Phil has been held in esteem for a number of things during the infancy of this here dynasty league. Attempting to rival Philip Rivers in his seed-sowing and his renowned penmanship of the weekly awards are two of these things, and being a perennial runner-up is another.
But the Coventry Eagles’ seeming obsession with choking in the big game came to an end this season, when they took down Dermy’s Irish Flyers with a resounding 174.6-138.9 scoreline in Britannia Bowl III in Week 16.
The Flyers had made multiple moves to position themselves for a championship, bringing in Larry Fitzgerald, Rob Gronkowski and Big Ben Roethlisberger in the week leading up to the trade deadline. Gronk put up a big fat zero in the Bowl, but Fitz and Big Ben contributed adequately, outscoring the Eagles’ Matt Ryan and Julio Jones, and alongside a 12/110/2 line from Zach Ertz, you’d be forgiven for thinking that the Flyers had done enough to claim glory.
The Eagles were just too good elsewhere, though, with just shy of 50 points provided by their two main RBs Alvin Kamara and Jamaal Williams. And if there was ever a time that Phil wanted his triple-first-rounder investment in Antonio Brown to pay off, it was this week - 14 receptions for 185 yards and two touchdowns says that that was three first rounders well spent.
Congratulations, Phil, on bringing the trophy to the South for the first time in league history. We’ll provisionally pencil in the trophy handover for Super Bowl night in Nottingham.
Rookie draft order
Of course, the real excitement of championship week is the finality of the rookie draft order:
1: Hereford Chargers
2: Flitwick Fireflies
3: Oxford Pythons
4: Oxford Seahawks
5: Wigan Wombats
6: Derby Otters
7: Andover Sandslashers
8: Gateshead Spartans
9: Chippenham Packers
10: Nottingham Bandits
11: Irish Flyers
12: Coventry Eagles
The draft is set to begin on Saturday 25th May at midday.
In typical style, 31 of the 48 picks have already changed hands at least once. Oddly enough, though, the top 6 picks in the draft still belong to their original owners, so we could see some natural parity returned to the league if those franchises have their drafting hats on.
The full current order including traded picks is on the pick trades spreadsheet.