WXV Round 6: Modern Titans take to Crooke Park

[Purple 77]

Back to the normal 3 emergencies this week :)

Round 6, AFL Round 6

Home Team	Away Team	Venue	Head-to-Head
Buenos Aires Armadillos	Cape Town Cobras	Estadio de River, AAP Alliance	2  v  3
Cairo Sands	Seoul Magpies	Borg El Arab Stadium	1  v  3
Christchurch Saints	Pacific Islanders	AMI Stadium, AAP Alliance, Africonia, Oceania Cup	1  v  0
Dublin Destroyers	Rio de Janeiro Jaguars	Crooke Park	1  v  0
Mexico City Suns	London Royals	Fireball Stadium	4  v  0
New York Revolution	Beijing Thunder	MetLife Stadium	3  v  1
PNL Reindeers	New Delhi Tigers	State de France, EurAsia	3  v  1
Tokyo Samurai	Moscow Spetsnaz	Tokyo Olympic Stadium, EurAsia	0  v  4
Toronto Wolves	Berlin Brewers	Rogers Centre	2  v  2

Buenos Aires registered their first win for the year (the last one coming in Round 9 last year) against PNL last week crediting it to a very consistent game style. The Dillos are yet to post more than their 134 total of last week and if recent form is anything to go by, they'll need to against the Cobras. Cape Town are also coming off their highest score of the year (148) after a stunning WXVs debut from Peter Wright. These two teams sit 16th and 11th respectively are would both pencil this game as win. For me, I think I'll actually back the home team as I'm suspicious as whether that Cobra score bordered on a fluke. Can the Cobras back it up with another 140+ score?

The Sands have been playing brave WXVs footy of late; I guess you'd have to after playing Mexico City, New York and Dublin in three consecutive weeks! However that means the draw might open up a little for the reasonably 2-3 placed Sands whom will be seriously bolstered for the rest of the season when a certain Dayne Beams comes back from injury. Seoul have been playing similar to the Sands actually but with perhaps less capable opposition. The Magpies were the victim of crucial late-outs last week against the Brewers and would be disappointed they couldn't post the win. I think I like them here against the Sands though, as that past month would surely take a toll!

Christchurch put on another Christchurch performance last week; steady, doing enough and not going beyond the call of duty on its way 4th win of the season against a disappointing New York outfit. The Islanders have actually been REALLY good in the past month and ranking 3rd on the points ladder, which now prompts me to make every effort to bring them into the radar. Consider the pressure is on Pacific, and I'll be looking for you perform in games exactly like this one. Win, and get praised as maybe even a top 4 contender! Lose, and run the risk of being dismissed. As such, I'll back the form team here as I'm not sure if Christchurch have the firepower to match it with the Islanders at the moment.

Awww yeah! Without question, this game is my MATCH OF THE ROUND! The Destroyers season has been one Round 2 blip away from being is terrifying self, with scores of 153, 132, 166, 153 and 154... but only to rank second on the points ladder! Who could possibly be outscoring this semblance of fear? The spawn of Sao Paulo and Satan themselves, the Rio de Janeiro Jaguars have blown us away with scores of 149, 164, 169, 148 and 135 to total about 70SC points more than the Destroyers. If there was any team that could take it to Dublin at Crooke Park, then this would be them. So, who do I possibly tip? I think the suspension of Rance is a huge blow to the Destroyers and that there lack of defence depth will finally be on show, so I'm going the Jaguars all the way.

Mexico City responded to its Round 4 hiccup in fine style against Beijing last week; re-solidifying it's finals credentials in the process. What can you really say though about the Suns? I feel like I'm just saying "they're a great team" every week, and I don't feel much excitement from them anymore. Sure, they're the 4th ranked points team, but I challenge them to do something cool! Whether that be 160+ score, playing all of Sicily, Papley & Hewett and have it pay off, drop the under-performing Jimmy Bartel... make me interested again! The Royals actually have been very interesting this year; sitting 3-2, in the eight whilst being the second lowest scoring team. That's just weird! We've seen that the Suns are susceptible to a strong defence, so they might play in London's hands here, you never know! But I can't tip against the Suns.

