The Applications Committee has had a busy few months, flooded with applications for the upcoming 2019/20 season. A large number of spots were up for grabs, due to the retirement of the 2017/18 champion, Matt O’Byrne, the consistently poor play of Phil Forestmann, and the consistently pesty play of Matt Thornton.

Over the past month, the successful applicants have been contacted by the Chair of the Applications Committee, and the League is delighted to welcome David Kornyei and Tessa Smith as newcomers. Phil Forestmann has been given yet another opportunity at the helm of a team, however Vegas has him at outside odds to make the playoffs despite the draft still ahead of us.

That brings us to the exciting fact that Draft week is next month. Key dates:

Monday 26th August (proposed) – Draft order lottery

Wednesday 28th August – Keeper announcement

Friday 30th August (proposed) – Draft

There will be more formal announcements closer to the time, so keep your eyes and ears peeled!

Ta for now.

This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.

You’re going to publish a post today. Don’t worry about how your blog looks. Don’t worry if you haven’t given it a name yet, or you’re feeling overwhelmed. Just click the “New Post” button, and tell us why you’re here.

Why do this?

• Because it gives new readers context. What are you about? Why should they read your blog?
• Because it will help you focus you own ideas about your blog and what you’d like to do with it.

The post can be short or long, a personal intro to your life or a bloggy mission statement, a manifesto for the future or a simple outline of your the types of things you hope to publish.

To help you get started, here are a few questions:

• Why are you blogging publicly, rather than keeping a personal journal?
• What topics do you think you’ll write about?
• Who would you love to connect with via your blog?
• If you blog successfully throughout the next year, what would you hope to have accomplished?

You’re not locked into any of this; one of the wonderful things about blogs is how they constantly evolve as we learn, grow, and interact with one another — but it’s good to know where and why you started, and articulating your goals may just give you a few other post ideas.

Can’t think how to get started? Just write the first thing that pops into your head. Anne Lamott, author of a book on writing we love, says that you need to give yourself permission to write a “crappy first draft”. Anne makes a great point — just start writing, and worry about editing it later.

When you’re ready to publish, give your post three to five tags that describe your blog’s focus — writing, photography, fiction, parenting, food, cars, movies, sports, whatever. These tags will help others who care about your topics find you in the Reader. Make sure one of the tags is “zerotohero,” so other new bloggers can find you, too.