Week 3

Ok so far my blogs haven't been that interesting. This is for two reasons: Thesis and Worlds. I have a thesis to work on (Read: Start) and I'm trying to get fit for Prague. This doesn't leave a whole bunch of time for my blog. However I promise that in the next couple of weeks I shall provide something more interesting.
For all of you wanting nationals stuff check Pissy's predictions.

I however will remain content to pick the SAFDA league:

Womens:

Envy def. DDD's: Envy are undefeated, DDD's are yet to win again. Not predicting much of a game here.

Flinders Flames def. Satin Flycatchers: Following my lack of faith in the Flinders girls last week, I'm gonna back it up by tipping the other flinders team to also beat SF. While they don't have the skills of Sarah Pillar, I suspect they should have enough to polish off the Flycatcher girls.

Flinders Fun def. DD's: I underestimated Fun last week, I won't this week. They'll take this game easily if Sarah Pillar is on form, they will struggle if not.

Div 2:

AU : Death From Above def. UE Trombones: AU:DFA have a bunch of players who are fiesty and want the disc. Especially players like Will Christopherson, Tom Lee and Val Zarhkin.. Wait, aren't they all Div 1 players? Oh well, whatever. They'll still win.

Flinders Blue def. Flycatchers: Flycatchers have had one win this season. I'm yet to see them come together well enough to do any real damage. Blue finally have their full team out, with a couple of talented rookies. Expect big things.

AU 2 def. Ballmark Figures: Ballmark are getting better, but I feel they lack the strong throws that AU 2 has in their top order. Combine this with a couple of the rookies that AU 2 have and there's no way they'll lose.

Div 1:

UE Bookmarks def. AU:Hard Ticket: UE will be smarting after their loss last week. With nationals coming up next week, they will be playing hard to regain some fire before heading into it. AU:HT have a strong line, but no one who can shut down players like David Sanderson and Morgan Llewellyn. Nevermind K-pash.

Flinders Fury def. Shining Flycatchers: Fury are unstoppable it seems. They're coming together well as a team and some glossy disc movement combined with a lot of fire is helping. Flycatchers are developing, with a solid win over AU:HT and easily accounting for NAU, however I don't think they have the depth to deal with Fury's line up.

Joel and Bumbo def. NAU: Nuff Said.

League Predictions Mark 2

So last week I did ok with predictions. Nailing all of Div 1 Open and 2 of 3 for Womens. This week I'm going to try and be more ambitious and more scathing in my predictions - Predicting Div 2 Open as well as the other two and hacking into teams that I feel deserve it (particularly in Div 1 Open).


So in chronological order:

Div 2 Open:

Flinders Blue Team def. Adelaide Uni 2: This has nothing to do with form, simply sheer arrogance and a decision that if a team isn't registered on the AFDA page then they're not worth worrying about. My team (Blue Team) has struggled for numbers all league and this trend seems set to continue with a couple of rookies deciding that they're going to take their sweet time coming out

AU : Death From Above def. Flycatchers: Flycatchers are a plucky team with a lot of run. Unfortunately AU:DFA are not so much pluck as they are RIDICULOUSLY STACKED. That's right I said it. Any team that has three Div 1 players on it is stacked in my opinion (unless it's in Div 1. then that's OK). The Flycatchers may put up a good showing, but I suspect they will get pummelled. To AU:DFA I say bring it! It is nice to see some competition in Div 2 this year.

UE Trombones def. Flinders Flames: Now I love my sister team as much as a brother can (at least one not from Tassie), however I don't think they have the skills to match it with UE. Nuff said.


Womens:

DD's def. DDD's: Firstly a question: What do DD and DDD stand for? Because the use of the apostrophe there confuses and infuriates me. However I will give the game to DD's as they seem to be the team with better structure and more run. DDD's may come out hard to get their first win of the season however, I suspect Alex "Jolly" Rogers, Meg "I love hills" Connel and Dani "wootrill/mackootrill/whatever" Woods may be more than a (combined) match for, Loui "Funsize" Batista, Catherine "I'm lanky" Coope and Becky "Sweet-guy-with-long-hair" Gallman. I don't know their rookies well enough to comment. I shall have to scout this week.

Satin Flycatchers def. Flinders Fun: Flinders Fun is showing potential, however they don't have the strength to match it with the gals from SF; At least not in depth. At the top end Flinders has 4 or 5 girls that can mix it quite comfortably with the top end of SF. However Flinders has more raw rookies and this may make the difference. Again, will scout this week.

Envy def. Flinders Flames: Taking down SF comfortably last week secured the girls from Envy the top spot in the league. I doubt they will be willing to give up much ground on this to the Flames. As I said last week the Flames have some strong aerial defence in the form of Alison "Wonders" Clarke and Kristen "Back the fuck off man" Burdon, as well as a couple of speedy players (Emma "Teatowels" White and Jodi "Also doesn't have a nickname" Quast), but again I feel they lack the depth to take it the whole way against Envy.

Div 1 Open:

AU : Hard Ticket def. NAU: Bottom of the table clash. The under-staffed NAU vs the under achieving AU:HT. Neither has won a game, both have strong players, both have the desire to win. In my heart I'd love NAU to win, though I feel that AU:HT have a stronger line up. That's all I will say. I feel these teams are playing for some pride here. The season is far from over, but these boys all need a win to feel like real men again.