Quite an interesting match this one! New York have slowed down in the past two weeks with disappointing losses against Cairo and Christchurch after an impressive opening three rounds. Amazingly out of four captain choices and two co-captain choices, the Revolution have only picked one CC that has scored more than 82! Gee, you gotta get those choices right! The Thunder on the other hand have entrusted boom recruit Callan Ward with the captaincy every week to which he has led them to three wins and its currently placing of 6th on the ladder. Who will win? Surely New York gets a captain choice correct, and being at home I think I'll have to back them.

Oh boy. If you take out the Reindeers Round 3 win against Beijing, the Reindeers have gotten worse every week and I think its 114 against the previously winless Buenos Aires last week is (for the season) rock bottom. Who would have thought such a host of experienced guns would be performing (averaging) so badly?: N Jones (77), Hodge (75), Westhoff (69), Wingard (69) and even Marley Williams (55) have been weirdly and drastically below their normal standards, and boy has it shown. And then you look at New Delhi... I still can't get over last week! The Tigers might have posted their biggest ever score last week (159) and it also might be the first time New Delhi coaches have been the coach(es) of the week as well! The resurrection is gaining pace and with a score like that, the Tigers have announced that they are no longer the easy-beats of the competition, and for perhaps the first time in a long time, they've regained some hard earned respect. On form, New Delhi are the clear choice here, but I just have this feeling the Reindeers will respond this week and take home a much needed win.

The Samurai's fall in form has been extraordinary. Round 1 saw a ruthless team tear apart a much more fancied team in Berlin, but ever since then the Samurai have only outscored Toronto in the four games that proceeded it. The loss of Johannisen certainly hurts, but I think it's now clear that this is a team that lives and dies on the performance of its Captain Luke Parker until they can start competing regularly again. Moscow have also been a team that has gotten worse since Round 1; being the 4th worst offensive team in the last 4 games. Their suspended and absent players are just too great a toll at the moment and not enough players are standing up. For both teams however, this is a perfect opportunity to at least start being consistently competitive again but a loss here would also be a further loss in respect (in the scope of the season). I think I'll back the Spetsnaz here.

You just feel that the Wolves are that far from breaking through for its first win. Last week, despite it's consistently low score, it still would have beaten 3 other teams so as long as it isn't scoring the least every week, then eventually it's going to play a team that it will beat. And who knows? A team coming off the loss of Fyfe and Michael Johnson might fit that criteria, so it just has to believe it can do it. Berlin would be pretty pleased about the score posted in the end given the injury affected Captain Fyfe score, but even when it wins, it still loses with the losses of Fyfe and Johnson to be felt heavily for the remaining year. Just like it was last week, it's hopes for a top 4 finish are laughably over but for prides sake, they need to win here. Berlin for me.

[Toga]

Love your work as always Purps! Obvious match of the round this week, can't wait to see how the two big shots face up against one another!

Another pretty tough match for the Thunder against the Revs, who are a little bit down on form but that scoring power they have is something to be afraid of if everything goes right.

[Toga]

BEIJING THUNDER:
D: H.Taylor, H.Lumumba, L.Brown
M: C.Ward (C), O.Wines (VC), L.Neale, B.Ellis
R: B.Grundy
F: D.Zorko, K.Lambert, A.Christensen, J.Jenkins, C.Petracca
I/C: J.Caddy, B.Kennedy

Emg: B.Hill (m), D.Howe (d), J.Polec (m)

(Petracc)ATTACKING

Resting: S.Mayes

[Holz]

Awww yeah! Without question, this game is my MATCH OF THE ROUND! The Destroyers season has been one Round 2 blip away from being is terrifying self, with scores of 153, 132, 166, 153 and 154... but only to rank second on the points ladder! Who could possibly be outscoring this semblance of fear? The spawn of Sao Paulo and Satan themselves, the Rio de Janeiro Jaguars have blown us away with scores of 149, 164, 169, 148 and 135 to total about 70SC points more than the Destroyers. If there was any team that could take it to Dublin at Crooke Park, then this would be them. So, who do I possibly tip? I think the suspension of Rance is a huge blow to the Destroyers and that there lack of defence depth will finally be on show, so I'm going the Jaguars all the way.

What?

I have the best defensive depth in the comp if not top 3.

