Friday, February 29, 2008

BPL Round 2 Results



Another interesting night at BPL with the top three seeds remaining undefeated. But then again, its a long hard slog to the finals still.

All fees and player registration should be completed by next week.

And from next week we'll have a toilet key - so no more schlongs in the long!

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Saucy Sultry

Sultry have announced their sauciest line-up in several years:

Sultry 08:
Ms Tatiana, Ms Tamara, Ms Suz, Ms Stephanie, Ms Sarah, Ms Molly, Ms Maylin, Ms Lilian, Ms Kristen, Ms Jenny, Ms Eireann, Ms Danielle, Ms Chloe, Ms Blair, Ms Bree, Ms Beth

Coach: Mr Boevink

Cheerleaders: Young Mr Robb, Mr Lankowski, Master Good, others.

Certainly likely to outdo Firestorm in terms of placings at Nationals. Top six for sure, if not bringing home a medal.

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Northern Regionals - There's No Need to Feel Down

One of the most closely guarded secrets in Queensland Ultimate was revealed to a select few at the-league-formerly-known-as-YUFL last night.

The theme for the Northern Regionals party on Saturday 15 March.

Its come as the Village People.

The Construction Worker. The Traffic Cop. The Native American. The General Infantryman (or sometimes, the Sailor). The Cowboy. And of course, the Leather Biker.

Of course, if that doesn't float your boat, there's always room for a bit of flexibility.

Be the Milkman. The Air-hostess. The Barber. The Postie. The Nurse. The Plumber. You get it?

Just don't get hoity toity or lahdy dah though - turning up as the IT Specialist, the Entomologist, the Architect, the Bureaucrat or the University Student will see you ridiculed or worse .... you have been warned.

Dear Diary ... Twisted Firestarter

Its been a few weeks off from the Firestorm training diary, thanks to a bit of rain, but we're back today with the unstoppable Will and smooth Stu.


Hey Hey Hey everyone. This week it lands in my comfortable lap to drop a dear diary" on you all so here goes.

Firstly the thing I have really noticed is the development and building of relationships with other players in the club. Players who have only been together a few weeks are now starting to work like a well oiled machine and we are starting to see people move into possible roles in the lead up to Nationals on our fine campaign.

And its getting me excited like a fat man before a caramel pie. As a returning player it's fantastic to see the philosophy Firestorm started with really flourishing. Spawning from 3 Nationals rookies last year (if my alcohol addled brain accounts correctly) to about 18 now? (for new players to Aus Nationals). I think i'm finding comfort in that
because I know my hazing is over and if Chris can afford it to the new players yours will come ;) .

Game specifically i noted the resurgence of our tried and true "Horozontal Stack" formation and "Hard Under" marks forcing long deep options for us to bring down or if on "D" easy swats out of the air and shutting down the easy %100 throws the opposition wants. This proved quite effective last year with our throwers easily clearing the stack and giving the receivers plenty of room to operate into the endzone.

Like all machines of war we are going to need maintenance and regular fine tuning if we are going to adapt to different combat situations. This poor attempt at an analogy is squarely aimed at getting yourself ready for the weather. Last Saturday we all felt the heat and as aL put it "you know it's hot when not even water on your face shocks you". He hit the nail on the head. A big shock for me playing in just daytime conditions last year was the giant ball of celestial fire and gamma rays demanding that my body do this thing called sweating (apparently it's the in thing to do now to keep cool under the sun). Unlike playing at night where it's rather easy to keep cool daytime frizbee is a bit of a shock. I'd easily recommend getting out during the day and try to do some exercise and just get used to it a little, no doubt a few extra of these weekend sessions and regionals will help but it's something to keep in mind.

Now. Thats enough garbage spewing from me. If I add anymore word blocks to this I can start building a house.

Ud4lyF Will



And now over to Stu:

After the floods of the past few weeks we were finally able to get back out and play some Ultimate, although we had been relegated to the 'dark' pitch at the northern end of the field.

Spirits were high to be able to play again but maybe suffered from a lack of direction in trying to work out how to play 3-4 offence. People were unsure how to make the deep cuts in a horizontal stack and how to time them off one another. No offence to Al, quite often what is in your head isn't the same as what ends up happening on the pitch!! And in many ways we need to be able to learn to adapt to a non-perfect cutting pattern.

Saturday mornings games showed how tough it could really be in the midday heat, especially to a pommey like me who would normally be playing in 4 degree winter league now rather than 40 degree heat. The experience was definitely worth it as some of the plays from squads we're starting to look pretty sweet. And the Zippo team kept dumping and recycling the disc which in the end found holes in the Jetstream D. I'm well up for running around in the midday sun to get used that sort of temperature and if anyone wants to join in some running/drilling let me know (I'll be living in Paddington from Saturday).

