Stone & Woodsman (1682) def Briggsy's Boys (1602)
Our first round of fantasy for 2024 kicked off this past weekend with an intriguing battle seeing Jim host The Shanes down in Seaford. This trek would seem a bit too much travel for the dark knights of yesteryear going down by 80 points in a relatively close affair.
The Shanes would be ruing the decision to keep young guns Ollie Dempsey (94) and Massimo D'Ambrosio (100) on the pine costing them the 80 points needed for a win. But it's all swings and roundabouts with the famous Saints supporter leaving his once beloved Jack Billings (146) on the bench also, who if played would have collected the coveted 3 votes.
The final Xerri 🍒 on top in this matchup was in the ruck department. Jimmy with an average of 125 between his 2 superstar rucks clearly a better strategy than the classic "no ruck" strategy from the Shanes. Solid start for Jim, could be his year! But the Shanes are no doubt rethinking the plan of drafting all the players hyped up in the salary cap game, clearly not paying off with Budarick (16) and Karl Amon (86) not living up to the hype.
Bean Team (1695) def Bowes Before Hoes (1608)
Another close one as new father CJ hosts old father Gags. A parent off. Things didn't start well for the bean on Thursday night as his Carlton midfield stunk it up averaging 81 (Hewett/Cerra/Acres) whilst Nic Newman (109) set Gags up nicely.
Unfortunately the rest of Gags' backline would not be up to the occasion with some very lacklustre performances and although his midfield did perform very well at the top end (Tom Green with another 150), it wasn't enough to overcome the top performances of the "big combo" Max (162) & Joe (129) and the backline combo of May (123) & Whitfield (107)
The bean stealing a win by 87 points. No premiership hangover here.
Revenge Of The Nerds (1725) def by Miller Instinct (1740)
In what turned out to be match of the round, Miller has taken the chocolates against The Nerds by a measly 15 points. An epic performance from reigning Bamfy Medallist Caleb Serong (186) supported by Miller's new favourite Harry Sheezel (148). Some respectable scores from Pearcey's boys as well with Luke Ryan (153) and Zach Merrett (146) keeping things tight.
Coach Miller has to be pumped with the efforts of the cassette tape in the ruck - TDK (114) taken in round 18 outscoring the #2 pick Tim English (113). Meanwhile Coach Pearce is probably on the phone to Simon Goodwin asking why he'd sub a guy in such a tight match up with Caleb Windsor (69) left stranded in a vest and the game on the line.
With scores pretty even across Mids and Fwds and only 1 point in the rucks, this game came down to the backlines. Brayden Maynard (111) fresh off ending careers was probably the difference here with none of Pearcey's other backs able to tonne up. A tough pill to swallow in a high scoring affair but 1 week at a time is the news coming from the press box.
The Sloths (1573) def by Dude, wheres my coke!? (1717)
This matchup a bit of a blow out. Gaz's measly total of 1573 is also coincidentally the total age of his list. The older crew of Jake Lloyd (61), Dyson Heppell (77) and Jack Crisp (54) just absolutely pathetic. Meanwhile Pricey's youth have really stepped up with skipper Connor Rozee (145) setting the tone and Clayton Oliver (124) really embracing the team name.
The Sloths can be happy with the output from Chad Warner (141) but there really wasn't much else to sing about here. Harsh words will be said on the track this week I'm sure.
The only concern here for Coach Grey in an easy win would be young gun Ryley Sanders (74) getting absolutely Bevo'd and probably costing him a bonus point (ok that's a stretch). I'm sure he's on the phone discussing future plans as we speak.
Garden Gnome Frenzy (1659) def YACC FC (1474)
The final game of the round saw the gastro infected garden gnomes host YACC FC at a neutral venue (due to infection concerns).
A real solid effort in the midfield from YACC FC here with Noah Anderson (145) and Will Setterfield (140) leading the way. Then we have Zorko (101) as a top fwd but nobody likes him so we'll ignore that. We'll throw a salute to Nank (126) in the ruck but that is literally all there is to say about Duggo's boys here, everyone else was well below par.
Wadam might be out of toilet paper but things are still pretty strong down back. Andrew McGrath (126) and Riley Bonner (118) have lived up to their pre-season hype and the talk about Nat Fyfe (103) being back seems real.
It may have been an average performance from the gnomes in the mid and fwd lines here, but it was easily enough to account for Liam Duggan (59) and his namesake moving the magnets.