Match Analysis- QUAFL 2018 Grand Final: Melbourne Manticores vs USyd Unspeakables
Hi there,
since their World Cup victory in 2016, I've quite enjoyed occasionally following the Australian quidditch scene. As someone who watches from afar many thousands of miles away, there seems to be obvious sporting talent and depth across all genders, a healthy yet determined competitive attitude towards the sport and what excites me most- unpredictability. Unlike quidditch played in the UK or in other European nations, there appears to be constant competition between a large amount of teams in Australia with multiple in-range games. Dropbears (Australian national team) players are spread across numerous teams rather than clustered in one or two 'super teams' which makes their national tournament (QUAFL) genuinely entertaining year after year. Now that film from the QUAFL 2018 Grand Final has become available (Thank you very much Ajantha Abey and Quidditch Australia!), I decided it was time to take a trip down under and have a stab at analysing some Aussie footage. This match is between previous QUAFL winners Melbourne Manticores (who, spoiler alert, can be seen here winning their 3rd QUAFL title. Aussie quidditch peeps, correct me if I'm wrong) and the plucky University of Sydney (USyd) Unspeakables.
Game footage can be found here courtesy of the Quidditch Australia Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5JLJFy1y5w
Stats mentioned are created by yours truly based on the footage available. There may be an element of human error involved.
Final Score- Melbourne Manticores 120*-70° University of Sydney Unspeakables
Goals: Callum Mayling X3 Brandon Frison X3
Dylan Waller X3 Samantha Chittenden
Cassia Menkhorst X2 Cooper Fitzgerald
Erin Pratt Sarah King
Sanju Vairav
Assists: Callum Mayling X4 Nicholas Albornoz
Cassia Menkhorst Brandon Frison
Haydn Johansson
Snitch Catch(es): Dylan Waller 1-0
Cards: 0 Cards - 2 Cards (1 Blue, 1 Yellow)
Turnovers caused by bludger:
2 (Nicholas Allen, Emmanuel Berkowicz) - 1 (Harry Jones)
Offensive Efficiency:
60% (9 goals from 15 offences) - 46.66% (7 goals from 15 offences)
Truck Driving Lessons
Having watched the game through a few times, I feel the best way for me to express my thoughts on it are by looking at the play going on in each half of the pitch separately from each other. So, let's start with what's going on in the USyd half.
Defensively, USyd make it pretty clear what their number one priority is- stop Callum Mayling (Number 3) at all costs. Mayling's nickname 'Truck' tells you all you need to know about the Manticores' talisman. He is without a doubt one of, if not the most, dynamic running keepers in quidditch, capable of taking over the quaffle game on any day, a terrifying combination of speed, power and agility. Considering his reputation as a formidable running threat, USyd plays a system that aims to hinder this aspect of Mayling's game. USyd sit deep in a zone defence around their hoops, they are comfortable giving Mayling space and time on the quaffle away from the hoops as he is not renowned for his shooting ability. They start with a passive point chaser midway between the halfway line and keeper zone which on occasion reverts to the keeper taking up point just outside their zone and the point chaser dropping in to guard the hoops. One of the two remaining wing chasers passively marks one of the wings, usually Cassia Menkhorst (7)- the perfect foil to Mayling, while the other marks the receiving chaser behind the hoops, the beaters start around the keeper zone line but sometimes deeper. This system makes it so that Mayling's direct route to the hoops is covered by 5 of 6 USyd's players (point chaser, keeper, both beaters and the wing chaser marking Menkhorst who's also anticipating a drive at the hoops from Mayling), giving him a trickier starting position on every offence.
From this starting point, USyd often use their beaters to press up on Mayling either to force him into a bad pass resulting in a turnover or simply to get the quaffle out of his hands to decrease his influence on the game. A good example of this occurs at 6:29* in which Manticores lose the beater exchange and Harry Jones (7) presses up on a static Mayling, forcing him to throw while he's on the backfoot which results in an incomplete pass and turnover. USyd show they're more than happy to press up on Mayling like this even when they only have one bludger on the defence (also see 2:52) which although does leave them open at times, it does prove to be successful on various occasions in keeping Mayling out of the game with his Manticores teammates not providing the same kind of physical threat.
