MWPP
Flying High
Season 33 Round 1- Gold City Royals vs Baghdad Bombers at The Golden Throne
PREVIEW
For the opening round, the SFA has decided to embrace their nerdiness and inner intellectual and recruit likeminded people from the local sqrabble club. This week the Gold City Royals (20 points) host the Baghdad Bombers (15 points) at The Golden Throne and there will be a friendly sqrabble curtain raiser in the leadup with the player who comes up with the highest scoring word winning important bragging rights.
OFFSEASON
Neither side made the finals last season, and each team has taken a different approach to rebuilding over the offseason. Under the leadership of new standalone captain PMBangers (16 points) , the Gold City royals have had a busy offseason with the recruitment of classy players omgfridge (17 points) and SarahSmiles (16 points) from opposition clubs as well as talented rookies Ligma (8 points) and weltschmerz (30 points). Overall, they have made excellent use of the salary cap space freed up by the departures of MC Bad Genius (19 points) and ShaunDuggan (19 points) and the delisting of former cocaptain Noobz0r (17 points) . The Bombers are one of the few teams without a high profile recruit but have also had multiple squad changes, with the new faces including a trio of returning players La Dispute (12 points) , Bamboo Harvester (27 points) and Noidenous (10 points) and a couple of promising rookies in JustaBattler (21 points) and Bearded Carpenter (24 points) to help fill the large void left by retiring former captain and league legend VeinGlorious (16 points) and try and turn around their S32 Wooden-Spoon winning form.
LAST TIME THEY MET
In Round 8 last season after the Bombers and Royals preview forecast a merge between the teams, the first quarter was more of a Royals takeover with their dominant 9 goal to 3 first quarter. Despite a mini Bombers fightback in the second quarter , they still trailed by 4 goals at the main break and this was extended to 5 goals at the final change. In the end the Royals showed no mercy as they stormed to a 58 point win that kept their season alive and put an even larger dent in the Bombers’ finals hopes.
PLAYERS TO WATCH
In-form champion ruckman GreyCrow (17 points and 113 DT , 19 Hitouts, 27 disposals, 3 goals) was best on ground in an outstanding all-round performance and his fellow senior star Royal The Filth Wizard (36 points and 7 goals , 83 DT) capitalised on the silver service. There were other multiple goalkickers too including Fitzey (21 points) and Marlowe (12 points and 4 goals apiece). Young gun @krakoeurs (17 points and 3 goals , 92 DT, 24 disposals) ran amok with Fitzey (21 points and 30 disposals). For the Bombers Kilroy (13 points and 113 DT, 35 disposals) , KohPhi (18 points and 87 DT, 23 disposals, 1 goal) and RobR (6 points and 87 DT, 9 tackles) lead from the front in the absence of suspended skipper Metalcrusher (19 points) and were rare shining lights on a dark day for the Bombers. Little known Royal MrPremiership (24 points) and intelligent young Bomber CursingFijian (26 points) are set for breakthrough games and seasons.
PREDICTION
Everything from home ground advantage, to ins and outs and the game last time points to another one-sided Royals win but the Bombers will be boosted by their own reinvigorated returnees so the margin will be a little closer than the bookies predict – Royals by 17.
Captains, please have your team sheets in by 11.59pm AEDT this Thursday
PREVIEW
For the opening round, the SFA has decided to embrace their nerdiness and inner intellectual and recruit likeminded people from the local sqrabble club. This week the Gold City Royals (20 points) host the Baghdad Bombers (15 points) at The Golden Throne and there will be a friendly sqrabble curtain raiser in the leadup with the player who comes up with the highest scoring word winning important bragging rights.
OFFSEASON
Neither side made the finals last season, and each team has taken a different approach to rebuilding over the offseason. Under the leadership of new standalone captain PMBangers (16 points) , the Gold City royals have had a busy offseason with the recruitment of classy players omgfridge (17 points) and SarahSmiles (16 points) from opposition clubs as well as talented rookies Ligma (8 points) and weltschmerz (30 points). Overall, they have made excellent use of the salary cap space freed up by the departures of MC Bad Genius (19 points) and ShaunDuggan (19 points) and the delisting of former cocaptain Noobz0r (17 points) . The Bombers are one of the few teams without a high profile recruit but have also had multiple squad changes, with the new faces including a trio of returning players La Dispute (12 points) , Bamboo Harvester (27 points) and Noidenous (10 points) and a couple of promising rookies in JustaBattler (21 points) and Bearded Carpenter (24 points) to help fill the large void left by retiring former captain and league legend VeinGlorious (16 points) and try and turn around their S32 Wooden-Spoon winning form.
LAST TIME THEY MET
In Round 8 last season after the Bombers and Royals preview forecast a merge between the teams, the first quarter was more of a Royals takeover with their dominant 9 goal to 3 first quarter. Despite a mini Bombers fightback in the second quarter , they still trailed by 4 goals at the main break and this was extended to 5 goals at the final change. In the end the Royals showed no mercy as they stormed to a 58 point win that kept their season alive and put an even larger dent in the Bombers’ finals hopes.
PLAYERS TO WATCH
In-form champion ruckman GreyCrow (17 points and 113 DT , 19 Hitouts, 27 disposals, 3 goals) was best on ground in an outstanding all-round performance and his fellow senior star Royal The Filth Wizard (36 points and 7 goals , 83 DT) capitalised on the silver service. There were other multiple goalkickers too including Fitzey (21 points) and Marlowe (12 points and 4 goals apiece). Young gun @krakoeurs (17 points and 3 goals , 92 DT, 24 disposals) ran amok with Fitzey (21 points and 30 disposals). For the Bombers Kilroy (13 points and 113 DT, 35 disposals) , KohPhi (18 points and 87 DT, 23 disposals, 1 goal) and RobR (6 points and 87 DT, 9 tackles) lead from the front in the absence of suspended skipper Metalcrusher (19 points) and were rare shining lights on a dark day for the Bombers. Little known Royal MrPremiership (24 points) and intelligent young Bomber CursingFijian (26 points) are set for breakthrough games and seasons.
PREDICTION
Everything from home ground advantage, to ins and outs and the game last time points to another one-sided Royals win but the Bombers will be boosted by their own reinvigorated returnees so the margin will be a little closer than the bookies predict – Royals by 17.
Captains, please have your team sheets in by 11.59pm AEDT this Thursday
