WXV Round 13: Dublin to tear down Berlin Wall?

[Purple 77]

Back to some semblance of normality! But mind the partial lockout on Thursday.

Round 13, AFL Round 15

Home Team	Away Team	Venue	Head-to-Head
New Delhi Tigers	Seoul Magpies	Wipro Stadium, EurAsia, Asia	5  v  2
Dublin Destroyers	Berlin Brewers	Crooke Park, EurAsia, Europe	5  v  1
Pacific Islanders	Christchurch Saints	Linkbelt Oval, AAP Alliance, Africonia, Oceania Cup	2  v  1
PNL Reindeers	Beijing Thunder	Stade du Ray, EurAsia	4  v  2
Cairo Sands	New York Revolution	Borg El Arab Stadium, AAP Alliance	3  v  3
Cape Town Cobras	Toronto Wolves	Newlands Cricket Ground, AAP Alliance	2  v  4
Mexico City Suns	Rio de Janeiro Jaguars	Fireball Stadium, AAP Alliance, Americas	2  v  2
London Royals	Tokyo Samurai	London Olympic Stadium, EurAsia	3  v  3
Buenos Aires Armadillos	Moscow Spetsnaz	Estadio de River	4  v  4

WXV PREVIEWS WRITTEN BY NIGE

New Delhi vs Seoul

This clash could be epic, but neither of these sides are at their devastating best. However, you sense that at least one of them is gonna start building to something special in the pointy end of the season. With little separating the two teams, this truly is a contest that could go either way. New Delhi are missing a few key personnel such as Houli and Darling who they would ideally like to have, whereas Seoul have their full strength midfield that when on song, can tear any team apart. Signs may point to a Seoul win, but New Delhi lead the head to head 5-2, and I think they’re gonna add to that this week.

Dublin vs Berlin

Let’s preface this by saying, this is definitely the MATCH OF THE ROUND! The world revolves around Dublin, or at least that’s what Dublin coach Holz will have you believe. It hasn’t been all sunshine and lollipops for the competition’s Irish team. In fact, the luck of Irish has seemingly abandoned them with their depth as shallow as, well… pie. However, even with 14 men last round, they managed to get a victory which if anything, has probably inflated the ego of their coach and has lulled this team into a false sense of security. Have I mentioned that Dublin is clinging on to 8th by percentage? Not the best place to be at this stage of the year. Meanwhile, Berlin has had a few issues of their own, but they sit 2 wins ahead of Dublin and are in the top 4 which would comfort coach Purple 77. However, he’s going to have to nail that captain choice and hope his troops didn’t spend all the tickets last week during representative week. Berlin will desperately want to win this one for a multitude of reasons, include those top 4 aspirations and start clawing back the head to head which reads 5-1. I think Berlin might sneak home here, even with Dublin having the home ground advantage.

Pacific vs Christchurch

Pacific go about their business in a funny old way. The have the scoring ability that few teams possess and yet they’re only 5th having a few hiccups throughout the season. They’ll hope to get star defender Rory Laird back this week which should make a huge difference, especially as Christchurch lose their young gun Harris Andrews due to an unfortunate incident. Speaking of, this team is one that could easily be a threat in finals showing that the old boys still have it, but mix their experience with the stars of tomorrow. A good win from the Kiwis will see them in with a chance of jumping into first with other results going their way. The potent mix at Christchurch should have what it takes to catch Pacific off guard this week and square the ledger, while also taking home the Oceania Cup.

PNL vs Beijing

PNL looked a lost cause in the early rounds of the season, simply playing for pride and probably beginning to work out who they would take with the coveted #1 pick as well as finding inventive ways to retain most of their player base and somehow inject more youth. However, their fortunes have started to shift in recent times with more inspired displays to remind the competition that they still have some fight in a trying year. In stark contrast, Beijing have been soldiering on all season in admirable fashion. After they kept getting wins despite not scoring the best, they have come to life and are pumping out scores worthy of finals contention and at 10-2, they’ll feature in the business end. They will look to put PNL to the sword this week and really beef up that percentage in an effort to close in on Toronto. Beijing with relative ease.

Cairo vs New York

Cairo had arguably their worst week of the season, culminating in their elimination from World Idol where they actually made it further than they had any right going. They key absences of new recruits David Zaharakis and Mitch Robinson were glaring and left holes that could not be covered, and with Zaharakis still a month away and Robinson still not quite ready to come back, Cairo are on their knees waiting for the death blow. All this considered, New York should win easily here, but complacency can’t be on the menu if they want to get into the 8 and be finals bound. A thrashing has to be on the cards here and if Karen’s boys aren’t up to task, we could be looking at a game that may get very ugly, very quickly. New York by plenty.

Cape Town vs Toronto

Last hosts first in what could yet be the most depressing game this week. Cape Town should be doing a millions times better than they are but just can’t seem to pull it together. Their mission now is to get off the bottom of the ladder and make that bottom 6 battle fascinating, unless of course coach GoLions has no intentions of doing so as his assistant coach Pkbaldy scours the land for the brightest talent to reel in. For Toronto, coach Adamant is on the warpath having failed in his task of taking the Alliance to representative glory. To further compound his woes, Jack Macrae is facing a stint on the sidelines at a time where they probably need his capabilities. This Toronto side isn’t about to crumble though, at least not against a measly Cape Town outfit. There’s a reason that one team is 2-10 and the other is 10-2, and if you’re not already sure why, pay attention to this matchup this week and you’ll know.