*= The timestamps used are the time on the Youtube video, not the game time shown on the bottom left of the screen
However, Mayling is very aware of the reputation he has garnered over the years and uses it to his advantage. With the centre of the pitch heavily guarded, he patiently waits for his beaters to create an opening (which in this game probably happens less frequently than he'd like) before starting his attack in which we see Mayling do something a little unorthodox but surprisingly simple. Instead of driving straight down the middle of the pitch like many (including the defence) would expect, the Truck avoids this inevitable car crash of bodies and instead takes the scenic route (the easier option), using the sides of the pitch as a freeway. As we can see at 7:36 for the Manticores' opening goal of the match, Mayling's run down the flank forces the quaffle defence to move out of their settled shape and sucks them in on one side of the pitch, creating space in the middle for Menkhorst to finish with ease (This first example is a counter attack opportunity. See Dylan Waller (23)'s first goal at 9:29 if you want to see another example of this from a half court offence). Additionally because of the nature of a quidditch pitch, by driving in this way, Mayling also has the ability to use his pace to beat defenders on the outside and score from behind the hoops which makes him even harder to defend against.
A Different Kind Of Screenplay
Flipping it over, let's take a look at what's happening in the Manticores' half. While the Unspeakables' offence is so similar to that of the Manticores, the Manticores' defensive system differs in its approach to accomplish the same objective as the Unspeakables' defence. Primary ball carrier and keeper Brandon Frison (1), a chaser on the 2018 Dropbears team, is in essence a 'mini-Mayling'- sharing many of the same attributes as the Dropbears' captain however with even less of a passing threat which means he relies more on his ability to drive. In the Manticores' system, they set up a high aggressive point chaser (usually Menkhorst), who actively applies pressure to the quaffle carrier to disrupt their offence and force a turnover (10:45 for example). Mayling leaves his hoops undefended and steps up to the edge of his keeper zone where he can become an immune point defender should the initial point defender be beat out or overtaken by the quaffle carrier with the remaining chasers zonally covering the hoops and the space around them. The Manticores beaters sit deep within their keeper zone, rarely venturing out of it to apply pressure to the quaffle, in order to invite the Unspeakables to attack, limit their opportunities to drive and also so that they can easily pick off passes behind the hoops. When it is set, the Manticores' defence succeeds in its main objective of giving USyd few chances to drive directly at the hoops with all of Frison's goals coming as a result of fast breaks. Not only is driving limited by this defensive set up, it also makes shooting difficult, therefore, USyd are left with little option than to make lateral passes between chasers on the wings and the main quaffle carrier, only attempting a drive at the hoops when the opportunity is created by their beaters. Offensively, more often than not, USyd play a 'Kite' offence with the main ball carrier around the centre of the pitch, two chasers on the wings and a receiving chaser behind hoops. The use of screens (or picks) is a common feature of Australian quidditch and it's something we see a lot of in this game, especially from USyd who use one of the wing chasers or the receiving chaser to screen either behind or laterally on Mayling when he steps up to the edge of his keeper zone. We can see a good example of this for Cooper Fitzgerald (6)'s goal at 13:00. Chaser Ajantha Abey (14) starts the play at the back of the pitch and, undetected, loops round the hoops to set a screen diagonally behind Mayling to create space for Fitzgerald down the flank. While Mayling does well to avoid the contact, that split second diversion is enough for Fitzgerald to run in for the score. Because of how close Manticores position their beaters to the hoops, USyd rarely make passes to the receiving chaser and instead focus on this screen-assisted driving offence. However, when the receiving chaser isn't performing screening duties, they hang back in the space regardless, leading to them becoming open when Manticores get too fixated on stopping the main USyd offence. For Samantha Chittenden (75)'s goal at 17:35, we see Haydn Johannson (26) cut inside off a screen, sucking in all of the Manticores quaffle players and a missed beat from Nicholas Allan (19) before having the presence of mind to float a short pass over to Chittenden who has the open look on the finish.
