Mixed season taking shape

Now that the excitement from Worlds has died down somewhat, our attention turns to a shortened (sorta) mixed season. Over the next two months or so, we'll be seeing the State Championships (yes, I'm going to start calling them that), Australian University Games and Mixed Nationals. The big discussion among the uni circles, and I suppose the mixed circles as well, is which of the Worlds players are going to back it up for a tilt at the national level?


Australian University Games

The team lists are starting to roll in, and with a rego/payment deadline of today, I'm hoping everyone's got their shit sorted. The big news in recent weeks has been the withdrawal of UQ and UNSW, last year's gold and bronze medalists respectively. Both teams have cited the cost of attending, plus the unavailability of females as the main reasons. Very disappointing for a standard-of-competition viewpoint, but exciting from a spectator view because those two out, and a Matt Dowle-less Macquarie Uni, has left this AUG with possibly the most open field ever.

West region
With "cost" usually being a reason for teams from the eastern seaboard dropping out, it's always impressive to see Murdoch and UWA attend AUG every year, with both being on the line every year since they were last hosts (2004). UWA should put in a decent performance - they've been quite consistent over the years. Murdoch should be interesting to watch, with Andrew Hutcheon out of the picture for the first time since ever. No word yet from Edith Cowan Uni on if their team is coming east.

North region
Well...after three teams fronting up in 2007, only QUT are making the trek this year. Even then, without Mike Neild and Jangles they are looking decidedly weaker. They'd need to be bringing Wetnose and Sarah Sandford with them if they are hoping to make an impact, otherwise it looks like they'll be at the bottom end of the draw come Thursday.

East region
Traditionally the strongest region, most teams are looking a little weaker than last year. As mentioned before, Mac are without M. Dowle, and ANU are without most of 2007's starting lineup. Sydney and Newcastle are looking like bucking the trend, bringing stronger teams than last year. Newcastle definitely have a strong female contingent, but may lack a little depth in their guys. CSU and UTS have similar teams to last year, but twelve months with the same crew can make a huge difference, and both teams should improve on last year's finish.

South region
With 8 teams confirmed, and awaiting word on a 9th, South could very well be stronger than the East region for the first time. On home turf, Melbourne, Monash and Latrobe will be able to field their strongest lineup and should all make it to the quarter finals. Elsewhere in Victoria, Ballarat, Deakin and RMIT aren't likely to challenge for medals, but they are all itching to get out there. Between these three teams, there will be around 40 players getting their first taste of the Uni Games experience. Heading west, Adelaide and Flinders both look better on paper than last year. Adelaide have Rian Dutch and Karen Palmer back on board, and Flinders have Joel Pillar, Erin Wallis and Alison Clarke. As for last year's 5th place - University of Tasmania - who knows? Haven't heard anything from them all year.



Australian Mixed Ultimate Championships

As we saw with Nationals earlier this year, there's going to be teams who want to go missing out this year. The final allocations were announced on Monday...

NSW - 8; Vic - 3; ACT - 3; South Qld - 4; North Qld - 1;
Tas - 1; SA - 2; South WA - 1; NZ South Island - 1

...and State Championships in Queensland, South Australia, Victoria and NSW being held in the coming weeks.

Queensland
Well, the rumours are true - no Bootius to defend their title. As I type, the Queensland State Championships have filled their quota - UQ Lovers, Great! Sugoi!, Lounge Lizards and Mind The Gap taking up the four SQLD spots, and Hand Of God representing NQLD. I don't imagine any other teams appearing between now and next weekend...but no Slamtown?

South Australia
Three teams competing for two spots. SMURF seems to be the stacked team - Karma/Indies folk. It looks to be Evolution and Flycatchers competing for the second spot. Evolution won this contest last year, and unless Flycatchers can assemble a killer line-up (entirely possible, considering names missing from SMURF), that looks to be the case again.

Victoria
Wow...this will be competitive. Six teams going for three spots. There's four teams that could realistically get top 10 at Mixed Nats here and one of them is going to miss out.

• Vintage - ex-Chilly/Ishtar. Very similar to the Point Of Entry line-up that won in 2005.
• Short Skirt Long Jacket - Albert Park Division 1 team. Team Box mixed with some Chilly and HoS.
• MUCUS - last year's team, plus O-Shep and Cath Matthews. I think Honey Badgers are finally dead and buried.
  
• Brown Chicken Brown Cow - mostly 2006 Thunder/Terra, plus Cat Phillips and Dave Lockhart.

The two other teams - Melbourne Uni and Ultimately Social - while not being bad teams, would do very well to topple any of the previous four. Impossible to say who will miss out right now, but I'll almost certainly be going along to check it out. The three teams that do make it will do well, and should gain Victoria an extra spot next year.

New South Wales
Twelve teams going for eight spots. On paper, it looks like the top six are relatively certain (FAF, Spiderpig, RuBi, Scapegoats, Wollongong and one of the Newcastle teams). It'll be the last two spots that should provide the most interest. At this stage, I'd back Hills and Special Sauce to take it, but as per usual the Newcastle Smokescreen™ hides what could potentially be a decent second team.


Insert conclusion here.