Queensland Open Championships 2012 Preview

Your blogger has bitten way more off than he can chew this year, with TDing Regionals, Griffith stuff, QUDA stuff and real life, to properly preview this tournament. But who needs sleep!?

The tournament returns to Griffith Nathan which is looking shmick. Having the party at the Griffith campus pretty much straight after games finish (although time enough for southsiders to go home and shower I guess) is interesting. Pizza and a bar tab is always a drawcard. I See Red is a good theme - can't wait to see JackL and AndyL in their green outfits. Kinda negative in a photographic way.

Anyway, lets look at the teams.

Firestorm
The A1-AlphaDog-DominantLifeform-TopoftheFoodChain-ArnoldSchwarzenegger-ZombieLich-Galactus-CitizenKane-DalekEmperor of Northern Regionals. They laugh at this tournament (usually this is followed by a crack of thunder), and have managed to get it brought forward a week so they can get proper games at Easterns. And probably rightly so - once you've harvested the best talent and cut the chaff, as well as trained for months like the crazy eager buggers they are, what can you expect, aside from seeing Firestorm at the top of the trophy for another year.

Northerns Form: 2011 1st 2010 1st 2009 1st and 2nd (O/D squad); 2008 1st and 2nd (Troopers/Zippo), 2007 1st.

Player to Watch: All of the tricky beggars. Whoops, they've scored on you again. The one guy who probably hasn't flogged you before is named Dan. He'll flog you too apparently. And for the sake of Queensland pride at Nationals, please don't break any of them (treat J-Mac like he's your mother, which he is (spiritually)).

Towns-Villians
Evil, evil people from the True North, who will no doubt thrive in the hot and humid conditions this weekend. Like mould. Rumour has it that the Villians consider this a warmup tournament for coming again to smash and grab the Div2 Nationals title. We shall see. The roster may be a little short, but they've picked up a dark lords in the form of the best of the Cairns Mob, and as usual some dudes will just appear out of the blue. Looking forward to seeing the new outfits. Expect a forfeit on Sunday morning if tradition holds up.

Northerns Form: 2011 4th 2010 3rd 2009 4th (as Thor); 2008 3rd (as Thor); 2007 2nd (as Thor); 2006 4th (as No Panda).

Player to Watch: Hugh Osborne has moved to Perth like Hamish and Simone before him, but Keith is coming up from Tassie to drink JdR's liquour cabinet and play this one. Watch out for the guy in the old fashioned Dojo shirt.

Slamtown Flatball Club
Slamtown have had some highs and lows in their existence. This year's squad has been hardened up by the BPL, and boasts a very strong Byron Bay flavour. Expectations will be high, but if the gang parties like usual, Day 2 could be tough. If Northerns were My Kitchen Rules, these guys would be like those other famous Gold Coasters, Gary and Peter - know what they're doing but can seem a bit bitchy while doing it. Will battle Ignition to take the second Northern slot to Nationals, in some form or other.

Northerns Form: 2011 3rd 2010 2nd 2009 5th; 2008 4th (as The Pass)

Player to Watch: Stef Rappazzo of course. You can't help but look at him. Like a car wreck on legs. This guy is so tough he sweats blonde playgirls, craps steel I-beams and wees boiling tequila, lemon and salt - and that stuff doesn't have to fall far to hit the ground. Daughters should also be hidden from several members of this team. Jords will be much bigger this year, as he's going to Uni now and was apparently studying on Day 1, as will Dr Phil.

Firestorm Ignition
They've got Mansauce. What more should we bother mentioning? I guess we could give all the other nicknames for the players on the team, just so you can sort them out for your heckling when they take on Slamtown in the Semi-Final. There's Jacksauce, CarlieCarlCarl, NotCarlI'mNotRelatedToHimLeaveMeAloneManHeyIAmTooOver18, Brownsauce, Brownsauce with Chives, TimTom, TomTim, Bendy, Rednut the Fatarsed Wombat, Dazzler, Nugget, Dan Dan Revolution, the Big G, and Paul "I'm a Real Australian Now, Maaaayte, Gimme Some Tinnies or I'll Wooloomooloo Yer Woollangabba, Bloke" S. Want to get that second slot to Nats, rather than the 3rd slot.

Northerns Form: 2011 2nd

Player to Watch: A mix of knowns, known unknowns, and unknown unknowns, and various dressings. Um. Well, they're all kinda funny looking to watch. What the heck, let's talk up Guarin.

