[StLee]

Jeremy's Journal
August 30, 2027

We had a defensive meeting today in preparation of our first game against the mighty Koalas. That makes me laugh that a team named themselves the Koalas. There isn’t much fierceness in a Koala from what I’ve seen. They just kind of sit there and stare into space. I know, I know. They’re an Australian national animal, but they’re just so cute!

Anyway, we play the Koalas, so Coach Nickle and the other d-staff ran over some things for us, including assignments. Coach Nickle read out the defensive starters for each of our packages. In our base 4-3 defense, he started reading down the list of names. And then he got to Will. “Naquin. Don't disappoint me, rookie.” I was stunned. Here I expected to be a role player my first year in the league, get worked in on some packages, and instead I’m going to be out there on the first defensive play of the game, assuming Melbourne doesn’t start out with a 4 or 5 WR set from the get go.

Based on our meeting, though, I don’t expect to be out there a whole lot. MK’s QB is Stoffel, who has been in Melbourne his entire career. He likes to spread the field and he’s a good scrambler. That’s how he’s kept his career going for so long. I say I don’t expect to be out there a whole lot because Melbourne does love 5-WR sets and I don’t cover WRs as well as a DB. If they’re lining up in base formations, I’ll be out there each time, but not in spread attacks. We’ll see what happens, and I’ll definitely let you know.

When they run, Dominic Hilliard out of LSU is their main RB, but he hasn’t been off to a blazing start in his career. That’s mostly because Melbourne passes so damn much.

According to elbeesports.sync, the series between Auckland and the rest of the EHFC Oceania Division have been pretty even throughout league history. Melbourne is the only squad in the division that holds a series lead over us, 18-17. We’ll look to even that up next Sunday.