Look everyone, I remembered the password! Townsville Ultimate Finals Week 1 Review

It’s been a fair bit of time between posts for Townsville Ultimate, but finally it’s time to rejoice because your favourite blog is back and better than ever! Well…at least better than it has been for the last few months.  This week saw the beginning of the Townsville Ultimate Finals, and the introduction of a new finals format similar to that used by the AFL and now the NRL (about time).

For those of you playing at home, the standings at the end of the regular round robin season were:

1 – Black Magic (Captain: James David)

2 – The Amazing Technicolour Dream Discs (Captain: Finny)

3 – The Highlanders (Captain: Tim Roland)

4 – Mite-y Discs (Captain: Mattie Hamilton)

5 – Gold Diggers (Captain: Rob ‘Stretch’ Dehollander)

6 – Green Goblins (Captains: Ryan Miller and Liss Bowden)

7 – More Smarter Than You (Captain: Michael Kramer)

8 – 100 Shades of Grey (Captain: Duncan Webley)

Games this week saw two pools.

Pool 1: Team 1 vs Team 4, Team 2 vs Team 3

Pool 2: Team 5 vs Team 8, Team 6 vs Team 7

Winners from Pool 1 enjoy the luxury of a week off next week while the losers from Pool 1 have to play again next week against the Winners from Pool 2.  Unfortunately we can’t all be champions and losers from Pool 2 are eliminated from the finals and will have the pleasure of playing off for minor placings.  Makes sense right? On to the games!

Game 1: Black Magic vs. Mite-y Discs

This game was always going to be a tough ask for the Mite-y Discs.  Black Magic have swept everyone aside all season, going through to the finals undefeated and hardly breaking a sweat doing so.  With Dr Peter Roach missing in action, the Mite-y’s looked underdone possibly due to celebrating the birthday of Captain Mattie.  Special mention to Gibbo for dropping the disc and letting the Mitey’s at least score one.  Not even Dr Pete would have been able to stop the bleeding here.

Final Score: Magic takes the victory and the week off 13-1.

Game 2: The Amazing Technicolour Dream Discs vs. The Highlanders

This game promised to be a close affair, with arguably the two tallest teams going head to head.  Key contests in this game: Finn vs Roland, Damo vs Cade, Rob Edmond vs himself…with the wind playing havoc throughout the game, handler come receiver come all round great guy Chris Ende played what I am told is one of his better games for the season in tough conditions.  Dark horse for female MVP Rachael Hammond was ever present in the give and go offence of the Dream Discs, and speed in transition proved the difference. The Highlanders just could not keep up, but will learn from this and bounce back next week for sure.

Final Score:  The Amazing Technicolour Dream Discs send the Highlanders packing 13 – probably 8 or something, it doesn’t really matter.

Game 3: Green Goblins vs More Smarter Than You

In a battle of smarts vs well, greenness, More Smarter Than you looked to knock out perennial finals over achiever Mike Larson, member of the Green Goblins.  In the absence of Ryan, team captain Liss Bowden no doubt provided inspirational words like “don’t hurt your knees” to get the team fired up.  With the return of the all conquering backhand of Zane Quinn this week, MSTY on paper were looking the goods with Tom Waterhouse installing odds of $1.80 for the orange geniuses.  Unfortunately Tom was off the mark as from the get go, Green played controlled disc and shared the disc around (maybe) while MSTY got a bit excited and tried to bomb long too often.  Don’t think many predicted this outcome.

Final Score: Green Goblins suffocate MSTY to take the win 13-4.

Game 4: Gold Diggers vs 100 Shades of Grey

The team that wanna “Dig em up, sell em out” (their chant, I’m distancing myself from that chant as much as possible) took on the apparently sexually misguided 100 Shades of Grey.  Gold Digger handling star Chris Pallazzi made a welcome return for the Diggers, while Bobby Jackson returned for the Shades after playing in the mud last weekend.  In typical Townsville “what’s a time cap” style, this game went for an eternity with most other games finished before this thing even reached half time.  There were plenty of chances for both teams, plenty of different strategies and overall an epic game was the result.  It was close all the way but 100 Shades got a crucial 4 point run just after half time and never looked back.  Special mention to Duncan for being tall and Aggie Dehollander for scoring about a thousand points.

Final Score: 100 Shades of Grey show the Gold Diggers why they are twice as good as the books, taking the victory 13-9.

Next week sees Mite-y Discs take on 100 Shades of Grey while in the other knockout final The Highlanders take on the Green Goblins and there's probably other games too!  That's it from me, until next time, Villain out.

You stay classy, Planet Earth.