Friday, July 30, 2010

Halibut 2010 Final Countdown

Its less than 24 hours to Halibut 2010 and everything's looking great.

The rain has cleared and the temperature looks like being quite warm. TD Stef is looking only slightly more crazed than usual. Everyone who's registered and has an up to date email address on the AFDA database has been getting daily updates.

Things you may have forgotten by now but we figure we'll remind you of:

- you'll need to bring your own cup/plate/spoon/etc if you want any of the six meals on offer

- a towel and a garbage bag - the towel for after your swim in the heated pool, the garbage bag in case it rains

- have you got your Chess themed costume for the party yet? If your garbage bag is black and your head is round, you may be able to remodel something pawn-like. Add a cross and you're a bishop. The other option is to raid Grandma's wardrobe and come as Betty Windsor aka the Queen. Or your maroon's number 6 jersey and come as Wally Lewis.

- Of course, you'll be bringing your maroon so that you can properly support Queensland in its State of Origin battle against the 'roaches. If you have a Mike Larson or Notty effigy lying around, bring it along and we'll add the petrol to their traitorous personages.

- and don't be a dolt and forget your cleats - its probably a fair haul home.

This also caught our eye and may be useful for the committed Halibuter.

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Halibut Preview Step Five - Don't You Know That The Time is Right ...

Hello again, lovers of the flat fish, and welcome to part five of the Brisbane Ultimate Blog's 2010 Halibut preview!

With only two teams left to examine, let's get straight into the action!

John Doe


From: The Brisbane Morgue, plus the catecombs beneath Mayor Residence down at the Gold Coast
Captain: Stu "Pants is not really my nickname" Austin
Uniform: Dumpster chic apparently

Putting a male name in front of a female deer seems like a strange way to give your team an identity, but then again maybe its all about deception, as anyone acquainted with Abra will know. There are some who will view this team as the resurrected body of the respected Mind the Gap only with more Kaitlin and less T-Ross (the latter possibly a fatal error), but this is perhaps only because the talented oldies of the Brisbane Ultimate know how to attract a few young legs by offering them sweet hucks to chase down. And that's what to expect with this team, particularly as they are such hot favourites to win the event that Buzz probably won't bother getting the Halibut trophy out from the pool room. But will the expectation of success mean that everyone else brings their A-game and the Does may be run ragged by the time the finals come around.

JdR's Tip: 1st - its hard to tip against any team that includes Maylin and Molly
Julz's Tip: 1st - Julz didn't say this, but of course he'll tip his own team
Seeding: 1st - some big names on this team attracting the seeders attention

BUD (Byron Ultimate Disc)
From: Byron Bay, the Channon, Perth, Melbourne, Geraldton and Salisbury
Captain: kevin 'not badman' Stahlman
Uniform: Black and white hippie tye-die

Our final team to preview, and its one of the more schizophrenic. Apparently the Captain doesn't own a mobile phone and is organising the team via methods such as pigeon, telegraph and banging on drums, but the shirts are done. Any team that includes jd is not to be underestimated. Teams including jdr tend to defy estimation.

JdR's tip: 4th - don't want to over or under tip his own team
Julz's tip: 4th - yeah why not
Seeding: 5th - middle of the road, and possibly to be run over



And let us once again and for the final time, see what Paul the Octopus likes!


Well, there you have it.

Preparing for Tournament Catastrophe

One of the things that doesn’t get talked about often amongst Ultimate organiser types are the things that can go drastically wrong.

This is a pity, as the most useful tool you can have in such situations is having thought about it (or heard some anecdote) beforehand. If you’re heard a story or laid a little bit of groundwork, you’re more likely to act quickly and firmly to get things back on track.

Rain

The most obvious one is rain and the potential last minute loss of fields. We’ve discussed this in detail before and we think its very worth reading if we do say so ourselves. http://brisbaneultimatedisc.blogspot.com/2010/02/rainproofing-your-tournament.html The short version is you can usually see rain coming before a tournament so you’ve got time to run a few scenarios through your head, and you need to talk to your field hirer in advance, and let them know how many people are flying in for the tournament – then work towards a compromise where for example you redo the draw and use some fields and not others. And get some garbage bags.

Scorching Hot Weather / Lightning

As with rain, if you’re paying attention you should see this coming, either in the lead up week or during the day. The AFDA Safe Play policies are your friends here, as are anecdotes about when people weren’t proactive – eg two people that we know of have ended up in Intensive Care in recent years after playing Ultimate all day on a day that was too hot.

It’s easy to let this stuff slide (particularly the hot weather one – when it just keeps climbing through the morning but you’re busy running the tournament) The real key is agility with regards the draw and communicating to the Captains and people. The other way to be ready is to have a smart-phone handy so you can get impartial information from the Bureau. And include salty peanuts in the lunch boxes.

Volunteers Go Missing

Committee meetings help build redundancy if someone important can’t make it – they get sick, have a major personal problem, etc etc. They also give a TD a sense of the generally reliability of people, and of course people will try harder or understand the implications of their failure if they’re part of a team.

Major Injury

Everything else becomes irrelevant when there’s a major injury. Many people can’t help but feel impatient if their game is halted, or annoyed if you have to leave your game to go help. You know what? Fuck the selfish pricks. Nah, I don’t mean that – they can’t help themselves.

If your tournament is big enough that you’ve got St John’s Ambulance folks there, well done. If not, you can alleviate this problem a bit by providing every Captain with info for the local hospital or the info they need to get an ambulance to the fields. A good tip these days is to provide it to them by SMS the morning of the tournament – that way its in their phone and ready to go and Captains will feel empowered to act.

The other thing you need to ensure you have from your field provider is the ability to get a vehicle onto the field. Field providers who have ‘fenced’ fields generally don’t want to give you a key to the gate because they fear you will drive all over their fields. Remind them that occasionally ambulances do need to get to people who play sport and they’re usually come to the party and assure them that that’s the only time you’ll open said gate.