Purple Reign
As the match enters the snitch on pitch phase, it massively swings in favour of the Manticores with the Melbourne side out-scoring their Sydney counterparts 40-10. During pre-snitch play, the USyd defence heavily relies on beaters to force turnovers in the quaffle game and shut down Mayling so once they're committed to protecting the snitch, the floodgates open up and Mayling is left to create havoc on the offensive end. To make matters worse for the Unspeakables, the snitch runner for this game is Dameon Osborn, an athlete of great strength who is very comfortable going one-on-one with just about any seeker which plays more into the hands of the Manticores. While the USyd beaters give seeker Alex Cunningham (23) plenty of alone time with Osborn, he is unable to capitalise on this, so much so that the Manticores beaters on occasion transition back onto the quaffle game, confident in Damo's ability to defend himself. With the Manticores becoming so rampant in the quaffle game coupled with the strength of the snitching, Unspeakables only realistic options are splitting their beating resources between quaffle and snitch play while not truly controlling either aspect of the game or continuing what they're doing in the snitch game and drawing out long offensive possessions in the quaffle game to both stem the flow of Manticores goals and allow time for the beaters and seekers to focus on the snitch. However, having already received one blue card for Delay Of Game, USyd are anxious not to receive another which forces them to rush into attacks (such as 23:35) and turnovers. All in all, by this point, it feels like the game is slipping away from the Unspeakables bar a remarkable catch from Cunningham. If the game were to have continued beyond Dylan Waller's winning catch, it's quite likely Manticores would've pulled out of snitch range, which wouldn't have reflected the quality of USyd's pre-snitch performance. It just goes to show how game-breaking the influence of a snitch runner can be sometimes as well as the importance of controlled play and well thought-out strategy during the carnage that is the snitch on pitch period of a quidditch match.
That's it for my take on this match. I thoroughly enjoyed watching this game both from a viewing and analytical stand point. Overall, a deserved win for the Manticores despite a strong showing from the Unspeakables who put themselves in a prime position for victory but couldn't quite get the job done in the end. As always, feel free to use the facebook page to leave comments, ask questions or make suggestions for future articles. I'm always happy to talk quidditch and hope to encourage more people to do so, therefore, don't be shy to get in touch!
Live The Game.
FP.
since their World Cup victory in 2016, I've quite enjoyed occasionally following the Australian quidditch scene. As someone who watches from afar many thousands of miles away, there seems to be obvious sporting talent and depth across all genders, a healthy yet determined competitive attitude towards the sport and what excites me most- unpredictability. Unlike quidditch played in the UK or in other European nations, there appears to be constant competition between a large amount of teams in Australia with multiple in-range games. Dropbears (Australian national team) players are spread across numerous teams rather than clustered in one or two 'super teams' which makes their national tournament (QUAFL) genuinely entertaining year after year. Now that film from the QUAFL 2018 Grand Final has become available (Thank you very much Ajantha Abey and Quidditch Australia!), I decided it was time to take a trip down under and have a stab at analysing some Aussie footage. This match is between previous QUAFL winners Melbourne Manticores (who, spoiler alert, can be seen here winning their 3rd QUAFL title. Aussie quidditch peeps, correct me if I'm wrong) and the plucky University of Sydney (USyd) Unspeakables.
Game footage can be found here courtesy of the Quidditch Australia Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5JLJFy1y5w
Stats mentioned are created by yours truly based on the footage available. There may be an element of human error involved.
Final Score- Melbourne Manticores 120*-70° University of Sydney Unspeakables
Goals: Callum Mayling X3 Brandon Frison X3
Dylan Waller X3 Samantha Chittenden
Cassia Menkhorst X2 Cooper Fitzgerald
Erin Pratt Sarah King
Sanju Vairav
Assists: Callum Mayling X4 Nicholas Albornoz
Cassia Menkhorst Brandon Frison
Haydn Johansson
Snitch Catch(es): Dylan Waller 1-0
Cards: 0 Cards - 2 Cards (1 Blue, 1 Yellow)
Turnovers caused by bludger:
2 (Nicholas Allen, Emmanuel Berkowicz) - 1 (Harry Jones)
Offensive Efficiency:
60% (9 goals from 15 offences) - 46.66% (7 goals from 15 offences)
 |
| Manticores Keeper Callum Mayling (3), making a pass prior to being beat by USyd's Harry Jones (7). Photo Credit- Willem De Gouw |
Having watched the game through a few times, I feel the best way for me to express my thoughts on it are by looking at the play going on in each half of the pitch separately from each other. So, let's start with what's going on in the USyd half.
