I am currently sitting in my lounge waiting for some rice to cook after a day of hard work on the tools with the Wildcats. Lets see how I go recalling what actually happened today.
Our first game bye this morning meant a nice sleep in followed by some bircher muesli to get me started for the day. In the car on the way to the fields we got talking about goals for the weekend with the flatmates. My goals were firstly to get a layout block, and secondly to help the team stay united if things go awry.
I play for a team called Wildcats - yes from High School Musical but that was decades ago now - we are number one seed heading into the tournament so are really looking to set the bar high this weekend. Our first game is up against Credo Open Green, bottom seed of our pool; pretty standard game that we won 15-1. I had a couple of unforced turnovers in the small space early in the game but we worked through it.
After this game we went and supported Wildkittens, it was a very confident performance from our B-team and they ended up with a convincing upset over Brightside. They were not afraid to shoot but also looked very composed behind the disc in the high winds Upper Hutt put on for the day.
Our next game up was against Groot Volume 2. I have played for Groot in the past so know some traits of the club's style. Going up against the Groot B-team (2nd seed in our pool) was going to be a slog if we didn't get our heads in the game. Good thing that we had the energy from the end of the kittens game to ride on. My favourite point of the game was when I was first out of sidestack on the left side: I made my cut very wide to create more space in the middle of the field for the second cutter. There was a defender poaching deep on the break side and a forehand blade was put up from Riley van Turnhout that I chased down then dished to one of our rookies. Very satisfying. We ended the game with a nice 15-6 victory.
This meant we topped our pool and were guaranteed a semi-final. The next two games were in a power pool against the top teams of the two other pools. Groot Volume 1 and Dogma.
First up in power pools we had Groot. This was by far the hardest game of our day. It was awesome to have every moment matter and winning small advantages over your player felt significant. We played a fair bit of force middle trying some different priorities out which worked well. I was tasked by our coach to work on being more forceful going deep. This went okay but one of the deep cuts I made a perfect huck went up and I dinked it; embarrassing. Peak of this game was in the second to last point we got some nice flow up the left sideline then I threw a cheeky inside backhand around someone covering the down the line pass to a receiver in the back left. I also probably shouldn't have uncontested a foul, will make my sky more obviously clean next time I guess. GG, 12-8 W (75 min time caps).
Last game of the day, fighting for our semi final seed is against Dogma, the top team from Credo ultimate club. They are a team that historically has relied upon energy to stay in the game. We used this game to work on some transitions and other defensive shenanigans. We still have some ways to go before nationals but they are feeling good. Our fresher players were really getting their legs under them now in our first tournament out as a unit. This game really showed that as we comfortably were shooting from anywhere and flowing through all our players. Final score 15-4. Semi final against Hammertron tomorrow morning, we will need to avenge the Wildkittens who lost the game to go to semi finals on double game point.
It's a quiet ride to the fields on Sunday morning, personally I am just thinking about the day ahead but it's nice to conserve energy sometimes while waiting for the adrenaline to kick in.
Our first game of the day, the semi-final, was against Hammertron. Traditionally they have been a team that plays hex but this year they mostly played out of more structured offences. Not sure if it is related but they played some of the most difficult ultimate to shut down that I can remember. This may partly be due to the fact that Lucas Wilcock was pulling down every huck thrown to him. It may also be due to the fact that a lot of the team and I were 20 minutes late to our assigned warm up time, this led to us having a below par start to the game that we never really recovered from. I personally dropped a comfortable catch high with my right hand which threw my mental game more than it usually would. Into the second half we started playing much better and ended up winning the game 15-12.
Quick aside to say congratulations to Brightside for getting revenge on Wildkittens in their playoff game.
In the final we played Groot, my old club. We knew coming into the tournament that this was likely going to be the match up in the final and it did not disappoint. After we had comfortably beaten Groot in power pools we knew that they would be wanting to prove themselves in the final.
Our team was back in the zone after our lunch break for the final, we had a proper warm up, personally I got in a good lot of throws and catches beforehand. I always feel like it helps me get my eye in. We played exclusively basic match defence throughout the game in order to not show our hand prior to nationals next month. It seemed like Groot was doing the same. Neither team shortened lines so it was a very interesting battle of grit across the entire rosters of both squads. My personal highlight of the match was throwing three assists for breaks all to Darren Leishman, one of our rookies this year. I was also super stoked with our team for a period of a few points where we played some of the most stifling defence Wildcats has ever played. The macro analysis of the game goes as follows: We went down a break at the start of the game, earned a few points back to take half comfortably. Groot then made a come back a bit in the second half but we managed to put away the game 14-12. Very stoked to start the season off with a W.
I didn't end up getting any layout blocks, but I feel like the team was successfully united by the end of the weekend thanks to some awesome work by our coach and the leadership team. I am very excited to see how high we can push the bar come nationals next month.
