GPS Thirds Preview
Saturday sees the opening of the GPS Thirds competition, won last year by Joey’s thus opening a lead over TAS in the premiership total. It’s shaping as an interesting contest with a number of unknowns.
The leading contender
Like last year, St Joseph’s has to be classified as the team to beat because of their solid pre-season results. Still, the results are not as good as they were last year when it looked like and in the end was a laid down misere. Note the close score in the Scots match.
W 26-7 Riverview Thirds
W 24-21 Scots Thirds
L 24-14 St Aloysius Firsts
W 24-14 St Pats Firsts
W 33-22 Oakhill Firsts
The main challengers
With a solid pre-season, Scots has to be classified as first challenger. They only just lost to Joey’s, while the 19-5 victory over High is a solid result for reasons that I will discuss in a moment.
L 24-21 Joey’s Thirds
W 33-5 Newington Thirds
W 44-12 St Pius Firsts
W 19-5 High Firsts
High are something of a mystery school this year, lurking below the radar. I have not seen a single match report! However, based on limited match results and for the first time in several years, High has to be classified as a contender if behind Scots. They had a solid win against St Pius Firsts and had a creditable result against Scots.
W 41-17 St Pius Firsts
L 19-5 Scots Firsts
TAS also belong in this group, although they only won one match against Grammar. TAS had a pretty solid work-out, more so than usual, in terms of games and level playing against two ISA and one CAS first teams as well as Grammar.
Like High and Grammar, TAS sometimes has a problem with depth because of a smaller number of boys. This year there seems to be a considerable gap between First and Seconds, while the Thirds have only played one game.
The school generally has some good backs, with the team’s final performance depending on the ability of the forwards to hold against often bigger packs.
L 41-10 Kinross Firsts
W 24- 6 Grammar Firsts
L 46-14 Cranbrook Firsts
L 39-24 St Gregs Firsts
I wasn’t sure whether or not to include Grammar in this top group because they have had such a torrid pre-season, including the solid loss to TAS. I have included them for two reasons. First, the results against TAS below the Firsts suggest that Grammar has more depth than TAS to draw from. Secondly, they played against two ISA firsts, two CAS firsts. There were solid losses, but I suspect the team has learned.
L 43-3 St Pats Firsts
L 41-10 St Aloysius Firsts
L 24-6 TAS Firsts
L 50-5 St Gregs Firsts
L 46-11 Cranbrook Firsts
The remaining schools
One difficulty with the remaining three schools is that I have no way of judging results against CAS thirds, while I also have results gaps.
I have two results for View. I have placed them in the bottom group because of the size of the loss against Joey’s.
W 48-0 Knox Thirds
L 26-7 Joeys Thirds
I have only one result for Kings Thirds, a 50 point win over Barker Thirds.
I do have four results for Shore Thirds. Here I am placing greatest weight on Shore’s 33-12 loss to Joey’s Fourths.
W 17-5 Knox Thirds
L 33-12 Joey’s Fourths
W 69-0 Trinity Thirds
W 46-0 Barker Thirds
Based on the limited results that we have, I think that Kings and Shore are likely to be the weakest teams in the competition.
The first round
This Saturday first round will greatly clarify matters. The games are: S v A, E v I, H v K, G v J. It’s always very difficult making predictions, my tipping record is not good, but sticking my neck out.
The Scots v TAS match is critical for both sides. If Scots wins, it will consolidate its position as the lead challenger to Joey’s, while TAS needs to win to stay in the hunt for the premiership. Sentiment says TAS, but results to date suggest Scots.
The Shore v View match will give us a feel for ranking among the teams I have ranked in the bottom three. View to win comfortably.
The Kings v High match will give us a chance to assess High’s real strength. High to win comfortably.
The Grammar v Joey’s match is another critical one. If Grammar were to win, it would throw the whole competition wide open. Grammar is a little unlucky to strike Joey’s first because it gives the Grammar boys their toughest match straight after a tough pre-season. Joey’s to win.