A New Season Begins

G'day Folks!

Boy the OG League is starting to get pumped for Fantasy Super Rugby 2020! There's just so much to be excited about! So much uncertainty for the draft with the highest player turnover we've ever seen post rugby world cup, plenty of new faces and young talents to step up in Super Rugby 2020, the earliest start for the competition (January 31st!!!!) and of course 2020's most anticipated release, the Draft Rugby fantasy rugby platform.

Speaking of new faces and talents departing Super Rugby for greener pastures in 2020, the OG League too has a few members moving on and consequently some new faces.

OG League 2019: Unfortunately yours truly (Cargie) is behind the camera, but the lads from left to right: Justin ('Nsync'), Nelson ('Spoon'), Wylie ('Taco'), Blake ('The Weatherman'), Nabung ('The Supersub'), Larry ('Calendar/Losing Harry') & Harry ('Eyebrows The Champ')

Farewelling OG League Members: Blake - The cool, calm and collected 'weatherman' has made the finals every single one of his 5 years in the league but he's never been able to deliver under finals pressure and take home the silverware. Old mate is off to travel the world, clear his head and spread the word and legacy of Draft Rugby & the OG League. We've no doubt he'll be back. Larry - Being the second Harry in the league when he joined in 2017, he was donned 'Garry' and both Harry's agreed that the lower ranked Harry at the end of the season would be know as 'Larry' (Losing Harry) going forward. Larry's opted to retire from the OG League after blaming his poor form on difficulty finding time outside of work to play both club rugby and fantasy rugby. He also recently moved in with the missus. We'll let you decide.

Welcoming New OG League Members: Christian Nabung - the younger and better brother of perennial league disappointment Alex Nabung. Upon joining was immediately issued the nickname 'Better Nabung' in the league chat. Christian is one of those flanker's in a scrum-halves body. Out of respect to the first Nabung (boy its tough to respect him though), Christian will be donned 'Newbung or Noobung' (we haven't settled on one yet) for 2020. Come the end of the season the lower ranked Nabung will be known as 'Nabum' going forward. One set of brothers (Harry & Nelson) was already one too many but now the OG league is truly a family affair. AJ - a chronic underperformer for the Southern Districts rugby club (Sydney Shute Shield), we are hoping his knowledge of good players is better than that of how to play good footy. Rumour has it that AJ stands for Arrogant Jerk. Time will tell...

OG League Pre Season Events January 2020

Saturday 11th January: Larry's Calendar Shoot. The punishment in the OG League 2019 for finishing bottom of the table was to star in a 2020 sexy calendar. 2019 league members and a few past league members all got to pick a theme for a month each. There was plenty of inspiration out there! The calendar will be made available to all past and present league members & partners, oh and Larry's entire rugby club. Over the next few weeks we'll be dreaming up the punishments for 2020 and could use your thoughts and suggestions! Send them through.

https://www.instagram.com/p/rumMY5HT6D/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

Friday 17th January (6:45pm): Getting to know your new OG League members! We'll all be heading down to the Waratahs vs Highlanders Pre Season Trial Match at Leichardt Oval in Sydney. Hit us up if you want to grab a beer at the game!

Thursday 23rd January: Dodgeball to decide draft order. Everyone (except Nelson) understands the importance of getting first pick in the draft. Over the years we have decided the draft order in many different ways. Typically this involves some type of sport and drawing a random number out of a hat. Some examples include;

• The Sydney Rugby 7s has previously been perfectly timed prior to the super rugby season (not this year!).  Members are assigned a random team and draft order decided by how those teams place in the competition.

• The Big Bash League (20-20 cricket). Members randomly assigned batsmen and the draft order decided by the highest number of runs made.

• Horse/Greyhound race etc

My personal favourite was the first year I joined. The squad met up bright and early on a Saturday morning, grabbed some coffees and headed down to the beach. We decided our draft order by watching the nippers (young Surf Lifesavers) compete in flags. For the uninitiated here is a video of flags or a rough summary is that its a round by round elimination race where the nippers have to jump up off the sand, spin around and run to grab a flag but there is always one less flag than number of competitors (like musical chairs!). Members are randomly assigned a nipper and the draft order is decided by the order the nippers get eliminated. Just imagine a group of 8 grown men sitting on a hill at the beach screaming their heads off at a group of random children competing in their usual Saturday morning games. There were some worried parents giving us more than concerned looks by the end!!

In our quest to find the immediacy and hype delivered by a short and round by round elimination sport to decide our draft order, Nelson came up with the idea of finding a dodgeball tournament. First of all, yes dodgeball tournaments actually exist and even more amazing, Nelson has friends. Sorry even more amazing, Nelson has friends that play dodgeball. This game of dodgeball the participants will experience crowd support like they never have before!!

Thursday 30th January: Fantasy Super Rugby 2020 Draft Night. The biggest night of the year!

For the 2019 Draft we booked a room at the Royal Hotel in Leichardt. It was tops!

Friday 31st of January: Super Rugby 2020 Kicks off - How bloody good!!

In our next few OG League blog posts, we'll write a quick 2019 recap, update you on our 2020 preseason events (maybe sneak in a pic from Larry's sexy calendar, who knows!) and the leagues plans for 2020 as they unfold.

Stay Tuned! Cheers, Cargie