Griffith Heroes
A sexual chocolate of two prominent BUML Clubs, plus those darn Webb boys, who'll likely turn up in a 1969 Dodge Charger with the Confederate Flag painted on the roof and the doors welded shut. There's some young talent on this team, playing their first guy only games, which may suit dirty old swill-chucking farts like ... well basically Dusty and JdR. Still, lots of them have barely been on the same field together before, so expect their plays to be copied from Wikipedia.

Northerns Form: Zip

Player to Watch: Let's mention Dan Cohen, who anchored the Griffith AUGs 2011 team and Luke Stark, because he reads this sometimes.

Gympie G-Force
WELCOME GYMPIE! This is awesome to have them at their first big gig. Lots of unknowns to this blog on their sheet, but then three of them played the Q-Hat Final last year, and they've got their KFC-stained hands on Hello Moto, That's Mr Litzow To You Punk, and Former President Boevink, so don't play them down.

Northerns Form: Zip

Player to Watch: Michael Daly has the highest AFDA number of the tournament, at 19490.

Note for tipsters - since you'll all (except maybe for Crazy Pete) be putting Firestorm at the top of your list, we suggest you also tip the round robin goal difference. Assuming five games to 17 and time cap of 90 minutes against the other teams, how many points will Firestorm score against how many will they let in?

Queensland Open Championships and Women's Hat

Everything You Need to Know About the Big Tournament This Weekend

Dates: Open (Mens) Saturday 3 March and Sunday 4 March
Women Saturday 3 March (one dayer)
Where: Griffith Sports Fields, Kessels Rd, Nathan.
Across the road from QEII Hospital.
Time: Gates open 7.45am. Games start at 9am. Games finish around 4.30-5.15pm. Cost: Women’s Hat - $20
Open (Mens) - $60 two days, $30 one day
Payment: Open - please pay your fees to your Captain before the event.
If in doubt, please transfer to the QUDA Events Account (with some
identifying details) at BSB 034 000 Acc 515472
Women’s – You can pay via bank transfer to above, or cash on the day.
Includes: Fields, Insurance, Lunches both days, Fruit, Prizes, Party, Bar Tab,
Pizza plus some other stuff. There will be a canteen selling cold
cold sports drinks and a few other goodies.
Party Who: Is open to all QUDA Members (ie if you can’t play the weekend, you’re
still welcome to come along. We ask that you don’t use the bar tab though).
Party Where: Uni Bar, Building N71, Corner West Creek Road and Science Road,
Griffith Nathan
Party Times: Doors open from 6pm, Pizza from 6.30pm, Doors close and head
for the City (or home) at 10.30pm.
Party Theme: I SEE RED. You MUST be wearing red or have red hair to access the bar tab.

Please register so we can make sure there’s enough food:
- Open http://afda.com/rego/showdivision.php?divisionid=1950
- Women http://afda.com/rego/showdivision.php?divisionid=2021

No BPL Tonight

Rain

University Ultimate Returns for 2012

Universities around Queensland return this week, and everywhere students are looking they are seeing QUDA's fab new promotional material ... which is bringing them to this website, looking for opportunities to play Ultimate at their Unis.

Need we say that University is a great way to get into Ultimate, and that Ultimate is a great way to get into Uni!?!

So here's some contact info for UQ, Griffith, QUT, JCU, Bond and others!

University of Queensland - check out their Blog at http://uqultimate.blogspot.com.au/ or email them at uqultimate@hotmail.com

Griffith University (Brisbane) - check out their Website at http://www.griffithultimate.org/ or email them at committee@griffithultimate.org or join their Facebook group at http://www.facebook.com/groups/griffithuniultimate/

Griffith University (Gold Coast) - check out their Facebook group at http://www.facebook.com/groups/UniUlty/

QUT - contact danielle.raftopoulos at connect.qut.edu.au or check out their Facebook group at http://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/296547627066867/

James Cook University (Townsville) - check out their blog at http://townsvilleultimate.blogspot.com.au/ or their Facebook group at http://www.facebook.com/groups/232852017486/

James Cook University (Cairns) - check out the Cairns blog at http://cairnsultimatedisc.blogspot.com.au/

Bond University - contact Club President Saxon at saxon.cameron at live.com

If you're at the Sunshine Coast University, Australian Catholic University (Brisbane) or Southern Cross University (Toowoomba), we'd love to link you up with other people who want to play Ultimate there. Drop QUDA a line.

