USAFL Season Preview Week - West

Much like the sun moves across the country from East to West, so has the balance of power in the USAFL.  Whereas at one time it the EAFL could claim three teams in the highest division at Nationals, now it is largely dominated by teams from the West.  It is very possible that four teams from this group will be playing Divvy 1 football in Austin, and that's an intriguing prospect.  

In addition, a number of clubs are seeing a bit of a resurgence, led by Division 3 champions Sacramento, and Portland, who is one of a number of clubs who will see one if its own head to the Great Sunburnt land to sharpen their craft.  On the other hand, there are also several clubs which have faded away a bit.  2015 will mark a turning point for them, hopefully to get going again.

Davis, California, on the outskirts of Sacramento, will be the host to the biggest feast of games out of this region, the Regional 18s.  That tournament will feature a club from Hong Kong, which will add an international player to an already electrified atmosphere.  With an abundance of metro teams within its member clubs, the 10s tournament should also be a cracker.

In 2011, the Arizona Hawks turned back the Atlanta Kookaburras for the Division 3 National Championship.  The next season, they were elevated to Division 2, and were considered outsiders to go back-to-back.

A week before Nationals that year, however, they withdrew from the tournament, citing the fact that they couldn't get any players to make the trip to Mason, Ohio.  Since then, activity on the men’s side has been scarce.  There is a strong movement to get the wheels turning again, mostly led by the fact that the women’s team is still very much active.

There is a good deal of activity on social media and the hope is to get the metro program going again, and to lend some players towards the Western Regional carnivals.  Hopes are high, and they are such that ‘Zona will make a comeback in numbers by 2016.

Preseason Nationals Projection: Division IV

Mann. Taylor. Wilson-Humphries. Ellis. These were some of the names that helped build the first, and so far, only dynasty that the USAFL men’s competition has seen.  These names are still there, hovering over the club, if not in the same capacity, but just as meaningful to history of the Bulldogs and of American footy.  Now playing (and quite well) in Division 4, those names have given way to those of Lehman, Harling, and Taylor, as Denver looks to return to Division I glory.

Eight National Premierships out of 10 Grand Finals in an 11 span may very well not ever be eclipsed.  And despite some players retiring and a good bit of turnover occurring, the Doggies were just one win away in 2012 and 2013 from adding onto their Finalists tab, if not more.  Not a bad resume.

In 2014, however, Denver struggled to a .500 record during the regular season.  Their losses came against fellow Division I competition -- Orange County, Dallas and Austin – while their win came against Division IV opponents: Kansas City, Tulsa, and San Diego.  That usually doesn’t mean much when it comes to Nationals weekend.  The ‘Dogs travelled to Dublin with nearly 40 players and were once again expected to challenge for group championship.

Their chances in that quest, went down with the two defenders who collided going back for a ball in front of their own goal, allowing an Orange County forward to run in and kick the winning goal with seconds remaining in their opening game.  Denver would finish 1-2, finishing with a losing record in Division I for the first time in club history.  Their Divvy 4 side fared much better, but would go down to North Carolina in that Granny.

That performance will weigh heavily on the minds of Chris “Candy Man” Candelaria, Andy Vanica, and the rest of the Sons of the West, as they embark on another chapter in their storied history.  Austin will be a good test to see how they can handle the home team on home turf come October, and games against Sacramento and Minnesota should also be highly entertaining.

The recruiting machine is a strong one in the Centennial State, for all of the players that come through, there always seems to be good, strong athletes picking up the game behind it.  There is always a chance the you will see the Bulldogs in the Grand Final in Austin, it’s just a matter of getting there.

Preseason Nationals Projection: Middle seed, Division I.

With over 200 athletes and a five-team metro league to draw from, the Golden Gate AFL has an abundance of talent within its community.  Said metro league has helped the Roos stay in the top level despite not being in a Grand Final there since they moved up in 2007.

The Roos were one of the first teams – Orange County was the other – to build their rep side as an amalgamation of players from their Metro comp.  That has led to them perennially playing well both as a 10s team and in full games.  Last season, they scored key early season triumphs over rivals Los Angeles and Sacramento, and finished third in the Western Regional tournament.  In Dublin, however, they were run over in their first two games, scoring just 27 points over three matches with a 1-1 record.

But the fruit of seeds laid down by guys like John Ironmonger continue to bear something delicious (yes, in the Bruce McAvaney way).  21-year-old Daniel Dahlquist, who has played with the Roos since his teens, became the third player from the Golden Gate program to join an Australian amateur club, hooking up with Ballarat.  While names like Holmes and Cox grab the headlines for making their own ways towards the AFL, “Dahli” may be the first one to make it having been cultivated by a USAFL club.  A boy can dream, right?

