EXV Finals Week 1

[Holz]

Can The Bears outlast the Storm?




Iceland Polar Bears 137.2 v Swiss Storm 140.5 @ Iceland
Storm really are the better team of the 2 despite the ladder finish and the HGA to the bears probably gives them the slight edge. Zerrett is back as a go to captain so a big one from him could really make it hard for the Storm, especially with Prestia out. They will need to nail the captaincy as they have alot of really good players but no real clear captain. Storm should win this game but they way this season is going for the Bears im going to have to tip them in this matchup.

Macedonian Wolves 140.7 v Belgium Basher's 143.1 @ Macedonia
Much like the first game the bashers probably are the better team but Wolves have the HGA. Wolves are in some very good form as well and Bashers haven't looked as dominant the last few weeks. Incidentally as their coach who abandoned them has come back, perhaps they where just rebelling and will now turn it on? Both teams are filled with guns who turn up nearly every week and can throw in some monsters and it wouldn't surprise me to see 300+ combined. With that i have no clue who will win so ill back the Wolves with their HGA. 

English Lions 141.4 v Russian Roulette's 129.3@ England
Lions despite finishing 5th are the 2nd best point scoring team in the comp, which is no surprise with Titch. Russia somehow fell into the finals and are by far the weakest team in the finals. As with all Russian teams its the midfield that carries them and Zorko Bont Gaz haven't been great all season, but they are all fit and firing now so they have a shot. Alot of this will come down to Titch, if he can drop 150+ then i cant see the Lions having any shot of losing, if Titch is just human and Lions have an off day and Russian mids go beserk who knows. Im not backing against Titch though so they should win this easy. 

Greek Titan 136.8 v Hungarian Hulks 134.8 @ Greece
Now this looks a close game on paper but Hulks are in horrible form and only won 1 of the last 5 games. This will be the battle of the rucks with Gawn v Goldy, if Goldy can match Gawn then this will be a real encounter. Hungary is pretty volatile, especially with the backline that has been decimated with Houli Suckling and now Seedsman all ruled out. I think that will be the difference and all 3 will come back in the coming weeks but i dont think they will have a game to play. Greece reasonably easy for me in this one

[nas]

Iceland Polar Bears:

Def: S Hurn - J Harbrow - L Ryan - D McKenzie.
Mid: Z Merrett (C) - M Duncan (VC) - J Lewis (EVC) - I Heeney.
Ruck: C Sinclair.
Fwd: J Westhoff - J Trengove - A M-Tippa - K Turner.
Util: K McIntosh (D/M) - J Higgins (M/F).

Emerg: C McKenna (D) - A Young (F) - C Pederson (R/F) - B Daniels (M/F)

[Holz]

Going to Take Down the Titan

Ciaran Byrne   Daniel McStay  Christian Salem Aliir Aliir

Tom Rockliff (C)   Josh P. Kennedy   Dyson Heppell   Isaac Smith

Todd Goldstein (VC)         
      
Eddie Betts   Majak Daw   Michael Walters   Brett Deledio

Hugh Greenwood   Edward Curnow   

Scott Jones (R)   Matthew Wright (F) Jeff Garlett (F)   Neville Jetta (D)

[Spite]

Haha unfortunately the last few weeks with Fisher, Elliott, Shaz, Jmart, Patton etc have not been kind to me on top of the other mess.

Titans should still get the W but you never know ;)

Titans Elimination Finals Team

D: Rampe, Pittard, Crisp, BEllis

M: Sidebottom, Coniglio (C), B Fiorini, J Steele

R: Gawn (VC)

F: Stanley, Billings, Dev Smith, Caleb Daniel

U: Ahern, Seb Ross

E: Brodie (mid), Guelfi (fwd), Marley W (Def)

[elephants]

Belgian Bashers

D: Lloyd, Yeo, Rich, K.Kolo
M: Danger (C), Martin (EVC), Pendles (VC), Lyons
U: Witts, Masten
R: S.Jacobs
F: Menegola, Barlow, E.Langdon, M.Robinson