As far as what happens to the game – if the Captains haven’t already done it, take them aside, have your draw and timetable with you and facilitate a decision. The AFDA policies about stoppages due to bad weather can be useful here too. Follow up with the injured player’s Captain later in the day. Major injuries should be part of every tournament report.

General Financial Misadventure

One of the more common ways that tournaments go wrong for organisers is financial. Either you’ve committed to spending too much (typically because something important has been forgotten), or you’re not bringing in enough income (most commonly because people say they’re coming but don’t turn up).

Many State Associations have a written or unwritten policy that they’ll help out if tournaments make an unexpected loss and the TD’s need help. If you’ve sent them a copy of your budget beforehand, they will be more likely to help because they’ll see you did the right things so it wasn’t your fault - and may well spot a potential problem for you. After they’ve seen a few tournament budgets, it becomes pretty straight forward. Associations also provide this ‘rainy day’ support so that people don’t have to raise fees to manage risk and end up with a surplus they didn’t want.

Bar Tabs

Not a catastrophe, but a useful way of dealing with one. Now, generally and sadly that your bloggers are oldies, they’re less keen than he used to be about big bar tabs. Adding a bar tab to your tournament party is often believed to be about getting some people drunk and the party rocking. On the other hand, a big bar tab gouges those who can’t make the party or don’t drink to support pissheads who will probably buy their drinks anyway assuming you’ve arranged reasonable prices.

Anyway I think the claim that ‘a bar tab makes the party rock’ is a crock – Frisbee players will party well enough without a fat bar tab. But that’s an aside.

But leaving that point aside, bar tabs *do have* two very useful aspects for a TD that are relevant to today’s discussion.

One is that they influence people to get to the party at around the same time. All that a Frisbee party really needs to get rocking is for everyone to be there – the mass of people creates the atmosphere, not the booze consumed. So time the bar tab to do this (offering dinner over a limited time also does the same thing – gets everyone in the one place at the same time).

The other advantage of budgeting in a bar tab is that the TD has a last minute financial lever to pull if the tournament money situation is in trouble. If for example on Saturday morning you come up short with rego fees and you’ve done your maths through the day, then you’re within your rights to reduce or pull the planned bar tab for that night. You can tell people you budgeted for a bar tab, but can’t afford it now that Team X didn’t show up or whatever, and they will handle that.

So to summarise – in the context of things going wrong financial – a bar tab is a handy safety net saviour if you realise early enough.

This can go the other way too – if your aim is a tournament that breaks even but you find you’ve got extra regos and therefore spare money, you can make the decision on Saturday afternoon if you’ve got all your money sorted to add to a bar tab (or put on some extra freebies on Sunday like iceblocks or extra food).

Litter

Be observant and call Captains out. If you spot litter near a particular area, the draw will give you an idea of who’s responsible … if you notice early enough.

The most common littler problem though is sadly what’s left after a Final, and suddenly everyone’s gone home and you have to pick it all up. Not necessarily a catastrophe, but a) you just want to go home yourself and b) few things prevent you being invited back to a field more than a field provider having to pick up litter the day after.

The Final litter is some sort of bizarre phenomenon related to people sitting around and thereby feeling that they can just rest their litter on the ground and then later on get up and leave it.

Ultimate players leaving litter behind after watching the tournament Final is bizarre and disappointing, and comparable playing spirited the whole game but then pulling some sort of shit during the last point when you've already lost.

The Demon Drink

This is a tricky area that some folks feel strongly about and of course it’s fundamental to the law of the land. We’ll try to be frank below without condoning or denying.

So some people like to have a drink at their Frisbee tournaments. But the licensing laws in Australia place limitations on this kind of thing. Field providers also generally frown on drinking at their fields (sometimes solely from fear of broken glass on the fields). Now, often this is because other sports misbehave more than responsible Ultimate players.

Most folks with authority are concerned about the misbehaviour that comes with drinking, so think about what you can do about that. If you’re having a night game and you think people will BYO, make sure there’s food available.

Have a clear distinction between the games and the party, between the fields and the drinking area.

A neat little trick if you see some people seriously getting into it (eg slamming spirits on the sideline) is to be a great TD and donate them some sports drinks and chips from the shop.

If you’ve got a largeish event, ring up your local liquor licensing authority. Most of them have information hotlines and get calls about this kind of thing all the time. Get the information first hand so you can weigh it up. It also gets you on the front foot if you decide to go ahead with getting a licence, or if something goes wrong later in the piece.

For smaller events, “discrete BYO” aka ‘put a sock on it’ is a code used within the Ultimate community. Getting people to bring their own (ie take responsibility rather than putting it on the TD) and put a sock on their stubby or pouring into a cup or container not only lessens the appearance of drinking and the chances of breakage, being discrete also demonstrates to someone with authority that you’re about behaving rather than misbehaving – and it reduces the exposure of the TD.

Underage drinking can be sadly seriously bad news – get senior players from the relevant team to take responsibility for that asap.



And that's it for today. Good luck with your tournament!

QUDA Seeks Web-Developer Types

If you have web-development skills, perhaps you can help QUDA renovate its website!? Call for help from Mat Ryan below:

QUDA wants to revamp its website (www.quda.org).

The existing website has been in place for a few years but it clearly needs a major overhaul. It doesn't serve the needs of the frisbee playing community and it doesn't provide a useful resource for external people who want to engage with frisbee in some way.

QUDA has committed to building a site that:

1. Provides an outward facing portal to allow external parties (ie: non-members) to engage with Qld Ultimate. (eg: People wanting to play, players from interstate and overseas, teachers, students, potential sponsors, media etc etc.)
2. Services the needs of existing Qld players by proving news updates and information about new events or activities.
3. Provides regular league & tournament competition results.
4. Supports Brisbane and Regional Qld administrations
5. Provides information to QUDA members on how QUDA manages Ultimate in Qld.
6. Provides links to other State, National and International sites, interesting blogs and useful stuff.

In order to do this, QUDA intends to re-develop the existing site (using Joomla).
A key requirement for the site is that it is easy to update content and that access rights for the various sections of the site can be easily managed.