We have got some very athletic players in the squad, both experienced and newbies who are all willing to bust a gut for the team. It's going to be good to see over the next 9 weeks how we develop from a group of individuals to a team of players who know when to make that hard cut yourself and when to let someone else take it and set up your own continuation cut so when can get some unstoppable flow going.

Stu

Monday, February 25, 2008

Two Ducks, Two Cubs, One Doc

In passing ....

Congratulations to Jenny B and Buzz for impressing a busload of ladies.

Congratulations to Joel and Carol on the arrival of Eve on Friday 22/2. Everyone is doing well.

Congratulations to Sandra and Matt on their arrival also. Everyone is doing well.

Congratulations to Gen on submission of the PdD thesis.

W00t!

Sunday, February 24, 2008

Learn to Play

The fabulous UQ gang are organising two weeks of "Learn to Play". While geared for people getting into the upcoming UQ Social League, anyone can get on down and learn to play Ultimate.

Ultimate players - this is one of the best ways to get your friends into Ultimate. Its no-cost, no-hassle. There will be heaps of other beginners thanks to the grand UQ O-Week recruitment efforts. Round them up and get them down there, and get along yourself and give them a hand (we all know the Spirit Goddess karmically rewards you for helping out with new players).

Learn to Play Ultimate - Wednesday 27 February and Wednesday 5 March from 6pm at Oval 7, UQ St. Lucia. Corner of Sir Fred Schonell Drive andColeridge Street - http://www.uq.edu.au/maps/index.html?menu=1 Take a light shirt and a dark shirt with you, a waterbottle and cleats if you have them.

Saturday, February 23, 2008

Northern Regionals

Here's the info for Northern Regionals. Northern Regionals is the biggest and only Open/Women's tournament in Queensland and is frankly heaps of fun. If you are a guy playing BPL or the Yeronga or UQ League, you should be playing this. If you are a gal playing WUFL or Yeronga or UQ League, you should be playing this!

When Saturday 15 and Sunday 16 March, 2008. Games are currently expected to start at 9am both days.

Venue Griffith University – Nathan Campus AFL Field – off Kessels Road and across from QEII Hospital (note this is the far south-east corner of the campus).

Rego You MUST register to play - http://www.afda.com/rego/showcompetition.php?competitionid=420

Open Open division runs both days. At present we have four teams confirmed - Firestorm Zippo, Firestorm Jetstream, Byron Bay and Townsville. These teams will be fighting it out to qualify for the National titles in April at Coffs Harbour. Two further teams are looking for players - Firestorm Firefighters and Brisbane Barbarians. If you are interested in playing, you'd be welcome on these two teams - just register yourself on one and we'll sort it out. There is also the possibility of either a UQ Raw team and/or a Gold Coast team attending.

Women The Women's division will be held on Sunday. Two teams are confirmed - Sultry and Minx - both are seeking qualification to Nationals. A third 'pickup' team, the Chumpettes, is also getting together - register yourself on that one if you're not keen to get to Nats.

Cost $40 two days, $20 one day - includes fields, water, shade, lunch both days, party. For most teams, we'll be arranging payment before the day, to help make things easier for the organisers. Check with your Captain.

Qualification Notes This event acts as a qualifier for teams and players for Nationals. In the Open division, the Northern Region has only one automatic slot. However, it may gain additional wildcard slots, based on the number of players attending Regionals (that's why we want you to come and play and register). Note if your team qualifies and decides to attend Nationals, you can only play Nationals with that team. If your team does not qualify for Nationals, then you as an individual can pick up on another team to Nationals (if they'll have you of course).

Buses Try transinfo.qld.gov.au using "Griffith Uni Carpark – Kessels Road" From City: Take the 120 or 135 buses from stops A4 or A5 under the Queen St Mall to the "QEII Hospital" stop, which is across the road from the fields. The 125 goes there too but is a lot slower. Note that the Griffith Uni stop on the South East Busway is a LONG way from the fields (but then buses that way are frequent/fast). From West/East: The Great Circle 598/599 bus from Toowong/ Indooroopilly direction or Garden City direction runs on Saturday (not Sunday) and stops at QEII Hospital stop also.

Accomodation There are some people from out of town looking for friendly Brisbanites to give them a place to sleep and shower – open your home and get in touch.

Party is TBC but on Saturday night. All of the local Ultimate community will be welcome.

QUDA AGM Will be held some time on Sunday - exact timing will depend on the rest of the draw.

Friday, February 22, 2008

Blog Stats

Someone asked (sorry, I can't remember who) how the blog was going.

Well I noticed today we clocked up our 400th unique visitor this year, according to Google Analytics. Not bad I guess?

In terms of regulars - generally we're clocking about 25-40 unique visitors each day, with the occasional peak of 50-60.

There are about a dozen regular commenters. The commenters have a big influence on what we post here (as you may have notice more BPL content lately ...) So comments are very welcome.

