2019 OG League Rd 5 Results & The Wooden Spoon Punishment

Round 5 was potentially the most controversial round of all times. The cancelling of the Highlanders V Crusaders games due to the Christchurch shooting tragedy mean't organising a way to deal with those players. We have discussed how we went about dealing with this issue here. Our thoughts go out to all the families and people involved in the shooting.

Round 5 Final scores:

(3) The Great White Hope 537 defeats 418 Marximum Louw Groomed Maddogs (1)
(4) Call Me Big Papali’i 513 defeats 439 Clan Mckenzie (6)
(5) Burnin’ Bridges 549 defeats 359 Coles-Royce (2)
(7) Otere is the new Black 531 defeats 400 White Linen Hides the Sinning (8)

The Great White Hope 537 defeats 418 Marximum Louw Groomed Maddogs
The King is dead! It took 5 weeks but finally there are no more undefeated managers in the OG League. The Great White Hope WENT TO TOWN on Wylie's Marximum Lo... etc. to belt him by 119 points. Blake bags a bonus point win and jumps to 2nd place on the table thanks to big performances from Samu Kerevi & Chase Titia (58 points each), Siya Kolisi (57) and Courtnall Skosan (54). Wylie's men left with no points after only Malcolm Marx (64 points) and Beauden Barrett (62) showed up this week. Liam Mitchell (3) off the bench was an obvious misfire from the competition leader, and Sean Wainui (19) is another for him to worry over. Blake holds it over Wylie in 2019 1-0.

Call Me Big Papali’i 513 defeats 439 Clan Mckenzie
The battle of the names was on this week as Harry took on Larry (Loser Harry). They say derbies are worth double points, and that well and truly rung true in this match up, Harry ended up with the chocolates and extended his lead over Larry to 8 competition points. Call Me Big Papali'i was rocks and diamonds this week with new man Wes Goosen (92 points) taking out the fantasy player of the week, a trade he will be bragging about for some time given he originally picked up and then dropped the Barracuda instead. Folau Fainga'a (58) also scored a double but some how dropped from a 91 point prelim, and his forwards Petti (58), Savea (49) and Matera (48) combined well to bump up his score. The performance of the Brumbies trio Tom Cusack (12), and double outside backs Speight (11) and Banks (7) will create most of his headaches, especially with he Brums on a bye in round 7. Larry played this one a man down with Karmichael Hunt being a late withdrawal and only Kriel on a bye on his bench. Never the less his score was made respectable through Lachlan McCaffrey (49 points), a return to form for D Mac (47) at fullback, super sub Curtis Rona (44) and Alex Mafi (40). Harry leads Larry 1-0.

Burnin’ Bridges 549 defeats 359 Coles-Royce  
Nabung team of heattt is finally hitting form, he takes down his arch nemesis Cargie who well and truly had his number in 2018 with one of the biggest wins of the year, a mammoth 190 points! Despite the win Nabung stays in 5th, but his total points is now second highest overall. Burnin' Bridges points came largely through our ruling to give Highlanders and Crusaders players their average meaning Codie Taylor bagged 69 points, and Shannon Frizell 66. But big games from Izzy Folau (52), Bridge (41), Chris F-Sautia (40) meant this one was never in doubt. We speculated that Cargie could have a fall from grace this week, with his team of smokies all abandoning him, but we didn't expect him to fall this hard. He had the lowest score of the week by a significant margin, even being done by last place Nsync. In end Michael Hooper (73 points) and his biggest score of the year bagging a ridiculous try off an attempted penalty conversion. While Whetu Douglas (46), Wandisile Simelane (45) and Tyler Ardron (41) also scored well. His decision to play both Malherbe (12) and Louw (1) who shared game time, bit him in the arse, as did Pete Samu (14) off the bench. Hopefully for him the downturn won't be long lasting though, with Samu likely to start next week, as well as BLAM and Akira Ioane all coming back into his starting team. The Sydney Grammar School grudge match sits at Nabung 1 - Cargie 0.

Otere is the new Black 531 defeats 400 White Linen Hides the Sinning
This one should have been coined the battle for the spoon. 2018's deadbeat manager Nelson facing off against the NRL fan and returning manager Nsync. Otere is the new Black no longer actually has Otere in his team, but his nonsense name couldn't stop big scores from Kwagga Smith (63 points), Jamie Booth (58), Rahboni Warren-Vosayaco (53), Ramiro Moyano (48) and Liam Coltman (42). His huge team effort wasn't even harmed by him playing a man down with Reiko Ioane and Alaimalo both out in the outside backs as he easily bagged the win over our last place manager. Nsync managed picked up Schalk Brits and Amanaki Mafi through the week to build his squad depth. But Mafi's first game off the bench was nothing to write home about with only 10 points coming from it. He did get some pay from Michael Little (43) and Quad Cooper (41), but no one else really put their hand up. An easy win to Nelson puts their head to head match up at Nelson 1 - Nsync 0.

Extra Facts:
Best Player: Wes Goosen 92 points (Harry)
Worst Player: Wilco Louw 1 point (Cargie)
The best Supersub: Vaea Fifita 27 points (Nsync)
The worst Supersub: Nil
Worst Coaching Decision (player left on the bench): Luke Jones (69 points) left on the bench instead of Uwe Helu (18 points) (Nelson)

The Table

THIS WEEKS Trade Order:

1st – Nsync
2nd – Larry
3rd – Nelson
4th – Nabung
5th – Harry
6th – Cargie
7th – Blake
8th – Wylie

This Weeks Fixtures:

(7) Clan Mckenzie V Marximum Louw Groomed Maddogs (1)
(3) Coles-Royce V The Great White Hope (2)
(8) White Linen Hides the Sinning V Call Me Big Papali'i (4)
(6) Otere is the new Black V Burnin' Bridges (5)

Nsync it’s your call which pub we head to for trade night this week.

In the next few weeks we should have a clear contenders and pretenders section to the table, I know I can't wait to see how it unfolds in round 6!

THE WOODEN SPOON PUNISHMENT

In our competition the bottom 2 players from the regular season will have a 2 round head to head in finals to see who is crowned the wooden spoon for the 2019 season. He will have his name engraved onto the trophy for eternity, and has to display it proudly until the next loser is decided.

But the position that we all dread is last place in the regular season. Given that you would have been terrible for 18 weeks in a row. This person is the absolute nufty of the group, and should be punished accordingly. We have just decided what the punishment is, and you're in for a treat!

In 2019 the last place finisher for the regular season will be required to make a sexy calendar for the rest of the managers. Our inspiration has come from this website, an absolute hero of a man who supposedly make the calendar for his misses.

Written by Harrison Dale