This is a call to all you frisbee playing web developers to get on board and help QUDA develop an attractive and useful web presence. People/persons who assist in building the site will be PAID$$$ for their time and efforts.

If you have the technical expertise, experience and flair and if you're interested in helping develop Ultimate in Qld, then please reply to this email to let me know.
Please provide a brief summary of your skills and experience in your reply. We may ask for a formal resume if necessary.

Please respond by Friday 6th August.

We'll have a look at the responses, have a chat amongst ourselves, make some calls and then appoint someone (or a couple of someones) to re-build the site.
(Terms of the engagement will be discussed after we make a selection).

OK. Looking forward to hearing from you.

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Getting the Refereeing Right ... Or How Radical Ultimate Is

For those who philosophise about sport in general, and the role of regulation in sport and society, an economist's thoughts following England's unfortunate no-goal at the recent FIFA World Cup (soccer for those not up with it) are an interesting read.

Of course, Ultimate's approach of self-regulation works well in our sport, but its currently a bit of an anathema on the global financial stage. But then again, if global financial information was open and available to all (much like an individual's behaviour on an Ultimate field), rather than 'commercial in confidence' then things would be different.

And thinking about what a drastic change of outlook that would require that is perhaps evidence of just how radical self-refereeing is in sport.

After Halibut ... Two Great Tournaments Coming Your Way

Reminders below to REGISTER - this gives organiser's confidence that they're doing something useful!

Brisbane Indoor Ultimate Championships

Date: Wednesday 11 August 2010 (Ekka Public Holiday)
Time: Doors Open at 11am – Game on at 11.45am – All done by 4pm
Venue: Clem Jones Centre, Zahel St entrance, Carina (same as last year)
What: For Brisbane folks, Indoor Ultimate is something different, but its more common in those parts of the world with snow. It’s a great change of pace – very fast, no wind, and even beginners can throw from endzone to endzone.
Who: Get your team together and get registered – space is limited! Roster size is maximum 8 players. 5 on the court at one time, max. three per gender.
How much? $130 per team – includes courts, insurance, prizes.
Rego: http://www.afda.com/rego/showdivision.php?divisionid=1186
Team rego for this tournament has been extended to Monday 2 August!

Griffith Nathan Ultimate Frisbee Club Presents THRUSTFEST 2010!

A one day festival of hip thrusting Ultimate Frisbee action.
Date: Saturday 21 August 2010 Time: 9am-5pm
Venue: Griffith Nathan AFL Field, Off Kessels Rd, Nathan
What: Thrustfest is a one day hat, and the new Griffith Club’s first ever tournament! A ‘hat’ is where players register as individuals (or with a friend) and get put into teams. Guaranteed fun and a great way to meet new people and improve your skills.
Who: You! Everyone is welcome from the rawest beginner to the best of the best. We’re especially hoping lots of people new to Griffith, UQ and QUT for Semester 2 come along.
How Much? $20 gets you a full day of fields, lunch, fruit, insurance and prizes.
Rego: http://www.afda.com/rego/showcompetition.php?competitionid=849

Monday, July 26, 2010

Its gold Gold GOLD for Australia!

In case you've been under a rock today, the Australian u23 Women's team won the Gold Medal overnight at the World Championships in Florence, defeating Japan 16-15 in a thriller! Well done ladies! Top of the world, ma!

The guys have had it a bit tougher, losing their quarter to eventual Bronze medalists Germany, before fighting back to finish 5th with wins over Sweden and the old enemy Great Britain.

The international Ultimate focus now heads to the finale of this year's European triffecta, with the World Junior (u19) Championships starting next week in Germany!

Halibut Preview Step Four: I Can Give You More

Well, its now full on count down time, with just a working week to get through before Halibut 2010. Hopefully you'll all checking that blog where the Mayor of the Gold Coast is posting all sorts of handy info about Halibut (you should also be getting the emails if you've registered). But lets get all Casey Kasem and get back to the previewing countdown, with the mighty Heroes and the largely unknown Mr Burn's Casino!

Heroes
From: The Hall of Justice, plus Tasmania
Captain: Carl ‘Captain Hic’ Behrendorf
Uniform: Green greenie

Piling into their Volkswagon Quinjetta, the Heroes will be heading out to save Halibut from any seriousness that begins to erupt. Original Hero Huddy is apparently flying his own invisible jet up from the isolated island of Tasmania and will be on hand to handle the golden lasso. Training yesterday was as expected the usual vanquishment of the forces of evil and sobriety (suggesting an eventual team up with the Mellow Yellows may one day be on the cards). Of course, people shouldn't get too excited, as this will be merely the Heroes first tournament outing for the season, as they are already planning to hit the Brisbane Indoor Ultimate Championships, Thrustfest, Lovefest and hopefully their own tournament some time soon.

JdR’s tip: 7th through sheer force of numbers and Dan Strelan.
Julz’s tip: 9th because of Starky
Seeding: 9th


Mr Burns Casino
From: Springfield
Captain: Steven Kassar
Uniform: Togs and thongs

Halibut traditionally brings people up from the lower dregs of Australia (ie south of the Queensland border), and this year its the assemblage that have named themselves 'Mr Burns' Casino' for some reason. Expect these southerners to cast off their winter clothing arrival at the fields and sunbake like a German tourist. And there might be a bit of frisbee in there too.

• JdR’s tip: 10th because we just don’t know what to expect.
• Julz’s tip: 10th pants optional doesn't usually make for a top 9 finish.
• Seeding: 10th seems the seeders have been reading our minds.




And who does Paul the Octopus like?


Go Heroes!

Friday, July 23, 2010

Halibut Preview Step 3 - Its Just You and Me

Here we are again, Halibut lovers! Part three of our exclusive and famous preview of the teams heading into battle at Halibut 2010. And today we're checking out two of the more local of the squads - Fish N Discs (and Vinegar) (bonus points for the Halibut-y name), and the Barrel of Monkeys.

