Falling Behind

So I find myself with not so much time as I used to have. This is due to a couple of consecutive weekends of events, I have been busier than Wetnose in bed (is that busy or not?). But have found a spare hour or two on my lovely Sunday night to bring you all up to date on what has been happening around the swamp.

So in the week I was away at nationals. A very understrength Cobras went down to SFC 14-6. This could be expected with many of the top tier Cobra's not willing to put it on the line two days out of nationals.

The next game against Lovers, I had just returned from Nationals, feeling a little bit burnt out, but happy (Thunder placed 13th, beat seed by 3!). Many a memorable moments for me, some good, a lot bad. We traded all game with Lovers. I was in the stack with aL on guarding me. I had just started playing in my new boots, I made an out cut, planted my foot and did what felt like a sweet, sweet turn to come under. I thought to myself 'that was a sweet turn aL must be a couple of meters off now'. I looked to JJ to feed it to me, as he threw the disc I could hear panting and foot steps behind me. I knew this wasn't good. aL got a come from behind layout block on me, for that I congratulate you sir. Now that I think about it I think that is the first time that has ever happened to me. Congratulations.

Other miseries from the game include being 13-14 down just after Lovers had pulled to us. Robbie is on the sideline just outside our defending end zone. He looks to dump it to me. I have no one on me. He throws it right at me. While the disc floats through the air perfectly to me, I think about where I will throw the disc and stone cold drop the disc. Lovers then score to win. 13-15.

Now to the latest Cobra's opponent, Heroes. They had lost their self-professed MVP Jangles to a knee injury from nationals. Cobra's rocked up differently to how they did for their last engagement. We warmed up well and got some throws under the belt for what was a rather windy Brisbane night.

Cobra's started on defence and came down in a puppy-fence straight away. We luckily found the Heroes Achilles heel right off the bat. We broke for the first point of the game.

We were nearing half at about 6-1 and tried to switch our defence up, just to keep them on their toes. We came down in man. That point, we found out the age old lesson of, if it ain't broke.....

I seem to remember one point Heroes were coming downwind against our zone, they worked it well all the way to our end zone, it took about 50 passes, but it got there. Only to come undone with one stray pass. Cobra's then scored the up-winder for half. Cobras took half 8-2, with our very effective zone and some very cool offence.

The second half Cobra's came out just as, if not more focused as the first. We did what we needed to do to win the game. We got blocks and scored. That is not to say we didn't work hard for those blocks. Myall and George were working hard to get through our zone. They did very well popping and putting nice leading passes into space through the cup.

I believe we won the second half 7-0 (?), to win 15-2. This is how we wanted to play against Heroes in the first round, but were utterly disappointed. This time we came out and played some focused ultimate, working as a unit.

We are now back to full strength and we need to be for the rest of the season. In the coming weeks we have a bye, Buggers, Dojo and Passion. We need to win nearly all of these games to be in the finals. Let's get amongst it boys.

On the board

Last Thursday saw the Cobras take to the field for their first game of competition. They were up against a team of old heads and young legs in the UQ Lovers.

Most of the Cobras had been at training a couple of weeks ago and 4 of them were in the winning team from the Brisbane Indoor Championships. As a result of this preparation, the Cobras started the game with great intensity, blowing UQ out of the water to take half 8-1. This was achieved through smart decision making, good execution, and all round good looks. Exploiting some of UQ's newer players also helped, but these blokes will surely come along in leaps and bounds before these 2 teams meet again.

During the 2nd half, the Cobras decided to try some different styles of both offense and defence. A combination of this and of a drop in intensity saw the Lovers get a few points on the board, although the lead was never seriously in doubt. After reverting back to the way the started the game, the Cobras closed things out 15-7 to record a win in their very first outing and move to 2nd on the BPL table.

Next week they take on the top of the table Moreton Bay Buggers, which will be a big test for this new team against a team that has reverted to selections for this season of BPL. The Cobras will need to bring a big game to match it with Big Mike and the Bugs.