I didn't play on Thursday in our game against Drunken Dogs (Japan). In fact, I was volunteering (time-keeping) another game so I didn't see any of it. We won, which meant we moved into the 17-20 playoffs.
First up was a game against Camelot (Canada). After that we would be playing a Japanese team since Osaka Natto were playing Ebisu in the other match.
I was feeling pretty bad in the morning, so I didn't even warm up (symptoms included rather unpleasant dizziness), but after about 30 minutes of playing I felt better and warmed up and got on. Besides, I could hardly play worse than the rest of the team (see below).
This day contained easily our worst performances of the tournament: after really competitive games against eventual finalists Brass Monkey and Team Fisher Price, in these games we simply could not gel. It wasn't particularly that the defence of the opposition was good; it was that our passing, cutting and catching was pretty woeful. In both games, we played much better in the second half (which seemed to be the story of the tournament) matching the opposition, but too little too late. Final score against Camelot: 17-11.
We then played Ebisu (again!) for the 19-20 playoff, who had lost to Osaka. Their offence was clinical in the first half, tearing our zone defence to pieces. At 8-nil down we took a timeout and tried to remind ourselves why we were playing. After that we were much better, going 17-8 or 9.
I still wasn't feeling very well for either game, playing about half as much as I would have. We were also missing Hebs who was in the hotel throwing up all night and day. And of course Pete and Carrie had gone home earlier.
So we came 20th: beat our seeding (24th) but not as good as we'd hoped.
Saturday was finals day: in the mixed final (as mentioned above it was Brass Monkey vs TFP). Brass Monkey looked a bit out of sorts, and TFP won the game 13-8.
After the open final (won by Buzz Bullets (Japan) to Thong (Bris)) the spirit awards were announced, and we won!
So stoked! This is a great result for our team: we had started our campaign with a few aims, one of which was to play with really good spirit; clearly in the eyes of the teams we played against we achieved that.
In a great result for the ACT and Australia, the other spirit winners were Phoenix (ACT, womens), Fear Disconsonia (WA, masters) and Fakulti (NSW, open).
Now it's time to check out of the hotel and for the team to go their separate ways. Rather sad, but a job well done.