WXV Finals Week 1 - Puma Pride On the Line

[ossie85]

WXV Seniors Qualifying Finals
Mexico City Suns v Sao Paulo Pumas, Fireball Stadium
Buenos Aires Armadillos v Moscow Spetsnaz, Estadio de River

WXV Seniors Elimination Finals
Cairo Sands v Toronto Wolves, Borg El Arab Stadium
Cape Town Cobras v Berlin Brewers, Newlands Cricket Ground

WXV Reserves Qualifying Finals
Rhineland Rum-Runners v Toronto Wolves, Berlin Olympic Stadium
Alexandria Heiroglyphics v Mexico City Suns, Borg El Arab Stadium

WXV Reserves Elimination Finals
Cape Town Cobras v Port Morseby Iguanadons, Newslands Cricket Ground
Imperial Princes v Rio de Janeiro Jaguars, London Olympic Stadium

WXV Continental Cup Round 1
(Choose your XV from the 10 WXV teams not playing in World finals, 18 AFL teams)

Americas v Europe, MetLife Stadium
Africa/Oceania v Asia, BSP Stadium

Each continent:

Americas
Teams: New York
Head Coach: sid/pyronerd
Assistant Coaches: Nil

Europe
Teams: Dublin, London, PNL
Head Coach: Holzman
Assistant Coaches: Ringo, Hellopplz

Africa/Oceania
,Teams: Pacific, Wellington
Head Coach: Jayman/tbagrocks
Assistant Coach: pothead

Asia
Teams: Seoul, Tokyo, New Delhi, Beijing
Head Coach: JBs-Hawks/KoopKicka
Assistant Coaches: Boomz/kilbuff1985, elephants, Toga/Master Q


Each head coach selects there best XV from the teams not playing finals, they can choose to listen to assistant coaches as much as they want, encourage everyone to work together!

Yes, I know the competition is horribly uneven, but each week new teams will be available.


Mexico City v Sao Paulo

Ladder: 1 v 4
Win-Loss: 16-1 v 12-5
Average: 152 v 151
High: 171 v 173
Low: 132 v 131
H2H: 2 v 1

History
2013 R17: Suns 157 defeated Pumas 136
2012 PF: Pumas 137 lost to Suns 163
2012 R8: Pumas 154 defeated Suns 141

Clearly the best 2 teams over the last 2 years, the Suns and Pumas rivalry is an interesting one for sure! Sao Paulo were the favourites going into last years Prelim after finishing Minor Premiers and having the week off, but the Suns left them shell shocked on the way to winning the first flag. In fact, all three encounters have been one sided, with the most recent clash just last week ending in a 21 point victory to the Suns. The Pumas have lost 4 of there last 6 - there only victories against bottom 4 sides - while the Suns have only lost once this year.

Buenos Aires v Moscow

Ladder: 2 v 3
Win-Loss: 13-4 v 13-4
Average: 149 v 141
High: 187 v 162
Low: 116 v 124
H2H: 1 v 1

History
2012 R3: Spetsnaz 115 lost to Armadillos 150
2013 R3: Armadillos 133 lost to Moscow 139

The two sides haven't met since Round 3 this year, and its fair to say a lot has changed since! A full strength Buenos Aires is hard for anyone to beat and are clear favourites if so - but will they be full strength? While Moscow have shown the capacity to really shake the competition.

Cairo v Toronto

Ladder: 5 v 8
Win-Loss: 12-5 v 10-7
Average: 140 v 140
High: 159 v 157
Low: 116 v 125
H2H: 1 v 1

History
2012 R15: Wolves 138 defeated Sands 124
2013 R16: Sands 151 defeated Wolves 140

The form lines couldn't be much different! With Cairo coming in on an 8 match winning streak and only just missing the top 4 - including defeated Toronto only 2 weeks ago - while the Wolves have lost its last 3 and almost fell out of the 8. Toronto are a very strong team and have finals experience, while this is Cairo's first taste of WXV finals.


Cape Town v Berlin

Ladder: 6 v 7
Win-Loss: 11-6 v 10-7
Average: 137 v 135
High: 153 v 154
Low: 120 v 110
H2H: 2 v 0

History
2012 R14: Berlin 116 lost to Cape Town 146
2013 R2: Cape Town 141 defeated Berlin 116

Now this is an interesting match. The Cobras have some huge scalps - including top 4 teams Sao Paulo and Moscow - but have had some huge defeats - including bottom 4 teams Beijing and Pacific. The Cobras have only won 3 of there last 8 matches to be in some unconvincing form. The Brewers have not been scoring well, but managed to finish the year with 4 straight victories, with there biggest victories for the year coming against Cairo and Toronto, but they have gone over 140 once in the last 7 weeks. The previous two encounters between these two sides have been epic thrashings in the Cobras favour. I think Dublin would look at this match and wonder what might have been!

