Sideline report – Snagbottom Snots vs. The Misfits

A quick one here as I was not going to write this up but in the end decided to. This week it was 7’s round in the league. So we each put together a sevens team from the normal rosters, I faced Tim’s Misfits – a good coach playing a developing undead team. For the record I don’t think 7’s is a great format for snotlings. They don’t get many of their big underdog advantages and the large screens of defensive players just do not exist in sevens. So I thought this could be a tough game….

The game started with the Misfit’s star ghoul arguing with a ref and getting kicked out the game at the start of their drive! That put the numbers to 6 vs, 9 for the undead on their drive. That was not a good start for the Undead. The misfits got the ball and pressure from the Snots slowly drove the Misfits back towards their own end zone. But the Snot’s big guys were making ineffective hits – which continued all game. At best they stunned the undead but most times did not even do that.

As the half started to draw to a close the undead moved to the left but were contained by the snots. They then executed a good breakout move with the ball carrying ghoul. He moved over to the right and downfield, But the lone ghoul was swarmed by snotlings and taken down. The only chance of either team scoring left now was a risky thrown snotling attempt. To defend against this the ghoul tried to mark the ball but tripped and ko’ed itself for the rest of the game. The snotlings could not even pick up the ball though, and so that meant there was no scoring in the first half.

The Second half had the undead now defending with 6 vs 8 players on the field. But now the undead hits started to tell – even their 2 die uphill hits worked! They soon started removing snotlings from the field. Meanwhile, the Snagbottoms moved the ball towards the Misfits end zone, pushing the ball on the left hand side of the field. The undead continued to build the pressure though and the player numbers on the field were now in their favor. As the time started to run out the snotlings made a move. They did not have enough players to make a cage for the final push, so the hoppa snotling with the ball decided to make a break for it and head for the end zone. But it was taken down by the undead blitzer and removed from the game. There was a quick scramble for the ball before the undead blitzer caught the bouncing ball and ran towards the snotlings end zone. Fortunately for the Snots though, time was too short and the game ended with the undead blitzer not being able to make their end zone. Meanwhile, the rest of the undead team tried and failed to take some final revenge on the snotling trolls player on the field.

So, the game ended as a scoreless draw. Both teams had their chances but in this tight defensive game, neither could break through the opposition.

So a fun but very challenging game in my view. I will say I was incredibly lucky to get out of this with a draw. First the ejection of the block/dodge star ghoul and the self induced KO of the other before the end of the first half really slowed the undead team. I also very rarely failed a 2+ check, so the trolls/pump wagon were reliable and the titchy dodges worked through the game. But my blocks were not good and Tim’s were successful on nearly all his including 2 die uphill blocks. On the team development scale this game was much better for the undead than the snots, with them doing 4 casualties vs. none for the snotlings. But the key for me is this was not a loss… so onto the next game.