Most are from Australia, but some curious folk from the USA, Canada and the UK show up as well.

BPL Round 1 Results

*corrected from this morning where I had Messy on 12 rather than 14


*Late in the day update: Team and game reports have been posted at the UQ Lover Website, and the Bugger blog - links over there on the top right. Looks like you'll be growing your browsing pleasure this season? ps good work Mike and Gref

Thursday, February 21, 2008

BPL Round 1 ...again

Weather looks great on Thursday morning ... so I think its safe to assume we're on tonight.


Here's the draw:

The League Formerly Known as YUFL

The Monday night mixed league kicked off a few days back, and we've been a bit slack in posting stuff about it .... hope to fix that soon.

The big change this season of course is the use of two sets of fields - the Yeronga AFL fields (where Monday mixed has been for the last 18 months or so), and now the Annerley Junior Soccer Club fields (where Thursday league has been for a few years now).

This is a great thing as the Yeronga fields have been busting at the seams for some time.

With the move (half-way at least) away from Yeronga though, does the Yeronga Ultimate Frisbee League (YUFL) need a new name though? Maybe ... or maybe not.

Some people like to see the word 'intermediate' in this league. I don't know why. In my personal view the League is very open to experienced players, and can handle beginners (at least in terms of a few on each team).

Me, I'd like to see the words Monday and Social and Mixed in the name. These are the defining elements of the League in my mind. I like Social because it sets the tone of the League, without saying expert/intermediate/beginner - its the 'everyone can play' league.

I don't think I have an automatic winner, but how about BUMS League - Brisbane Ultimate Mixed Social League?

Post your comments ....

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

BPL2008 Preview: Tipping by the Numbers

There’s a theory for tipping teams in Ultimate competitions, known I think as ‘the AFDA Number Average’ theory, that floats around Australian Ultimate.

The theory goes that if you add up the AFDA numbers of players in each team in a league or tournament, and then average them, the team with the lowest average is most likely to win the league or tournament, because they are obviously the hardest of the hard core in terms of experience.

So here’s the theory applied to this season of the BPL, as determined by the registered players as of a couple of days ago:

1st Dojo Mojo – average AFDA number of 3990
Helped by Phil and Dave’s sub 1000’s, a bunch of guys in the 1000’s (you can see how the Dojo have stayed a unit over the years), and nobody over 10,000.

2nd Rawhide – average of 4122
Helped by Fergs and Flan’s sub 250’s, although they have the most recent joiner of the AFDA in new Stu, who's coming in at over 11,000 …

3rd UQ Lovers – 6018
Piers Truter (sub-35) and Geoff Spurling (sub-125) – I salute you as the longest-continuous AFDA members in the BPL. Everyone knows that Piers has been around forever, but not many have heard Geoff's tales of kayaking over to UQ from West End to play in the old days.

4th Messy Buggers – 6627
Jason Ray of course, in the 180’s helps.

5th Slippery Buggers - 7611
As we keep saying, Notty is the best.

6th UQ Passion – 8336
Johnny Mac and Nathan are the only guys under 8,000 in this team! Whiskey tango foxtrot!?

What are YOUR tips for this season??

Uni Games to Become Semi-Permanent on the Gold Coast

Chris has posted the news that the Uni Games will be held on the Gold Coast, every second year between now and 2015. That's 2009, 2011, 2013 and 2015! The other years it will continue to rotate around the nation.

This is extremely exciting news for Brisbane and Queensland Ultimate.

And of course, extremely exciting for the local Universities and something for them to really plan for as well as they can. UQ for example now has a greater chance of becoming THE powerhouse for University Ultimate in Australia.

I've been ruminating for some time that the Gold Coast remains Queensland Ultimate's unknown frontier, but haven't got a decent post together yet. And a few people at the QUDA Meeting last weekend heard me propose that Queensland look at making an arrangement with AFDA regarding Beach Nationals. I'll have to post that soon too.

But anyways - very exciting.

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

You see, he killed my woman

I believe we have pointed you to Simon Talbot's blog before, but in the last couple of day's he's posted a nice summation of how Regionals and Nationals might be shaping up.

Wednesday League Starts Soon

The new season of the Wednesday night UQ league kicks off next week.

The UQ League is for players of any level - there are typically lots of beginners involved, such as uni students who found out about Ultimate during O-Week.

The League is open to non-students - if anything, the UQ Club encourages these people to come down as it makes Ultimate look bigger and better and more attractive for the newbies.

Dates: The season starts with two free 'come and try' nights on Wednesday the 27 February and 5 March - then its followed by a 12 week season.

Where: Oval 7 at UQ off Coleridge St, Sir Fred Schonnel Drive and Walcott St.

Time: 6 pm sharp and running till 8:30pm.

Cost: $70 and gets you the league, a UQ Ultimate disc as well as the end of season party.