Elsewhere, Big man Bryan Dragus continued to be a devastating force for the Roos last year, and will return to lead the team after representing his country with the Revos.  Kyle Johnson and Robert Sears, who also played down in Melbourne for the US, are a constant threat and have the ability to beat you in a number of ways.

Revenge at the Regionals is on the minds of the Gaters this year, with June 27th circled on their calendar.  They will be going up and down the coast plying their trade and tuning up for what they hope will finally be a successful Nationals run in 2015.

Preseason Nationals Projection: Low Seed, Division I.

Footy in the Nevada desert has gone largely silent over the past several seasons, meaning that the best jumper design in the country (in this writer’s opinion) have remain unused during that time.

In mid-2014, however, their Facebook page began to stir, and surely but slowly the Gamblers have started to rustle back to life.  They are planning a number of trainings over the course of the year in the hope of getting enough players for the Regional 10s tournament, at least.  For a team that was consistently in the thick of things out West during its heyday, this is a good sign for footy in the Neon City.

Preseason Nationals Projection: N/A

“If at first you don’t succeed, pound the crap out of the one who stands in your way when you do succeed.”

Okay, I’m paraphrasing that quote a little bit, but for members of the Los Angeles Dragons, that may as well be the way the saying went on Sunday afternoon in Dublin.  

Beginning with a number of former members breaking off from Orange County in 2011, the Dragons’ first season saw them put together a squad that many thought could compete in Divvy one straight away.  They would begin in Division 2, and   By 2012, they had asserted that claim rather strongly, making it to the Divvy 2 final, only to fall to a surging Minnesota Freeze club.  They would return to the Granny in a year later, but this time it was upstart Columbus who would do LA.

A slow start was shaken off relatively quickly, and the boys from La-la-land did work within their own Metro competition, then went to work picking apart the Golden Gate Metro squads.  Using their speed to make up for a lack of height, they would cruise to wins over easier foes late in the year, but would struggle against Orange County, losing twice to the Bombers.  Their last loss came at the Western Regional final, but those results belied the effort of a team on a mission.

Come Nationals time, though, it was all business. Quebec, Baltimore, and Nashville stood no chance, and when faced with a Grand Final rematch with the Jacks, it wasn’t even close.  A 63-point thumping left LA doing the same to their chests, and sounded the alarm to the teams above them heading into 2015.

President Ryan Hitch and has exuded confidence that his mining for talent in Southern California will bring his club more gold.  He already has a very good squad in place, led by a strong core of Americans: Jeffrey Robinson, Michael Fice, David Lee, and Bill McGovern among them.  Coach John Fragomeni has done well to make up for the size discrepancy his team has faced, but is hoping to harvest some tall timber.

Los Angeles has proven that they are a Divvy 1 side, and that they can stay there for some time.  They have been tempered by an improving crop of West Coast teams; now it’s a matter of how high they can go and how long they can stay there.

Preseason Nationals Projection: Middle Seed, Division I.

Things looked bleak for the Orange County eighteen on that bright Saturday in Dublin last October.  It was their opening game against Denver, and they couldn’t kick a ball into the ocean while standing ankle deep in it.   They had two goals from thirteen scoring shots, and trailed the Bulldogs by five points with 20 seconds left, and the ball was about 100 meters from their intended target.

This scenario was sort of in line with the projection of how the Bombers would do in Division 1 once again.  A decade after moving up to the top level, the OC couldn’t break through to Grand Final play on Sunday at all during that time.  Despite winning the Western Regional tournament, they placed into the same pool with the juggernaut known as Denver and the defending champion Austin Crows.   2014 appeared to be no different.

Just when all looked lost, half-back Chris Browne kicked a looping ball from his back line into a pack of players that fell to the feet of midfielder Adam Shanks.  Shanks picked it up, kicked for his big forward Kenrick Tyrell, but overshot him, as well as the two Denver defenders that were back to block any last second chance.  Tyrell then saw the defenders collide with each other, and, thinking he was Moses for a second, led his team to victory with an improbable last second goal.

That opened up the floodgates.  Austin and Minnesota would be swept aside, and Seb Aguiari’s side had climbed the mountain.  All they had to do now was beat the mighty New York Magpies in the Big Granny.  They almost did it; they had the lead a couple of times, but they would go down by just three agonizing points.

Here’s what scary about all of this, though: the Bombers were good that weekend, and they’re only going to get better.  Tyrell played masterfully in the forward line, and shared the Roos medal as D1 Best and Fairest.  Lachie Agars put in one of the best performances of a full back in the entire tournament.  Teenager Scott Phillips was a ninja on the wing, and his skills haven’t even peaked yet.  They’ll also get two of their veteran Aussies, Jon Collins and Guy David, back from season ending injuries.

