2009 AUG Preview - Part 4

It has been a wonderful journey, but like all good trilogies with an shitty additional fourth chapter “reboot”, you kind of wish it had come to an end earlier. After feigning knowledge about anything north of the Murray, you’d figure a look at the South teams would be a bit more accurate given that I’ve, like, seen the teams play. That is what I would like you to think anyway.

Way back in the early days of Southern Uni Games, Melbourne Uni (aka Moho) were the leaders. A SUG without them being in the final was unfathomable. Fast forward to SUG 2009, where they were playing off for bronze. Here it has definitely been a case of everyone else catching up, because honestly, Melbourne are not a bad team. With a name change (MUtation) and new attitude…actually scrap that last bit, I’m just in a mood for cliché. A notable exclusion is Tarrant Meehan, who probably discovered that being drunk is awesome. Chris “Warpaint” Freise and Michelle Phillips are the stars of this team, ably assisted by Jude Mitchell and Ben Phillips. Injury scares to Chilly B stars Tim Horden and Ben Robotham in the last couple of weeks might have an impact on the team’s depth, but otherwise they should poll well during the week. Probably not a medal contender on paper, but then again they weren’t last year, either.

Cross-town rivals Monash are on a path to avenge their shitty Thursday/Friday performance in 2008. Many of last year’s team are back on board, including HoS trio Andy Moroney, Seb Barr and Cletus Johnson – who is recovering from a bullshit rumour and should be fully fit come Monday. The disc skills on this squad are exceptional, with Ash Thornton, Chris Folkes and Josh Cukierman throwing the disc to the likes of Mich Rogers, Lucy Ross and Sam Ludowyk. The wildcard on this team is Steve “Toey” Thomas. He played a part in Chilly’s 4th national title this year, and with a deadly combination of speed and height, there will be very few opponents who can match him going deep. Only concern is a niggling shoulder injury that has kept him out of action for the last couple of months. Monash also have someone else that factored in Chilly’s national titles – Steve Campbell. It will be his first stint as a non-playing coach, so it will be interesting to see what difference he can make. Expect to see Monash at the medal presentations, and not just heckling either. They have also adopted a club first - uniforms that don't look goddamn awful.

Defending champions Flinders Fury seem to be a bit of an unknown right now. Sure, they have Joel Pillar. And Brett Middleton in place of Alec Deslandes. And Sarah Pillar in place of Erin Wallis. And if we were going to run the old Mr. Ultimate pageant again Scott Middleton would probably win. But can they repeat last year’s gold medal? I feel they are going to have a heavy reliance on their boys to move the disc. Last year Ali Clarke and Erin Wallis did a lot of it, whereas this year Sarah Pillar is likely to be backed up by Sam Odgen and possibly even Chris Osborn. Doesn’t matter either way – most shots at goal are going to be “Joel To Sweet As”. And given that will work a lot of the time, why wouldn't you do it? Anything less than semis would probably be unacceptable to Joel, but now that Fury have already done it once, are they going to be that hungry for it again?

And now for the last time to be previewed - BUUF. I could be sneaky and not reveal anything, or I could talk a whole lot of hyperbole bullshit. But I'm going to try and take an objective look at things. And honestly, I think we should get to the pre-semis at least. It has been mentioned elsewhere that we lack the depth needed to win gold, and in part I agree. We definitely have a "strong 9" and a "weak 9" (when comparing both groups to each other, not to other teams), but how well it all fits together on the day will be interesting. The leadership of Dan Rule is going to be a massive influence, especially for maintaining mental strength and focus that was sorely missing in 2008. This year the team has shifted from a structured offense and defense to an aggressive, organic style of play that should catch a lot of teams by surprise.

Stay tuned for Part 5 - the "Special Features" disc, with players to watch, key matches and predictions.