Get on down there and enjoy.

Friday, February 15, 2008

BPL Teams and their Star Wars Avatars




Northern Regionals Rego

Registration for Northern Regionals 2008 is open at http://www.afda.com/rego/showcompetition.php?competitionid=420

Registration is very useful and important!

Promotion will be pumped up over the coming week, but most of you know the drill by now.

Thursday, February 14, 2008

BPL Round 1

Fields closed - Round 1 will return next week.

Philly-Dog

Happy birthday Phil. May wine, women and song flow freely.

Always remember, if you have Phil on your team, he has only one role on the team - that of playa.

Not Ultimate - Quak-Fu


"Do you know why the government makes us stand in lines? Because if we came at it all at once, we could take it."

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

BPL2008 Preview: Mike and Steve

The Brisbane Premiership League. Six teams. One trophy. One love - high level Ultimate! And glory and fame ever after!!

We're done the Club Previews, but to get away from stats and into the real world of gut feelings, we at the Brisbane Ultimate Blog managed to grab a virtual beer with two stalwarts of the Brisbane Premier League scene, Messy Buggers captain and space-needle Mike Neild, and Dojo Mojo Senior Super-Sensei Stephen Cameron.

Brisbane Ultimate Blog (BUB): Thanks guys - so which two teams do you expect we'll see in the final at the end of this season?

Mike: MBB: Messy and MBB: Slippery. I can't work out how much of this is blind pride and how much is calculated judgment. I'm backing some Buggers success because the teams have been good in the past. We have also been good at incorporating new players into the teams. I feel like there is a bit of that going on with all the teams this league - adding new players - and we have good systems for doing that. I also feel like the Buggers club has developed good systems for dealing with the Frisbee Dojo and the Rawhide teams.

So to summarise, I think the Buggers teams will manage their new players better than UQ, and we will continue to cope with the games of the 2 teams with less player turnover. Too honest? Too much blind pride? We'll see hey?

Steve: I believe sporting commentators typically use the cliche "it's too early to tell" at times like this, but they clearly haven't been watching enough BPL action.

Everybody knows that if you want to be in the Final you need to beat Dojo Mojo and/or whichever Bugs team features the patented "huck-it-to-you-know-who" offence.

It's hard to tell this early looking at the rosters just how the Bug and UQ teams are going to shake out and where the top talent is likely to land, so given their stirling performance and 1-point loss in last season's semi-final, some people might even give the relatively stable and highly experienced (seems cruel just to say "old") Rawhide a better-than-average chance of being in the big game, despite their shirt colour being described as "sprout".

BUB: What's got you excited about this season?

Steve: The Dojo Mojo is full of fresh talent right now, and we've got one or two rookies joining the team this season as well. Each one of these new guys has really added something to the Dojo, and after a full season together I'm expecting some serious firepower on the field. Oh, and there's at least one new line of Dojo Mojo merchandise coming to BPL this season...

Mike: Yep, its the new players that are coming into the league. I'd hope that all 6 teams have players who are participating in their first BPL and I'm really looking forward to seeing how those blokes adapt to the faster pace of the competition.

BUB: What do you reckon the Bugs and Dojo are bringing this season that you haven't brought before?

Mike: Shirts from England. We might try and learn a new defense as well.

Steve: I'd say probably defence. And I might try to get into the habit of bringing the Dojo flag down to the game every week as well.

BUB: Which of the other teams do you have the most respect for, fear of or rivalry with (pick one)?

Steve: I've chosen the "respect" option in this choose-your-own-adventure question as the answer to the "rivalry" option is obvious and "fear" is an emotion simply unknown to those walking the Dojo path. But now I'm more than one sentence into the answer I'm just wishing I'd taken the easy out. Let's just say that mutual respect is one of the fundamental tenets of Ultimate - it's right up there in rule 1.4, so clearly for us to respect one team more than the others would be against the spirit of the game. And yes, I would run for parliament with question-dodging rhetoric like that if only Kevin Rudd wasn't my local member...

Mike: I'll take that question! The UQ lovers team and the MBB have had a series of close and competitive games together over the last few seasons. The nature of that UQteam is similar to ours, a few experienced players with a continuous stream of fresh new athletic players. The Lovers have matched up well against us for a number of seasons. I think we even had a drawn season a few leagues ago, we drew one game, they won by 1 in another game and we won by 1 in the third game. Great rivalry.

BUB: Thanks heaps guys, and good luck this season and throughout the year.

Mike: Thanks Jase.

Steve: May your throws be like the flowers in the sunshine, and bloom in plenty.

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

"Excellent Cut from Cargill"

Noted Ultimate Chick Sara C is doing the World's Greatest Shave this year.

Here's the link to sponsor her:
http://www.worldsgreatestshave.com/profile.php?id=385970

We here at the Brisbane Ultimate Blog are putting in $10, and hope to share some photos with you when the deed is done ....

