WXV Round 2: Cairo's Crown

[Purple 77]

PARTIAL LOCKOUT at Thursday 7.20pm AEDST

FULL LOCKOUT at Friday 7.50pm AEDST

Round 2, AFL Round 2

Home Team	Away Team	Venue	Head-to-Head
Beijing Thunder	Cairo Sands	Beijing Olympic Park	3  v  4
New Delhi Tigers	Mexico City Suns	Wipro Stadium	3  v  5
Seoul Magpies	Berlin Brewers	Seoul World Cup Stadium, EurAsia	1  v  6
Tokyo Samurai	Dublin Destroyers	Tokyo Olympic Stadium, EurAsia	2  v  5
Moscow Spetsnaz	Pacific Islanders	Luzhniki Stadium	5  v  3
Rio de Janeiro Jaguars	Christchurch Saints	Maracana Stadium, AAP Alliance	2  v  2
PNL Reindeers	Toronto Wolves	Stade de Gerland	3  v  4
Buenos Aires Armadillos	New York Revolution	Estadio de River, AAP Alliance, Americas	3  v  4
London Royals	Cape Town Cobras	London Olympic Stadium	2  v  5

It's the Thing from 'Jing v Killer Karen in my MATCH OF THE ROUND! Beijing had just an OK start to the year last week... despite the loss. A solid 141 is never something to play down, but with a team such as Beijing looking to challenge for the top 4, it's not a score to flaunt either. Meanwhile at Cairo, sure, their opponents low score played a part in assuring their number one placing, but it's a number 1 placing all the same a sight to behold! This is a serious danger game for Beijing, whilst it presents a perfect opportunity for Cairo to announce themselves. Whilst I'll tip the Thunder, I will watch on with great interest!

The Tiges got off to a great start to the year, beating a peer in Beijing whilst notching up a solid 148. I think maybe even the die hard fans were beginning to have doubts on the flag credentials of New Delhi, so that win was important for belief. The Suns, ugh, last week would have hurt. Whilst scoring 136 is a great positive, they really should have won that game against London but a Mason Wood choke let the team down. I think the Suns would be looking for another competitive effort against the Tigers, who should probably win this game.

Seoul - much like their opponents - seem very dependent on 2 or 3 players to compete against the big teams and were perhaps not for the first time found out last week without them firing. The great thing about 'big' players is that they don't let you down twice in a row, so expect Seoul to be troubling 150 this week. The concerning thing for Berlin was that Fyfe fired, but the rest of the team didn't, so would be looking for a marked improvement from the other 14 players. Seoul look in a better position atm, so will tip them.

Tokyo are much more capable than the 126 they offered up last week, so we'll just write off that game and start again. No midfielders went bigger than 90, where really all of them should be and when they do that, 126 all of sudden jumps to a competitive score against any team. Well, maybe except their opponents this week. Losing Rance would hurt most teams, but Dublin have a ready made replacement in Jesse Hog... sorry, still processing a that great injustice, Steven May to take his place in this round 1 top scoring team. Will be hard to beat! Dublin for mine.

The Spetsnaz - what a win last week! Stephen Coniglio dragged this team out of obscurity into victory in a performance that would surely inspire the supporter base. Maybe they don't need Docherty to make finals after all? Pacific too had Marcus Bontempelli go gangbusters as captain, but they couldn't get the win against a strong Toronto outfit. No Docherty, no Titchell... perhaps these two teams aren't so different? I'll regardless tip based off recent history, and back the Islanders.

With great praise for Moscow, comes great scrutiny for Rio. How did you let that game slip?! New coach PowerBug will have put the heat on the likes of Jack Ziebell, Hall and Francis so expect those guys to rebound strongly. They probably won't HAVE to this week... but they should anyway. Look, I don't see Christchurch winning a game this year, but I hope they do. First step, score 120+, and I might consider tipping you.

A poor score was always likely to happen at some stage for PNL; it's the upset wins that I look out for, because I can never pick 'em. Just write round 1 off and try again, the mids should eventually respond. But surely they can't take down this Toronto XV? The Wolves just look destined to end up in September again, so the question is for this week... who do you rest?

The Dillos would be thrilled with the win, but surely must think they can score better? A 126 almost felt like a disappointment - a sub-par performance - which is a great thing to say considering where we were 2 years ago. This team has another gear in it, I just know it. The Revolution don't have this gear yet, as I would say they're a good 12-24 months behind the Dillos in their rebuild. But, certainly a winnable game and Heeney & Libba won't always score below 100. Should be a good game! But will back the Dillos.

What a great win by London last week! They held on against Mexico City, and pretty much showed more in that game than they did in 2018. They took home a rising star nom in Willem Drew (103) who was backed up by fellow young budding stars in Rhys Mathieson (95) and Jack Higgins (94). Things might finally be on the up for London! Speaking of, the Cobras also showed true progress last week with a character testing win against Tokyo. Where previously they may have choked, they instead stood up and announced they were ready to take the next step. A very interesting game this one between two peers... but I reckon I like London's form at the moment!

[RaisyDaisy]

iZander and I have made a wager for our match which we would like to be honoured at the trade period later in the year, so we ask that all coaches pass the trade when submitted

We're both rebuilding and have several injuries this week so this is going to be messy, but we're up for the gamble!

