Mixed Nats preview (Part 2)

Ok, I'll try this again.

For the first time in four years, I'm not fronting up to the Australian Mixed Ultimate Championships. The trouble is when all Victorian players decide they have the energy and funding to go play, I get relegated to "not good enough". So I'll be honest, I haven't really been following the build up. Although there hasn't really been any since the qualifiers. Hmm.

What really strikes me as strange this year is the shifting about of many players between "states". Pottsy playing for an SA team? John Damiani playing for a Victorian team? Wetnose and Stefan playing for a Tasmanian team? Tanya Waisbord playing for a Sydney team? Is everyone taking the piss?

I thought about picking the quarter finalists, then realised I could simply divide the field into three tiers.


The Developers

Well I'm not going to call it "The Shit Teams", am I? Last year I predicted that we have seen the last of the "party teams" at Mixed Nats, with the qualification process making sure folks have been stacking their lineups to get one of the 24 spots. That being said, Hand Of God and Lounge Lizards will still be flying the flag in that regard. ACT have taken the smart approach by creating Kaboom, who aim to establish themselves as a fully fledged mixed club. However I think their second and third teams won't challenge a lot of the more talented teams. My personal belief is that NSW get too many spots, but that is the reward for having nearly three times the number of players as any other state. I can't see the bottom 3 NSW teams getting higher than 17th, and I think there's teams that missed out from Victoria and SA that would seriously challenge them. The absence of Ash Martens and Mike Baker leaves a massive hole in Log, so I don't think they'll improve on last year.

24. Hand of God (Townsville)
23. Lounge Lizards (Brisbane)
22. Kaboom 3 (Canberra)
21. Wollongong (Wollongong)
20. Kaboom 2 (Canberra)
19. sCAPEgoats (Sydney)
18. LOG! (Hobart)
17. Discasaurus Rex (Sydney)


The Nine-als

Last year, it was fairly straight forward to seperate the quarter finalists from the rest of the field, but this year the line is a bit more blurry. UQ Lovers have a great lineup but are missing a key playmaker. Sugoi will benefit from the addition of Owen Shepherd to their lineup, but didn't really impress me at Halibut (as iCarrot), and it remains to be seen if they've improved since then. Newcastle reckon they haven't split A/B, but I think that on paper Wing Defence are the weaker side. Ocean Madness' performance last year suggested that Newcastle didn't have a lot of depth outside their A team, but I think that will change this year. Hills have a large squad with some star power in Andrew Goldstiver, Lee Coady and Nikki Shires, but I'm not convinced they can break the top half. Suufa...sorry, RuBi...are making a lot of noise, but even with the addition of Megan Gamble and Rach Grindlay to their Uni Games line up, they don't look to be quarters material. Black Sheep and SMURF could very well be quarter finalists, but I can't really go picking ten top 8 finishers, can I?

16. UQ Lovers (Brisbane)
15. Flycatchers (Adelaide)
14. Newcastle Wing Defence (Newcastle)
13. Hills Anti-Socials (Sydney)
12. Sugoi (Brisbane)
11. RuBi (Sydney)
10. Black Sheep (New Zealand)
9. SMURF (Adelaide)


The Top Eight

I should include some sort of disclaimer about my blatant Victorian bias, but fuck it, it's not like I have some sort of journalistic integrity to uphold. There's 3 Victorian teams at Mixed Nats this year - the lowest since 2004. And I believe that all of them will make the top 8. In the absence of Bootius Maximus, I think that Mind The Gap will revel in the hometown advantage and get to quarters, but probably not further. Kaboom and Miniature Horse certainly have the talent to challenge for the title, but may lack the experience of playing a tournament together. YOOOUUUU! will still be in the running by Sunday, but I don't quite think they can crack the top 4. So that leaves the top 4 that I've picked - Spiderpig, Vintage, FAF and Pie Wagon. It's late, no one will read this, so I'll just throw this prediction out there and see if it floats.

8. Mind The Gap (Brisbane)
7. The Tribe Of Miniature Horses (Melbourne)
6. Kaboom (Canberra)
5. YOOOUUUU! (Melbourne)
4. Newcastle Pie Wagon (Newcastle)
3. FAF (Sydney)
2. Spiderpig (Sydney)
1. Vintage (Melbourne)


It's not like I'm bitter at not going or anything.