BPL2008 Preview: University of Queensland

The Brisbane Premiership League. Six teams. One trophy. One love - high level Ultimate! And glory and fame ever after!!

BPL kicks of its first season for 2008 on Thursday 14 February, and its an honour for the Brisbane Ultimate Blog to finish its preview of each club with the exciting University of Queensland.


The University of Queensland has been central to the story of Brisbane Ultimate since year dot, with Brisbane's first Leagues being run by the club at the St Lucia Campus. UQ has sent teams to Halibut and the Australian University Games from the mid '90's onwards. With the growth of the Brisbane open scene, 2004 saw UQ enter the Premiership in 2004.

After winning the first season in 2007, the UQ Ultimate Lovers split for the last season into two squads - UQ Lovers and UQ Passion.

Squad List - Passion
Co-Captains: John McNaughton and Julian Sacre
New Players: Dan Young, John McNaughton, Dean Vlahaki, Aaron Webber.
Returning Players: Will Churchill, Tom Daley, Bart Edgar, Geoff Grundy, Nathan Litzow, Ben Lucas.

Squad List - Lovers*
Captain: Al Don
New Players: Brock Cunliffe, Will Larkin, Bruce Wells.
Returning Players: Peter Allan, Chris Cunliffe, Rohan Ferris, AJ Joshi, Robert Lowe, Geoff Spurling, Erhart Stockhausen, Piers Truter Tristan Bec, Piers Truter.

Departing players: Brett Matzuka, Jonathan Potts, Chris Burwell, Chris Garrick, Dan Wiechec, Jason Stritter.

Other stats and trivia:
- UQ has won the most Spirit Prizes in the history of the Premier division.
- UQ have come second in grand finals more than anyone – four (Winter 2004, Winter 2005, Spring 2006 and Winter 2007).
- UQ are the slackest at providing information to the Brisbane Ultimate Blog's 2008 BPL Preview. Maybe they're busy with their new website (see top right), or starting the new season of the UQ League ... so I can't blame them too much!

*(most of the Lover squad is guesswork by ye blogger due to limited info - apologies for any errors)

Monday, February 11, 2008

Gold Coast Pickup

Gold Coast pickup has kicked off again for 2008.

Owen Park (on Queen St, near the Gold Coast Hospital), Southport, Sundays from 2pm.

Perfect for any Brisbane-ites on the way home from a Sunday at the beach.

Barra barra mundi's!

Congratulations Kristin 'Notty' Nott and Al 'aL' Don for their selection in the Australian Mixed Ultimate team (aka the Barramundi's) to compete in the World Ultimate and Guts Championships in Vancouver in August. Go Queensland!

Friday, February 08, 2008

BPL2008 Preview: Rawhide

The Brisbane Premiership League. Six teams. One trophy. One love - high level Ultimate! And glory and fame ever after!!

BPL kicks of its first season for 2008 on Thursday 14 February, and its an honour for the Brisbane Ultimate Blog to continue its preview of each team with the newest kids on the block - Rawhide.

Captain: Shawn Robb*
New players: Stuart Austin (Import from UK). Andrew Badman (of Byron Bay) may be making guest appearances.
Returning players: Sam Challis, Tim Ferguson, Sean Flanagan, James 'Grannie' Gransull, Jon Good, Stewart McGlashan, Nate Peterson, Beth Rougier, Tony Ross*, Joel Smith*.
*Shawn, Tony and Joel are expected to miss large parts of this season, due to planned surgery, or impending fatherhood.
Departing players: Huddy Fuller (moved to Tasmania), Dustin Czok (taking a break).

Other Stats and Trivia:

-Rawhide is the newest team in the BPL, now entering their third season.
-Rawhide Best and Fairest for 2007 was Jon Good.
-Rawhide Player's Player Award for 2007 was James 'Grannie' Gransull.
-Rawhide Rookie of the Year 2007 was Sam Challis.
-Rawhide feel a close affinity for the movie, 'The Blues Brothers'. Plays are often named after things from the movie.
-Several Rawhide players featured in the dual Premiership team Whippet Good.
-Graphic designer Sam Challis created the famous 'happy cow' logo.

BPL2008 Preview: Moreton Bay Buggers

The Brisbane Premiership League. Six teams. One trophy. One love - high level Ultimate! And glory and fame ever after!!

BPL kicks of its first season for 2008 on Thursday 14 February, and its an honour for the Brisbane Ultimate Blog to continue its preview of with the juggernaut that is the two-teamed Moreton Bay Buggers Club.

The Moreton Bay Buggers name has been synonymous with Brisbane Ultimate for several years. The Buggers were originally a Brisbane all-star team that played at Nationals up to 2005, then a distinct Club for Nationals 2006 and BPL since then. In late 2007, the Buggers fielded two teams in the BPL, the Crusty Buggers and the Fresh Buggers.