Fish N Discs (and Vinegar)
From: Ipswich … nah just kidding – all over the shop, really.
Captain: Alisa Yocom
Uniform: Tomato Sauce and newspaper

If you look close enough, there is some talent there. And a deep roster. So yes, should do pretty well at the party. On the field, well its kind of the same thing. But to be frank, we know that reporting anything about this team spells danger. Best to be cryptic. Nudge nudge, say no more, ask no questions. Because big Mike will get annoyed if I give away too many Tomsteve and Jack secrets. So we’ll just make reference to the Chess theme of the tournament and remind everyone to keep an eye out for the stationary King and recall that the Queen has all the power. And Justin is still quite tall.

JdR’s tip: 8th
Julz’s tip: 8th
Seeding: 10th

Barrel of Monkeys

From: The Zoo
Captain: Peta 'Headache Sutra' McNaughton
Uniform: Primate

This team has an interesting selection policy, it seems. Either you must be married to another team member (Rob and Carla, Andy and Suz, Emma and Matt, Eireann and Jon), or have your first name starting with the letter D - Dan M, Dan B, Dusty, Danielle, Dave … that just leaves Ryan, Peta and Bronwyn as no doubt being random last minute pickups to round out the numbers. Add honey passes and D and what do you get? Smooth offence and defence, that's what. The opening game against Byron should pretty much set the tone for the tournament – are the monkey’s going to be of the friendly orangoutang flavour or the crazed cartoon ninja flavour? Time will tell.

JdR’s tip: 2nd
Julz’s tip: 6th
Seeding: 4th

Meanwhile, lets check the tank again to see if Paul the Octopus has a calamari themed view on who he prefers between these two teams ....



Yes - bragging rights to the BOM!

Thursday, July 22, 2010

Halibut Preview Step 2 - There's So Much We Can Do!

Well, here we are on the second round of Halibut previews, and this time, lets take a look at two teams that are so in need of confirming to everyone they are a 'team', as opposed to say an overhead projector or a block of flats, that they include the word TEAM in their very names - TEAM CANADA and TEAM HILL SPRINTS!

Team Canada

From: Canada … well so they say. We’ll be checking passports and French-speaking
Captain: Bob ‘and Doug McKenzie’ Trachter
Uniform: Maple leaf red on a white snowy background

This is Team Canada’s second foray into the South East Queensland Ultimate scene, following their 3rd place at the 2009 Brisbane Indoor Ultimate Championships. No doubt there will be questions about rostering, but apparently Jangles is in training to call his couch a chesterfield. Secret plays are reported to be nicknamed ‘Eh?’, “Aboot” and “Terrance and Phillip”. Remember, If they come at you with a hockey stick, distract them by asking if they live in an igloo, eat blubber or own a dogsled. Please remember JdR has fathered a half-Canadian, so was disappointed not to be recruited.

JdR’s tip: 6th
Julz’s tip: 3rd
Seeding: 3rd

Team Hill Sprints

From: Greater Western Sydney (as opposed to Lesser Western Sydney) plus a bit of Perth
Captain: Simon ‘Woodie’ Wood
Uniform: Black and white

This looks like a talented team with an even lower AFDA number than Buzz’s 66, which is sorta disturbing. They claim to be awesome at partying but we shall see – of course, like good Westies they’ll be there early for the free drinks. The first up bye is apparently to allow for anyone who’s missed their flights to get there.

JdR’s tip: 5th
Julz’s tip: 2nd
Seeding: 2nd
And lets check how Paul the Octopus is feeling when we put the two TEAM logos into his tank ....

Yep, Paul confirms its time to 'say no to beaver'.


Halibut Preview Step One - We Can Have Lots of Fun

Can you believe there’s been thirteen Halibuts before this one? 2010 looks like being one of the most competitive ever!

Well, once again, the residents at the stately Brisbane Ultimate Blog mansion are casting their bloodshot and filthy eyes (don’t ask) over the teams lists, and are please to bring you the absolutely necessary Halibut preview.

But with Wetnose having chosen to accept a mission currently on a top secret overseas sojourn, we thank frequent blog-commenter and all-round good guy Julz aboard to help with the tipping. And an extra special guest punter is joining us at the bottom too!

But let's start the previews!

Towns ‘Villains’

From: Mostly Townsville, plus the ‘Gong
Captain: Mike ‘Mike from Townsville’ Larson
Uniform: Navy and White

So Villainous heavy-weight Simon Urquhart has apparently represented Townsville at the last 11 Halibuts. This is probably all you really need to know about the team, and its prospects at Halibut 2010. They do have some new outfits purchased on JdR’s credit card, so he’d better be paid back before the hit the field, or he’ll be siccing the QUDA goons on them. Apparently Hugh Osborn has been practicing his ‘muttley’ laugh, but let's be clear, let’s be clear – with a name like ‘villains’ and Megan on the team, you can only be Chaotic Evil, ok? Day one features games against Fish-N-Discs, Team Canada and Slamtown, the latter of which are usually refered to by the Townsvillians as 'border-humping dodgie bros'.

JdR’s tip: 3rd - yeah, someone's got to talk them up besides themselves.
Julz's tip: 5th - middle of the road there - will win a few.
Seeding: 7th - obviously we think there's be a move up from there.

Slamtown Flatball Club

From: Gold Coast with a bit of Colombia via Moorooka
Captain: Mike ‘Eff Yeah’ Morgan
Uniform: White and Black

On the way to becoming one of the iconic clubs of Queensland Ultimate. Expect a few extra players to turn up out of the blue once Uni starts and Dr Phil starts cruising the strip, or perhaps more realistically once the locals work out what all this "afda rego site guff" is. The TD hasn't done them any favours by putting them up against Team Canada and then Team Hill Sprints so soon after their early morning surf, but they'll enjoy the chance to smack around some "redneck AJ town punks" from up north later in the day.

