The Tale of Nationals 2024
2024 New Zealand Division 1 Womens and Opens Nationals
Wow what a nationals.
Starting the week of nationals I definitely start feeling obsessive over frisbee for the build up. This helps me remember to hydrate well and get good sleep which as we all know is key to performing well come the weekend. Going into the tournament my body is feeling the most athletic it has felt in a while, this gives me the confidence to go out and push in the moments that matter.
For most tournaments I try to have some personal goals that I want to achieve, usually around specific techniques or helping to lead the team. This nationals however I didn't really have any prior to the tournament, I just knew that if I could play my game and be relaxed our team would do well.
Getting to the fields Friday morning, the sun glistening on the dewy ground, the feeling hits me. For some it may be overwhelming, for others maybe it is nerves, but for me that first view of the fields at a big tournament gives me a warm comfortable feeling that tells me I belong here and I am ready to take the games head on.
Our first game of the weekend is against the Wild Bombocats, the B team of the Wildcats club. We have trained alongside them and scrimmed many times this season so know each other well. The game was a comfortable victory, a 15-2 win. Despite the score however we knew that the Bombocats had a lot of very good players, especially against zones. So we practised our zones, transitions and got some good reps throughout the match.
Our next game of the day was against the second seed in our pool, and the favourites (after us) to be in the final come Sunday afternoon, Groot Vol. 1. As mentioned in my previous blog, Pōneke Pick, I used to play for Groot and these two clubs have matched up many, many times over the years. During the game we were neck and neck with a three point run each in the first half. We started to fall behind in the second half and were down 13-11.
A lot of our problems stemmed from getting uncontested easy gains using isolation plays in other games but against Groot it was more difficult as they were very good at surrounding our various stacks and double teaming our big cutters. We scored our next hold and got a soft turn which we converted to take it to double game point. After not showing our hand with zones the entire game we pulled a dynamic arrowhead zone out on universe point and got a turn on the third pass in the short field which was the picked up and dished into the end zone to win the game!
This win was important as it carries forward into power pools. The tournament structure is this: Two pools of 4, top 2 from each pool into top power pool, bottom 2 into bottom power pool. Then the top 2 of the top power pool go straight to semis, and the bottom play a pre-semi against the top of the bottom power pool.
Our last game on Friday was against the team from Dunedin, OaF (Otago and Friends). This was a pretty standard game but allowed us to run through the entirety of our roster very nicely against some good opposition. A final score of 15-7. Friday evening consisted of a big feed of nachos and some stretching to get prepared for our games against Christchurch teams tomorrow.
Both Brightside and Dogma hail from Christchurch and topped pool B. If we win one of our games against these teams today we only have 2 games today and are straight into the semi finals on Sunday morning.
Our first game was against Dogma, this game started super well, we played all of our various defences and never let the offence settle. This helped us get out to a large 8-3 lead at half. Unfortunately though in the second half we couldn't keep the pressure on and Dogma made a valiant run of converting on our soft unforced turnovers to bring the game back to 12-12. We then ended up winning 14-12. Our lines that we used for the rest of the season didn't go to plan against Groot the day prior. So during this game we tried out some new lines. This was the classic O-D and swing line as opposed to 4 named lines that we would use in various situations.
Even though there was only a 15 minute break until our next match... against Brightside. In this game we had a comfortable victory; 15-8, possibly due to both teams knowing that this result didn't really affect the draw. Brightside then had to go on and play a pre-semi (which they won comfortably against OaF) to get a chance at revenge against us again tomorrow in the semi final.
On Saturday evening there was a showcase match scheduled between the NZ opens team, Taniwha, versus some invited all comers and the opens players from the NZ mixed team. Personally I knew that every bit of energy that I could conserve for the finals tomorrow would be key. So I wasn't pushing super hard in this game but it was good fun to play and you can check that game out here.
After another night of rest and recovery we are heading to the fields. I am starting to feel some nerves for the semi final, I say to the others in the car "if we make the final it'll be fine but Brightside is an unknown". I don't know why but I was worried that Bright had held back in our game yesterday and as they say it is hard to beat a team twice. This game was streamed so if you want to check it out before spoilers watch here.
