2009 Ballatat Ultimate National Draft - Women's Division

Realistically, there are a number of social factors to consider when trying to determine which clubs will pick which players, particularly in cities with two clubs. Specifically, the formation of social cliques and their links to various recruiting avenues. The most prevalent example I can think of is in Melbourne, where Sporting Team BAU (I think the name change is offical now) have a virtual monopoly over the junior talent in Victoria, while Honey have the uni clubs under their wing. While it's not entirely unlikely that these teams will pick a player from outside those groups, it's something I have done my best to consider in this draft. That being said, let's get underway with Women's Pick #1

Pick #1 - Honey

The dymanic of women's ultimate in Victoria is a strange one. While there are enough girls playing in the mixed season, very few actively seek passage into a women's club. It is usually a result of active recruiting that players join the clubs. So at the moment I feel there are a number of females around the traps who could step very comfortably into Honey's line-up. Looking at the uni clubs, there are three girls who would take to the women's game like a duck to water. While also considering Honey Bee's need for some handler strength and their second pick, Grace Lethlean (Melbourne Uni) was unlucky to miss out in this little exercise, but could very easily find a place in Honey.

Pick #1 - Jo Goold (Deakin Uni)

Pick #2 - Indies

Unlike the aforementioned two-club cities, Adelaide has just the one women's team so there is a natural progression of sorts from social or uni ultimate to the single gender game. The strong Flinders Uni club is the place to look for the next Indies star, given their history of producing Indies/Karma players in recent years. With a backyard Nationals in 2010, Indies will have a strong squad and can look to simply add depth. I can see Kelly Mackenzie and Emma Victory joining the team as well as this draft pick.

Pick #2 - Lesley Moore (Flinders Uni)

Pick #3 - Sultry

The Brisvegas girls had a disappointing 2009, with many players opting not to go west for the show in April. However 2010 looks more promising already, with the gathering of a team for a WUCC tilt which looks to be in conjunction with Kaos. Whether this affects the Nationals campaign of both teams remains to be seen since they have some very tough competition to qualify outright for WUCC and may instead be relying on a wildcard. UQ has always been a big recruiting base for Sultry, however the development of the QUT and Griffith clubs in recent years are starting to produce some very good players. One in particular was very impressive at AUG and Sultry should be getting their recruitment gary on real soon. Cristina Biasin is also worth considering as well.

Pick #3 - Terri Morgan (Gold Coast)

Pick 4 - Factory Girls

Canberra faced a problem a couple of years ago in regards to their elite development. Because most people there work for the government, the entire city knocks off work at 5pm (no exceptions), leaving themselves plenty of recreation time. The ACTUA folk have translated this into around 400-500 regular league players. However very few players decide they want to have a crack at the rest of the nation. That being said, they do have a great development pathway from youth to elite, with the first few graduates starting to come through now. Pick 4 follows the path of Charlotte Petersen - from the ACT youth team, to AUG, to Factory Girls - and more should be expected to follow that path in the future.

Pick #4 - Annette Zou (ANU)

Pick 5 - Primal

As talked about earlier, Perth are the latest city to enjoy a two-club structure. Being a fan of ultimate-related gossip, I am quite attuned to the rift that exists between Primal and Kaos. However I'm not going to speculate why it goes on or what resolution may be at hand. What I do know is that Primal has a very different approach to recruiting not only from Kaos but from every other club in the country. Thanks to Anna Haynes' little-publicised work, Primal get a lot of money from the government for community development grants to help their recruiting efforts. And by "a lot" I really mean a-fucking-lot. Trouble at my end is that I have no first-hand knowledge of who they're targeting as far as adding to their club roster goes, so rather than pretend to know what I'm on about, Pick 5 gets held over for now.

Pick #5 - Pass

Pick 6 - Kaos

The recruitment avenue for Kaos is largely friends of who is currently playing for them now. Which means if you play for UWA or Murdoch, then Kaos is the club team for you. Unfortunately Murdoch didn't pony up for cross-country flights this year so UWA and their goddamn awful fluro yellow uniforms were the only westerners I got to see play this season. When not having bullshit rules arguments or showcasing the Twig & Peley Throwaway Show, UWA were a great team to watch. There is no doubt that their newer female players came out of AUG much more skilled and will be dragged along to Kaos training by Lou Delane, Danya Meakins and Simone Ryan. However I have to pick one.

Pick #6 - Ciara Fariss (UWA)

Pick 7 - Honey

And now we're back in Victoria. A while ago I attended a womens ultimate planning meeting, mostly for the chicks, but as a representative for regional Victoria. Going back two years you could count the number of girls from outside Melbourne playing women's ultimate on one hand, and they were all for the one team. Honey made inroads out of Melbourne in 2009 by getting Pam Carrigg and Monique Connell on their list, and they should be looking to cast their net further in the way Heads Of State did with great success. Unfortunately the Geelong girls will be tied up with Terra tryouts, so Pick 7 comes from the home of Ballarat Ultimate.

Pick #7 - Sara Talbot (Uni of Ballarat)

Pick 8 - Sugar Mags

So as is the common theme here, Newcastle is a one-team city, so joining the Sugar Mags is the natural progression after playing a uni season with the Power Dragons. There's no reason Wildcard or Southside couldn't have a crack at recruiting from here but when you've played a uni season with four players from the one club, you're kinda going to be biased towards that club. Newcastle Uni took three first year players to AUG and all of them were adequate players on Monday, and solid players by the Friday, so you can expect this pick, plus Jacklynn Taylor and Liz Vaughan to join Ellie, Tegan, Amy and Liz at the first training for the season, whenever that happens to be.

Pick #8 - Courtney Thompson (Newcastle Uni)

Pick 9 - Sporting Team BAU

The 'Box are an interesting lot, with probably the most in-jokes out of any team that has ever existed. Though I could be wrong, they don't seem to have any kind of open slather try out and it seems that to be you get invited to learn how to play Box-Lid-Goose. But now that we're at the top end of women's teams, we need to consider what they are looking for. Unless Miranda Roth or someone of similar ilk were to decide to move to Melbourne, STBAU are only going to be recruiting for depth. Having gone oh-so-close to the title twice now, in 2010 they will be - if you'll excuse the turn of phrase - out of justice. Whether they actually do recruit anyone is up in the air from a journalistic point of view, but Pick 9 is someone that will come heavily recommended by current STBAU players.

Pick #9 - Erin Adamcewicz (Uni of Ballarat)

Pick 10 - Wildcard

With a couple of National titles now under their belt, and a depth of talent that everyone should be jealous of, Wildcard are in the enviable position of players coming to them, rather than them going out to get recruits. My Sydney-based spy reckons that Cat Noble is set to pledge allegance to the red shirt this year, however I have deliberately left out Terra contenders from this article, so we need to look elsewhere. Rather than picking someone for instant gain or to fill a void, Wildcard ought to look for intermediate players who they can mould into an elite player over time. Which makes Pick 10 quite easy - go with the winner of the peer-voted Martin Laird Award.

Pick #10 - Kaija Salier (UTS)

So there's your first round draft picks for this season. As per usual thoughts, comments and the inevitable disagreements can be posted below.