That's right readers - its Nationals Week here at the Brisbane Ultimate Blog.Your regular blogger is off to Coffs in the dashing Ford Liamanator on Wednesday night, so normal blogging may be disrupted (unless a volunteer suddenly emergeth!). But until then, lets talk Nationals!
Let's start with Firestorm Troopers.
Being the Northern Regionals Champions, the Troopers go to Nationals seeded 9th. Day 1 (Thursday) will see them up against:- the Taipans (the Australian Masters team - preparing for Worlds and featuring blog-favourite Badman) who are seeded fifth (mostly due to the strength of the East region in past years);
- the Eastern Territories (a fair chunk of the New Zealand Open team, also preparing for Worlds) who are seeded 8th (mostly due to their winning Nationals back in 2003); and
- Karma, seeded 11th and the South Australian champions.
It'll be a tough to get a win over either the Taipans or the Kiwis, but I reckon they can do it by coming out tough and hard in the 9am game, while their opponents are still working out where in the world they are. Some will assume an easier time over Karma, but every time I look in the sandgropers direction I see improvement on improvement, and the Troopers will be playing them in their third game in a row so the Karmic enthusiasm and roster of 20 may be a problem.
Which brings us to the big challenge for Firestorm which, perhaps surprisingly, will be numbers. Alas, Will Larkin is almost certainly out, pending results from his MRI late last week, which gives a team of 13 ... of those, several players are returning from recent injury, so fitness may be a concern (though skill, looks and charm are not). *Late mail - hardcore training fiend and blog-groupie AJ Joshi has had the call-up to the Troopers front row - nice one!*
Owen Shepherd has pointed out over on Ulti-talk that the teams which have won Nationals the last few years have taken rosters of 18+ to help them to run all four days. But then Firestorm have indicated their priority will be getting lots of field time for all their crew, perhaps in preparation for a true assault in 2009.
Watch for Brock-star Cunliffe to make some waves if his shin splints come good or he realises that Vitamin I can be useful for non30+ers.
7 comments:
Karma didn't win Southern region, Heads of State won it, that's why they are seeded first (taking Chilly's see from last year).
Also, Jdr you will be in the luxury of my 1988 Nissan Pulsar. While the Odometer may not work any more, she still goes like a trucker (but without as much swearing or fat).
Karma are the best in South Australia, as demonstrated by their beating other South Australian teams at Southern Regionals (which of course included Victorian and Tasmanian teams).
Hmm - '88 was a good year for reds. About to be reminded how it was for cars.
B-rock (Cunliffe) is a massive chump. Take away the rock star sunglasses and he's just like any other retarded girl.
So the word on the street is that Joel Pillar is a little injuried, so I'm backing Firestorm to roll Karma.
I'm pretty excited to see the results from the various firestorm games. I reckon firestorm (and UQ) probably have the best 'program' for developing talent in Australia at the moment, so I expect some good games and upsets from both teams.
i am hoping that neurofen works like a super drug and i can layout without breaking anything further. As for brock i will get him running if i can play with bruised ribs he can play with shin splints.
"jangles" and "layout" are very rarely (if ever) in the same sentence. just like seeing "wetnose" and "good handler" in the same sentence.
Ahahaha wetty... though those words would often see each other in the same sentence as long as the words "doesn't" or "isn't" proceeds the "layout" or "good handler" respectively.
:))
I know this comment is a little late, but in the end it looked like Karma deserved quite a bit more respect that Troopers offered them.
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