Marvin Gaye with Mixed Nats?

Indeed.

It's an exciting time for Ultimate in South East Queensland, and we're predicting the biggest, most competitive Mixed Nats qualifying series in the North for some time. With the big one being hosted by Brisbane's cooler, older cousin (Melbourne), it is quite likely that many a frisbee player will fancy an excuse to visit the cultural capital in October.

This blogger has been keeping his ear to the ground on the matter since whispers began even at the Australian Ultimate Championship in April.

We have heard that Dusty is keen to shake off the first four letters of his name and train hard over winter. Don't believe it? Neither do we, and in fact we demand photo evidence and a training blog from this veteran partier.

The Heroes club seem to be out in front in terms of organisation, with training more-or-less being underway. This basically involves a bit of forethought into the clubs general Sunday trainings, which will remain open to all. More specific training is rumoured to begin in July. It is likely that the usual conundrum applies here, with enough male interest for 2 teams but maybe just enough women for one.

Word is that Reece and Sophie want to play with young people. Reece plans to get a team together, while Sophie has been attending Heroes training. That said, the Heroes list is aging, and it will be up to Agent Orange star Vanessa to bring the required party and show Soph that 25 year olds can be a bag of fun ;)

Trevor has publicly announced that UQ will be making a bid again this year. Will they go under their usual name of Lovers, or their recent unusual alias of QUTies? One would expect training to begin around August. Lovefest will definitely be on the agenda.

But what will happen with the usuals? We were under the impression that John Doe players were on a 2-year contract, ending after this seasons tournament. But a wise punter in a pub pointed out that Al, Stu and Maylin etc. were a good chance of making Mundi's this year - the Australian Mixed team who will play together at Mixed Nats.

Will we see a Slamtown / Byron collaboration? Will all these ideas fall apart, leaving Heroes, Agent Orange and Discheads all going to Melbourne, as joked about by that wise punter in the pub? We hope not.

It is possible that we will see around 5 teams playing off to qualify. Last year, we were given two spots and a wild-card. Who knows what we would get if we had 5 teams at qualifiers? Probably JdR.