vs London Revolution

A slow start in the rain, we turned on simple throws but got it back every time. We looked rusty but were just working things out in a game we knew didn't matter. 13-4

vs Sharks

We knew these guys could give us a hard time if we let them; they are a rebranded Discuits and have some great players. We were well up for it though and brought it from the first point, scoring effortlessly against their zone. Then we just kept working hard on D; chasing the pulls hard and playing with tight marks that they just couldn't handle. The blocks came and we kept the intensity up on O by moving the disc efficiently and cutting deep. If we turned then we were straight back into intense D; Buddha proved this after a turfed deep throw when the Sharks played picked up the disc and Bud got a sick layout block on the first pass. Talk about kicking them when they're down... We chased everything, pulled it all down and got lots of layout blocks as everyone fed off the intensity of their teammates. We took the half 7-0 (mostly scored by Woody I think) and their top line just put on their coats and gave up... the second half they played huck and zone D, which of course meant we caught the swill and walked through their zone. At 12-0 they finally got a deep goal after Steady missed an easy Callahan and Timmy missed his bid and got beaten into the zone for a quick 1-2 while he was still on the floor. Needless to say our O line walked it in for the 13-1 victory.

vs Clapham

After a 3 hr gap we were well up for this. Unfortunately I think we are still scared of this team and our O line didn't stand up to them enough; we looked scared of taking them on deep and wary of breaking the mark. We definitely didn't deal with their poaching well enough; we've got to be ready to throw deep or crossfield from the sideline trap. They ran away with it 11-4, I think all our goals game off hucks which goes to show we should go deep more! It also worth saying that Clapham played extremely well, I think they only turned over 3 times all game. Something we can learn from.

vs Ltd

We were all well tired and I think our brains had melted. We had two 30+ min points. I think we won 9-6. A game better forgotten by both teams. We'd been on the field for 12hrs at this point so you can understand the tiredness!

Sunday

vs Fusion

Ahhhh... the game we'd been looking forward to since Cardiff last year. Only this time it wasn't for a semi, its because Fusion had sent a weak team on Saturday and been knocked down to 11th seed. So this was us defending our top 8 spot. We started off slow, our O line forcing a throw and getting scored on, but we scored second time round and it was time to get the D line on the field... For the last few years Fusion have prided themselves on their athleticism, quick movement and aggressive play. Well now it was time for them to have a taste of their own medicine as we stuck like glue to their cutters, bid hard on the under cuts and got block after block on their deep shots. We played aggressive offence and quickly went 3-1 up. They scored to make it 3-2, then we punch it in easily against their poachy zone to make it 4-2. We then just ran away with it, taking half 7-3 and managing to keep the intensity up with another break to go 8-3. Then they scored and got a break to make it 8-5, with Timmy and Freddie getting big Ds on their main handlers and complete shutdowns everywhere. They literally didn't know where to turn. We used the back of the endzone well with Maxwell and Woody pulling in the floaty discs to convert our blocks, every goal celebrated like madmen. The hooter went and it was game to 12; we punch in our offence to go 11-8 then win the game on D with our first chance after they dropped the pull, Colonel tossing the disc to the back of the endzone for me to make an easy grab. WIN! And it had been a long time coming.

vs Leeds

Straight into a game with Leeds, a team we have struggled to beat convincingly. Yet again we came out slow and didn't play well on O at all, yet our D line were able to get blocks and convert them to get those breaks back, meaning we effectively traded the half. Their O line started playing zone to stop our D line converting as effectively, something we'll need to address. In the end it came down to 10-10 with them on O, game to 12. We needed a block to win. Fortunately we got the block first time and Timmy put up a stall 9 no-look toss pass which got mac'd by a defender only to land in my lap, 11-10. We stack the line and Colonel comes up with the huge layout block right on their goal line at game point. Tiles steps up to the disc with Mum and Colonel in front of him, but Mum's defender has overplayed the breakside. Mum steps to the open side cone, Tiles tosses him the disc, and Mum proceeds to jump, catch the disc, and land out of bounds. Quite possibly the dumbest thing I've ever seen on pitch. :-) They proceed to launch a high disc that they manage to claw down above two of our defenders to take the game to sudden death. They pull to us, we don't do a great job of the pull play, and there's some kind of call (pick?) after I catch the disc in front of a layout bid. We end up with the bizarre situation of me having the disc with no mark and Mum isolated in front of me. "Where are you going?" "Deep". Disc in, I launch the conservative deep shot which Mum catches just outside the endzone; fortunately Chuckles has been working on his 100m as he left his marker for dead and Mum tosses him the disc for the goal and the win.

vs Fire 2 (Fire O)

I think the intensity we brought vs Fusion and the long game with Leeds, all on top of a 12hr day on Saturday left us with some pretty tired legs for the last game. It was the same for Fire's O line, and we got a whole load of blocks on them, but played some tired offence and gave them the disc back far too often. We walked through their zone although we struggled a bit more with the transition We traded out the first half with one break each, and after the half they went on a bit of a run where we dropped out heads and allowed them to score 3 goals in a row, 10-6. Our D improved as we seemed to remember how to play, getting the disc back if we turned, with one especially nice quick start huck from Buddha to Chuckles. We were unable to claw back the points we were down, and traded the game out to lose 13-9.

Overall, I'd say our performances against Sharks and Fusion were the best we've ever played. Against Leeds, Rev and Ltd we need to remember that in order to win easily we need to play extremely hard. Against Fire and Clapham we need to stand up to them a bit more and have confidence in our individual ability to beat them one-on-one by cutting hard. I actually think our man D was spot on, we chased some great deep pulls and although our zone D could use some work it is mostly our O that needs improved consistency if we want to break into the top 4. At times we touched on brilliance, we need to make that the norm rather than the exception.

Amazing weekend guys, I hope you all enjoyed it as much as I did.

Brummie