JdR’s tip: 9th – will be a little busy running the tournament and all. However, don’t be surprised if Stef tries to ‘pull a Stu’ and announce them as the winners at the speeches at the end.
Julz tip: 7th - tipped to munch up some Fish-N-Discs in a playoff
Seeding: 6th - looks a bit generous to us!



Now for our surprise guest tipper .... let us see who PAUL THE WORLD CUP OCTOPUS likes out of these two ....

Yes - its the Towns Villian's who have Paul's tip!

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Florence Update after Day 1.5

The big man at Forcesideline has made it to beautiful Florence. Keep up with him.

The Aussie Open u23s (the Goannas) had just a single game on day 1, where they defeated the home team Italy 17-3. Canada, Columbia and Sweden look like the other strong teams in their pool - remember the top four go through to the quarters. As we post however Forcesideline has twittered that the Aussies have lost to Canada 14-12.

The Aussie Women's u23s (the Stringrays) collected some pants and bagels in their two games - deafeating Germany 17-0 and Ireland 17-0. Early results suggest Japan, Canada and Columbia look like likely semi-finalists.

And don't forget the World Junior Ultimate Championships in Germany are less than two weeks away. The Australian u19 Women's team, Southern Terra, are getting on the plane tomorrow. The u19 Open team, Aussie Thunder, are presumably starting to make their way too. Go!

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

World Stage Moves to Florence

So this week sees the inaugural World Ultimate u23 Championships, held in Florence, Italy.

The Open Japan team rolled Switzerland in the Opening Feature Game. The first full day starts tonight Australian time, and you can keep up with the live scores if you're good with the refresh button.

Day one sees the Aussie Women (featuring Queensland's own Blair Sheard, Bree Edgar, Terri Morgan and Simone Ryan) start the event up against Germany and then Ireland, followed by two more days of round robin. A top four finish in the pool gets them to the Semis.

The Aussie Lads (featuring our own John McNaughton, and sorta-ours Cupcake, and we may as well mention Tiger too) begin with a square up against locals Italy, before a big Day 2 against Canada and Sweden. Columbia, Austria and Ireland round out the rest of their pool A. The Aussies need to be in the top four of their pool to go into the quarters.

We'll do our best to provide some coverage during the week.

Edit: I was going to put this in the comments after Mansauce asked about the USA's absence and I repeated some old gossip, but figure this interview on the US's experience at the WFDF Congress in Prague gives an answer is generally interesting for those who follow US Ultimate (thumbs up also for the redesign and increased content on the new USA Ultimate website).

Friday, July 16, 2010

Monday Night's BUML Draw is Up ...

... and as advertised previously, you need to check the BUML website (Div 1) (Div 2) to find who and where you're playing.

Team Rego Closes on 30 July for the Brisbane Indoor Ultimate Championships!

Following up from last year's inaugural event, the second Annual Brisbane Indoor Ultimate Championships will be held again on the public holiday Ekka Wednesday, 11 August.

The long range forecast from the weather centre here in the stately mansion has the weather this day as miserable, wet, cold and windy - perfect for indoor Ultimate.

Indoor Ultimate is often played in much colder places than Brisbane, but has the great benefits of no wind and smaller teams, meaning everyone gets a go. Still lots of running to do. Great for a change of pace etc.

As per last year, the Championships will be held at basketball centre at the Clem Jones Centre in Carina - enter via the softball carpark off Zahel St. Doors open at 10.15am, games start at 11am, and we'll be done by 4pm.

Entry is initially limited to 8 teams, although if there is sufficient demand we will consider increasing this - but you should get organised sooner rather than later or you might miss out! Team registration closes on Friday 30 July.

Fees are expected to be between $130 per team, depending on numbers.

Rego at: http://www.afda. com/rego/ showcompetition. php?competitioni d=707 Well done to the three teams who have already registered.Rosters can have a maximum of 8 players. 5 players are allowed on the court - with a maximum of 3 per gender, and subbing is unlimited.

We greatly encourage people arranging teams with some sort of reason for being, aside from "here's my all-star team of friends". It'd be great for promotion etc to see Griffith vs QUT, West End taking on Moorooka, the Fresh Fries vs the Over-40s, 308 Brisbane Corso vs 8/47 Newcomen St, Mellow Yellow vs Dojo Mojo, etc etc. However, all up to you folks!

The rules used for the Brisbane Indoor Ultimate Championships will be the same as 2009 and are available at: http://brisbaneultimatedisc.blogspot.com/2009/07/brisbane-indoor-ultimate-championships.html

To whet your appetite, the report and photos from last year's championships are at: http://brisbaneulti matedisc. blogspot. com/2009/ 08/mongo- wins-inaugural- brisbane- indoor.html

Be there this year to see the perpetual trophy unveiled!

Thursday, July 15, 2010

Dates for Next Season of BPL

League Director Stu has released the dates for the next season of the Brisbane Premier League.

All

The next season of the Brisbane Premier League will start on Thursday 12th August with a training night, the first game will be on the 19th August.

The league will finish on either the 18th or 25th November (rain dependant). However AJSC may close the fields for one or two weeks in the middle to allow for regeneration which will push the end date back, I'll let you know when I do.

The league has been pushed back by a couple of weeks due to the decrease from 7 to 6 teams this season, this is assuming that Dojo will be playing again?!

Information on cost of league to follow when I have a better understanding of how many people will be playing, so please roster ASAP.

Regards
Stu

Rego and rostering is over here.

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

AFDA Confirms Nationals 2011 Will Be Early!

AFDA today confirmed that Nationals 2011, to be hosted by QUDA here in South East Queensland, would be held earlier than the traditional ANZAC Day long weekend.

Nationals has been held over the ANZAC Day long weekend for several years, primarily to avoid Easter and the school holiday periods.

However, the 2011 Anzac Day long weekend coincides with Easter and school holidays in several states, making it a 'triple whammy' for organisers trying to find venues, Ultimate players with families who'd rather spend the holiday time with them, and cheap-arse Ultimate players who don't want to pay peak travel and accommodation prices.

The issue was first raised in February this year, and was discussed at the AFDA Annual General Meeting in April.

