Bug Dominance

So I promised Wetnose I'd write something about last week's Brisbane Premier League Final. BPL is usually his beat as I haven't played this season, and I don't really think I'm much chop at game analysis, but then I did go down to watch most of the Final, and of course Wet was busy winning so his thoughts might be slightly biased.

But mine are a bit too. The Messy Buggers simply smashed the UQ Passion, something like 18-8 (I left before the last few points). It was a pretty one-sided match to watch – I think it was something like 9-3 at half, but by that stage I was over having a quiet one with Jon while he got a lot of exercise updating the scoreboard. I'll be checking out the promised footage on the Dojo blog to see a few replays.

The Buggers came out of the blocks very well and scored fairly smoothly to be something like 3-0 up before a Passion time-out to regroup. It was clear that the most prominent Buggers, Mike and J-Ray, had truly brought both their A-games and their … I guess ruthlessness is the only word I can think of (but I mean it in a positive sense). They were there to score points and stop the opposition from scoring points, damn straight.

Passion tried to counter it seemed (from the outside, and I'm sure there'll be comments from the readers amongst them) by just frickin' firing themselves up. There was a lot of yelling and chest banging coming from their time-out and sideline.

But I think this just resulted in a lack of cohesion, as each player's 'fired up' level is different. A few Passion players completely busted their guts running hard and trying to make something happen. Others tried to think more quickly and better. Passion also tried to zone for a bit, but it seemed half-hearted and the weather didn't really support it. Maybe if they'd tried it from the start it might've turned out differently.

I'm writing mostly about the Passion D here, because it seemed that's most of what they did. Their O didn't particularly stick in my mind.

So why were they so dominant? Which leads us to - how do you beat the Bugs? (At least, this is where conversation seemed to turn to once it was clear the Passion were out for the count) I think first they're going to make it slightly easier, at least with a short season to come, by re-jigging the Bugger squads again – mostly to keep it interesting for themselves to play with different guys, and to keep building up their newer guys.

I don't have any magic answers – I'm not smart enough. It's clear you've got to contain J-Ray as much as possible, but to do that you have to remember how quickly he can fake and accelerate to get free, get the disc, and release it. You can't put your usual "dump-covering-guy" on him, but one of your very best defenders, who must be completely focused on Jason and nothing else upfield. Maybe Passion needed to throw J-Mac on him or something. But even then, there's only so much you can do.

You've also got to bite the bullet and put one and a half or two guys on the most dominant player north of Sydney. Crowd Mike, both on the in-cut and the long - make it so the handlers can't even see him. How you do that in the context of still covering the remaining offensive players is a challenge that only the best teamwork can deliver, particularly given the talent down the Buggers line.

Speaking of the Buggers line - he's often the target of good natured humour (often self-inflicted), but I have to say that Wetnose had a cracker of a game and remains underestimated and in the shadows of some other leading lights. All the Bugs played well. Some of them I don't know (the Buggers need to work on their media-liaison and website, obviously! ;) ) so I'll leave individuals there.

But that's all overstating the surface. Yes, there are a couple of outstandingly good players in the Messy Buggers lineup, who can score lots of points, and they've got plenty of quality running around them. But the Bugger's real talents, and the talent of the team as a whole, comes from their team discipline. The senior Bugs can't get D's on their own – everyone knows that if the dominant player is marking you, your job is to get him to follow you into the half of the field that your team doesn't want to use - and they moved the disc a lot and pull defences out of shape by some full team running. Its the pressure and teamwork that guys like George, Reece and Kanowski are adding to the Bugs that are getting them these trophies.

Going on last Thursday night and what I've seen of them in the past, Messy don't really do anything fancy or tricky or unusual. Their O is a vertical stack with primaries and secondaries and well timed cuts and flow. Their D is primarily fast man. But they work very well and very hard as a team. They recruit fit players, and bring their newer guys along in steady solid steps, where it seems other teams are telling their less experienced players to do 15 things at once.

So to summarise - from the sideline, it’s the discipline and week-by-week player development of the Messy Bugger that delivered them this big win, and they've lifted the bar for the rest of the BPL to see if they can match that.

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Shout out too to Rawhide who took Spirit for the season (the virtual trophy cabinet of this newer team is filling up), and to Dan Walls of Dojo for landing this season's MVP. And to the 120 or so people I counted in the crowd. And Jon and Rob for their love of beer.