eight players go 100+ in that one, but Greg had fewer poor performers on the day. One of Nathan’s tonnes came from Jamarra, who is of course ‘inconspicuously’ missing this game…
SNEAKY INTERESTING MATCHUP
I know I said above that 1st vs 7th isn’t game of the round material, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be SIMup material.
At first glance, there appears to be a considerable gulf between these two teams. Jordan hasn’t lost a game, beating quality opposition in the Roughnecks and Devils in the process. He hasn’t scored below 1700 and has edged close to that golden 2k threshold. On the other hand, Paul has had his worst ever start to a season – this being the first time since the league’s inception he has started with a WL record of 1-3.
But I feel as though over the last fortnight, the Defenestrators have shown just enough to provide some optimism leading into this week. Respectable back-to-back totals of 1841 and 1807 would certainly be enough to beat the Hashbazzers on a bad day, and maybe even on an ok day.
As Fox Mulder would say, I want to believe. However, Jordan remains a strong favourite.
The apparent ‘weak links’ in Jordan’s side are still capable of going gangbusters. Bice scored a whopping 125 last week and Maric is playing way above expectation (removing a 31 he scored with only 33% TOG, he’s averaging 82). Curnow has been poor, but we all know that he is capable of far more.
Paul is going to need his defensive trio in Sinclair, Roberts and Himmelberg to fire once more, while being supported by an above-average effort from his midfield to get the chocolates here I would surmise.
Key Outs
Defenestrators: Coniglio, Treloar, Daniels
Sparkles: Mills, Houston
Last time these two met
This was Round 17 in July last year, where the HashBazzers ran out winners 1805 – 1671. In all honestly, that doesn’t look like a result inconsistent with expectations for this weekend.
Since then, Steven May has swapped teams, but the rest of the line-ups look broadly similar, except for the outs mentioned above. Unfortunately for Paul, in that loss, those three outs put up 334 points between them.