So Nationals 2011 will be held around three weeks earlier than usual, from Friday 1 April to Monday 4 April 2011.

Regionals is anticipated to occur around 19/20 February to maintain the six-week lead-in, and presumably other tournaments and team preparations will also be rescheduled. No doubt there are more announcements to come.

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Halibut Countdown! H Minus 18!

The start of the national mixed season is nearly upon us, with Halibut only a couple of short weeks away!

The Brisbane Ultimate Blog will as usual provide a preview of all ten teams in the lead up to the event, as part of our now several years of coverage.

If you haven't registered ... well, you should've by now.

Go-Going with Griffith

We figured it was getting near time to point you towards the new Griffith Nathan Ultimate Frisbee Club's website - http://www.griffithultimate.org/ The site is evolving and there's plenty of material still to get up there, but huge props to Casey F for getting the site up and adding to it here and there. Truly a model of Ultimate Club website work!

QUDA has put a fair bit of effort into getting Ultimate properly established at the Griffith Nathan campus, and this is bearing fruit, both for Griffith students and for Brisbane Ultimate in general.

Most obviously, establishing the Griffith Club has enabled BUML to access regular and very cheap fields in the form of the excellent Griffith Nathan AFL field. Yes, some folks may prefer to play at Greenslopes, but the growth of the Monday night league dictates finding extra fields, and the Griffith Nathan AFL field is a pretty good one, and not far off the South East Freeway. Both QUDA and the Griffith Club have worked hard to build a relationship with the field owners, so as to ensure we're there for the long term.

Just as important has been the addition of the Griffith Go-Go's team to the Monday night League. Having the team regularly playing at Nathan makes it easy for Griffith students to have a go at Ultimate, and so far around15-16 different Griffith students (particularly those living in the neighbourhood) have been down for some games, plus some Uni staff. Having the University semester misaligned to the BUML seasons is a bit of a hassle, but the Club's on-field presence is solidifying and there are hopes for a second team to join the fray soon. And maybe we'll develop on our existing mongrel defence to learn to score some points and win a game some time!

A big influence on that will be the success in recruiting new members at the Semester 2 Clubs Market Day on Thursday 29 July. QUDA put in a huge effort to get one of the most noticable stalls in place for Orientation Week at Griffith back in February, and hopefully we can back that up again and pick up some of those fabled North American imports that UQ seems to annually get.

As well as students, the Griffith Nathan Club is keen to mark its turf by getting local players who live in the neighbourhood of Nathan (Salisbury, Moorooka, Coopers Plains, Acacia Ridge, Mt Gravatt and Sunnybank) on-board. If this is you, maybe consider a switch to the Go-Go's in the future - at the least you know you're always only 10 minutes drive from your home ground!

The Griffith Club is also just getting itself together to run a one day tournament in August, tentatively titled THRUSTFEST (a play on UQ's annual Lovefest tournament - which we'll hopefully enter when it comes around in September again). The THRUSTFEST tournament hopes to showcase teams of students and alumni from around SEQ, as well as a few other similarly themed teams. More to come.

Time to Respect the Pallen

So lots of Brisbane-based players went to the World Clubs tournament over in Prague. Fergs is even coming home with a bronze medal around his neck, as is Long-reach Truter (sounds like a porn name).

For those stuck at home, the WFDF scores page gives lots the goals and assists stats for every player in the tournament.

When you look through them all, the standouts on the stately Brisbane Ultimate Blog's detailed analytical overhead projector are those three lads from Brisbane who were on the Redbacks.

Now, the Redbacks had a tough week, with amongst the worst for and against results. Just one win, and that was 17-15 over the team that eventually came last.

Note - its nonetheless great that they've gone and played. International Ultimate is great fun and you never regret it.

Anyway, looking at the stats, the Redbacks scored 84 times over 10 games. Our George threw 5 scores and caught a further 12. Our Gref threw 16 scores and caught a further 8 (and missed a game). And our Pete threw 26 scores and caught a further 10 goals.

That's 76 goals that our three Brisbane lads were involved in, out of a total of 84. Yep, over 90%. Well done lads - the Redbacks must've been happy to have you.

And Pete Allen - yep, he in 42% of the scoring the team did. I can't be arsed checking the other Brisbane players on other teams but nobody else seems to have stood out like this, and of course he was probably hopeless on D or may have hucked it every time he got it or something (just so you know the overhead projector isn't foolproof in its analysis), so please don't take the stats analysis too seriously (and maybe this is just a reminder that the stats in Ultimate don't tell you much as yet).

But, under what we may as well call the "Jangles Principle" (known nationally as the "jd principle"), Pete Allen is clearly Brisbane's Most Valuable Player (if you're going to an international tournament anyway), and deserving of much more respect than he usually gets (we just have to stop paying attention to his off-field antics).

Hail to the Pete!

Monday, July 12, 2010

Show Us Yer BUML!

BUML Division 2 Season 2 Division 2 Overview and Update

Well, while we wait for someone to step up to provide weekly BUML analysis, we here at the stately Brisbane Ultimate Blog mansion are willing to at least cast our eye across a few team sheets and previous season’s forms, as well as the results of the first two weeks, sip a few glasses of port, and give you a bit of a dot point view as to the nature and form of BUML Division 2 (we’ll do Div 1 another time).

Feel free to correct us. That’s what the comments section is for!

exQUisiTe
· “Led” by the Most Valuable Player of last season’s Brisbane Premier League.
· Wears pink.
· One win and a bye so far. Playing Dyspnoeics tonight to see if the go into the Hot Pool from next week.

Baby Chimis
· On paper, you’d say this team will conquer all before them – some famous names here, plus a famous history.
· But then so far they’ve lost to Dyspnoeics and exQUisiTe so far.
· Tonight will be a big test. Can they find their way to the Griffith fields?

Dyspnoeics
· Hardest team name to say and type.
· Mansauce has recruited hard.
· Tony Howes is back for more. But where’s Ollie?
· Undefeated so far. Big game tonight against the awkwardly capitalised exQUisiTe.

