July 2024 Odin Mortgage Coaches Polls

I feel a Freeze in the atmosphere.

No, not just that my air conditioning is turned up high thanks to the summer heat.  It’s the chill of a brand new team at the top of the July Odin Mortgage Women’s Poll.

Minnesota’s ascension was one of a slew of post-regionals shifts to both the Women’s and Men’s tallies.  No fewer than 21 of the thirty spots found themselves with new occupancies, including all top six spots for the women and seven of the top ten for the men.

A season ago, we had to wait three months after regionals for the long-awaited rematch of the ‘22 Women’s D1 decider between the Freeze and Iron Maidens.  This time, the Freeze made the trek to both regionals – the Super Regionals in Ohio and the Western Regionals in Utah – and took out both.  In the latter, Minnesota turned aside Golden Gate by 14 points, on a day when the Freeze confidently won all three games while the Maidens won both of their previous contests by less than a goal.

Despite the setback, Golden Gate was still someone’s #1, which meant that the poll wasn’t unanimous at the top.  It sets up a situation where the Gaters may go to Austin as an underdog as they go for an unprecedented eighth straight women’s D1 crown.

That was one of three flip-flops in this poll.  Down below those two, the Seattle Grizzlies used a strong performance in the Westerns to hop over Denver, who brought a partial side to both competitions but contributed strongly in combo teams.  Austin stepped over idle New York; the Crows, Bulldogs, and North Texas Devils split their matches in Ohio but looked good in a game loss to Minnesota.

D.C., Sacramento, Houston, and North Texas stood pat to round out the Top 10; Sacramento is perhaps unlucky not to move up at the expense of D.C., as the Suns played all three of their matches with Portland and Denver well and showed flashes of their past.

On the men’s side, Austin did was Austin does and regained the SuperRegionals title in straight sets to go to 6-0.  The voters, however, could not separate the two teams behind them.  Denver and Golden Gate had the exact same number of votes and vote pattern to officially tie for second place.  The Roos looked the stronger of the two sides at Nationals, winning Westerns, but the Doggies’ strength was enough for voters to keep them at the top.

The next six spots all changed hands.  Sacramento, winners of D2 at Nats in 2023, really impressed in Utah last month.  They went 2-0 in group play, and were within a few minutes of pulling off an upset over their Bay Area rival Roos team in the Grand Final.  That was enough to elevate the Suns four spots up to #4, the largest move in the top ten.

The solar rising displaced idle New York, who dropped down to 5th.  Boston, also idle, fell two pegs to #8 while Los Angeles and Seattle rode potent appearances at Westerns to slide up into 6th and 7th, respectively.  San Diego also came down two spots after a 5th place finish at Westerns to land in 9th.

Both Beltway teams occupy spots ten and eleven; the Baltimore Dockers weren’t affected by their third place finish at Regionals, but the D.C. Eagle’s D2 win at Super Regionals got them all of one spot, into 11th to flip flop with Minnesota.  Boy that exchange rate makes a difference.

Houston and Columbus fell in line again after those two, but then Nashville was able to take a step to #15.  Then, our biggest leap of the month.  The Chicago Swans, who paired with the Virginia Lions to take out Division 3, shot up five spots from (unofficially) #21 into #16.  The Lions got some love in the poll but not enough to crack the top 20, as they remain firmly under the radar.

Philly dropped two slots to #17, Portland remained the only winless team in the countdown as they were unable to pick up any wins alongside Wasatch.  But the pollsters believe they’re a better team than that and they’re not wrong, moving them up a spot to #18.  Oklahoma and Arizona almost Mufasa’d their way out of the poll, but held on to 19th and 20th.

The next couple of weeks will be mostly dominated by the TransAtlantic Cup, so after a turbulent month, we may not have much movement for the August Poll.  That said, it should be a fun month of Aussie Rules both in Toronto and back home.