As the title suggests last nights semi final was very disappointing. We played Cougars and without their super star Mike we thought we had this in the bag, and I for one was already looking to the final, big mistake. But don't get me wrong, we were still focused on the task at hand. What was frustrating was that we did all the little things right.
1. Hold a training session on Sunday arvos from 3pm CHECK
2. Rock up early, make sure the whole team is there CHECK
3. Do a warm up drill to get the blood pumping CHECK
4. Do that drill well DOUBLE CHECK (in fact we smashed that drill)
5. Be excited we' re in the semis CHECK
6. Even win the toss and choose to be on O first CHECK
As you can see everything fell in our laps, Cougars even played savage for parts of the game! So what happened you ask? We had everything going for us to win, we had more players so we could ran harder and longer and everything was shaping to go well. Then we went down the first 2 or 3 points. Argh why was this happening?
Cougars played well, very tight and used a give and go tactic that suited their structure perfectly, we couldn't get much D working, except for Silent George. Actually I was congratulating him on some awesome blocks and I said "two nice blocks George" and without speaking (he did speak but its more dramatic if I say hi didnt) and in only the way George could, he says "3 actually". The humbleness that George shows was something I could have displayed at the very end of the game, more on that in a sec.
Heroes decided we wanted to actually play some good ultimate, it just took a timeout and things got back on track. We got some turnovers, we made some nice long hucks, things started to work and we got the score back to 9-8. At this stage the worn out members of Cougars could sense a come back by the Heroes. Some people may have interpreted the very slow walk back to the line and extended chats to be somewhat like time wasting. It prob wasn't but I thought it would have been in the spirit of the game to try and hurry things up. Their was one player in particular who thought to walk with a limp very slowly from his Def end zone back after we scored on more than 4 occasions. Now normally that wouldn't be frustrating but given it was a semi AND the fact that during the points he showed no obvious signs of fatigue, sprinting long demanding it be hucked - this was somewhat perplexing. So this is where the second part of the title comes in... I basically snapped and had a go at cougars for not playing within the spirit of the game by not trying to commence the game asap on change over. Upon reflection and choosing not to play any part of the next 3 points because of my outburst (self enforced dismissal from the game) I went up to their captain and apologized many times. My opinion that even though they were savage, more effort could have been made to commence the point faster than what they had previously been doing. So in my defense it was not the first time that I felt they were slowing things down but I should have gone about it in a better way. So for that Im sorry.
Getting away from that Cougars played their game well and they knew their strengths and weakness'. Sure it sucked losing another semi final again, but I don't mind because overall the game WAS played in high spirits and it was quite competitive Final score was something like 12-10 I think. Good luck to the Cougars in the final and Heroes we'll be up for the 3rd placed game next week.
looks like a watermelon play-off see you there
ReplyDeletewell it seems as though mellow made the final and we're playing you guys. It was a close game last time we played during the season, i think maybe 1 or 2 points
ReplyDeleteCarl was following my request, to hurry the opposition along. It's hard to say "Excuse me, captain, but we think that, in the spirit of good, competitive ultimate, it would be a good thing for you to encourage your team to get to the line in a timely fashion" when you're down in the dying minutes of a final. I probably would have done the same thing if I wasn't waiting down the other end.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if Cougars were time wasting for the win as much as to regain their energy, but they were DAWDLING, not just walking. In my opinion. But we may have done the same thing, eh? All is fair in love and war?
As a spectator let me say 2 things:
ReplyDelete1. Mike has been absent for at least 50% of Cougars games this season. Their skill and success as a team should be recognized as not being dependent on a "super-star".
2. Cougars won that game fairly. Whether you mean to or not, I think it to be in poor spirit to try and discredit their win by implying time-wasting.
I certainly wasnt questioning their performance after the game, Mike is however a very famous individual around the scenes and therefore attracts much attention. Our first match was against Cougars and he dominated so that was my lasting memory.
ReplyDeleteThe point you made about discrediting their victory is wrong, in fact I credited their performance commenting that they played superbly and understood their own talents, something which we did not.
To discredit them was not my intention, I was documenting a controversial part of the game. I saw it that way, and so did others. Enough said.
I DO know that if the point did start sooner it prob wouldnt have change the outcome of the game because yes they did play better than us in parts of the game and they showed that to take the last couple points in the end. Well done cougars i hope you have a win in the final