Tipping Point - BPL Round 1

BPL 2012 hucks off this week, and the more we look at it, the more it looks like the season is going to be like one of those knock down drag out battles you used to see in all-star wrestling, back when it was properly street and all. Here's the opening rounds for your tipping pleasure.

Field 1 - Northside Cobras vs Dojo Mojo
A battle of the gangsigns, as we'll see Reece trying to make an N using two hands while catching the disc with his teeth. Meanwhile, Dojo will continue talking about the old days, when there were proper gangs like in West Side Story.

Field 2 - Bugz vs Heroez
The new look Heroez (with a z) will be looking to show how "urban" they are this week, in a desperate attempt to distance themselves from perceptions that some of them are from Toowoomba. The Bugz (with a z) will have spent the week watching Super 8.

Field 3 - Blitzzz vs Slamtown Flatball Club
Blitzzz's (with three z's) taggin campaign down at the skate ramp seems to have increased the hype surrounding them. But all Slamtown need to do is get all local and "get off my wave, punk" and things will go to form.

UQ's Secret Uni Games Selection Policy for 2012

Rumour has it that to get onto UQ's Uni Games this year, you only need to do one thing.

Turn up wearing one of these.

Trivia? Or Not?

Ok brains trust. Who played the Final at Halibut 2011, who won, and what was the score?

Cold Hard Stats

Slamtown Flatball Club

Captain: Stephan "The Mayor" Rapazzo
Colour: Sunset Orange / Black / White
Average Age: 28 (Abra's age)
History: Last season - PREMIERS
Likes: Traveling post-victory
Dislikes: Traveling pre-match
Breaking News: As always, SFC have made the strongest recruits, bagging the potent Gref & BW. It appears Al may return. They say good-bye to rookie tall, Weens.

Dojo Mojo:

Captain: Pete Allen (at least, for registration purposes)
Colour: Black/White
Average Age: 31 (Cola's age)
History: Last season - 2nd, Highest Finish - PREMIERS 2010, 2011 and one other time in the dark ages.
Likes: Flying under the radar
Dislikes: Effort.
Breaking News: Steve Cameron is not yet registered. No news is good news, Dojo style.

Moreton Bay Buggers

Captain: Mat Ryan
Colour: Red / White
Average Age: 32 (Rolo's age)
History: Last year - 3rd, Highest Finish - so many premierships, see their blog
Likes: Playing on field 1
Dislikes: The fact that they haven't had rights to field 1 for some time now.
Breaking news: Jangles returns home.

Heroes

Captain: "(formerly) Silent" George Salisbury
Colour: Green/White
Average Age: 27 (my age)
History: Last season - 4th, Highest finish - 4th 2011
Likes: (snake) Whacking Day
Dislikes: Recruiting
Breaking News: Jangles out, Vinko in. The Cone of Silence is broken.

Blitz

Captain: Chris Cunliffe
Colour: Get some uniforms boys
Average Age: 25 (captain Cunliffes age)
History: Last season - 6th
Likes: Playing against Bandidos
Dislikes: Dodgy draws
Breaking News: Cunliffe is restricted to bed-rest at the moment and will miss opening matches.

North American Cobras

Captain: Reece Stewart
Colour: Black
Average Age: 27 (Brian's age)
History: Last season - Spoon, Highest Finish - Grand Finalist 2010
Likes: American recruits
Dislikes: Heroes
Breaking News: Apparently these guys have relocated to the North side. They've swept up all the imports and are making a lot of noise about it.

Northern Regionals Gearing Up

An update on the Queensland Open Ultimate Championships aka Northern Regionals, hosted by the Griffith University Ultimate Club on behalf of QUDA.

Dates: Saturday 3 and Sunday 4 March 2012 roughly 9am-5pm
Venue: Griffith Sports Fields, Kessels Rd, Nathan
Cost: $60 two days, or $30 one day.
Includes: Fields, insurance, lunches, BBQ, Saturday night party, prizes, and some surprises.

Team registration closes Friday 24 February, to allow the draw to be sorted. There are presently seven teams registered - Gympie G-Force, NQ Villains, Brisbane Firestorm, Brisbane Firestorm Ignition, the Gold Coast's Slamtown Flatball Club, Griffith University and the "Toowoomba" Heroes.