Joel & Bumbo def. Shining Flycatchers: The Flycatchers have fallen on hard times. They have lost several good players from years past and are struggling to make it up. Up against J&B they are going to struggle to shut down long options and with the girls on J&B playing the way they have been is seems like they may struggle to generate options under. With no real talls to speak of they are going to have to rely on the ferrety tactics and skills of Sean "Traitor" Lace, Chris "ATM" Davis and Matt "Cut in circles" Ward. J&B. Convincingly.

Flinders Fury def. UE Bookmarks: This will be a tight game. UE have a very strong line-up, however I'm backing my team here. Call it arrogance, call it ego, but I feel that UE are unable to match the aerial skills of Brett "Sweet-As" Middleton, Scott "Hot-As" Middleton and Jonny "It's shit!" Warren-White. They can cover 2 of 3 with Denis and Morgan, but that still leaves one of them loping around the field with relative impunity. The real weakness for UE is not their players, they have a very strong team. On paper. The real weakness lies in their mental game, where if you can convince them that they've lost early on they generally will accept it.

Hope I get these right.

Reinvigoration and SAFDA League

So I recently decided that I was no longer going to use the evil that is Facebook between 9 and 5 on weekdays. Ostensibly this was so that I would actually get more work done, however an interesting side effect is that I now have time to do things like write some posts. Finally!

So here I go again, this hopefully will start a trend of blogging for me. However we shall see how I go.

SAFDA Open and Womens Leagues have started up again and after two weeks the shape of the leagues is starting to form.
I won't comment on the women's league other than to say that I think The Fole has made a pretty good estimation of how this league may turn out. The only thing I would add to this is don't underestimate the strength of the Flycatcher and UE girls. Both have strong teams and some great players... However I say this with the benefit of hindsight, both teams having gone 2-0 early in the season.


Open Div 2 is still very much anyones league, with UE and Flinders Sunbeams both having gone 2-0 as well. However both of these teams have beaten Flinders Blue (my team sadly) on golden point. Not having a full team out yet has definitely hurt Flinders teams so far, with Sunbeams normally managing a single line only and Blue averaging five players a game.
Adelaide Uni 2 and Flycatchers are both showing strong beginners as well with Flycatchers having three, that's right THREE, "Davises" on their team. If they are all as athletic as Chris Davis, then they're likely to end up being a strong team. Even if none of them can throw.


Open Div 1 is where a lot of the action I'm familiar with is happening. Flinders Fury are sitting pretty at the top of the table having narrowly beaten Adelaide Uni and taking down Joel and Bumbo convincingly (admittedly Huy was not playing due to injury, but shh...). With UE, Flycatchers and NAU still to play they are by no means safe on top of the table. They have the depth of players and the skill to take the league, however they (I say they, I mean we) need to come together as a team a bit more for that to occur.

Joel and Bumbo have had a mixed start taking down UE (a team consisting mostly of players that are going to nationals) very convincingly. J&B's girls dominated against this team, playing clean offence and some tough defence - Alison Clarke being top scorer for the team. However just one week later and without Huy they went down to Flinders. So this team is yet to show it's true form. Will they always be weak without one of Joel and Huy? Did they have a bad week? Will the develop as a team and bring the season home strong?

UE are not having an auspicious start to the season going down hard to J&B. However they drubbed NAU last week so may have recovered some form. The spanking they were given by Karma on monday night (sorry guys, it's true) may fire them up to come out hard this week.

Sporting a similar line up to the past couple of leagues, Adelaide Uni: Hard Ticket are a tough team to call. They have a deep line and a lot of experience, however without BJ they lack the dominant player that a lot of the other teams have. Will their experince, both with the game and with their team, prove to help counteract that? So far the answer seems no. However having lost to both Flinders and Flycatchers by very slim margins it's not a definite no.

Flycatchers are the team which got hit the most over the off season losing both Rian Dutch and Craig Turnbull, two of the best players in the league, to travel and injury respectively. They managed to pick up Sean Lace, adding to their already impressive number of short, quick, nuggety players. But will it be enough to give them a realistic shot at the league? So far they're 2-0, taking down NAU and Adelaide Uni.

I can't help but feel sorry for NAU, the final team in the league, as they have a core of some talented, experienced players and they have put plenty of time and effort into recruiting. Yet they don't seem to have much to show for it. They picked up three new players this league, I'm yet to see them so I can't comment, but one would hope that they're athletic enough for players like Brian Scheel, Noah Wichman and Chris Palazzi to do something with.

Enough rambling out of me, that was material enough for two posts. From that predictions for this weeks games: (I've only done Div 1 and Womens here. I'm lazy)

Div 1:

J&B def. AU Hard Ticket (I don't think AU can shut down Joel and Fatty effectively, even sans Huy)
Flinders Fury def. NAU (NAU are yet to show good form, Fury are hitting their paces)
UE def. Flycatchers (UE will be fired up from monday)

Women:

Flinders Fun def. DDD's (Spillar's throws may be too much for the DDD line, with her able to hit Emma Victory and Tessa Bilney being able to carve up in the middle)
Flinders Flames def. DD's (This will be a close game. If Alison Clarke is playing, I back the Flames. With her and Kristen Burdon able to shut down any long options that the DD's may try. If Alison isn't playing this game may go either way, with Flames losing a hefty whack of disc skills without her)
Envy def. Flycatchers (While the Sating Flycatcher girls boast probably the deepest roster out of any of the womens teams I'm yet to see all their players out. With some very good disc movers and some decent long threats including Emma "I'm-just-standing-here, oh-look-I-scored" Kiel I have to give this one to Envy.)