WXV Round 11: Thunderstruck

[Purple 77]

Normal lockout on Friday at 7.50 AEST :)

Round 11, AFL Round 11

Home Team	Away Team	Venue	Head-to-Head
New Delhi Tigers	New York Revolution	Tata Stadium	4  v  4
Seoul Magpies	PNL Reindeers	Seoul World Cup Stadium, EurAsia	5  v  2
Pacific Islanders	London Royals	Linkbelt Oval	5  v  2
Moscow Spetsnaz	Beijing Thunder	Luzhniki Stadium, EurAsia	5  v  3
Cape Town Cobras	Dublin Destroyers	Newlands Cricket Ground	2  v  5
Rio de Janeiro Jaguars	Cairo Sands	Maracana Stadium, AAP Alliance	2  v  2
Buenos Aires Armadillos	Toronto Wolves	Estadio de River, AAP Alliance, Americas	5  v  3
Christchurch Saints	Tokyo Samurai	AMI Stadium	4  v  0
Mexico City Suns	Berlin Brewers	Fireball Stadium	5  v  3

With 4 of the last 5, New Delhi are chugging along nicely and continue to be a flag threat. New York meanwhile have found themselves back in form in the last two weeks, and if they maintain that form, they could jump the Tiges if they're lucky. Otherwise, New Delhi for me.

Seoul have averaged 145 in the past 3 weeks in a sign that things are starting to turn for the 2018 giant. PNL have laboured in the 120+ range in that time, so it's hard to see them getting up in this one.

Pacific found itself back on the winners list with a great win over Rio last week, which partly atoned for the disappointing two weeks prior. London's past month has arguably been its best in years, with three scores 139+ netting them 3 wins. Although last week suggests otherwise, London have a great opportunity to snag another, and you know what? I back 'em!

Moscow have lost three on the trot now, and NEED to get themselves back on the winners list or they could even drop out of the 8 this week! With Beijing as their opportunities, those odds shorten, because they have "Thunderstruck" the competition with three consecutive top-scoring weeks in a row. It's not hard to believe either, considering they currently have the two best SCers in the competition. Can they achieve the perfect month? I hope they do! Beijing for me.

It's the 'at danger' team vs the demised, in my MATCH OF THE ROUND! Having now posted two scores of 131 since the disaster against Kate, Cape Town sit nervously at 8th spot as they await for their #1 ruck to return from injury. Dublin have now lost 4 in a row, and finals are just about an impossibility. Plenty of respect still at play though, and a win against Cape Town will begin that journey. Dublin for me.

Rio performed admirably, but lost against a team they were probably favourites to beat in Pacific last week. The yo-yo formline suggests a 160 this week however, which makes this quite the game! Cairo continue to impress, posting their second 150+ score of the year last week. A very tough game this one, the Rio ceiling v the Cairo... consistency :P. You know me, I like 'em consistent.

The Dillos! Boy howdy, what a month! That's 4 straight wins against the Suns, Islanders, Spetsnaz and now Destroyers, and with winnable games against Christchurch and London to end the year... are they one more win in the next month away from finals? Wow. Toronto though, won't be handing this game over, rather they'll be looking for percentage if anything. Toronto for me.

The Saints may not have that many winnable games left, but if you squint at this one, they're a real chance. The Samurai are prone to the odd shocker, and would be flat after losing by 1 WXV point last week against London. Whilst I'm officially backing Tokyo, the Saints should really try and get themselves up for this one!

The Suns performed admirably against Seoul last week, but are still looking for their reward as only 1 of their 6 130+ scores this year has netted a win. That could change this week against "poor old Berlin", who would be lucky to get 15 players on the park these days... assuming the coach actually names them. Look, come on, it's gotta start turning. I back myself.

[Purple 77]

Updated Team Selector for those interested

[Toga]

BEIJING THUNDER:
D: Brandon Ellis, Heath Shaw, Tom Jonas, Darcy Byrne-Jones
M: Lachie Neale (VC), Dayne Zorko, David Swallow, James Aish
R: The Brodie (C)
F: Josh Caddy, Luke Breust, Darcy Macpherson, Taylor Walker
IC: Liam Baker, Jy Simpkin

Emg: Wil Powell, Daniel Butler, Nathan Broad

[upthemaidens]

Every match is a must win at this stage.  Not only do we need to win the next 4 games, we need to pump up the percentage.