Poachers
· Like Dyspnoeics, a little surprised to be undefeated after two weeks, and having rolled some big names. But that’s BUML for ya.
· Important to mention the head Poacher, Dan Blacklock, who’s looking for something for the trophy cabinet.

Them Three Teams from the Heroes Club
· Heroes Original are a bit like the original Justice League of America. Carl is Batman, Tomsteve is Superman, Laura is Wonder Woman, Sean is Snapper Carr. Also currently undefeated. But taking on the Poachers tonight.
· Agent Orange (aka Heroes Roughy) of course have the three S’s - Stelan, Stark and Stef and together have made an artform of Agent 86’s “Sorry Chief” catchphrase.
· Discheads (aka the Heady Heroes) have been savage both weeks so far, but are led by the Foxy Canadian are one up and one down.

Mellow Yellow
· Much like the French football team, seem to be reeling from the walkout by their stars Alex and Katherine. You thought I was talking about Jon and Eireann, and yes, them too. Those rumours of overseas weddings and jobs were apparently a smokescreen, cooked up by the Yellow management to cover up the disputes over money and power within this team.
· Rumours that Rob is quitting his job to go full time into standing around in the endzone have been neither confirmed or denied.

Kelvin Grove Cougars
· Well below the radar – just the way the Cougars like it. At least until they strike. This is probably why they are currently winless so far – just letting their enemies think it’ll be easy when it really won’t be come the end of the season.
· Opponents who are more than seven years younger than them are particularly vulnerable.

Bermuda Triangle
· Should’ve given their name to the Ghost Who Walks, and renamed themselves Inala GP or something and got some sponsorship.
· The plan to use the Bermuda Zone on both Defence and Offence will confuse some. Apparently they also plan to use zone in the carpark, at work and before going to bed.

The Ghost Who Walks
· Man who cannot die.
· Strength of ten tigers.
· Rough on roughnecks.
· Boogies through the jungle.

Griffith Go-Go’s
· Still waiting for their maiden win in the BUML, but have recruited well in the offseason.
· Also waiting for semester two to start, so that all their players can come back from holidays.
· Cheapest team in the League, and it shows.

Saturday, July 10, 2010

Roster Me This, Batfink!

So a few weeks back we contemplated some shuffling amongst the BPL teams between Season 1 2010 and Season 2 2010.

With the Draft mini-League underway (we'll blame our lack of coverage on aL - see how much we all appreciate the next day's emails from Stu!) folks are bumping hips with some different guys and considering their options for next season.

Of course, the overiding news has been the merger of the champion Passion squad with also-rans the Lovers to form a single UQ front ... and bring the League back down to six teams. Now, two teams into one don't quite go, so astute Captains will be looking over past UQ rosters to see who got cut - knowing that those guys will be fired up and ready to stick it to the man next season. Anyway, we may as well tip the totally stacked and newly renamed UQ Elbows* to win next season.

Meanwhile, word in the Hall of Justice is that after their tough first season, the Heroes will be desperate for numbers - and frankly, some BPL-experienced numbers at that. Of course, UQ will have no choice to forward any newly arriving second semester North American guns their way as they're already full.

The Buggers, Cobras and Dojos apparently expect to field their usual gangs, with only a couple of changes here and there.

Rosters are slowly being registered over here.

*Elbows - half way between the fist and the heart.

WUCC Day 6 - Final Results for Aussies

Here's a quick one for those who can't get to the scores website.

Master's
Eastern Greys finished 3rd with the Bronze medal. Way to go Fergs and Piers!

Mixed
Newcastle Pie Wagon finished 5th.
Smurf finished 6th. Yes, the two Aussie teams played each other in their final game for the tournament.
Kaboom finished 11th.

Women's
Wildcard finished 17th
Honey finished 27th

Open
Colony finished 5th 6th.
Heads of State finished 20th.
Redbacks finished 46th. Yes, the boys got a win, no doubt thanks to Pallen, Gref and George!

Edit: Fixed Colony's result. Full results are here.

Friday, July 09, 2010

WUCC - After Day 5

Yes, the coverage of World Clubs here at the Brisbane Ultimate Blog has been sadly minimal, as our hair is busy being on fire with other projects.

One of the easiest ways to keep up with the vibes is with the Disquito newsletter:

Sunday - http://wucc2010.com/sites/default/files/wucc_newsletter_sunday.pdf
Monday - http://wucc2010.com/sites/default/files/newsletter_monday_5July.pdf
Tuesday - http://wucc2010.com/sites/default/files/wucc_newsletter_tuesday.pdf
Wednesday - http://wucc2010.com/sites/default/files/wucc_newsletter_wednesday.pdf

Checking in with the Aussie teams going into the final day ... (reminder that we're doing this quick with no real claims for accuracy!)

Open
Redbacks have two games left to find a place between 45th and 48th.
Heads of State have two games left to find a place between 17th and 20th.
Colony have two games left to find a place between 5th and 8th.

Women's

Wildcard enter the final day in the playoff for 17th.
Honey have two games left to play for 25th-28th.

Mixed
Newcastle Pie Wagon and Smurf sadly were both knocked out of the Quarter-finals, and now have two games left to place between 5th and 8th.
Kaboom have two games left to come in between 9th and 12th.

Master's
The Eastern Greys sadly lost their Semi, so now playoff for the Bronze Medal.

Go Aussies - always remember JdR's mantra - if you win your final game you go home a winner!

Wednesday, July 07, 2010

Sunday Pickup Has Moved

Sunday afternoon pickup is moving from the northside to Toowong as of this weekend.

Remember, pickup is a great casual way to introduce new people to Ultimate.

When:
3:00pm Throwing and some drills (optional)
3:45pm Game starts and play until dusk.

Where:
Toowong Memorial Park, 65 Sylvan Road, Toowong (many will know the Regatta Hotel on the corner of Sylvan Road and Coronation Dr on the river). Lots of buses nearby, as well as Auchenflower and Toowong railway stations.

