GVL Data Fantasy | Mixed bag for fantasy coaches

There was drama galore during the tallying up process in the offices of the Shepparton News and Riverine Herald during the week.

Rohan Aldous’ ‘Pride of the Press’ and Aydin Payne’s ‘Obi Wan Giobbi’ both finished with 889 data points from the weekend of Goulburn Valley League action, setting up a thrilling finish in the second and final weekend of the tournament.

Aldous — representing the Kyabram Free Press and more widely the Riverine Herald — was studious in his research ahead of the fantasy venture, but a pair of non-playing selections hurt his scoring ceiling.

Payne — Shepparton News’ leading hope — also had two players miss on the weekend, and despite selecting a distinctly different outfit to Aldous, finished on the same score as him, for now.

But while the duo would like to think of themselves as Bonecrusher and Our Waverley Star out in front of the field, there’s surely a Chautauqua-like performance to come from some of those who look like they got stuck in the barrier.

What no one was expecting was a Winx-like effort from Red Ted Redemption coach Daniel Webb before the ink had even settled on the ladder though.

In what can only be described as a ‘hold the fantasy page’ moment late on Thursday afternoon, Webb shouted across the newsroom that he had been robbed of 84 points — specifically the 84 points Rochester’s Joe Atley procured at the weekend.

“I knew I had picked a good team, I couldn’t understand why I wasn’t winning when I thought I had nine players take to the field,” Webb explained.

“So I looked again and there it was — Joe Atley, DNP — it almost made it through my defences.”

So to the stewards’ room we went, and it was discovered that the algorithm which we engineered to count the data points (in reality our very helpful editorial assistant at The News, Nathan Burdziejko) had missed ‘Joseph Atley’ in the list, with the nickname scuppering the count.

Onwards to round two — or round 18 — of the competition, and the rest of The News representatives have had a mixed start to proceedings.

Hartley’s Heroes and Welsh’s Wizards both scored more than 800 points, with their respective Seymour and Benalla influences paying dividends.

But Worth the Waite and the Goal’d Miners struggled to get out of the blocks, bringing up the tail-end of the competition at the halfway mark.

Can they run the table to put one hand on the metaphorical trophy and the other on an ice cold soft drink at the Moama Bowling Club? Only time will tell.