The winner of our match will be trading their 2nd round NAT Pick to the loser, and the loser will be trading their 1st round NAT Pick to the winner!

We won't be including HGA for this bet, so it's just 15 vs 15 including Captain

All of a sudden our cellar dweller match will be very interesting this week! MOTR Purps?  ;)

[Koop]

Jokes on Nige when he loses heavily to yet another team containing a former assistant. ;)

[iZander]

iZander and I have made a wager for our match which we would like to be honoured at the trade period later in the year, so we ask that all coaches pass the trade when submitted

We're both rebuilding and have several injuries this week so this is going to be messy, but we're up for the gamble!

The winner of our match will be trading their 2nd round NAT Pick to the loser, and the loser will be trading their 1st round NAT Pick to the winner!

We won't be including HGA for this bet, so it's just 15 vs 15 including Captain

All of a sudden our cellar dweller match will be very interesting this week! MOTR Purps?  ;)

Was already MOTR surly? :P

[Toga]

Jokes on Nige when he loses heavily to yet another team containing a former assistant. ;)

;D ;D

[Toga]

Beijing Thunder:
D: Heath Shaw, Tom Jonas, Brandon Ellis, Darcy Byrne-Jones
M: Tom Rockliff (C), Lachie Neale, Dayne Zorko, David Swallow
R: Brodie Grundy (VC)
F: Kane Lambert, Luke Breust, Taylor Walker, Daniel Rioli
IC: Darcy Macpherson, James Aish

EMG: Wil Powell, Jy Simpkin, Mason Cox

[Nige]

Look at minnows like NY and the Dillos trying to get a bit of the spotlight.

The round is named in Cairo’s honour, clearly Jing v Karen is already predetermined as MOTR!

[Holz]

Def: Jeremy Howe, Steven May, Jarrad Mcveigh, Mark O'Connor
Mid: Rory Sloane, Matt Crouch (C), Dustin Martin (VC), Brad Crouch
Ruck: Todd Goldstein
Fwd: Tom McDonald, Jack Gunston, Jack Reiwoldt, Josh J Kennedy
Uti: Joel Selwood, Justin Westhoff

Emg: Zak Butters (M), Lachlan Schultz (F), Lachlan Keefe (D)

Resting: Toby Greene

[GoLions]

Kate

Harris Andrews, Callum Mills, Luke McDonald, Jasper Pittard
Mitch Duncan (C), Shaun Higgins (VC), Touk Miller, Ben Cunnington
Toby Nankervis
Tom Papley, Alex Neal-Bullen, Josh Battle, Jaidyn Stephenson
Brad Ebert, Reece Conca (rested)

James Cousins, Dean Kent, David Mackay

Resting: Jack Bowes

[meow meow]

CHRISTCHURCH

B: Davis, Langdon, McKenna, Blicav
M: Dow (C), Deledio (vc), Bailey, Lloyd
R: Darcy
F: McKay, Stringer, Thomas, Reid
I: Daniels, Richards

E: Tarrant, Preuss, Henry

[PowerBug]

Rio de Janeiro Jaguars

Def: Aaron Francis, Daniel Rich, Brayden Maynard, Jeremy Finlayson.
Mid: Patrick Cripps (C), Elliot Yeo (VC), Jaeger O'Meara, Tim Taranto.
Ruck: Callum Sinclair.
Fwd: Hayden Ballantyne (RB), Jeremy Cameron, Jack Ziebell, Mark Baguley.
Int: Karl Amon (Mid), Aaron Hall (Mid).

Emerg: Dom Tyson (Mid), Shaun McKernan (Fwd), Joel Hamling (Def).

In: Jeremy Finlayson, Hayden Ballantyne.
Out: Josh Walker (Rested), Eric Hipwood (Omit).

[Ricochet]

New Delhi Tigers

Attack

DEF Lloyd, Hurn, Savage
MID Sidebottom (VC), Pendles (C), Brayshaw, Langdon
RUCK SMartin
FWD Menegola, Gray, Darling, Dahlhaus, Newnes
UTIL JMartin, Tucker

EMER STaylor, Archie Smith, Morrison

[Nige]

King Karen

Jeremy McGovern, Tom Stewart, Andrew McGrath, Nick Vlastuin
Dayne Beams (cc), David Zaharakis, Hugh McCluggage (cc), Ricky Henderson
Dawson Simpson
Ben Brown, Mitch Robinson, Lincoln McCarthy, Jake Melksham
Shane Edwards, Rory Lobb

Mark Hutchings, Travis Colyer, Ben Stratton

[fanTCfool]

Toronto Wolves

Kade Simpson, Alex Witherden, Wayne Milera, Scott D. Thompson
Jack Macrae (C), Jack Redden, Jacob Hopper, James Harmes
Andrew Phillips
Tim Kelly (VC), Travis Boak, Tom Hawkins, Jesse Hogan
Gary Ablett, Brayden Fiorini

Peter Wright, Billy Gowers, Tom Cole

Resting: Dion Prestia

[Purple 77]

OP updated!

And also, WXV Team Selector should now work for those interested.