Player registration closes on Wednesday 29 February. Captains need to collect their players' money and forward it to the TD. Registering and paying on time means you'll get fed, as well as be properly insured.

Please register at: http://afda.com/rego/showdivision.php?divisionid=1950

If you are looking for a team, I am confident we'll be able to find one for you. Get in touch. We want everyone who wants to play to play! This is a great chance for less experienced players to get some quality game time against 'the big men'.

QUDA Confirms Queensland Women's Fun Hat - Saturday 3 March

QUDA has announced the Queensland Women's Fun Hat will be held on Saturday 3 March, from 9am-5pm, at the Griffith University Sports Fields, off Kessels Rd , Nathan.

The cost of the day is $20, and this includes fields, insurance, lunch and prizes. The fee also includes joining the menfolk (who'll be playing on the field next door) at the party on Saturday night, as well as BBQ lunch if you want to watch the Open Final on Sunday afternoon.

The event is aimed at Queensland Women Ultimate players of all levels – from people having their first ever go, through to Australian representatives. QUDA’s objective is to ensure everyone attending has a great day, and over time to grow the Queensland Women’s Ultimate scene. The event replaces the Women's Division of Northern Regionals. We anticipate running the Fun Hat for a few years until demand for qualification to Women's Nationals grows beyond two teams.

There is no better way to get new women involved and to improve women’s skills in Ultimate (which is often played in the mixed format) than to play a women’s-only event.

QUDA’s investment in the event includes:
- subsidising the player fee down to $20, to make it attractive to as many players as possible;
- supporting several women from North Queensland flying down to play the event - yay, new ladies!
- preparing and distributing ‘women friendly’ promotional materials - http://quda.org/quda-promotional-material/

QUDA hopes that all experienced Brisbane Women players will join us in growing the scene, welcoming our female guests from Townsville, Cairns, the Gold Coast and Gympie, and having a great time!

Please register at http://afda.com/rego/showdivision.php?divisionid=2021 so that QUDA can feed you properly and so that you are insured. If you are new to Ultimate, it is free to join the Australian Flying Disc Association, which then enables you to register for events like this one.

BUD Bigman Badman Confirms 24/7 Play

In today's press conference to launch the new Byron Bay Ultimate field, Byron Ultimate Disc (BUD) Bigman Andrew Badman (aka BUD Bigman Badman) confirmed that Ultimate will "be played seven nights a week, and more nights too if my plans for an eighth day to the week, named Badday, come to fruition."

In the face of today's field opening being postponed due to rain, Bads noted "That's just the spirit goddess replenishing our beloved turf, and reminding us to go make love and/or surfing occasionally, preferably at the same time."

Bads continued, "In your face, rest of Australian Ultimate."

Milestone for Byron Bay Ultimate

This Friday 10 February, the Byron Bay Regional Council will be opening its new multi-sport centre, which includes a dedicated Ultimate field.

It's great to have a dedicated field, but its also great to be part of a larger centre, and be thereby able to negotiate to host larger events.

If you're down that way, the politicians and other community representatives will be doing their ribbon cutting thing from 11am-12.30pm, and they'll surely love to see some Ultimate players.

Of course, they could hang around for the community launch between 4pm and 8pm that evening, which will feature both the Little Athletics and the very BEST of the Byron Bay Ultimate community and their friends, in a showcase game!

Well done BADMAN and all the gang.

Other States are Doing It, Why Not Queensland?

So, UFNSW have announced that they are increasing their league and tournament fees, to help continue employing a Development Officer. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nsw-ultimate/message/5653

Which brings us to an important question.

Should QUDA increase the cost of Ultimate in Queensland to employ a Development Officer?

By our rough estimate, funding a part-time QUDA Development Officer would involve something like increasing the typical League fee by $10/season, and the typical tournament fee by $2.50 per day.

The QUDA Executive, being volunteers with limited time, asked that this discussion be focused here on the Brisbane Ultimate Blog, which has the capacity to host lots of comments (including anonymous ones, which of course are read but maybe not given the weight of those by real people), because they don't really want to read and reply to dozens of emails or have people in their face at game time. So please respect their time and stick to discussing the *idea* here (at least for a while!)

