Division1White@hotmail.com
Here we go folks.......DRUM ROLL.........it's the annual pin the tail on the donkey guessing game & this is the hardest ever year, without question. Congrats to the winners of 1 White 2025 & welcome back to the Big Dance…..JOONDALUP!!! Will the deserters coming flooding back to Joondalup after R18? How delighted are the Dolphins to put that large middle finger up to those who wrote them off after they lost a few players, "look at us now"!!
Leeming seem to come through strong with a wet sail in the 2nd half of the season to grab 2nd over a minimum margin of 0.5pt over Cockburn who also seem to get their act together (mostly at home). These are the 2 hottest teams in the next 12 rounds, dropping only 4 games, so if they drop 2 or 3 before R12, then they'll be a question mark for Finals. Theres a good gap to the rest which indicates the 2 PL spots will go to 2 of the top 3 sides with that 4th spot not having the ability to step up. Osborne Park grab a late Finals spot from North Beach who are only there based on home wins so even if they make Finals it will be difficult for them to get to the big dance at any stage unless they top the division at some stage & to do that needs away wins so its a perpetual cycle for them for the next few years.
You may have thought we were joking about results been dicdated by Global Warming & how wrong were you. For the 1st year ever, we're introducing Global Warming into the Predictor AI machine & based on BOM records for the last 14yrs it's picked R11 as the only round this season called off due to HEAT, 41c predicted the day before play. You may ask the impact, well let me tell you. In R11 the bottom 3 sides all won (for the only time in the season) & now they only get half the spoils, how cruel is this game when the margins were already razor thin. This would mean we play 1 game between Christmas (R9) & 8th Feb (R12). Book your holidays folks & extend the Oz Day celebrations. If that does happen thats 1 game of bowls in a 7 week break in the middle of the season??!
The Reds also seems to get some big results on the run home & although they just miss out on Finals they also just avoid demotional playoffs by 1pt so every point is critical. The last team to head to playoffs is Mossies which was a huge shock. Surely that can't be right but I suppose they are currently 9th so 7th is an improvement. The mid table looks horrifically close which probably doesn’t differ to today standings. The reality is the Saints, North Beach, Vic Pk & Mossies could all finish in that playoffs spot, there's not even an Agg between them. There’s literally 1 or 2 big bowls for the season within that blanket finish. It's a whole new concept to 'every bowl counts'. Overall & if I'm to be brutally honest the predictions are probably a little bullish on Leeming & Cockburn & a little negative on Manning & Mossies (don't take it personal), so those teams probably have the biggest chance of movement. I can't see the former any higher than where they are predicted but I could see the latter finishing higher. Again we really struggled this season on predictions, it's really wide open.
Basso were close enough in some games & probably have the ability to grab a few shock results on the road but unfortunately it was too little too late as they’re now destined for 1Blue. Yes they could survive but they would need about 65pts over the next 12 rounds to finish >70pts, this is unrealistic given 0-6 but they will take some scalps. Gosnells head to 1 Blue with a gap to 8th so they would probably need to pickup another 1 win which I’m struggling to find for them. Although that R13 game against Manning is lining up to be a corker & absolute double pointer. They've had a few good weeks so they are likely thinking we're been quite unfair here & yes we could be wrong.
Again congrats to the Dolphins on guaranteed promotion & now it's official the champagne can be popped....the predictor machine is never wrong, well only wrong once a year when it has to do predictions. It's all fun & games but thanks to those who helped put a massive effort & many beers into the predictions, fun was had & random guesses were documentated. As we always say, if you don’t like the predictions, pull your finger out tomorrow & change your destiny. Try not to leave it until R18 when it’s too late. We will look to run another prediction after R12 but that will be it for the season. The weather is picking up Sat so stay hydrated folks.
I'll just do scoring predictions only with no commentary for this Round as the above has taken a huge portion of the week to pull together. Hope you enjoyed it.