Defensively, USyd make it pretty clear what their number one priority is- stop Callum Mayling (Number 3) at all costs. Mayling's nickname 'Truck' tells you all you need to know about the Manticores' talisman. He is without a doubt one of, if not the most, dynamic running keepers in quidditch, capable of taking over the quaffle game on any day, a terrifying combination of speed, power and agility. Considering his reputation as a formidable running threat, USyd plays a system that aims to hinder this aspect of Mayling's game. USyd sit deep in a zone defence around their hoops, they are comfortable giving Mayling space and time on the quaffle away from the hoops as he is not renowned for his shooting ability. They start with a passive point chaser midway between the halfway line and keeper zone which on occasion reverts to the keeper taking up point just outside their zone and the point chaser dropping in to guard the hoops. One of the two remaining wing chasers passively marks one of the wings, usually Cassia Menkhorst (7)- the perfect foil to Mayling, while the other marks the receiving chaser behind the hoops, the beaters start around the keeper zone line but sometimes deeper. This system makes it so that Mayling's direct route to the hoops is covered by 5 of 6 USyd's players (point chaser, keeper, both beaters and the wing chaser marking Menkhorst who's also anticipating a drive at the hoops from Mayling), giving him a trickier starting position on every offence.
From this starting point, USyd often use their beaters to press up on Mayling either to force him into a bad pass resulting in a turnover or simply to get the quaffle out of his hands to decrease his influence on the game. A good example of this occurs at 6:29* in which Manticores lose the beater exchange and Harry Jones (7) presses up on a static Mayling, forcing him to throw while he's on the backfoot which results in an incomplete pass and turnover. USyd show they're more than happy to press up on Mayling like this even when they only have one bludger on the defence (also see 2:52) which although does leave them open at times, it does prove to be successful on various occasions in keeping Mayling out of the game with his Manticores teammates not providing the same kind of physical threat.
*= The timestamps used are the time on the Youtube video, not the game time shown on the bottom left of the screen
 |
| USyd's Harry Jones faces up against Manticores' beater Meg Harding (9). Photo Credit- Willem De Gouw |
However, Mayling is very aware of the reputation he has garnered over the years and uses it to his advantage. With the centre of the pitch heavily guarded, he patiently waits for his beaters to create an opening (which in this game probably happens less frequently than he'd like) before starting his attack in which we see Mayling do something a little unorthodox but surprisingly simple. Instead of driving straight down the middle of the pitch like many (including the defence) would expect, the Truck avoids this inevitable car crash of bodies and instead takes the scenic route (the easier option), using the sides of the pitch as a freeway. As we can see at 7:36 for the Manticores' opening goal of the match, Mayling's run down the flank forces the quaffle defence to move out of their settled shape and sucks them in on one side of the pitch, creating space in the middle for Menkhorst to finish with ease (This first example is a counter attack opportunity. See Dylan Waller (23)'s first goal at 9:29 if you want to see another example of this from a half court offence). Additionally because of the nature of a quidditch pitch, by driving in this way, Mayling also has the ability to use his pace to beat defenders on the outside and score from behind the hoops which makes him even harder to defend against.
