Bugs at NUFL 1

This weekend saw the first National Ultimate Frisbee League event of 2006. 6 Mens teams took part including; Chilli A & B, Southside, Fakulti, Deathstar and Brisbane's own Moreton Bay Bugs.

The Bugs had a mixed bag on it's team - a bunch of experienced players and a whole bunch of people who hadn't played NUFL before:

Team:
Jason de Rooy
Chris Palazzi
Daniel Langen
Justin McMahon
Keith Cameron-Smith
Jonathan Potts
Jason Ray
Rueben Berg
Matt Anscomb
James Larkin
Daniel Blacklock
Phil Stocks
Mat Ryan
Hamish Pope
Chris Burwell
John Damiani (free agent)
Lenny Thong (free agent)
Matthew Petrie (free agent)

The highlight of the weekend was the first game in which we beat 4th seeded Deathstar (we were seeded 5th). Beforehand we thought we had a good shot at beating Deathstar, but given that it was our first game and many of the team had never played together, it was going to be a tuff ask for the first game of the weekend. Somehow we managed to pull it all together and beat them by 1 point in 'extra time'. The rest of the games for the weekend for us went according to seeding, but we had the satisfaction of preventing Chilli A from getting to the final by denying them the bonus point they would have gotten had they beaten us by 10 points or more.

It was great to see all the new players competing at this new level and I think the experience was something they can all learn from. Overall the signs are good for the next NUFL in March when a few key players will be returning to the team, mainly big Mike Nield.

Another highlight of the weekend (for me at least) was one of the first ever third umpire referrals. I caught a Jason Ray huck right near the edge of the endzone and had toed the line and fallen out of the field afterwards. No one was really sure if I was in or not and it was therefore initially called out (especialy by Pottsy!). Then a cameraman who had been standing right on the line said that it was actually in. We went and had a look at the digital display and sure enough there it was, disc in the hand and foot on the ground and behind the line - GOAL!



After such a great weekend I am now considering not going to the last of my 3 U2 concerts to come to NUFL 2 - now that's saying something!

More info on the weekend should be avaliable here soon: http://nufl.com.au/event_index.php?event_id=1