Bring:
Bring a white shirt, a black/dark shirt, hat, running shoes and water.

Tuesday, July 06, 2010

Some Folks We're Following at WUCC2010 - After Day 2

So the 2010 World Ultimate Club Championships are currently on over in Prague in the Czech Republic. It's so exciting, so big, that it's hard for the little old Brisbane Ultimate Blog to keep up - so we don't make any claims for comprehensiveness below. But lets summarise after Day 2 of competition with regards the folks we're watching.

Open Division
Victorian team Heads of State features three dudes that some people in Brisbane have been intimately intimate with - Rueben Berg, Brett Matzuka and of course the hero of Brisbane himself John McNaughton. They've now finished second in their opening four team Pool E - defeating Brits EMO 17-6, then a win over DominO 17-9, before being smacked around by US juggernaut Sockeye 6-17 - moving them on to the next stage and a game against one of the top UK teams, Chevron Action Flash of Manchester.

Chevron topped the pool featuring Aussie team the Redbacks, which includes Gref Goranson, Pete Allen (who are battling it out to top the team stats) and Silent George Salisbury. The arachnids have had it tough early in the tournament coming fourth in Pool G, but have bitten a few naysayers. Pool G featured two titans of World Ultimate Clubs, the above mentioned Chevrons (7-17) and Swedes Ragnarok (6-17) - at least the Redbacks can say they've been beaten by some of the best. A close loss to Russian team Absolut 10-13 would've hurt though. This team also features Force Sidelines' Simon Talbot.

Sydney team Colony features Brisbane-newbie Abra, and Brisbane-oldie Pottsy, but otherwise is of little interest to Brisbane players *wink* - no, what we mean is that Colony will do pretty well, so we figure we'll be back to them later in the campaign. Colony topped Pool K and nobody came close.

And in an entertaining twist of fate, Colony now play Heads of State in Power Pool R to progress. Yes, they've travelled half way across the world for this! Redbacks go to Placement Pool T with the chance to start picking up some wins.

Womens
Victorians Honey (featuring the awesome Mel Gangemi (we have a soft spot for Mel)) have come fourth in Pool H with three sticky losses and now go into Placement Pool N with games against Tequila Boom Boom (fortunately Mel is an expert on Tequila).

Sydneysiders Wildcard (toughened up by our own Blair Sheard) had a challenging run and have come third in Pool C, knocked into the placement pools following losses two of the top North American teams. Wildcard are still in it though, but will need to do well in Power Pool L.

Masters
The Tim Ferguson and Piers Truter All Star Show, (yay Fergs and Piers) featuring the Eastern Greys, has done very well in Pool A of the Masters, and are currently standing second with three wins and a single loss to top US team Surly (one of the seven Duffs apparently).

Mixed
Ah, we'll do them tomorrow. Out of time for now.

Brisbane Ultimate Blog Readers Tip the Winners of the Draft ... or Not?

Alright, so this has turned out to be one of the more difficult polls to assess.

Does Brisbane Ultimate have a chip on its shoulder? Don’t we trust anyone?

Somehow, 53% of those polled reckoned that the Draft (the short break from BPL League) will be won by “Those Cheating Bastards.”

Now yes, this is the funniest option on the poll. But still, only 11% of people thoughts the best team would win (the same number as those who thought "the team that knocked out my team"! And only 15% thought that their team would win!! And in a strangely un-Aussie outlook, the rank outsiders barely rated a mention with 7%.

So does Brisbane Ultimate have a concern that there are a lot of cheaters out there?


Thursday, July 01, 2010

Australia World Ultimate Club Championships 2010

Just gonna cut and paste Woodie's email here:

Masters Division
Eastern Greys
(Sydney Based) - A core of the Bronze medal winning 2006 team are back along with a host of fresh faces. The Greys are seeded 5th out of the 16 teams competing and will be looking to better their 2006 achievements.

Womens Division
The Womens teams held a seeding tournament on 8/9 May to determine the Australian rankings. Wildcard (Sydney Based) - Seeded 14th out of 32 teams. Honey (Melbourne Based) - Seeded 24th out of 32 teams.

Mixed Division
We initially had 5 Mixed teams wanting to go to Prague but unfortunately we were only offered 3 spots. The 5 teams competed in a round robin tournament on one of the hottest weekends in November to determine whish teams would take the 3 spots (Unfortunately Hills (Sydney) and Tribe (Melbourne) missed out). The remaining 3 teams held seeding tournament alongside the Womens Tournament in May to determine the Australian Rankings. Kaboom (Canberra Based) - Seeded 8th out of 40 teams. Smurf (Adelaide Based) - Seeded 11th out of 40 teams.
Pie Wagon (Newcastle Based) - Seeded 19th out of 40 teams.

Open Division
The Open teams held a seeding tournament in June to determine the Australian Rankings. Colony (Sydney Based) - Seeded 10th out of 48 teams. Heads of State (Melbourne Based) - Seeded 20th out of 48 teams. Redbacks (Sydney Based) - Seeded 42nd out of 48 teams.

All the seedings can be viewed at: http://wucc2010.com/content/registered-teams

More details along with results/draws/ news (and possibly live scoring) can be viewed at: http://wucc2010.com/

For those who prefer blogs check out: http://forcesidelin%20e.com/
http://canberraultimate.blogspot.com/ (Kaboom)
http://smurfultimate.com/ (Smurf)
http://www.newcastleultimatefrisbee.com.au/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=7&Itemid=12 (Pie Wagon)

Good Luck to all teams!!

Be a Champion

Halibut - Queensland State Championships - 31 July - 1 August 2010
Have you registered yet? http://www.afda.com/rego/showdivision.php?divisionid=1412

Brisbane Indoor Ultimate Championships - Ekka Wednesday 11 August 2010
Have you registered yet? Places are limited. http://www.afda.com/rego/showdivision.php?divisionid=1186

Queensland Disc Golf Open - 21-22 August 2010. Rego will be open soon.