In 2008, two new playing teams have been selected - the Messy Bugs and the Slippery Bugs. The teams splits are designed to be as even as possible and don’t have a themed structure such as the Crusty and Fresh teams from last season.

Squad List: Messy Buggers
Captain: Michael Neild
New players: George Salisbury (Rookie), Kristan Elvish (Rookie), Carl Peters (Rookie), Reese Stewart (Rookie)
Returning players: Graham Pricket, Spinner Sheppard, Steve Glen, Nandor Locker, The Vicar (Kanowski), Ben Worby, Jason Ray, Wet Nose

Squad List: Slippery Buggers
Captain: James Larkin
New players: Erik Stevenson (Rookie), Damian Wong (Rookie), Felix Duvallet (Rookie)
Returning players: Jangles, Ben 'Beej' Blackman, Manuel, Nick, Chaddy, Josh Peters, Notty

Departing players: Mat Ryan (limited time), Harry Birrel, Dan Langen (limited time), Cree, Craig, Carlos Sanchez

The Moreton Bay Buggers are the only Club in Queensland boast their own dedicated blog (link on the right) for all your Bugger trivia needs (like their famed 'nights out').

The Moreton Bay Buggers are the only team (I think) with a high school student on it. Oh yeah, and Mike Neild was BPL MVP a couple of times too (sorry for forgetting the first time, Mike).


Bugger Me! Some of the 2007 Bugs.

Thursday, February 07, 2008

BPL2008 Preview: Dojo Mojo

The Brisbane Premiership League. Six teams. One trophy. One love - high level Ultimate! And glory and fame ever after!!

BPL kicks of its first season for 2008 on Thursday 14 February, and its an honour for the Brisbane Ultimate Blog to begin its preview of each team with the venerable Dojo Mojo.


Squad: (as at time of writing)
Captain: Stephen Cameron
New players: Mitch Carter (Rookie)
Returning players: Dave Watson, Stephen Hjelm, Matt Eastburn, Lee O'Dwyer, Andy McLean, Andy Lankowski, Phil Stocks, Luke Allen-Ankins, Dan Blacklock, Stefan Rapazzo, Mike Morgan, and Steve Pettit.
Departing players: Dom? Talk to us, man. Where in the world is Dom Ventura?

Other Stats, Notes and Trivia:

Dojo Mojo are the oldest continuous club in the BPL.

Dojo Mojo is the latest incarnation in the great tradition of the Cobra Kai Frisbee Dojo, which stretches nearly as far back as the game of Ultimate itself.

Dojo Mojo won the Div 2 "Plate" trophy at Nationals 2004.

Dojo Mojo won Northern Regionals 2006, and came 7th at Nationals 2006.

Dojo Mojo is the only frisbee team in the known world with its own team flag. This, along with the Dojo Mojo headbands, wristbands, caps, shirts and future items which remain secret at present, has eared Dojo Mojo the title of "Best Merchandised Team in Brisbane Ultimate Frisbee History".

It is the widely held view* that Dojo Mojo is the best-looking team in the southern hemisphere at the very least (we don't like to brag). Stefan's popularity with the ladies may have something to do with this.

It is no coincidence that there are seven players on the Dojo line in Ultimate, and there were seven samurai in Akira Kurosawa's great film "The Seven Samurai".

All Dojo Mojo plays are named after the wise sayings of Mr Miyagi.

Jack White once said that red, white and black is the most powerful colour combination in the world.

*Editor's note: I think this is a little unsubstantiated ;)

Stoß Tag

Time for our fortnightly turn away from the unglaublitchy world of Brisbane Ultimate, and report on last night's Hump Day efforts. Or should I say, Stoß Tag efforts, as this time around we were at the German Club next to the fabled 'Gabba cricket ground.

Geography was both a pro and a con this time around. The pro of course was that German is famous as the land of beer, and beer there was, all at reasonable prices. The con was the German Club being a little harder to get to than places in the CBD - and this was compounded by the torrential rail that came across Brisbane, giving Shagger and his Sultry Lady, along with Runeo and I, a bit more trouble getting there than usual.

Disappointingly, the Engine Room and the Skipper were unable to attend - the former is on some sort of crazy 'no alcohol' month (note how he picks the shortest month though), and the latter on some sort of overseas junket. The vast selection of beers at the German Club would've driven their little connoisseur brains quite mad. As it was, for once I was able to put in some extended dark ale joy on and not have to deal with multiple jugs of flavour before me.

Bit more on the Engine - apparently he's celebrating his engagement the day he comes off his no alcohol binge - I suspect the lack of training will limit his fortitude on the night.

Food was ok - nothing special. You could sense the atmosphere would be great there on a busy night though.

Still, a very pleasant evening!

