SL Finals Week 1.
First of all, I want to say a big thank you to all the teams and players that participated in Super-League - Season 7 and congratulations to the teams and players that are playing finals this season. Also, if you have not signed up for Season 8 make sure you do and let’s make sure this league continues to grow and be enjoyable for everyone that is involved.
Now that the regular season is done and dusted it’s now time for the teams and players to put their focus on their finals run and do everything, they can to make it to the big dance and win it all. From each conference on a Monday and Tuesday the top 4 teams go through to the finals and how it works is 1v4 and 2v3 but each final is elimination and the winning teams progress to the next stage of the finals. Then from there the winning teams from each conference will face one another in the big dance to chase that championship for their team.
The teams that have finished in the top 4 on the Monday night competition are in 1st place Drouin Dragons, 2nd Pakenham Upper Unicorns, 3rd Tooradin Kraken and 4th Cora Lynn Camels. On the Tuesday night competition, the teams that finished in the top 4 are in 1st place Longwarry Knights, 2nd Philly Island Penguins, 3rd Arena Bulls and 4th Lakeside Vikings.
Starting us off on the Monday night competition is the Drouin Dragons Vs the Cora Lynn Camels, these two teams played each other twice during the regular season and they both got a W against one another but the Dragons got the head-to-head win over the Camels as the Camels beat them by 2 the first time but the Dragons than beat them by 10. This first final on the Monday night is going to be a ripper as the Camels are the only team on the Monday night conference to beat the Dragons but finals are a totally different ball game especially when a loss could end your season. In this game we have 2 of SESL Young Stars going head-to-head against one another in Dyl Pickle and Hayden Melsen, both of these boys are in contention for the MVP as they both have had great seasons.
The second final on the Monday night competition is the Pakenham Upper Unicorns vs the Tooradin Kraken, these teams played each other twice during the regular season and the Unicorns had the upper hand over the Kraken both times they played one another. The first time they played against one another the game could of went either way but the Unicorns walked away after the game with a 4-point victory and the second time they played against one another there was so much trash talking and physicality during the game, this may have put Cooper Lanting and the Kraken boys off their game as they lost by 19 points. Now people would say that the Unicorns have the edge over the Kraken but I know for a fact that these Kraken boys will not go down without a fight and if they get the game on their terms, they could easily get the W in this game and proceed to the next stage of the finals, this will be a game to watch as both teams will go back and forth at one another.
Starting us off on the Tuesday night competition is the Longwarry Knights vs the Lakeside Vikings, these teams only played against each other once during the regular season and the Knights walked away with a 16-point victory. Now the Vikings started this season very strong and were one of hot topics on the pod each week but then their season drastically turned when they ended up losing 6 in a row and were on the verge of not making finals, everyone who is a part of this league or follows this league would be thinking how can a team make finals when they finish the regular season 5 – 6? Now on a Tuesday night the Knights have been the bench mark of the competition and have been highly spoken about each week, with that being said though the Vikings go into finals with some winning form as they got a big win in a crossover game in the last game of the season to keep their season alive and unfortunately for the Knights, they only had 5 players during their last regular season game and ended up with a loss. I am sure both teams will be at full strength and this will be a cracking game to watch, will the Knights go through to the next stage of the finals with ease? Or will the Vikings cause an upset of the season and knock the Knights out of finals?
In the second game of the Tuesday night finals, we have the Philly Island Penguins vs the Arena Bulls, these teams played against each other twice during the regular season and it was the Penguins getting a W both times they played. The first time though could have gone either way as it was only a 1-point victory and Jeff Reid AKA The Goat missed a buzzer beater to win the game for the Bulls, the second time the Bulls came out hot but ran out of legs and ended up losing by 10 points. The Bulls have been a team from the start of the competition that has been spoken about winning it all as they have the Smooth Brothers in Jeff Reid and Tommy Walsh and to be honest, we can all see why they have been spoken about as a team that can win it all, Jeff and Tommy are finding form at the right time of the season and this will make them feel pretty confident coming into finals. Now the Penguins have brought in some fresh faces in a trade and with a replacement player, and this has changed the Penguins line up and the way they play and ever since those players have come in the Penguins have been in some red-hot form and are finally getting the recognition they deserve from the people in the league. This game will be a hard fort contest and will go down to the wire as we have seen that when these two teams play each other the final score isn’t over 10 points.