2009 AUG Preview - Part 3

Once the almighty powerhouse of Australian ultimate, the East region has either fallen by the wayside in recent years, or (the more popular theory) the rest of the country has caught up and pretty much overtaken them. Part 3 of our look at this year’s AUG focuses on the four teams coming out of the Sydney and Newcastle area.

First off, the UTSexperience. As has almost become tradition, the talk coming out of the Harbour City is that UTS are the big improvers of the season and look to be ruffling some feathers at the big dance. However…I just don’t see it happening. Yes, they have added Rach Grindlay to their roster. Yes, they have plenty of tall receiving power in Henry Thomas (will probably handle, though), Hugh McCormack, Evan Sieff and probably even throw Linus Forrest in there. Yes, they have plenty of AUG experience across their squad, most of whom are having their second or third crack at it. Yes, they still wear teal. But I still remain uninspired.

Further…up the road, I suppose…we have the fallen giant in Macquarie, who are two years deep into the post-Dowle era. Their squad has plenty of talent across the board, but outside Megan Gamble there doesn’t seem to be a true superstar who will win them games. Sure, the likes of Tiger Webb, Nathan Wong, Yoann Greau and Rory Connell are very talented players, but I really think this club misses having a Dowle to count upon in crunch times. It will be interesting to see if Gamble adopts a “give the disc to me and I’ll sort it out” approach, given that she will take all but a handful of opponents to town. I think pre-semis might be the limit for these guys in 2009.

And now to everyone’s favourite silver medalists – Sydney. After rumours of sweeping changes being made at the club following last year’s disappointment, SUUFA have spent 12 months preparing, recruiting, training, getting psychological evaluations, sprinting, throwing, designing new uniforms and selecting what looks to be…well, pretty much the same team as last year. Notable exclusion again is Calan Spielman, this time through disease rather than policy. Subbing out the female handling power of Tara Carraro and Izzy MacAuley for the speed of Fi McDonald and Loren Viswalingam means they will probably shift to a more aggressive offence, but that means they’re relying on Brett Latham to not throw it away. Hmm. Better leave it to Mike Tarn and Sarah Crossie

Finally, the resurgence of Newcastle from no-show in 2007 to powerhouse in 2009 is almost complete. Led by the younger of Those Bloody Lavis Boys, the Novacastrians (seriously, look it up) will be playing most of their males upfield, with Liz Dodd and Ellie Sparke moving the disc. 2008 could almost have been seen as a training run for this year, as the squad is quite similar and the on-field cohesion should be a lot stronger. If EUG is any indication like it once was a while back, then Newcastle should be considered favourites for the event alongside UQ.