Wednesday, February 06, 2008

We Will Huck Them on the Campuses ...

O-Week is just around the corner, the UQ League is getting ready to kick off in a few weeks, the Lovers and Passion are preparing for BPL2008's launch (on Valentine's Day, appropriately enough) and then there's the prospect of defending the Australian University Championship around the corner. Its going to be a big year for the University of Queensland, so we at the Brisbane Ultimate Blog crash-tackled (metaphorically of course) Will Churchill to get the lowdown on the In Crowd.

Brisbane Ultimate Blog (BUB): Will, just how frickin' good IS Ultimate at the University of Queensland?


Will: To put it simply, Brett Matzuka took an ok, run of the mill, your moderately attractive sibling kind of thing ... and ate it whole. And in that Hawaiian digestive system of his he cooked up awesome and gave birth to a gold deity. Now we the second generation are shining that golden goddess to gleam gleefully in her gorgeous garland of greatness before we unleash her all over Brisbane (Think Angelina Jolie from Beowulf but without the whole demonic thing going for her). Frankly, I think we do it pretty freakin well. Each week I chat to people who say that they look forward to Wednesday League just to play at UQ. I think it’s the structure of how we run it that makes it more than just playing, we get everybody intermingled and meeting eachother before we even break out into games.

BUB: Is it true that all the greats of Brisbane Ultimate got their start at UQ? I am thinking of Healy, Ray, Burwell, McGlashan, Cooper-White …

Will: UQ drips multi-generational awesome. We have some of the best players in the city here. On top of the boys you mentioned we also have the Cheeseburger Johnny Mac, that kid who goes to uni occasionally, Cunliffe I think his name is. and the blog-favourite and ladies man himself Al Don. Basically if you want to learn from some of the best out there and get some real Frisbee action the best place to start is UQ.

BUB: So what's to look forward to in 2008?

Will: This year is going to be pretty big. We’re investigating some forms of sponsorship/venue kind of thing to give the social side of the sport we all love an overhaul. Also with revised financial agreements with our overlords we also have more dosh to spend and now have freedom to get into things we’ve been wanting for a while now.

At the moment we have our own discs on the way from the good ole U.S of A and if things go well we could go into some club clothing or something else all together, but that’s a little deeper into 2008.

The other big thing is Uni Games. This year is in Melbourne and we are going to be defending the crown so hard fought for last year so local uni talent from UQ is something we definitely want to get growing in preparation for this year.

BUB: Why do you think Uni students dig Ultimate so much?

Will: Ultimate makes you sexy, and that's what Uni students are into. No, seriously, I think that Uni Students are into OUR kind of ultimate, heck, even non uni students still hang around because of how we play. The club I would argue is on par with YUFL but we drink more and make it a bit of a party. I would challenge any YUFL, WUFL and BPL player to come down and take the Pepsi challenge on this one.

BUB: Sounds tough. Who's in the running to be the new Brett Matzuka and Jonathan Potts?

Will: At the moment my money is on the big guy Julian Sacre I’ll never forget the point at BPL where Jules beat Mike Nield for a sky in the endzone to take a point. That man is magic, can throw a disc pretty well too.

BUB: And now for some personal questions, Will. Old school or new school?

Will: New School man, check this new iPhone and this invention called the internetz. Now don’t get me confused with Junior School, I hate Corey Delaney just as much as the next Old School Grizzled Ancient.

BUB: I dig. Spirit or beer?

Will: Beer FTW. It’s always a good way to start the night (and often a bad way to end it *cough* Nationals 07 *cough*). Specifically, if I’m being cheap I’ll hit up the Tooey’s Extra Dry or Steinlager or if im going to be classy its usually a Stella or Becks (Not the crappy Australian stuff, make sure it’s the imported kind, you’ll thank me later).

BUB: Jangles or Stefan?

Will: Hands down to Stefan, that bloke is hooked up with the ladies who I had the pleasure to meet at Uni Games haha. I hear Jangles keeps his toe nail clippings in a jar and sleeps with it… I’m not very down with that.

BUB: Me neither. And you've got a new-look website too I see?


Will: Yep, and I see you've added it to your links list there on the Brisbane Ultimate Blog. Its even got some new updates on it!

BUB: Thanks Will!

Tuesday, February 05, 2008

Spam from aL

There's no mystery as to why aL would email his new mobile number to 300 or so Brisbane Ultimate players. I mean, the man's ego .... well, its sizable!

But the real question is why aL has a new mobile phone number? What happened to the old one? Here's a few theories, please feel free to post your own.

a) Its now encased in concrete, along with a body aL was getting rid of for the mob.
b) Broke the cameraphone taking shots of Liam.
c) Left it inside another medical student.
d) It's aL. Deal with it.

Yes, we're just kidding aL. But c'mon - when you spam there's always some karmic payback coming your way!

