Waverley Goes Down in a Thriller

It what proved to be a fantastic game, Waverley’s The Palace 1st grade, went down in a thrilling 34 – 33 point loss to Kings Old Boys, who currently sit 3rd in the Barraclough Cup.

Showing signs of what could have been, it was a fantastic result (given it was a loss) for Waverley, and shows that there is still some chance to restore some pride in the final three rounds. With the final three games against Newport , Oatley and Hornsby, which round out the bottom four sides along with Waverley, Waves has a chance to finish the season on a high, if only it can muster the numbers on some treks away to Newport and Hornsby.

More reviews below.

Bus Trip – 7 August 2010

Clear your diaries, the Waverley Bus Trip is back!!!

Full details to come, but we’re heading up to Newport for Round 16. With Newport always putting on a good show for visiting teams, this will be one hell of a trip.

The 2nd Bledisloe is also on that night, but don’t worry you won’t miss it! We’ll stop somewhere on the way back (or watch it at Newport). While it will make it a late one, it will be a great one!

Woot!

Wet Weather Weekend – Women Playing Drummoyne

This weekend is a “Wet Weather Weekend”. For the men, this means a weekend off to reacquitant yourselves with friends and family, and start the drinking early ahead of the Wallabies beating the All Blacks in the Bledisloe Cup.

The women will be playing their make up game from the washed out Drummoyne Round. If you don’t have much to do, head down to Waverley Oval:

Waverley Vs Drummoyne
Kickoff – 12.30pm
Waverley Oval #1

State of the Nation

Courtesy of a good weekend of results, relative to Hornsby, Waverley has bought a little wiggle room heading into the final three rounds. But with two relatively long trips away, Waverley is going to up against it to keep that buffer.

The Division Two Table is as follows:

Position	Club	Points
1st	Barkers Old Boys	2513
2nd	Hunters Hill	2427
3rd	Kings Old Boys	2160
4th	Briars	1785
5th	UNSW	1781
6th	St Ives	1554
7th	Oatley	1549
8th	Newport	1509
9th	Waverley	1106
10th	Hornsby	1031

It’s probably a good time to look at what the Divisional Table may look like in 2011, if Waverley can manage to hold it’s place in Div 2.

In Division One, the bottom two teams are Lindfield (which earnt promotion last year) on 1252 points and Forest on 962. With four rounds remaining in Div 1, and Forest being one round down on Lindfield, it will be a close one between the neighbouring North Shore teams. Chances are it will be Forest, but being well seasoned Div 1 campaigners, who knows.

In Div Three Blacktown takes top billing on 2578 points against Balmain’s 2219 points. Looking at the remaining rounds it’s hard to see anyone other than Blacktown returning to Div Two in 2011 after a three year absence.

Match Reviews

The Palace 2nd Grade

Waverley’s 2nd Grade side kept their finals aspirations well and truly alive, courtesy of a 19 – 5 point win over 4th placed Kings (who slipped to 5th as a result). Now sitting in 7th place, Waverley is just 9 points out side of the top four, with up to 15 points available in the coming three rounds.

Let’s just have a look at what needs to happen in the coming few weeks if Waves is to sneak into the finals. Make no mistake, it will be a very tough ask, with four teams (UNSW, Kings, Newport and Waverley) fighting for that last spot.

The table looks like this:

Position	Club	Matches Played	Points
1st	Hunters Hill	14	56
2nd	St Ives	14	54
3rd	BOBs	15	45
4th	UNSW	15	40
5th	Kings	14	37
6th	Newport	14	34
7th	Waverley	15	31
8th	Briars	15	26
9th	Hornsby	15	13
10th	Oatley	15	12

If you look at the below table, which highlights the remaining matches of the contenders for the fourth and final spot, UNSW are favourites to go through. But it is still very possible for Waves to make it.

Ideally we need UNSW to not win any more games, and this will maximise Waverley’s chances. Waverley can still get away with UNSW winning one game and making it through to the finals. The key here is that UNSW do not get a bonus point win. If they get a bonus point win, we’re done.

With UNSW playing two other finals contenders (Kings and Newport) there is a possibility of UNSW tripping. But with Briars out of finals contention in 2nd Grade and in the mix in 1st Grade (the opposite is true for UNSW), it is unlikely that Briars will cause an upset win. But you never know. Stranger things have happened.

Waverley’s one point loss to UNSW four weeks ago (and for that matter our three point loss to Briars the week before that) have costed us dearly. Had we won one or both of those, we’d almost certainly be through to the finals.

Club	Points	Opposition	Desirable Outcome
UNSW	40	Rd 16 – Kings Rd 17 – Briars Rd 18 – Newport	In theory USNW should beat all three sides, but ideally need to lose all three!
Kings	37 One Game Down	Rd 9 – St Ives Rd 16 – UNSW Rd 17 – Hornsby Rd 18 – St Ives	Likely to lose to St Ives, but beat Hornsby. Need to beat UNSW but lose to Hornsby
Newport	34 One Game Down	Rd 8 – Hunters Hill Rd 16 – Waverley Rd 17 – Hunters Hill Rd 18 – UNSW	Likely to lose Vs Hunters Hill, but need to beat UNSW
Waverley	31	Rd 16 – Newport Rd 17 – Oatley Rd 18 – Hornsby	Favourites against Oatley and Hornsby, must beat Newport

As you can see above, Waverley’s chances are improved as a result of Kings playing the 2nd top team twice, and Newport playing the top team twice.

It will be a thrilling finish to what is often the most closely fought competition in the division.

NSW Farmers Women

From a simple look at the results table you can’t appreciate just how far Waverely’s Women’s team has come this season. Another perfect example was the result against Sydney Uni on the weekend.

In years gone by, Waverley would be on the end of a 80+ point drubbing to Uni, so it was pleasing to see Waverley walk away with a very commendable 36 – 0 point loss.

Yes there is still a lot of work to do, but as Waverley gets more experience, it will be a stronger competitor in coming seasons. Good work gals.

Alexander Associates 4th Grade

Having already secured the minor premiership, Waverley faced it’s 2nd “top of the table” clash in row, and a consequence of that and other results sets up another top of the table clash against Newport this weekend.

Across the board Waverley has been light on numbers in recent weeks, especially on away matches, and this is perhaps the biggest risk to Waverley remaining unbeaten this season.

The final result was 21 points to 5 against Kings.

JCB Communications & Aquilla Plumbing Flying Fifths

After a great performance the week before, Waverley dropped down a notch making some silly mistakes in its 12 point to 5 loss against 2nd top place, Colleagues.

The result keeps Waverley in 5th place, just one point shy of Petersham, but only two ahead of Macquarie Uni.

Cardsmart Consulting Colts

The team struggling most with a lack of numbers in recent weeks, has been our Colts as a result of a disappointing middle part of our season. But it was great to see the guys put in a very credible performance to walk away with a bonus point 15 – 12 point loss against Kings.

It won’t get any easier in coming weeks, but we just need the guys to sick with it for three more rounds, allowing us to rebuild for 2011.

3rd Grade

Unfortunately Waverley was not able to end its streak of 8 games without a win, going down 27 – 5 against Kings.

It gets a chance to redeem itself in two weeks when it plays Newport, the team that Waverley last beat way back on May 22nd.

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