Keith Rutherford takes over for Aguiari as president of County in 2015, but not much is going to change underneath of him.  Aguiari’s hard work as head of the Bombers has set all of this up, and recruiting has boomed as a result.  They welcomed no fewer than a dozen rookies last year, and they’ve done well to integrate them into the squad.  Rutherford’s plans for Nationals, aside from winning it, of course, include sending a second full side to play in either D-3 or D-4, a pretty ambitious offering.

Orange County entered 2014 as the dark horse.  This year, they have to be among the favorites.  New York has the flag, Austin has home field, but Orange County has the upside.

Preseason Nationals Projection: High Seed, Division I.

Much like in the soccer world, Rose City’s footy club always seemed to play second fiddle to Seattle.  While the Grizzlies marched their way to Division 1, the Steelheads, née Power, floundered between Divisions two and three. 

Since reinventing themselves as the Steelheads in 2011, they have very steadily built their club into a robust program that has rooted itself in the community.  The establishment of a four team metro league, combined with the inauguration of the Bridgetown Banshees women’s team, has helped propel Portland as a growing presence in the Western region.

On the field, the Fish play very much in the style of their head coach, Martin Coventry: hard, quick, and smart.  They had a limited inter-club schedule last year, but hung tough against Sacramento and Orange County and notched a season sweep over Seattle.

The Steelheads will get a further boost for the future, as Terry Brasch heads to Dimboola, Victoria as part of the USAFL player exchange program.  For Brasch, who learned the sport a couple of years ago while a student at Oregon State, this is his opportunity to gain valuable experience for the future of the team, and for footy here in this country, and he’s a great ambassador for his club.

As for this season, the Steelheads are definitely a dark horse in D-3 once they head to Austin.  It will depend on the draw, and how well things fall into place come that one weekend in October.

Preseason Nationals Projection: High Seed, Division III.

Matt Bishop has had his hands full over the last three seasons.  In addition to founding the Suns with his wife, Amy, he has been in charge of building the men’s team, coaching it, and also running the US Revolution National team.  Oh, and he’s going to be a dad this spring.

In five seasons, Sactown has gone from being “that other team” in the Bay Area to Division 3 National champions.  In a way, they deserve it after controversially losing to Houston in 2013.  But that defeat may have stoked a fire in their bellies come Dublin.  They won their first two games easily on Saturday morning.  But they had to fight and claw their way to a 7-7 draw against Des Moines to return to the final.

In said Grand Final, however, there was little resistance from Philadelphia, as Saleh Tyebjee leapt over the Hawks defense, earned the Geoff Cann Medal as the game’s MVP, and the Suns ripped the midfield apart en route to a comfortable victory, and the team’s first trophy.

Bishop’s squad is known for its vision, its preparedness, and also for its deft speed.  Revos Aaron Crumpacker and Melvin Chen highlight this, while Tyebjee’s presence as a half forward can catch smaller defenders grasping for air.  That, and it’s March; they’ve already been training for two months.

Their first foray into Division II will be quite difficult, considering the teams that have carried over from last year.  Their schedule should provide ample preparation, however; they’ll play against Golden Gate and their metro teams, they’ll look to knock off Orange County in the regionals, and they face a big trip out to Denver, where they’ll play the Bulldogs and Austin in the same weekend.

It may take a year or two to get acclimated to Division 2 play, but the Suns are on the way up.

Preseason Nationals Projection: Low Seed, Division II.

Once a perennial Division I side, the Lions have fallen on hard times over the last couple of seasons, both on the field and off of it.  They struggled through a winless season, were blown out several times, and could not get any representation for Nationals in 2014.

This year has already started off differently, as San Diego began its preparations for the new campaign with a recruiting push.  They will get their share of games against foes such as Orange County and Los Angeles, and the hope that the veteran leadership of Revos Justin Valley and Brandon Blankenship will put the Lions back on track.  It may just take a bit of time, however.

Preseason Nationals Projection: Division IV.

They seem to be a mere shadow of the team that brought 1,000 or so footy players and fans to their feet in the 2009 Grand Final against Denver.  Still, the Seattle Grizzlies made an impression at the 2014 Nationals, albeit in combination with Minnesota’s reserves, and two of their players went to Melbourne with the Revos.

Kevin Stanley and Ryan Kastl played in IC14, then returned home to help their side finish the season.  Indeed, the whole team played well despite failing to pick up a win throughout the year, and they came in fourth at the Western Regionals despite missing some of their better players.

In Dublin, Stanley was one of four members of the Grizz who joined up with the Freeze Reserves, and despite the 1-2 record the combination compiled, he was named joint-Most Consistent and a Blackchrome All-Star.

Like San Diego, Seattle is also gearing up for a better season, one that will hopefully see more players make the journey to Austin in October.  Despite their struggles for numbers last season, this is still a capable footy team which can go toe-to-toe against any other club.  If they can stay focused and overcome teams such as the Steelheads and Suns, then they may make it back to Divvy 3 this season.

Preseason Nationals Projection: Low Seed, Division III.