2020 Club Flag Nationals

The 2020 Flag Nationals was postponed to later on in the year From March to October Due to the Covid 19 Pandemic.

This presented some challenges to our build up to this competition. Limited time to prepare and the competition moved to Auckland from Wellington, The Badgers fielded The Smallest Team since the national champs began, with only 10 players on day one.

With the SPort starting to grow in NZ, This year also marked the first year the tournment to be televised on Sky Sport. This gave all clubs the opportunity to show the nation the talent NZ has to offer.

The Honey Badgers started the tournment off fast with a 2-0 start. The team then suffered its second ever defeat in round robin play to Tamaki Lightening, the only team to now beat them twice in pool play (2018/2020). The Badgers bounced back to finish day 1 3-1.

Day 2 the badgers got a boost with Mitch Bateman, This helped them start well again finishing Second in their pool to make the Semi Final against last years rivals, The Hawks Bay Heat. In one of the best Games of flag football NZ has ever seen saw the  final score end in a draw. The MTF Nelson Honey Badgers had the opprortunity to put the game away in the final seconds, but another great defensive stand by the Heat sent the Game to overtime... or so we thought. Due to competition rules there was no overtime play and The Heat went through to the final based on a better points for and against record.

Disapointed at the rule but also in not making the final for the first time in club history, the Badgers set their sights on the 3rd place playoff against Fellow southerners, Canterbury Redbax. After a slow start, the honey badgers proved they were better than 3rd place by convincing beating Canterbury by a signifcant margin.

The Heat Went on to fall to The Tamaki lightening in the final in a hard fought game.

With the next Club Champs less than 6 months away, The MTF Nelson Honey badgers wioll look to make amends in 2021.