Teams Talk: Does Macca Have To Take Owner Orders Or Go With His Gut?

Manager

It’s a big year for Chris McCormack and his team, now under the ownership of Bahrain Victorious Scorpions. The triathlon legend was in bullish mood after the 2021 draft, but his team were left in the wake of Tim Don’s SLT Eagles, and an untimely COVID infection kept him out of action for the entire second half of the Championship Series.

That meant his undoubted motivational and tactical excellence was somewhat lost for his team.

This year, though, there is no stopping Macca, who was one of the managers who read the situation perfectly in the draft last time out by securing Matt Hauser and picking up Short Chutes galore.

What have they learned?

That balance is absolutely key to success.

Macca did a good job in the 2021 draft. Cassandre Beaugrand and Georgia Taylor-Brown were as formidable a duo as anybody had in any gender. Vincent Luis didn’t perform to his best, but still took a race win and on paper was a solid selection.

Then it was down to discipline leaders.

Macca bagged Matt Hauser, but this year with Short Chutes being earned for teams, it will be interesting to see if he goes as heavy on overall leaderboard contenders or trades off for those who can win Short Chutes.

Do they retain?

Yes, they almost certainly will, but it will mean a huge sacrifice.

Georgia Taylor-Brown will surely be retained as defending champion and the top performing female on the WTCS circuit. And likely Macca will keep faith with Vincent Luis too – as much as anything as you would not want to give him up to a rival team.

But retaining GTB means risking Cassandre Beaugrand if she makes the athlete list, and retaining Luis means Matt Hauser may well end up on another team, and potentially taking all those Short Chutes away from the Scorpions and putting the pressure on Luis from the gun in every race as one of the few who may be able to take them off of the Aussie.

It’s a big gamble either way.

What should their tactics be?

There is another potential nuance to Macca’s selections – his Team Owners.

With the Scorpions franchise now owned by Bahrain Victorious, there is speculation that Macca will prioritise Bahrain Victorious athletes in the draft.

Whether that proves to be true or not is anybody’s guess for now, but looking at the roster that means Taylor-Brown, Luis and Tyler Mislawchuk. But it could yet be that SLT stalwarts like Beaugrand and Henri Schoeman get added.

Trying to secure as many of them as possible will undoubtedly skew the team selections. Though those five are undoubtedly strong they may not be the first choices when it comes to team balance if you did not have to also take into account your owner’s desires given it will create rivalry within the team for overall wins, limit point scoring as the discipline leaderboards suffer and the athletes take points off of each other in pursuit of the title…not to mention the difficult decision of who to elect for a Short Chute. Imagine having to pick between Taylor-Brown and Beaugrand!