This weekend was the second and last National Ultimate Frisbee League for 2006. Eight men’s teams and 5 women’s teams from across Australia took part with Queensland being represented by the Moreton Bay Bugs (Men) and Sultry (Women).
The Bugs went into the weekend seeded 4th and although they had a reduced squad in terms of size, several key players returned to the line up:
Alistair Don
Brett Matzuka
James Larkin
Jason Ray
Jonathan Potts
Justin McMahon
Leon McIntyre
Mike Neild
Phil Stocks
Rueben Berg
Timothy Ferguson
Hamish Pope (Townsville)
Matt Anscomb (Townsville)
Matt Petrie (Free Agent)
Lenny Thong (Free Agent)
John Damiani (Free Agent)
After easily accounting for Chili B, the Bugs faced 5 seeded Deathstar. Last NUFL the game went right down to the wire and this one followed suite. It was a tight contest all game and at 14 all (after soft cap) Jason Ray threw a ‘perfect’ hammer across field to myself which I then put in front of Mike Neild for the winning score! (I will leave it up to someone else to comment on the nature of JRay’s ‘perfect’ hammer).
Next up was Number 1 seed Fakulti. Buoyed from their earlier victory the Bugs came out hard and thanks to some impressive juggling skills from Mike Neild and amazing feats of height from the two shorter boys (Brett and JD) the Bugs came away with a 15-10 victory.
Our undefeated run left us at the top of our pool and secured a “feature game” Sunday afternoon against Chili A.
Early Sunday morning we came out and hoped to continue our unbeaten run for the weekend against Southside.
Hmmm.
Somehow Southside seem to have the hoodoo over the Bugs as they have beaten us for the last few years and that trend unfortunately showed no sign of abating. Southside ran out easy winners with us managing to give them most of the points for the game on a platter.
We regrouped and reasserted ourselves against Fakulti B (15-6) in preparation for the ‘big one’.
At 3:00 the siren sounded loud and clear to announce the start of the final Men’s game for the weekend – Bugs vs Chili A. The Bugs got off to an early lead with several quick points, but as expected Chili started clawing their way back. It was a tough, tight, intense contest with several heated foul discussions and some beautiful pieces of play from both sides, all watched on by an ever growing crowd. Chili took the half but the Bugs kept fighting. Unfortunately the Bugs lost 3 key players early in the half – Brett due to injury and JD and Lenny to flights back to Perth. But the Bugs struggled on and at 11 all it was a game to 13. After several attempts to score from both teams (and some major reworking to JRay’s nose thanks to a stray cleat – YES it really was an accident) Chili prevailed and won 13 -11.
It was an amazing weekend with significant contribution for every player on the team, but the stand out was Mike Neild who again showed that he is among the elite of Australian Ultimate with some superb leaps and catches.
Due to the closeness of the competition it is not yet know where the Bugs finally placed but they can be happy with the fact that they did achieve their goal of defeating a top 3 team.
If anyone else has any comments on the weekend – please feel free to post them here.
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