The regular season is in the books, the annual War at the Shore showcase event is behind us and now it's on to the money rounds in the American National Rugby League.
The playoffs get underway on Saturday, August 14 with the quarterfinals.
(Allene Rachal photo)
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All eight teams to advance from the regular season will be starting from scratch as all vie for a spot in the AMNRL Grand Final in Philadelphia on August 28th.
The top four teams have earned home field advantage for the quarters including the New Haven Warriors, Jacksonville Axemen, Aston Bulls and the reigning champion New York Knights.
The Warriors (6-0) and Axemen (6-0) will start firm favorites in their respective matches by virtue of the fact that they both went through the regular season unbeaten. And for the most part they didn’t just win their games, they lit up the opposition.
Both sides dominated around the ruck, were sharp at the play-the-ball and were resolute on defense and both have major strike weapons.
New Haven’s veteran leader Siose Muliumu, Roy Leoni and Noel Tupou regularly sliced and diced with ball in hand and were well backed up by the likes of Derrick Roma, Ewan Robinson and Anthony Sunia.
Jacksonville’s star-studded lineup was punctuated by the brilliance of Brent Shorten, Craig Howitt and latecomer Matt Thornton, while Akarika Dawn, Apple Pope and Luke Gray were aces in support.
Both of these teams will be very hard to beat, especially at home.
The Aston Bulls (4-2) lost only twice, both times to the Axemen. Their big signing, ex-Australian international Daniel Wagon, made an impact as did Matt Shannon and former Philly-Whitemarsh player Louis Tulio.
Likewise, the Knights (4-2) were a tad patchy. Among their standouts were import Andrew leBreton, Todd Fischer and Luke Hume. The latter suffered an injury mid-season, although he’s expected to be back for the playoffs.
Both of these teams were better home sides that struggled at times on the road.
And while the four other playoff-bound teams shouldn’t be written off, the reality is they’ll be playing away games because they didn’t finish in the top four and therefore will start from behind the eight ball.
We'll take an up close look at the Washington DC Slayers, Philadelphia Fight, Connecticut Wildcats and Fairfax Eagles in our next preview.
Quarterfinal matchups (home team listed first):
New Haven Warriors v Fairfax Eagles
Jacksonville Axemen v Connecticut Wildcats
Aston Bulls v Philadelphia Fight
New York Knights v Washington DC Slayers