[fanTCfool]

Toronto Wolves

Traditional

Connor Blakely, Scott Thompson, Wayne Milera, Kade Simpson
Jack Macrae, Brayden Fiorini, Jacob Hopper, Jack Redden
Matthew Kreuzer
Tim Kelly (CC), Tom Hawkins, Rowan Marshall, Travis Boak (Rested - CC)
Dion Prestia, James Harmes

Peter Wright, Mason Redman, Nick Larkey

Resting: Alex Witherden

[fanTCfool]

Toronto Wolves

Traditional

Connor Blakely, Scott Thompson, Wayne Milera, Angus Schumacher
Jack Macrae, Brayden Fiorini, Jacob Hopper, Jack Redden
Matthew Kreuzer
Tim Kelly (CC), Tom Hawkins, Rowan Marshall, Travis Boak (Rested - CC)
Dion Prestia, James Harmes

Peter Wright, Mason Redman, Nick Larkey

Resting: Alex Witherden

[Boomz]

D: Whitfield (C), Johannisen, Plowman, Perryman
M: Ross, Phillips, Atkins, Powell-Pepper
R: Lycett
F: Cameron, Cripps, Turner, Mihocek
U: Dunkley (VC), Impey
E: Fritsch, Vardy, Holman

[Nige]

Karen

Tom Stewart (c), Jeremy McGovern, Alex Keath, Nick Vlastuin
Dayne Beams, David Zaharakis, Ricky Henderson, Hugh MCluggage (vc)
Shane Mumford
Mitch Robinson, Shane Edwards, Rory Lobb, Ben Brown (rb)
Hugh Greenwood, Andrew McGrath

Jason Castagna, Daniel McKenzie, Mark Hutchings

Rest: Lincoln McCarthy

[RaisyDaisy]

Seeing as I'm playing NDT at their home ground this seemed like a reasonable way to post the side

[Jroo]

Mexico City Suns
D: James Sicily, Nic Newman, Matthew Broadbent, Jacob Weitering
M: Lachie Hunter (VC), Luke Dunstan (C), Sam Walsh, Brad Hill
R: Tim O'Brien (OOP)
F: James Worpel, Christian Petracca, Noah Balta, Mason Wood
U: Anthony Miles, Adam Kennedy (RB)

EMG: Jordan Clark, Shai Bolton, Luke Davies-Uniacke

Resting: Aaron Naughton

[iZander]

Buenos Aires Armadillos

Team Format: Traditional

D: Jamie MacMillan, Cale Hooker, Jayden Hunt, Daniel Talia
M: Luke Parker, Oliver Florent, Andrew Brayshaw, Trent Dumont
R: Reilly O'Brien
F: Caleb Daniel, Darcy Parish, Adam Cerra, Shaun Atley
U: Bryce Gibbs, Tom Clurey
E: Will Hayward, Riley Bonner, Jesse Joyce

C: Luke Parker
VC: Caleb Daniel
RP:
NR:

[Holz]

Backs: Jeremy Howe, Colin Oriordan, Jarrad McVeigh, Mark Occonor
Mids: Dustin Martin (VC), Rory Sloane (C) , Joel Selwood, Brad Crouch
Ruck: Todd Goldstein
Fwds: Jack Gunston (RB), Tom McDonald, Justin Westhoff, Jack Gunston
Interchange: Toby Greene, Marc Pittonent

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

[Purple 77]

Seeing as I'm playing NDT at their home ground this seemed like a reasonable way to post the side

Just take some pencil sharpeners with you :P

[Purple 77]

Berlin Brewers

Team Format: Traditional

D: Dane Rampe, Jarrod Lienert, Michael Hibberd, Harry Taylor
M: Nat Fyfe, Trent Cotchin, Jack Viney, Oskar Baker
R: Max Gawn
F: David Mundy, Michael Walters, Lance Franklin, Daniel Menzel
U: Luke Hodge, Sam Frost
E: Jay Kennedy-Harris, Daniel Lloyd, Ben McNiece

C: Max Gawn
VC: Nat Fyfe

[Jukes]

D: J. Crisp, R. Burton, D. Astbury, J. Kelly
M: S. Coniglio (cc), D. Heppell (cc), A. Treloar, J. Sinclair
R: T. Bellchambers
F: J. De Goey, S. Petrevski-Seton, C. Brown, C. Rozee
U: B. Stretch, G. Hewett

Emg: L. Casboult, J. Begley, J. Hombsch