Match Reports 8th November

Slamtown - Stef
The Cobras were missing Troy Booth, as such spirit was high, while sexual innuendo's and advances low.  Not that Troy is an unspirited player, by many written accounts one would believe that it is my Slammers who lack in the Spirit department, it's just that he's misguided... confused.  The poor fella sent me his shortened version of his anticipated match reports over a month ago, and he saw the Cobras going undefeated..... this from the same guy who was wearing underoos on the Halibut dancefloor, and the same fella who allegedly missed the BUML final to watch reruns of New Girl with a tub of petroleum jelly, his pet gerbil, a funnel, and a foam roller with bite marks in it.  A scene even Richard Gere would shake his head at.

Anyhow, as the clock struck twelve, his gerbil jumped out from his closterphobic anatomical cavern, and Troy awoke in blissful glee, his cheeks plumped and rosy, and his mind in a world without attachment.   He suddenly realized he had missed his game, and silently decided that it was a worthy trade off for a night in with familiar company.

Had Troy have shown up, he would have been privvy to an excellent game, were Slamtown had one more run that the Cobras did in between a whole bunch of trading.  SFC take the top of the table in a mutually agreed spirited contest, where the Slammers triumphed 15 - 12.


Heroes - Seb

Heroes have been on a relative downward spiral in recent weeks, with 2 heavy defeats and a bye in the last 3 weeks. We knew that UQ were still hoping for a strong run of wins and an improbable yet statistically possible bid for the semi finals. Heroes started out slow and UQ were able to race to a 5-2 lead. BW had downwind hucks on a string and really made the offense flow. Heroes quickly realised that with the downwind/upwind nature of the game we really needed to play offense near the downwind endzone and not allow short field turnovers near our upwind line. We managed a few good long shots of our own, with Myall nabbing himself at least 6 or 7 goals throughout the evening. We lifted our defensive pressure, drew the game at 8's, traded for a couple, and then jumped out to a 13-10 advantage. From there we had momentum and were able to close out the game fairly comfortably 15-11. 

Thanks to UQ for an intense, well spirited game. We really needed the win to keep our semi-final chances alive, so well done to the Heroes on the night that stuck to it and came away with the win.

Blitz - Cunliffe

Well it was basically a must win game for both teams in regards to making the finalsthis season.And when I turned up and saw the very windy conditions, my hopes dimmed a little.

I knew there was no shortage of experience in the Bugger line, and they have some of the best throwers in the game, and from the firstpoint it showed. Buggers started on offence upwind, and they would have thrown

100+ passes in the first point to score the first up winder of the game.

Precise, patient offence with some efficient and effective popping secured them a number of up winders throughout the game.

Blitz on the other hand, struggled to generate good popping and disc movement against the Buggers zone, and the riskier over the top hammers and scubers were just not completing for us in those winds.

Ultimately Buggers ran away with it. There's not much else to say.

Cobras - Troy

Having now recovered from the black lung Troy was called away again this week with his Slap My Elbow tour. In a surprise, the venue wanted a novelty act as the lead in and they chose Finn for his curse, apparently they weren't told that we cured that with a trip to the Far East. We shouldn't have trusted that letter to a postman who goes so slowly his cat makes it around with him. So on the day of the show a performance was required and this is what Finn and Troy came up with http://i.imgur.com/X1npD.gif we expect Finn should be back by next we and Finn and Troy should be on speaking terms by then. Back in Brisvagas the Dans had a massive tiff, this mostly started by Dan 2 asking when they can start being called the Brians? Dan 1 laughed in his face at this ridiculous idea once he finally regained his composure he reminded him of what that big security lady said "That if you ever suggested that again while on this visa, I'll rip off your head and spit down your throat like a nightmare you can't even imagine!" Needless to say morale around the Cobras camp was lower then just after Daniel son did the crane kick. Then just after that I found $20. Cobras lost 15-12

Bugs - Mat

A kinda weird night for the Bugs:

We came to the game a bit nervous and uncertain about Blitz.  Although we had beaten them well in the first round, we were wary of them.  They had plenty of athletes with speed and hops, and youth and lots of height, and a Dingo and a Thunder…er… er, and a prodigiously impressive and intimidating warmup routine.  By comparison we seemed short, slow, old and sort of bumbling and shambolic.   But the wind picked up just before the game and stayed up for most of it and we felt that if we could just keep our composure and keep the disc in hand on O, and then apply enough pressure on their throwers and cutters, that we might be able to expose their less experienced line and force some turns.

The first point was a good indicator of how the rest of the night would pan out.  We started on upwind O and used about 200 passes to work it up through the field and score a jammy one in the corner.  We may have even turned it, but got it back pretty quickly, cant remember exactly.  But the point is that this Offensive strategy seemed to work for the rest of the night.  I reckon we threw more passes in this game than any other game I’ve ever played in BPL.  Maybe a zillion, or perhaps two zillion.  Who knows.

What is certain is that if you play Blitz and you want to put it deep, you bloody better make sure you keep it away from Myles.  That guy monstered anything that came into his sphere.  And there are a couple of younger dudes (whose names I don’t even know) who look like Myles v2 and v3.  I have no doubt that if Blitz stay the course and stick together and develop as individuals and as a team, they’ll take a BPL trophy, or many, in the future.  It might take a few seasons, but the basic ingredients are there for an extremely competitive unit.  And they seem pretty nice guys too.  Aww shucks.

In the end it was a bit of a thrashing, 12 – 3 I think.  But the score probably doesn’t tell the story of how hard we worked.  Once again Jangles was the engine room of the Offence and deserves the MVP points, if Cunliffe and mates have any sense at all.  The rest of us just trusted our systems, played fairly conservatively and took what they gave us, and that was enough.  Once again, credit to Ferg for a champion effort on the chase and handling all night:  In my opinion one of the most effective (and underrated) players Qld has ever produced.  But it was another all round, team effort that produced the result.

It’s interesting to have a look at the numbers in the results tables and draw some conclusions about the strengths and weaknesses of the various teams based on W:L and F:A.  Heroes currently sitting in 4^th place but have -29 difference in points.  WTF???  And Cobras maintain an Offensive lead in goals scored (av), but have a slightly leakier D.

It’s a source of pride for us that on the numbers, we are the strongest D unit in the comp (equal goals conceded with SFC) which is saying something for a team of slow, old, fat, unfit and broken buggers.   

UQ Lovers - BW

A must win game for the UQ lovers for a slim shot at the finals. We managed to get 9 players down even with a few having exams. Our offense started pretty well with a few 1-2 pass scores and we converted a short-field turnover by the heroes to get the upwind break and take a lead by 3 to get up 5-2. We traded this until 7-4 but couldn't work it in for the goal as the heroes really amped up their full field d pressure. They tied it at 7s and got another block on that point before Tyson was able to sneak a Callahan. After half Heroes were

 able to keep their momentum on defense and generate a lot of pressure ds on man and an assassination d on zone that both worked very well for them. On offense our long game was looking really good early, but wasn't as potent in the second half.

The win for the Heroes sets up a really good match for Heroes v. Dojo in Round 14 which will be the playoff for 4th if other games go to seed. I am sure if the Heroes bring that second half d pressure for an entire game, play their conservative offense and don't let a team get the jump at the start they'll give it a good shake in the finals.