Jacob Weitering!!!
Heath Grundy
Ryan Schoenemakers
Neville Jetta
Ciarin Byrne

then Omac and Kieran Collins might get a gig soon



Rance - Suspeneded
Shcoey - Injured
Yarran - injured
Omac -injured

and still have 2-3 guys in the emergency bench

[RaisyDaisy]

You keep tipping us Purps and we keep losing  :'(

Looking forward to this one Toga - I've always been a fan of what you're doing with Beijing :)

For the love of all things footy, please can we just have a proper showing after the 2 weeks of absolute tripe we've dished up

We really need to get the win here, and that's an understatement

[My Chumps]

Top of the table clash! Fremantle PNL's season on the line! 6 teams within touching distance of the top 8!

Boy-oh-boy it's all happening.

[Ricochet]

Match of the round is an understatement! Jags vs Destroyers has all the makings of something epic.

Will be following that one for sure

[Boomz]

Tokyo Samurai
D: Anthony Mcdonald-Tipungwuti, Garrick Ibbotson, Courtenay Dempsey
M: Luke Parker(C), Jack Redden, Dale Thomas, Anthony Miles
R: Zac Smith
F: Jamie Cripps, Luke Dahlhaus (VC), Jarryd Blair, Sam Lloyd, Scott Lycett
U: Aaron Young, Rory Atkins
E: Harry Cunningham, Martin Gleeson, Sam Grimley
ATTACKING... For now.

REST: Connor Menadue

Pleased with Atkins, Blair & Lloyd getting tons last week, just need more consistency across the board.

[Toga]

Looking forward to this one Toga - I've always been a fan of what you're doing with Beijing :)

Thanks mate - appreciate it! I think our lack of defence depth (meaning we have to play second-string players) is showing up in our inconsistency at the moment - when our defence goes well, we've been around that 140 mark on the back of our gun midfield core, however when they don't do so well we've dropped to around that 120 mark. Which will not be good enough to beat New York!

Although as shown a few weeks back nothing will stop you if everything clicks - just need to get that captain right!

But all will be well if the man gets named! #PETREKT

[Memphistopheles]

     19c. Some leniency may be given under certain circumstances to allow for a captaincy selection outside of the leadership group. E.g. If all 5 members of a leadership have been seriously under-performing, and other players in your team have unexpectedly been scoring magnificently, you may be granted to choose a player outside of the leadership, but only in a co-captain capacity. All requests for leniency should be sent via PM to the Administrator, and they will have the final call.

^^19c is grey area, but what I'm trying to get at, is that if you think you have case, then by all means PM me, but any decision I make is final, even if maybe a similar case in the past had a different result.

[/quote]

If I was New York I'd be pleading with Purple this week over this rule.

There's a clear option outside of your leadership group who is performing while those in it aren't delivering...

[DazBurg]

purps i told you the other week
you need to go back to doubting PNL for our seasons sake :P

[RaisyDaisy]

Memph, many thanks for bringing that to my attention!

We've had Mundy out injured, and Lewis, Houli, Tippett and Duncan all scoring like absolutele potatoes (Duncan was good on the weekend)

I think we have more than enough evidence to suggest that we can apply for that leniency, and although anyone outside of the group can only CC I'd like to formally apply to have Jarrad Waite added as an option for us to CC

@Toga - We're not getting Petrekt this week!

@Boomz - who is Cory Menadue? :P

[RaisyDaisy]

The evidence:

David Mundy - 82, 78, DNP, DNP, DNP
Jordan Lewis - 108, 115, 43, 107, 57
Kurt Tippett - 82, 110, 65, 63, 75
Mitch Duncan - 108, 25, 126, 75, 112
Bachar Houli - 74, 127, 144, 59, 59

Jarrad Waite is going 100+ every week so much more consistent, which is what you expect from someone in the leadership group

[Ricochet]

Shoulda had him in the leadership group from the start then ;)

[Holz]

The evidence:

David Mundy - 82, 78, DNP, DNP, DNP
Jordan Lewis - 108, 115, 43, 107, 57
Kurt Tippett - 82, 110, 65, 63, 75
Mitch Duncan - 108, 25, 126, 75, 112
Bachar Houli - 74, 127, 144, 59, 59

Jarrad Waite is going 100+ every week so much more consistent, which is what you expect from someone in the leadership group

Im seing alot of 100s

Lewis houli duncan are inconsistent they put up lots if 100+ games then have stinkers. This is why lewis isnt a SC player.

Tippet is underpeforming and mundy is injured.

If you can get waite might as well scrap the rule. 3/5 of your players are doing basically average.

If say duncan houli lewis got injured you might have a case