We knew that we had the ability to win this game so really were trying to put it away quickly in order to be the most prepared we could be for the final later in the day if we happened to make it there. Our first half was very comfortable with an 8-3 scoreline. We hit the game running hard and everyone was locked in. We had zero turnovers in the first half even though we were playing nice and freely and that was a tone we wanted to continue going forward. Come the second half we had a few more turnovers but still played well and took a 15-5 victory.
Onto the game we were all waiting for, the New Zealand Ultimate Championships Opens Grand Final. First of all if you want to see a very exciting game (opinion validated by many unbiased watchers) go here or watch below
Warning spoilers ahead.
Prior to the final our team had a pretty in depth whiteboard session to go over some of the defences that Groot had played on Friday and how we thought we should combat their good match defence. We also spoke about how we could shut down their deep game effectively.
Come the start of the game we came out on defence and our last minute strategies were working well and had very good chances at blocks in our first 2 d-line points. Our first 2 o-line points were relatively basic holds but then it all went down the drain. Groot started cluing onto all our set plays and the more variations we tried with isolations the less they worked. We had conversations about 'just playing ultimate' but we couldn't manage to work through their defence at all. 5-2.
We starting playing a bit more through all 7 players and things got a bit better but we still couldn't score a goal. Halftime score ended up being 8-2. A very disappointing half from the Wildcats. Halftime came with some strong emotions amongst the leadership, followed by a rousing chat in the huddle. Personally I knew that I needed to turn things up this half if we wanted a chance.
The one thing I haven't yet mentioned is that the game plan was to play zone against Groot, but we had only had 3 defensive points so far using our match defence tactics to relative success. Come the second half we had some more chances. We went on a run and then Groot went on a run. 12-7. Our arrowhead zone was working wonders against Groot paired with transitioning with match and 2-3-2 every so often.
We went on another small run 12-9. But then the softcap hooter went. We had started to feel some hope. The momentum had clearly shifted in our direction now, the two women’s teams in the finals from Auckland had gone to warm up so the tides changed and the sideline support waned back in our favour. Groot held the next point. 13-9. Game to 14. They only needed one more goal to win.
I personally had already played the majority of points in the second half and now knew it was ride or die time so we made the decision to run our top experienced players back to back to back for the rest of the game. After being matched up with Charles Paterson for the majority of the game, probably my favourite match up I've ever had; he knows my playstyle so well and pushes me to evolve every point, the game goes on. We play a zone again, get a turn, and score.
13-10
13-11
13-12. This was it, it felt possible now, if unlikely still. Groot has some of the best players in the country and we not only had to score twice, but we had to get the disc off them twice as well. I am tasked with the pull, it lands back right of the endzone, we have a strong chase with a 2-3-2 force middle zone. We start our transition to match and Joe Penaia-Smith gets a huge layout block off a pop pass from the Groot handler set.
We move it around a bit in the handlers and then Liam Haberfield picks his receiver and throws up a big shot to me down the open side. I have cut into the end zone as the disc is thrown. Groot hasn't been able to find the best match ups after the turn and I come down with a big sky ball to take the game to double game point!
13-13
We pull, chase strong with another 2-3-2 transition zone. We move into match defence and are scrambling. Groot seems to be moving confidently and we only just start to find our match ups. We then get a foothold on defence. Force a few resets back and forth. Then it happens. I try and hop in the lane and in doing so force the thrower to pull out of his throwing motion. The disc slips out. And we have possession of the disc on our own brick mark. One more goal and we win the championship.
Looking back at the end of this point I make a few cuts but mostly keep Charles out of the action. Captain Lauchlan Robertson throws an inside shot to a breakside upline cut which then gets dished to a wide open Joe. Im watching this and start to realise the disc is floating towards the endzone and Joe can just run it down. He starts celebrating before catching which terrifies us all but then closes his hands around the plastic and the team goes wild. The crowd is stunned. We swarm the disc and celebrate.
The emotions we are left with are nothing but disbelief in how this result came to be and the upmost respect for our Auckland opponents. Luckily I get to play with them later on in the year when we work together to take on the world in the Gold Coast, Australia, for the World Ultimate Championships!
And I can’t forget to give a huge thanks to Clayton D’Ath for all the sick photos from the weekend!