One-Sided Grand Final Interviews

Ok, so today we have an interview from a Dojo rep, but we've got nothing back from Slamtown. I guess that's what happens when you ask an over-worked doctor for an interview. So if any Flatballers want to shoot back a rebuttal, we'll accept it at danielstrelan@gmail.com. I'm sure they'll make up for their silence on the field.

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Pre-interview: Today we take you behind the scenes and the high walls of the Palace. You'll see the dirty work involved in scoring an interview with a potential Dingos player.

Hey Pete,

A few weeks back, Jangles said I should interview "someone" from the Australian Squad. He said
that I should interview Pete, and not Jangles - I agree, who wants to hear from Jangles?

Hey Dan,

Happy to assist with your blogging since I read it daily and guess some input would be a way of paying you for the entertainment you provide.

You could do that, or I could send you my bank details. I also need new cleats... Hey wait!! Where are you going!?

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Peter Allen - Southerners say you've gone from being shit to The Shit in quite a short time. You've been the man about town
and indeed The Game Plan for Dojo for some time now. You were left out of the U23 squad, but now find yourself included
in the 60-man Dingos squad. How do you rate your chances this time round?

Well missing out on the U23 campaign was crap, but when you stop playing for a year then start training/running (refer to foot vs. anchor battle of 2009 for reasons) 2 weeks before the first selection camp, it's bound to happen, and I've really enjoyed playing over the last year and have grown as a player, World Clubs was probably the most fun I've had at a tournament and I probably would have missed that if I made the team so there ya go. Chances this time are much better for want of a quantitative answer.


So the 60-man squad - that's huge, what's it about?

The 60 man All-Australian squad was selected from the (I'm going to say hundreds if not thousands of) guys who expressed interest in being considered for selection to represent Australia at the World Championships next year which is what I consider the highest level we in Australia can reach. From Brisbane this year we had a good representation of players making it through to the 60 on the mens side and a bunch more on the womens side which has the same sort of process, the men were:
- Abra, Stu, Jangles, JMc, Mike, Cunliffe and myself, I think aL was also in there but has since pulled out.
Women:
- Blair, Bree(still Brisbanite in my books), Maylin, Molly, Megs, feel like I'm missing someone, so the comments can fix that.

And then there is masters who are their own thing and I have little idea what's happening there, but I'm guessing the likes, of aL, George, Buzz, Ferg, maybe Mat Ryan? who knows.

And when does it get narrowed down?

The squad has already been narrowed down after the first camp to a "35-man" (ie. 39 people) squad for the upcoming series of 3 training/selection camps. Everyone who did not make the 35 are included now in the mixed squad if they want to be. We will all be attending the next series of camps without Stu, who is now in the running to make the mixed squad. The updated squads can be found at: http://forcesideline.com/?p=711
The next camp is in less than two weeks and after this the mens team to compete at Emerald City Class in Seattle will be announced (27 June - stay tuned), which will be a great opportunity to play at a level even higher than world champs against the top 8 teams from US/Canada as well as teams from Columbia and Japan this year. After the announcement there will be 2 more camps in Canberra then the ECC tournie and the team for Worlds next year will be announced sometime after that.

Our blog adviser and team mate gave a poor anecdote summarising the trip to Sydney
"It's like shnk! shnk!" - the shnking referring to the perfect execution of the well oiled machine, made up of the best parts -
It must be something else to train with Australia's elite:

I'm not too sure about the "shnk" being the noise a well oiled machine makes, I'd probably be a bit worried if it did that, sounds like someone left a bolt inside by accident. A whirring noise would be more accurate or perhaps no sound.
But yes, training with the best players in Australia for a weekend is a whole new 'ball'game. Every line you step onto there is not one easy matchup so by the end of the weekend you are just as tired as after 4 days of nats.

Indeed. I think the sound was in reference to those romanticized images of early machinery post-industrial revolution (more appropriate for Silverbacks?)

Has anyone in the squad been a mentor or an inspiration to you? How do you learn to be the best receiver?

Inspiration wise - it is hard to go passed Mikey, he plays the type of game that I like to play myself so probably the perfect model to try and replicate. As for mentors, JMc knows what it takes to play elite level ultimate and offers very useful guidance when you need it. As for learning to be the best receiver, well that is just something that comes over time with hard work, watching the players who excel at it helps a lot, plus just don't try too much, a nice principle most of us received as youngsters was the KISS principle (Keep It Simple Stupid), seriously that applies to everything. Oh and two very important things, read and jump.


Ok, now to Dojo - I've referred to you at "The Game Plan", but now is the time to do the team thing and tell us all
about the depth of your team:

The Dojo team has a fair amount of talent in its ranks, that's for sure. We've got the MVP from last years final in Watto, backed up by his sidekicks in Wallsy, and not suspended this time, Ryan. Then there is the Fatty/Coops connection which just keeps getting better, add to that the guidance of the Sensei and Sean's run through D's, our best pickup ever Cola, and the crazy defence of Daz and Cunliffe. I guess that puts the Dojo depth at approximately Challenger Deep or deeper.

I've just something rare on the Dojo blog. A new post!! I've not heard who is making expert comments on this footage.
With Sensei and Coops again featuring in the Final, and The Mayor and Al standing at the other end, who do you think
is best suited to call the game?

Well we may be fortunate enough to hear aL commentating since he is not playing so that's a very good pickup for the sideline team, apart from that I'd say we could all use some Finn commentary.

Tell us, if you don't mind, just how you plan on putting those Flat-ball Chumps in their place (2nd) on Thursday night.

Suffocating D and huck happy O. I hope.

I think I've answered everything, I was interrupted by a fire in my building...seriously.

Thanks for your commitment to Sparkle Motion. Whatever that is.