 |
| Cassia Menkhorst (7) assisting for a Manticores' goal despite the best efforts of USyd Keeper Brandon Frison (1). Photo Credit- Willem De Gouw |
Flipping it over, let's take a look at what's happening in the Manticores' half. While the Unspeakables' offence is so similar to that of the Manticores, the Manticores' defensive system differs in its approach to accomplish the same objective as the Unspeakables' defence. Primary ball carrier and keeper Brandon Frison (1), a chaser on the 2018 Dropbears team, is in essence a 'mini-Mayling'- sharing many of the same attributes as the Dropbears' captain however with even less of a passing threat which means he relies more on his ability to drive. In the Manticores' system, they set up a high aggressive point chaser (usually Menkhorst), who actively applies pressure to the quaffle carrier to disrupt their offence and force a turnover (10:45 for example). Mayling leaves his hoops undefended and steps up to the edge of his keeper zone where he can become an immune point defender should the initial point defender be beat out or overtaken by the quaffle carrier with the remaining chasers zonally covering the hoops and the space around them. The Manticores beaters sit deep within their keeper zone, rarely venturing out of it to apply pressure to the quaffle, in order to invite the Unspeakables to attack, limit their opportunities to drive and also so that they can easily pick off passes behind the hoops. When it is set, the Manticores' defence succeeds in its main objective of giving USyd few chances to drive directly at the hoops with all of Frison's goals coming as a result of fast breaks. Not only is driving limited by this defensive set up, it also makes shooting difficult, therefore, USyd are left with little option than to make lateral passes between chasers on the wings and the main quaffle carrier, only attempting a drive at the hoops when the opportunity is created by their beaters. Offensively, more often than not, USyd play a 'Kite' offence with the main ball carrier around the centre of the pitch, two chasers on the wings and a receiving chaser behind hoops. The use of screens (or picks) is a common feature of Australian quidditch and it's something we see a lot of in this game, especially from USyd who use one of the wing chasers or the receiving chaser to screen either behind or laterally on Mayling when he steps up to the edge of his keeper zone. We can see a good example of this for Cooper Fitzgerald (6)'s goal at 13:00. Chaser Ajantha Abey (14) starts the play at the back of the pitch and, undetected, loops round the hoops to set a screen diagonally behind Mayling to create space for Fitzgerald down the flank. While Mayling does well to avoid the contact, that split second diversion is enough for Fitzgerald to run in for the score. Because of how close Manticores position their beaters to the hoops, USyd rarely make passes to the receiving chaser and instead focus on this screen-assisted driving offence. However, when the receiving chaser isn't performing screening duties, they hang back in the space regardless, leading to them becoming open when Manticores get too fixated on stopping the main USyd offence. For Samantha Chittenden (75)'s goal at 17:35, we see Haydn Johannson (26) cut inside off a screen, sucking in all of the Manticores quaffle players and a missed beat from Nicholas Allan (19) before having the presence of mind to float a short pass over to Chittenden who has the open look on the finish.
 |
| USyd chaser Samantha Chittenden (75), scores a rare goal from behind the Manticores' hoops. Photo credit- Willem De Gouw |
Purple Reign
As the match enters the snitch on pitch phase, it massively swings in favour of the Manticores with the Melbourne side out-scoring their Sydney counterparts 40-10. During pre-snitch play, the USyd defence heavily relies on beaters to force turnovers in the quaffle game and shut down Mayling so once they're committed to protecting the snitch, the floodgates open up and Mayling is left to create havoc on the offensive end. To make matters worse for the Unspeakables, the snitch runner for this game is Dameon Osborn, an athlete of great strength who is very comfortable going one-on-one with just about any seeker which plays more into the hands of the Manticores. While the USyd beaters give seeker Alex Cunningham (23) plenty of alone time with Osborn, he is unable to capitalise on this, so much so that the Manticores beaters on occasion transition back onto the quaffle game, confident in Damo's ability to defend himself. With the Manticores becoming so rampant in the quaffle game coupled with the strength of the snitching, Unspeakables only realistic options are splitting their beating resources between quaffle and snitch play while not truly controlling either aspect of the game or continuing what they're doing in the snitch game and drawing out long offensive possessions in the quaffle game to both stem the flow of Manticores goals and allow time for the beaters and seekers to focus on the snitch. However, having already received one blue card for Delay Of Game, USyd are anxious not to receive another which forces them to rush into attacks (such as 23:35) and turnovers. All in all, by this point, it feels like the game is slipping away from the Unspeakables bar a remarkable catch from Cunningham. If the game were to have continued beyond Dylan Waller's winning catch, it's quite likely Manticores would've pulled out of snitch range, which wouldn't have reflected the quality of USyd's pre-snitch performance. It just goes to show how game-breaking the influence of a snitch runner can be sometimes as well as the importance of controlled play and well thought-out strategy during the carnage that is the snitch on pitch period of a quidditch match.
 |
| Snitch Runner Dameon Osborn defends against USyd seeker Alex Cunningham (23) |
Live The Game.
FP.
Comments
Post a Comment