May 17, 2023
By Daniel Cohen
“Player Chatter” is a new series consisting entirely of player quotes, thoughts, and feelings from around the league. All current AUDL players were sent a handful of prompts earlier this week designed to be as open-ended as possible. Additionally, players were asked to vote in a single-question, multiple choice survey.
Week 4 Survey Results
After New York, which team deserves to be ranked number two in the league at this point?
DC Breeze: 52.6 percent of votes
Atlanta Hustle: 33.3 percent of votes
Colorado Summit: 14.0 percent of votes
Week 3 Reactions
“The actual fastest man in ultimate is Jeff Babbitt, not Alex Davis.” Scott Xu, New York Empire
“That DC/NY game needs to be in an AUDL.tv classics category alongside games like the Madison/Seattle game of 2016, or other games that might have ended up in the AUDL Retro thing they did over COVID.” Clint McSherry, Pittsburgh Thunderbirds
“Another great rivalry game between DC and New York. It's only fair we got overtime to settle this game.” Jeremy Hill, Toronto Rush
“DC’s defense should focus more on Ultimate Frisbee than tackle football if they want to get turns.” Antoine Davis, New York Empire
“My prediction for the Game of the Week last week was correct. Currently, 2-1 starting from week 2. Driving back to Houston after the game, we were looking at the scores, Matt Lyle quoted Matt Bennett by saying ‘DC just doesn't have IT’ after their overtime loss to New York.” Martin Cruz, Houston Havoc
“Watching Carolina and Atlanta beat Austin this weekend, I came out with a couple main takeaways. Atlanta is very, very good. Patient and athletic is a huge balance. Carolina took advantage of an absolutely awful Sol showing in the first quarter. Not sure I’ve seen them play that poorly.” Anonymous AUDL player (verified)
“Austin played their top seven players on average for 60 percent of all points this weekend. They either don't have depth or don't trust their depth.” Anonymous AUDL player (verified)
“As we were leaving Houston, the rain came pouring down and Matt Bennett and I were constantly checking the weather. We hit the ground running, going up 3-0. After that, the first quarter was kind of sloppy for us. We cleaned it up in the second quarter and ran away with it in the second half. You could see the happiness of everyone on the team after the first franchise win. I'll be a part of that, forever and always.” Martin Cruz, Houston Havoc
“Please do not talk too much about Max Gibson, his head is already way too big.” Steven Milardovich, San Diego Growlers
“I would say Detroit may have learned from Dallas' preseason that a heads down and work mindset is probably better than loud and confident when you've been at the bottom of the pile for a while. But I'd be lying based on the preseason payer chatter. I can't decide if they've backslid a bit this year or we just got that much better—I'm thinking a bit of both—but it was really refreshing to walk away from a Detroit game with a good win after three wins by four or fewer last year.” Clint McSherry, Pittsburgh Thunderbirds
“Someone needs to get a good clip of Joe Cubitt in the final moments of the first half. Made a comically gratuitous layout and then belly-dragged himself to be on top of the disc to make it harder for [Max Sheppard] to pick it up and launch it before the buzzer. It's competing for the funniest unsportsmanlike conduct I've ever seen in any sport.” Clint McSherry, Pittsburgh Thunderbirds
Early Season Thoughts
“Boy has this tweet aged poorly. There's nothing quite like calling your shot and then starting the season 0-3 and in last place.” Anonymous AUDL player (verified)
“Call it what you want but Atlanta has surprised me thus far. *Insert Shaq's ‘I wasn't familiar with your game’ meme.*” Martin Cruz, Houston Havoc
“Atlanta has shown some serious growth and might have their best shot of being the top team in the South for the first time in franchise history.” Clint McSherry, Pittsburgh Thunderbirds
“Toronto seems to have solved their turnovers issue with Jeremy Hill out of the lineup for the season.” Jeremy Hill, Toronto Rush
“Someone check Mac Hecht for steroids.” Matt Smith, Atlanta Hustle
“I can't tell how much of Oakland taking Salt Lake to overtime was them being good or Shred playing bad, but they had some impressive young talent show up in a few big moments. On the Salt Lake note, Sean Connole is popping off and I'm loving it.” Clint McSherry, Pittsburgh Thunderbirds
“Jon Mast and Clint McSherry are not getting enough recognition. They’re a real problem, especially in the Central.” CJ Colicchio, Philadelphia Phoenix
“The Growlers have the most boring end zone celebrations in the league and I think we deserve some recognition for our workmanlike and professional approach to doing sports.” Steven Milardovich, San Diego Growlers
“The Central Division still feels empty without Jason Vallee. Great defender—who's stuck playing offense, WTH?—plus you can go swimming in those eyes. Pawel, you surely read this, let Jason know he is sorely missed. That's half by me, and half Chicago. Please.” Clint McSherry, Pittsburgh Thunderbirds
“AUDL coaches at the National Academy now 10-0 on the season!” Matt Smith, Atlanta Hustle
On to Week 4
“Growlers are going to grab some wins this weekend.” Max Gibson, San Diego Growlers
“I've gotta take Austin [over San Diego]. I just don't have the faith in the West Coast teams, and Austin is probably circling this game as one of their two remaining must-win games…Winning this week sets them up to decide their home/away playoff fate against the Flyers next month, and I'm sure they don't want to leave anything to chance.” Clint McSherry, Pittsburgh Thunderbirds
“I am excited for the San Diego vs. Austin matchup. The main thing I’m learning about Austin is they love to skirt the rules as much as possible, and yet find a way to be the team that complains to the refs the most. So yeah, super fun team to root for.” Anonymous AUDL player (verified)
“Long story short, San Diego gets super tired after playing us and Austin wins.” Martin Cruz, Houston Havoc
“Big matchup in the South between Atlanta and Carolina!” Jeremy Hill, Toronto Rush
“I'm back. -The Sultan” Michael Kiyoi, Los Angeles Aviators
“Parlay of the week: Growlers, Shred, Spiders, Royal, Breeze, Alleycats, Empire, WindChill, Sol, Summit, Spiders, Hustle.” Anonymous AUDL player (verified)
“Flyers get a game back on Hustle, and Indy proves my preseason prediction wrong with another home collapse.” Clint McSherry, Pittsburgh Thunderbirds
“Atlanta-Carolina round 2: If Atlanta wins this game at Carolina with Matt Gouchoe-Hanas back, I will stop doubting them and every prediction from here on out. I'll have them winning until they lose a game. Aviators-Summit round 2: Going to go with Colorado here again. They're just too stacked, but they say it's hard to beat a good team twice.” Martin Cruz, Houston Havoc
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