Round 18 Preview

One of those rounds where the nominees seem clear and obvious.

GAME OF THE ROUND

Threat Level Midnight make it back-to-back appearances in the game of the round slot. They gave it a red hot go against the ladder leaders last weekend and may have triumphed if the likes of Brad Hill hadn’t gone supernova. Can they go that bit better in round 18?

They’ll likely have a fair sense early. Gulden, Serong, Sheezel, Daicos and De Goey all take the field before Saturday. That’s most of the club’s heavy hitters.

Speaking of Sheezel, yeesh. What a phenomenal month. His last fortnight in particular has been absurd, with a 154 and a 173.

The Crows and the Suns clash on Saturday night is the sun of this game’s solar system – both teams will likely have 4 representatives each. Amusingly, Midnight stands to have their two rucks battling each other in McAndrew and Moyle. They’ll enjoy every ruck contest, and won’t mind who wins the hitout.

Conversely, the Roughnecks will be hoping the Giants and Cats game is fantasy friendly, given their opponent may not have any representatives in that one.

Key Outs

Roughnecks: McInerney, Flanders, Whitfield

Midnight: Nil?

Last time these two met

A comfortable 254 point victory for the Roughnecks back in round 9. Midnight had banner scores from some of their leading lights, with Bontempelli and Sheezel both earning Dangergawn votes. Alas, they also had 5 scores under 50, including an uncharacteristic 21 from Callum Wilkie. Conversely, the consistency of the Roughnecks squad paid dividends, with 9 centurions.

DangerGawn votes

Marcus Bontempelli		134
Bailey Smith		127
Harry Sheezel		127

SNEAKY INTERESTING MATCHUP

The finals makeup seems to have shifted, perhaps decisively, over the past fortnight. Round 18 may be last chance saloon for the Defenestrators and their finals streak.

Te Puke Pukekos haven’t had a terribly hot fortnight themselves, so a win here isn’t out of the question.

The cards are against the Defenestrators though. They have no Lions to take advantage of Essendon’s point leakage, and no Demons to exploit Richmond (unless they want to back in Lever). Pukekos has 4 Demons – and pretty prominent Demons at that, and an Ashcroft in that final game of the round.

In fact, I can’t think of many more matchups with less overlap?(this is total guess work, may be way off)

Looking at presumptive 22’s this weekend, I see:

Defenestrators only	Pukekos only
Fremantle	St Kilda
Collingwood	Melbourne
North Melbourne	Brisbane
Geelong
Port Adelaide

Weird! And in a stark contrast to Threat Level Midnight, Pukekos will potentially have just one solitary player across the Thursday and Friday night games. A pretty good one in Heeney.

If the Defenestrators are able to hang, the round will seemingly come down to Archie Roberts and Farrow against Parish and Levi Ashcroft. That could be quite interesting! Assuming Pukekos isn’t also 200 points in front…

Friday editor’s note: the Pittonet out looks pretty fatal to the Defenestrators fortunes

Key Outs

Defenestrators: Green, Robertson, Wardlaw, Daniels, Pittonet, Nash, Quaynor

Pukekos: English?, Weddle, Battle, Budarick

Last time these two met

Was a low-ish scoring banger. Pukekos have made a habit of squeezing out victories this year, but that wasn’t the case in round 9 when they fell by 4 points – a tackle! – to the Defenestrators.

It was a case of the club’s new shining light in Archie Roberts dragging the team over the line with a 157, outduelling the Pukekos’ equivalent seagull in John Noble and his 135 (and compensating for Matty Roberts and his 28)

DangerGawn votes

Archie Roberts		157
John Noble		135
Connor Budarick		114

STRAY OBSERVATION

Alex touched on the closeness of the DangerGawn race. Smith seems to have lost momentum, Daicos feels a bit inevitable, and Sheezel seems to routinely be denied the maximum despite some remarkable scores.

I have a feeling Daicos will go back-to-back, which would put him in rare air. Only Tom Mitchell (2017, 2018) has pulled that off previously.