Mexico City vs Rio

Mexico were always bound to face pain this season but have somehow manufactured 3 wins which their coach would undoubtedly deem a success. The stand out player here is James Sicily who is simply in a different tier to his teammates and is a capable leader. He’ll definitely need to be this week too as Rio will be looking to win a game they probably should. They’ll be doing it without Jeremy Cameron though, whose untoward actions are seeing him take a little holiday which may result in him missing the rest of Rio’s season. The Jags have enough guns to still get the job done here and even a big game from Sicily probably won’t be enough to get the W.

London vs Tokyo

London are a team that seem to forever be stuck in the proverbial no man’s land. They lack stars and have an odd list management approach which is part of the reason for their unpredictable season. The ceiling for this team is not exactly desirable, and their worst is just plain embarrassing. Even coach Ringo has no idea which version of London will turn up any given week which makes things even more wild. Tokyo don’t appear to have much identity either, but to their credit improved over the offseason and have been more competitive this year which has seen them gain a bit of respect. The narrative here is that Tokyo should get a win to continue on their merry way but nobody can possibly say which version of the Royals will come to the party. Still, Tokyo remains a safe bet you would think.

Buenos Aires vs Moscow

The Dillos have surprised many in that their kids are already performing above and beyond expectations. They recently acquired a 5th rising star nomination and we’ve only had 12 rounds. The kids can play and will be out to show they can take another scalp. Their opposition in Moscow are a great mystery as they can be incredibly bipolar. Left field selections aside, their coaching minds somehow steer this ship well enough. Moscow have scored a lot better than their ladder position suggests but at 3-9, they want to break away from the likes of London and Cairo who many would see as inferior outfits. The Dillos sit higher on the ladder at 5-7 and this luck is the kind of thing that they might just be able to pull out this week, and I reckon they will.

[Holz]

Probably my biggest game all year a win would complete our come back.

Rance tmac davis
Crouch (vc) Jelly (C) Sloane Dmart
Goldy
Jroo hoff hawkins gunston daw
Holman Hill

Henry Omac

5 fwd thing deployed. Omac dropped

[upthemaidens]

A few big matches this week, season defining.
   Islanders should see the return of not only Laird, but Suckling and Guthrie as well.  Along with a rested Jenkins and HGA, we need this win.

[meow meow]

Hopefully McVeigh can get up to replace Harris. Ed Richards is due to debut and we'll need him since we may have to flood.

The other end is a problem. Wells and Waite gone for probably forever while their cover in Darcy Moore, Clay and Dickson are all injured too. James Stewart not getting a game isn't ideal but the upside is that Stringer is putting up premo numbers without him in the bombers forward line. Josh Daicos could get dropped at any time and that would mean we'd have just 3 forwards playing. Not that playing him is desirable at all anyway. A few weeks ago it would have looked like we'd maybe drop to 2 playing but Brennan Cox has emerged and looks to be the saviour.

Purps, how many times are we allowed to flood and how many have I used already?

[RaisyDaisy]

Purps, how many times are we allowed to flood and how many have I used already?

You can flood/attack 5 times per year in total

Purps, reckon you could give us an update on how we are all standing for flood/attack used so far this season please?

[Torpedo10]

Nige has a vendetta against Moscow confirmed, especially after accusing us of tanking a month ago.  :P

[GoLions]

I bet you enjoyed that nougat ya flowerin wheelbarrow

[Jroo]

Mexico City Suns
D: James Sicily (C), Darcy Byrne-Jones, Jarryn Geary, Jacob Weitering
M: Lachie Hunter (VC), Jared Polec, Jack Graham, Jordan Cunico
R: Billy Longer
F: Christian Petracca, James Harmes, Mason Wood, Jordan Murdoch
U: Aaron Naughton, Mitch Hannan

EMG: Jack Silvagni, Bernie Vince, Lewis Jetta

[Toga]

BEIJING THUNDER:
D: Brandon Ellis, Marcus Adams, Tom Cutler, Nathan Broad
M: Lachie Neale (VC), Dayne Zorko, Oliver Wines, Callan Ward
R: Brodie Grundy (C)
F: Josh Caddy, Kane Lambert, Luke Breust, Daniel Rioli
IC: Tom Rockliff, Daniel Howe

Emg: W.Powell (mid/fwd), Mason Cox (ruc/fwd), Matt Guelfi (f)

REST: Taylor Walker

[GoLions]

Up the tankers

showertard, Carlisle, Lmac, Mullett
Duncan (C), Cunnington (VC), Ebert, Touk
Nank
ANB, Squizz, Ainsworth, Stepho
Mookay, Blitz

Lang, KJack, Ric O'Shea

[Levi434]

[Purple 77]

Oh right, RE: Flood/Attack stats.

Yes, you can use either for an overall total of up to 5 times.

And yes I do have those uses recorded, but... It'll have to wait until I get back from work sorry. I know the max number someone is on is 3.

[RaisyDaisy]

Yeah that'd be us. We've attacked 3 times so far

[Holz]

[Nige]

Karen Sanderson

Jeremy McGovern, Shane Savage, Tom Stewart, Nick Vlastuin
Dayne Beams (evc), Taylor Adams (c), Ricky Henderson, Hugh McCluggage
Dawson Simpson
Ben Brown (vc), Mitch Robinson, Mitch Honeychurch, Jason Castagna
Andrew McGrath, Daniel McKenzie

Shane Kersten, Myles Poholke, Bailey Rice