EMG: J.McVeigh (D), Banfield (m), J.Thomas (fwd)

[Scrads]

Wolves

D: Alex Witherden, Ryan Burton, Sam Murray, Blake Hardwick
M: Matt Crouch(C), Marc Murphy, Liam Shiels, Brad Ebert
R: Stefan Martin(VC)
F: Jack Gunston, Jesse Hogan, Chad Wingard, Dale Thomas
U: Tim Kelly, Nic Newman

E: Luke Breust (F) Rory Atkins (M) Bernie Vince (D) Archie Smith (R)

[Nige]

Russia

Luke Hodge, Brayden Maynard, Ryan Clarke, Adam Saad
Gary Ablett (c), Dayne Zorko (vc), Marcus Bontempelli, Luke Shuey (evc)
Matthew Lobbe
Toby Greene, Christian Petracca, Travis Boak, James Harmes
Shaun Burgoyne, Jarrod Berry

Scott Selwood (mid), Lochie O'Brien (def), Steven Motlop (fwd)

[JBs-Hawks]

England

Def: McDonald, Tuohy, Duggan, Marchbank

Mid: Mitchell (C), Beams, Zaharakis VC, Jones

Ruck: Ryder

Fwd: Dixon, Gray, DUnkley, Milera

Int: Steven, GOddard

Emg: Henderson, Dunkley, Carlisle

[TomK]

Storm

DEF: Michael Hurley, Angus Brayshaw, Nick Vlastuin, Brodie Smith

MID: Clayton Oliver (C), Ollie Wines (VC), Tom Phillips, Shaun Grigg

RUC: Jonathon Ceglar

FOR: Toby McLean, Tom T Lynch, David Mundy, Tom Hawkins

UTIL: Jarryn Geary, Darcy Byrne-Jones

EMG: Andrew Brayshaw (MID), Cale Hooker (FWD), Alex Rance (DEF), Marc Pittonet (RUC)

[elephants]

Go duck yourself Stewart Dew

[Holz]

Iceland Polar Bears 137 def Swiss Storm 135 @ Iceland
Iceland put up their average and the Storm slightly unperformed. HGA in the end got Iceland the win as their run continues. Zerrett was fantastic as captain and they pretty much had decent performances from the whole team. Oliver and Brayshaw went huge but sadly there was too many passages with DBJ Smith Wines Hawkins all poor. Andrew Gaff may be the real culprit knocking out Brayshaw who might have been able to make up the difference.

Macedonian Wolves 147 def Belgium Basher's 136 @ Macedonia
Wolves flexed their muscle taking down "The best team in the comp" . Alot of good scores for Wolves but it was captain Crouch who lead the way. Tim kelly was fantastic showing that draft picks can have an immediate impact. Some decent scores from the bashers too and Danger continued to be in good form, just wasnt enough

English Lions 141 def Russian Roulletes 134@ England
Lions played like a true top 4 team and Russia where very respectfull but sadly no fairy tale here. Titch was a beast "yawn" and then they had enough decent contributors to post a big score, essentially sums up the Lions. Zorko tried his heart out but in the end Gaz as captain couldnt come close to titch and greene going down was the final nail in the coffin.


Greek Titan 164 v Hungarian Hulks 115@ Greece
Wow Titans, they put up a score that would have crushed anyone but in the end it was a mauling of Hungary who frankly embarrassed themselves.  Gawn easily won the ruck battle and Conigs Ross alone matched the Hungarian Midfield. Luckily Salem and Aliir turned up or it would have been even uglier.



Russia Hungary Eliminated.

Iceland Macedonia have the week off and we have

Swiss Storm v English Lions
Belgium Bashers v Greek Titans

2 very interesting games where the lower Ranked teams both beating their opponents this week.

[Spite]

164!! What’s the highest score ever in EXV?

[Holz]

164!! What’s the highest score ever in EXV?

Im pretty sure we had a few 180s. 183 with HGA was scored early on in Euro.