Victoria Park Carlisle v Gosnells
Victoria Park Carlisle
John Hiskins, Kynan Johnston, Andrew Daley, Graeme Wishart
Graham Archell, Gregory Williams, Geoffrey White, Michael Simms
Jonathan Jermalinski, Phil Long, Patrick Keeffe, Lee Such
Ken Rouse, Murray White, David Florance, Gary Beckwith INS: G White OUTS: Adams
Gosnells
Jeff Watson, Ronald McKay, Michael Sharpe, Glenn Lynch
Maurice Crabb, Stephen Lawrence, Mike Rickard, Daniel Newton
David Bradbury, Rod Worth, Mark Beauchamp, Rue Bishop
Michael Byrne, Kevin Cragan, Maureen Cooney, Alex Hodge INS: McKay, Newton, Cragan OUTS: Gale, Holland, Towers
Both sides are separated by 1pt but that will surely change after this wkend. Gosnells little run will be challenged here with Reds comfortably.
Vic Pk Carlisle 7 - 1
North Beach v Manning
North Beach
Brent Fielding, Lee Bunney, Rhonda Prosser, Mark Douthie
Geoffrey Watson, Brent Palfrey, Jerome Clayton, Geoffrey Devenish
Todd McMahon, John Bartorillo, Steve Richards, Michael Sweeney
Tui J Niwa, Garry Booker, Paul Butler, Steve Wood INS: Watson OUTS: Aitken
Mosman Park
Nicholas Parker, Kenneth Stower, Terry Cranswick, Steven Swanson
Mark Whiting, Jeffrey Adams, Christine Ace-Watson, Lisa Featherby
Mario Van Bemmel, Robert Kershaw, Damian Adams, Mitchell Cranswick
Aidan O'Sullivan, John Pallett, Mark Robertson, Cameron Hoffman INS: Whiting, O'Sullivan OUTS: Kop, York
Osborne Park
Jarrad Minchin, Bryan Hunter, Pieter Grove, Mark Rollings
Daniel Adu, Edan Manifis, Pierre Geenacker, Neville Stevens
Richard Herbert, Ashley Warner, George Smith, Jeremy Thomas
Shaan Saunders, Kevin Price, Helen Stevens, Pamela Chalmers INS: Grove, Warner OUTS: Kriletich, King
If Mossies need to stay up it absolutely starts here against a side that's showing as good away than home.
Mosman Park 6 - 2
Cockburn v Bassendean
Cockburn
Dante Burnham, Brian Blagaich, Jim Ricci, Marc Abonnel
Giuseppi Reale, Viktor Dropulic, Dinko Golem, Tony Krajancic
Mirko Musulin, Michael Simunovic, Ivan Mateljak, Josip (joe) Marevic
Stephen West, Ian Coyne, Derek Gibson, William Tepania INS: Burnham OUTS: Wray
Bassendean
Anthony Parravicini, Garry Atkinson, Ian O'Neill, Jovan Krstic
Saffronne Alden, Nick Pleasance, John Holman, Stein Davies
Gregory Sadler, Alan Britton, Geoffrey Malaspina, Neil Strachan
Dylan Hardwick, Shane Colegate, Joel Hitchcock, Butch Dinnison INS: Malaspina OUTS: Robinson
Could be car crash TV here if the home side get an early run. Could Basso win their 1st game of the season at the Titan caldron, probably not or close to definitely not although their loses have not been by massive margins.
Cockburn 7 - 1
Joondalup v Leeming
Joondalup
Martin Cheesman, Eugene Dardengo, Michael Korycin, Jon Hunter
Shane Nelligan, Harry Teeuwissen, Roy Humfrey, Barry Crawford
Matthew Ingham, Richard Wyatt, Paul Kain, James Groves
Brian McMurdo, Frank Tyson, Matt Sharrett, Thomas Vlahos INS: Ingham, Teeuwissen, Nelligan OUTS: Louw, Judge, J Vlahos
Golden chance for the top side to stretch the margin at the top. I feel Leeming have a purple patch after this so if they win then it'll be the Lions at the top until R14.