[AFEV]

Does not include the Revolution. Must be bought separately. :(

[Maca24]

Mexico City Suns:

Def: B.Goddard, C.Enright, J.Adcock, B.Lake.
Mids: S.Sidebottom (VC), B.Ebert, S.Thompson, B.Vince.
Rucks: I.Maric.
Frwds: N.Riewoldt, J.Lewis, J.Bartel (C), M.Lecras.
Bench: A.Sandilands, J.Waite.
Emg: B.Moloney, D.Merrett, M.Baguley.

Hodge departs.
Waite and Lecras are both inclusions.

[Jukes]

Moscow Spetsnaz

D: H. Shaw, C. Dixon, R. Murphy, S. May
M: R. Griffen (c), N. Fyfe (vc), A. Treloar, C. Ward
R: S. Tuck (OOP)
F: D. Martin, A. Monfries, M. Walters, L. Adams
U: T. Vickery, A. Sexton

Emg: S. Colquhoun, J. Thomas, K. Hardingham

[CrowsFan]

2 highest scoring teams facing each other week 1 of finals doesn't seem right to me...
Will probably lose my third game in a row :(

[Holz]

Europe has got this 9th and 10th teams massive advantage and pnl as always a lot better than their ladder position indicates.

[ossie85]

Europe has got this 9th and 10th teams massive advantage and pnl as always a lot better than their ladder position indicates.

That and you are playing New York by themselves! Next week 4 more teams will be available though


Reserves - Imperial and Port Morseby are the two teams without senior represenatives this week, and I'm trying to work out the fairest way to pick a team. Last year, we just carried over there most recent senior team - is that fair enough for everyone involved?

[JBs-Hawks]

Could do how they do in amateur footy. Gotta play double the amount off reserves as to seniors.

[Holz]

Europe has got this 9th and 10th teams massive advantage and pnl as always a lot better than their ladder position indicates.

That and you are playing New York by themselves! Next week 4 more teams will be available though


Reserves - Imperial and Port Morseby are the two teams without senior represenatives this week, and I'm trying to work out the fairest way to pick a team. Last year, we just carried over there most recent senior team - is that fair enough for everyone involved?

I think any obvious ins shouldnt be counted. Example if boyd comes back next week I dont think he should be able to play in the reserves.

[Jukes]

Maybe make it that the players had to have played at least 3-5 reserves games to be eligible for reserves finals?

Similar to what they do for wafl finals, a player has to have played at least 5 league matches to play in finals, to stop teams just bringing in all their afl-listed players.

[Ringo]

As I am involved my suggestion is similar to Jukes must have played at least 4 games in reserves to qualify, Not sure whether that is too hard to identify from your spreadsheets Oss.

Using my team as example is it fair to carry over a team that has Hanners, Stanton and McVeigh in it.  All can go big at the same time as has happened and would put other teams at a disadvantage. Just an example as similar is possible from other lines.  Just that team has been inconsistent all season but if all click on the one day large score is possible.

Players like Rampe, Hill, Tuohy and Moore are ok to play reserves

[Purple 77]

Maybe pick your best senior XV from the amount of senior games played by each player. If there is for example one spot left and 2 players have played the same amount of games, look at who played the most reserves games out of them. If still the same, award the person who has scored the most total points this year a spot in the seniors?

[Nige]

Just to make sure, the naming of the reserves is still the same as it was during the home and away season? Whoever doesn't play seniors makes up the numbers for the reserves?

If so, if the final round was any indicator than I think Alexandria could be a genuine shot at the reserves premiership!  ;D

[ossie85]

Just to make sure, the naming of the reserves is still the same as it was during the home and away season? Whoever doesn't play seniors makes up the numbers for the reserves?

If so, if the final round was any indicator than I think Alexandria could be a genuine shot at the reserves premiership!  ;D

Yep, easy for those playing seniors and reserves in finals. Not so easy for those playing reserves only.

[Nige]

Just to make sure, the naming of the reserves is still the same as it was during the home and away season? Whoever doesn't play seniors makes up the numbers for the reserves?

If so, if the final round was any indicator than I think Alexandria could be a genuine shot at the reserves premiership!  ;D

Yep, easy for those playing seniors and reserves in finals. Not so easy for those playing reserves only.

Cheers Os! Definitely a somewhat weird situation for the London and Pacific teams.  :o