Heroes at Nationals from an (insider's) outsider perspective.

HUC had a truly outstanding representation at Nationals across a number of teams.  Given I was able to play with and against a few of you, I thought I'd give a brief review of what I saw.

Quoll
Dan and Gavin acquitted themselves in outstanding manner with the Tassie team.  They both slotted seamlessly into the structure of Quoll and had a number of critical and inspiring moments on both O and D.  Dan was his usual irrepressible self, constantly cutting hard and going for 2nd, 3rd, and 4th efforts.  Dan took a crucial layout grab backing up for a poor throw, and Quoll went on to score the point.  Gavin similarly had fantastic positioning throughout the weekend, with very solid throwing and catching.  Although an injury slowed him down in a few games, a standout moment was a great read and top-of-the-jump D off a threatening throw.

Firestorm Ignition
Playing for 15th was a fierce and competitive game, and I got to see a few Heroes in action that I hadn't seen before.  Jamie had a great game, taking a number of fantastic grabs and getting a D or two at critical moments. His talent is very clear and it will be good to watch him become a superstar. Adam Dowley was solid in handling and a lynchpin of Ignition's attack.  Safe hands at the back with reliable throws, it's great to see Adam at HUC.
Sebastian continues to improve every time I see him play and this was no exception.  He took two super grabs that I can recall, one a full stretch layout to score.  In this game, Sebastian's confidence and assuredness was the most improved aspect of his game.
Although I was often too busy grinding my teeth to notice the opposition, I do recall Chris using his super-leap and hands of iron to take a screamer of a one-handed catch above a pack of friend and foe alike, all of whom where comparatively standing still.
Super-sub Carl came on for a point, and I had the pleasure of marking him.  Ignition scored, and I didn't shut Carl down well enough, so he takes the points on that one. Apparently two stuffed ankles trumps a tweaked hamstring.

The Betties
To my chagrin and disappointment, I didn't get to watch any of the Heroes girls playing at Nationals.  The feedback I got was they enjoyed themselves and got a lot out of it. I'd love to hear more from those who played/watched.

It is great to see so many HUC players out and about at national tournaments.  I can't wait for more!

(apologies to anyone I missed)

Content to Lose

"The second half was 7-6 (Passion). During the first half, we looked as if we were going through the motions, expecting to lose and content to lose" - Matt Boevink (rough quotation)

I hope I'm not the only one with insomnia on a Thursday night. The lineup tonight looked a little shakey, with no Myall, Paul or Dusty, Jangles threatening to stay home and Your Humble Narrator suffering from the flu. That said, I think I played fuckin' awesome tonight, kicking it off with some hussle in the midfield and a lovely outside in just over Gref's extended fingers to Gav in the endzone. Gav's game was also rather excellent tonight, being in beautiful position a number of times, showing a lot of speed in the midfield and combining with Bev and myself to run on for some lovely long play.

Heroes took the first point, but it Passion took the next 3 of the next 4. They got up to 5-2 and took the half at 8-4, due to some great overhead grabs from Alex and some strong D from Dan, also due to some crappy options from the Heroes. After half-time, we decided to play some Zone / Transition, which worked a charm. When we play hard defence, we can really fire up for O. We were hard with our force and marked the dump well. Passion were playing savage, so some of their players looked tired, and we could exploit this with some great deliveries to well timed cuts. George was relentless in defence, with some amazing layout D's, showing why he plays Firestorm D. Bev's presence in the endzone seems essential, especially with Myall absent. This switch made a lot of sense, and these things should be considered.

To close, we got it back to 10-8 but lost 10-15. If we played like we did in the second half all game we would have won for sure.

Bout time for an update

I've been a-thinkin... it's a bloody good thing that we chumped those Cobras back in Round 3. I'm sure this is a widely held view within the BPL community.

But for us, it means that we can go out against any team thinking "we may not be expected to win, but we're gonna have a crack". I'm sure there are a few more victories for us just around the corner.

Tonight's match against the Dojo was a measuring stick to our improvement. They played their same old game, making things look easy, with hammers, long hucks and great arial grabs. I can only recall one unforced error (of the fumble variety). They played their zone all night, which is something we now play well against. The final score was 15-8, but I think we had a solid performance.

Point's were more or less traded until 3-3, when Dojo took a time out. It was obvious that they needed to turn up the intensity, otherwise we'd stay right with them. A combination of errors on our part and being burnt long saw the score balloon out to 7-3, followed by a Heroes time out, Half Time at 8-3 and a Dojo time out at 9-3, due to our defence really tightening up.

Myall was all over the park tonight with his usual massive grabs. He must have scored 5 points, but was also pivotal in moving this disc through the cup. Once that was achieved, we were able to run, with Dojo unconcerned about our long play. The final score was 15-8.

We were solid as a team tonight, and are really cutting down on unforced errors and drops near our end zone. Tom's threw some beautiful hammers that he had been practicing, often to Gav. We are starting to back ourselves, our style of play and ability. In the past few weeks, there has been an exciting passage of the game where Heroes really tightens on D. After this, the points usually flow. When all these things come together...