Of Hiatus and Spirit
11 05 10 - 15:09 You may have noticed that we (I) slacked off in April - no web updates at all. That's because, in essence, we slacked off. I wasn't however doing nothing at all - in fact I saw a few interesting things... PUL has started again, which is actually the least interesting thing, and the Pig started badly v UWA. A loss of some magnitude, both teams lost count precisely, but let's just say that they scored lots and we scored not many. Coincidentally, it was the first Div 1 game of the year for yours truly - therefore continuing the apparent curse of Pig teams with me in them (they don't have a great record).Which brings me conveniently to the topic of spirit. More specifically, spirit scores. They are rarely right in getting the most spirited team. Why? Because everyone uses a different system of scoring. For example, having gazed upon the spirit scores from round 1 it is obvious that the Pig is now using the rule-of-thumb BULA system (start at 5 and go up for good deeds, down for bad), and it is possible that Salad and Sizzle are too. I then assume that UWA, Sunset and Monkeez are using the old PUL (Australian?) system of start at 9 and work down for bad spirit. This environment will produce the same winners (hint: pick a BULA system team), regardless of whether they were spirited or not. It is at this point I would personally recommend all teams use the BULA system - but of course old habits die hard, and I am forgetting the best question of all - who cares? That any team would use the BULA system, shows they at least think about these things, but I digress.
What has been so interesting in April anyway? Firstly, I went to Nationals for a day and a bit. It was fun watching and not playing. Without crying wolf too hard, I think both men's and women's Pig teams missed a chance to move up the rankings fractionally to, say, 11th or 10th (maybe 8/9th in women's). Otherwise though, the quality that distilled to the top in a WUCC year was on full display, and is my number one reason why Chilly slipped so far. Things that get you far at Nationals? Hard to say without knowing the full training regimen of the teams at the top, but without a doubt, the top doesn't have much room for rookies any more. Even on the teams containing junior-ish players, there is a lot of experience to balance that out. Where does experience usually show? Throws and throw selection, the finer points of d positioning.
In other news, we moved on April 1-ish to our new winter home of Centenary Oval. A pretty awesome oval, with some very odd light placements. Monday nights are now thriving again, now if only we could squeeze in two fields...
Finally, we said goodbye to Copes - foundation Pig and general great guy. Or rather I should say, we would have said bye to Copes, except that we didn't really see him before he left for the States. Sadness.
Stay tuned everyone, I promise there'll be a few more posts this month.
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