2008 Uni Games Preview: Part 3

It's 9:30am on Sunday, and all the interstate folk are arriving in Melbourne and getting settled. The excitement is starting to reach fever pitch as we are less than 24 hours away from the first pull.

And I'm at bloody work.

Still, gives me time to go over my thoughts and predictions for the week ahead. In keeping with my ubernerdishness, I actually bothered to go through the draw and predict each head to head game. And these are the final standings I've come up with...

1. Sydney
2. Monash
3. Melbourne
4. Flinders
5. Latrobe
6. UWA
7. Newcastle
8. Macquarie
9. Adelaide
10. Ballarat
11. Murdoch
12. Griffith
13. UTS
14. QUT
15. ANU
16. RMIT
17. Edith Cowan
18. Deakin
19. Wollongong

A few notes...

• - I don't think Deakin are a bad team as such, but with only 9 players they are going to run out of legs on Wednesday and will struggle to keep up with larger squads on Thursday and Friday.
• - I have Newcastle and Macquarie down lower than most because my little model showed them facing Monash and Melbourne respectively in the quarter finals, and I think the hometown heroes will get up in both those instances.
• - Also in my model, Adelaide would be very unlucky to not make quarters from Pool E. However if UTS beat them in Pool B, they'd have a better shot of a quarter final berth in Pool F. Hmm.
• - I know a lot about some teams, and bits and pieces about others, but absolutely nothing about ANU this year. They might be semi final contenders for all I know.
  

Now the Green & Gold team is based on form at AUG, not any previous accolades. That being said, here's my prediction for the lineup (courtesy of Ultitalk.com)

• Seb Barr (MON)
• Alex Britten-Jones (AU)
• Lu-Wee Koh (USYD)
• Chris Lavis (NCLE)
• Pete Liddicoat (USYD)
• Lachlan McDonald (LTU)
• Tarrant Meehan (MELB)
• Joel Pillar (FU)
• Owen Shepherd (MON)
• Megan Gamble (MQU)
• Sarah Hammer (USYD)
• Isobel MacAuley (USYD)
• Karen Palmer (AU)
• Ellie Sparke (NCLE)
• Jenica Villamor (LTU)
• Erin Wallis (FU)

On top of that, selectors will be watching Liz Dodd (NCLE), Rian Dutch (AU), James Eley (UWA), Chris Freise (MELB), Chris Hill (NCLE), Dave Lockhart (LTU), Andy Moroney (MON), Michelle Phillips (MELB) and Carol Seeto (USYD) very closely.

MVP predictions - Jason Gibson (Deakin) and Bec Wallbridge (RMIT)

And my picks for the Martin Laird Award...Mike Tarn and Rosie Suthers.


I'll write a review if I remember any of it.