Dear Diary ... Filth Infatuated

For all you Fakulti and Chilly intelligence gatherers, here's the latest from the Firestorm bunker, following Week 4 of the FULLPOWERTHRILLTHROTTLE training regime, with Jangles and Dan.

The great training has continued under the wise eye of Space Needle and Cosmic Cheese Burger. This week saw me spending most of my time recovering for misc. injuries and has given me time to reflect on Nationals past, previous and future. Looking around at training on Tuesday night gave me a chance to see what potential some of the young Fireys have and how some of the older blokes are holding up.

For the younger blokes. My first Nationals was back in '06 when I was approached by Mike and Rueben to come play for a team called the Moreton Bay Buggers. Being a young fit guy I agreed to play. At this stage I hadn't touched BPL and had never played men’s ultimate. Regionals came along and was a bit of a shock to see all the boys in full flight.

Then came Nationals. Not being able to throw a forehand I wasn’t much use to the team other than on defence and to catch discs in the end zone. This didn’t seem to worry the boys who quite regularly put me on the field and told me to bust long. We had a few wins a few losses but the optimism never died.

Then came Chilly... with the old boys falling apart and a smallish squad I was able to up my 5 points per game on field to nearly the whole game on field. This was when I really saw what I was up against. This Melbourne team, despised by all, was just way to good all over the field and saw us going down 15-5 but that isn’t what I dwell on when I think about the game. The thrill of a challenge when your being smacked around to see what you can do.

So for many of you this will be your first nationals. What to expect is hard running and absolute commitment for the team and nothing less.

For the old boys. Yes jangles is injured again and yes it is the same ankle as last year and yes it is about the same time as last year. But did it affect me at Nationals last year? No.

The team we took to Nationals last year was a ragtag bunch of boys who came together to silence some of our critics and strike some fear into hearts. We showed at NUFL that Firestorm can match it with the best and I believe that this year could bring some more surprises.

My goals for this year
-Not Break
-getting both teams up into the top 10 so we can have 2 slots for next year.
-Keep Wetnose fully clothed all Mationals (still don’t know how to do this)


And now over to Dan:

Tuesday's training, in truly muggy conditions, saw the introduction of some defensive drills as well as the addition of some defensive roles to drills we have been doing in past weeks. As someone whose throws often suffer from the pressure of being closely marked I was glad for the opportunity to focus on this during the three man marking drill. And it was interesting, as Andy mentioned on the night, that if you paid attention to the man you were marking, often you could pick a pattern to their fakes and dekes.

I think the combination of adding defensive roles to the short and long cutting drill as well as the humid conditions left some of us, including myself, a bit slow on the uptake during the exercise, but I felt that the work rate remained high. We finished off with a couple of games as per usual and I thought that you could really see the penny dropping with some of the newbies like myself in terms of cutting sharply, intensely, and in the right direction. Overall, as I've found every other session, I thought Tuesday was another solid constructive step forward for everyone’s and particularly my game.

Thursday was another great night of pain and gain. To tell the truth I am disappointed that I only made two Thursdays considering the wonders they do for your fitness and no doubt for your ultimate level of performance when the going gets tough on the field. The level of chatter and encouragement around the circuit was awesome. There is nothing better than a helpful word from a team mate when you know you still have four stations left and you feel like someone's taken a blow torch to your quads.

I was pretty dubious about how exactly I was going to even break a run in the game following the circuits but it IS amazing (reference: Andy in the last training report) how the body laps up punishment, resets, and is ready to go again. This was shown by the great energy levels exhibited by all during the game, and by no one more so than Beej, who seemed to be everywhere all at once D'ing discs and laying out in the end zone - incredible. And I also remember George drawing on his reserve tank to make a blistering long cut into the end zone for the point. After the session I had that great feeling of knowing how much good you just did your body by pushing it to the limit and getting through it.

Thanks for another great week of training lads.


What we really need of course, is some team training photos! *hint hint* We can only keep slapping up Starscream shots instead of Dan for so long ...

Monday, February 04, 2008

Where in the World is Dom Ventura?

A picture from the files to share with you.

Click to make bigger.

A while back, the wonderful Andrew Olennick had a bit of a muck around with the AFDA Member Database and some mapping programme, and I ended up with this here map showing the distribution of Ultimate players around Brisbane.

You can see that lots of Ultimate players have addresses in St Lucia (Black), Auchenflower (Orange), Toowong, Indooroopilly, Red Hill and Ashgrove (all Yellow). But just as interesting is the wide spread of other people, shown by the White tages (indicating 1-5 people in the postcode playing Ultimate). Yes, that's Dom you can see out at Margate on the Redcliffe Peninsula.

I'll have to remember to ask Andrew for an update in a while. The geographic story of Ultimate in Brisbane used to be that the centre was at UQ. I think its spread a lot since the old days - will it be more dispersed in the future?