Mixed Nationals 2007

Mixed Nats started for me at about 3:30 Thursday afternoon, when I decided I’d had enough of work and I headed home to pack before my flight. Morgan and I split a cab to the airport where we met up with Wendy and Viru for our flight to Sydney. At the check-in, there was only one exit row seat, but a pair of seats towards the back of the plane. Apparently Morgan likes his knees more than sitting with his friends, so it turned out that all four of us on the flight were in separated seats. It worked out well for Wendy though, who talked to some Scottish guy for the entire duration of the flight.

We arrived in Sydney to the happy news that Viru had hired a car and was willing to drive us to our accommodation in exchange for assistance in navigation. Morgan got that job and after a u-turn or two and an hour and a half drive, we arrived at the Medina apartments to be greeted by Clair in her PJs informing us that there was one slice of pizza in the fridge that three of us were welcome to share. Lucky we had Qantas meals to fill us up. After a quick wander around the fantastic rooms Denis had booked for us, we decided to get some sleep and retired to our respective bedrooms where Morgan discovered he was longer than the bed, and we both discovered that girls who barely know each other talk a lot.

Morning came and everyone showed up at our room while I was still asleep. Morgan ate the one slice of pizza for breakfast on the way out and we walked the long way to the fields. Our first game wasn’t until late which was excellent, but it was against 7th seed FAF. It was an interesting start to the tournament. Chris threw a disc into the endzone which I had to lay out for, but dropped. We then got a turnover and I rolled my ankle and wrenched my knee before doing a forward roll to avoid further injury. There were a bunch of turnovers from both teams before FAF eventually scored. They went on to score quite a few more after that, I think it got to 6 or 7 before we managed to get one. The field was absolutely terrible. There was a rock hard cricket pitch in the middle of it which was very slippery with cleats on. I found the game very frustrating, but I think we played quite well. We eventually lost 15-5, but towards the end we were starting to gel as a team a lot better and starting to get some flow going. FAF eventually finished third, so they were quite a good team and our performance against them was good.

Next up was Pie Wagon. They were number 1 seed after winning Halibut but they seemed to be missing a few of their Halibut members and didn’t look like they were quite the force they had been. This turned out to be accurate, either that or we’re a lot better than they are as after three points, the score was 2 – 1, with Umber Ella in the lead! Unfortunately, it was not possible for us to call timeouts repeatedly until the siren blew, so we had to keep playing. Things didn’t go quite as well from there on out. We managed to get to 5 points, but by that stage they already had 13 or 14 and took out the game 15 – 5. Not to take any credit away from us, but the number one seed even not playing at their best are still pretty good and our opening to the game was sensational. It shows that we are able to play at a high level, we’ve got the skills, we just need to work on our
consistency. They came out with a huck it game plan in mind which they used so effectively for the final at Halibut, but Morgan managed to shut that down and our transitional play is a continuing strength which we were able to use to great effect. Morgan was duly rewarded at the end of the game with a small packet of pies, even though he looked like a chump playing in sneakers instead of cleats. Pie Wagon finished 6th.

The final game of the day was against the Super Happy Lounge Lizards, a couple of their players complete with lizard tails and with lounges on the sidelines. These guys were seeded 18th, so we had a real chance of beating them. We came out fired up, not wanting to go home without a win and took it to half, 8 – 3. We had more legs than they did and were safer with the disc. We really played well and I think it was 14 - 5 when we gave up some points towards the end before closing it out 15 – 8. It was a really good effort from start to finish and everyone was pretty happy at the end of the game. JDR then introduced us to a game which is likely to become a staple of UE post match celebrations. It’s the Evolution game and involves rolling round on the ground, making ridiculous noises, playing rock paper scissors and laughing at K. It was a great end to the day and we will forever be indebted to the Super Happy Lounge Lizards for both the after game shenanigans and the well spirited game.

After a pizza dinner and with tired legs we walked the long way back to the apartments, with people vowing to find a quicker way to get to the fields the next day. Back in room 58, Claire decided she was going for a swim, and I decided it was too cold and went for a shower. Wendy decided we all smelled and that she was going to wash all of our shirts. Post shower, Claire and Morgan were missing so Wendy and I decided to go see what the pool was like only to discover that the rumored to be broken spa was indeed functional, and it was looking like a popular alternative to the pub. After some beers and quizzes in the spa and a special mention to Nelly who now has to do everything because she didn’t go in the pool, we wandered to the local bottlo / supermarket where beer, chips and chocolate were purchased. We sat around drinking and answering quiz questions, no thanks to Denis who is unable to use Google but good at talking up Queenslanders, until it was decided that sleep was required in order to play decently the next day.