Following the Staffordshire Surge's 14 - 8 victory over the Birmingham Bulls today, we have officially secured the #1 seed for the entirety of our NFC 2 play-off run. With both of the NFC 2 South teams getting a win away from home against one another in their two-game regular season series we jump from #2 to #1 by virtue of having the only remaining perfect record in the NFC 2, whilst the Bulls fall all the way to #4 with the Surge leap-frogging them into #3.
This means we'll be at home, in Aberdeen, for both the quarter- and semi-final ties with the final being held in Newcastle on the 2nd of September should we make it. Now, we still don't have confirmation of our first round opponents, but lets clear up the table and see who it could be with a look at the seedings, we warn you it's still very complicated:
(The seeds are decided as follows: Positions 1 to 3 are awarded to the three division winners, positions 4 to 6 are awarded to the three division runner-ups, and positions 7 and 8 are awarded to the two teams best 3rd place finishers, with points against per game (PAPG) the tiebreaker if records are the same)
NFC 2 Standings
#1 Aberdeen Roughnecks (North, 1st, 8-0-0, 9.71 PAPG)
#2 Chester Romans (Central, 1st, 6-0-1, 4.00 PAPG)
#3 Staffordshire Surge (South, 1st, 7-1-0, 7.75 PAPG)
#4 Birmingham Bulls (South, 2nd, 7-1-0, 8.75 PAPG)
#5 Halton Spartans (Central, 2nd, 6-1-1, 7.75 PAPG)
#6 Dumfries Hunters (North, 2nd, 5-3-0, 15.67 PAPG)
#7 Crewe Railroaders (South, 3rd, 4-4-0, 20.50 PAPG)
#8 Furness Phantoms (Central, 3rd, 3-4-0, 28.43 PAPG)
IN THE MIX
#9 Lincolnshire Bombers (South, 4th, 3-4-0, 21.14 PAPG)
#10 Clyde Valley Blackhawks (North, 3rd, 3-5-0, 21.83 PAPG)
Remaining Fixtures
NFC 2 Central: Morecambe Bay Storm v Chester Romans
Carlisle Sentinels v Furness Phantoms
NFC 2 South: Knottingley Raiders v Lincolnshire Bombers
With seeds 1 through 6 confirmed and locked in (assuming Chester win (vs Morecambe Bay Storm)), it'll be the #3 Staffordshire Surge who host our division rivals the #6 Dumfries Hunters in two weeks time, and the #5 Halton Spartans who travel to the #4 Birmingham Bulls. Crewe will fall out of contention all together should the Bombers win in their final game of the season (against Knottingley who are last in the division) they'd fall to fourth in the division by virtue of head to head record within the division. This means that ourselves and the #2 Chester Romans must await next week's fixtures to see who we get. The #10 Clyde Valley Blackhawks need a miracle, requiring both the Bombers and Phantoms to lose against the Knottingley Raiders and the Carlisle Sentinels respectively, both of whom are bottom of their divisions. Most likely for us (assuming both the Furness and Lincolnshire games go with form), are the Furness Phantoms - unless they concede 59 more than Lincolnshire do (in their respective wins next week) in which case we'd have Lincolnshire and Furness would go to Chester. Now we told you it wouldn't be easy to understand didn't we?
NFC 2 Quarter Final Fixtures
(All games played on the 12th of August)
#1 Aberdeen Roughnecks v #8 Lincolnshire Bombers/Furness Phantoms/Clyde Valley Blackhawks
#2 Chester Romans v #7 Crewe Railroaders/Furness Phantoms/Lincolnshire Bombers
#3 Staffordshire Surge v #6 Dumfries Hunters
#4 Birmingham Bulls v #5 Halton Spartans