So, the QUDA Executive has been thinking about this for a while and has run some figures through the Atari2600 here at the stately Brisbane Ultimate Blog mansion (see below). In the lead-up to QUDA’s Annual General Meeting on 3 March, its worth discussing, at the least to give some views for the 2011-2012 Executive to consider as they go into their 2011-2012 planning.

Development Officers in Other States

Ultimate Frisbee NSW have had a full-time Development Officer for about two years. The position has been very successful, a testament to getting the right person and that person working very hard! The annual cost to UFNSW is about @$46k. As it is roughly understood here at the mansion, UFNSW initially funded this position primarily through its deep savings over many years, generated through its main source of income – running the massive Sydney Northern Suburbs League (500+ players over three seasons annually, for many many years). The Development Officer also ‘makes’ money to support the position, in that coaching services are provided to schools for a fee. UFNSW were also able to gain a small grant that contributed to their capacity to fund the job. (UFNSW of course also makes money from other things (disc sales, interest) and spends money on other things, but this is roughly how they’re able to do it. Check out UFNSW’s finances for 2010-2011 at: http://ufnsw.com.au/admin/documents/20110630_ProfitLoss.pdf

Ultimate Victoria and WAFDA also have development officers. There is a bit of variation between the details of the roles from place to place (and we invite them to comment in), but generally their roles aim to a) generate income to help pay for their positions, either through grants or paid services (such as coaching) and b) grow the long term membership of the Ultimate organisation in their state, primarily by ‘getting Ultimate into schools’ and then getting those people into Ultimate Leagues and Tournaments (including helping them set up their own Leagues and Tournaments).

The QUDA Executive’s desire to investigate and see if we can avoid falling further behind the other states has also been stimulated by a detailed proposal from a prominent local Ultimate player to become QUDA’s Development Officer, who has a long history of growing the sport through schools and other work.

QUDA's Finances and Capacity to Employ

QUDA’s finances are unlike these other states. QUDA does not run major Leagues as all other States do. In Queensland, these are run by BUDA, GCU, JCU, UQ, etc. QUDA does run a few key tournaments - Halibut, Northerns, the Q-Hat, and Nationals when they come to Queensland. But generally these events are run to ‘break even’ rather than to turn a surplus (I don’t use “profit”, as that implies money is taken out of Ultimate. A particular event can make money, but this money is reinvested in Ultimate, including when future events accidentally make a loss).

QUDA has not had to seek income this way because we’ve been fortunate that the Queensland Government provides grants system for State Sporting Organisations.

It is however explicit in this grant that it cannot be used to employ someone. QUDA does at various times pay people casual hobbyist rates or honourariums (eg Coaches, Course Presenters, the Executive Officer, promotional workers) or via gifts to particular volunteers, but it usually tries to do this with money from outside the State Grant. But it is impossible to extend this approach to the proper employment of someone for a few days a week, who needs a contract in place so that they give up other work to take the job on, who will need sick and recreation leave, superannuation, and so forth.

So QUDA would need to generate alternative income if it wished to employ a proper Development Officer over the long term. It is very rare for government grants to pay for staff – this is every sport’s dream but it doesn’t happen, and it isn’t sustainable as the grant may disappear and then what happens.

The AFDA Fee and the QUDA Fee

In the past, QUDA charged an annual membership fee, paid in February and which included a new QUDA disc. While this generated some income for QUDA, it is arguable its primary goal was ensuring that we had a member list to ensure its legal continuity, and keep a steady flow of discs into the community. AFDA used to have an annual fee also, collected at Nationals each year.

As Ultimate in Queensland grew to be more than a single League at one venue, it became impractical to continue trying to collect this annual fee. In 2004 or so, AFDA moved to an event based fee system, which levied a small amount per League or Tournament, collected from the League or Tournament Director and factored into their budgeting for player fees (“the AFDA fee”). The AFDA fee generated enough income to support an Administrative Officer to oversaw the system (amongst many other useful duties). So QUDA saw and took an opportunity to use the same system, introducing a “QUDA fee” that would be collected using the AFDA’s system.

Initially, the QUDA fee was set at a QUDA AGM as 20% of the AFDA fee. At present, the AFDA collects fees from Leagues and Tournaments at a rate of around $1.32 a registered player a week for League fees, and $3.96 a registered player a day for Tournament fees. http://www.afda.com/showcontent.php?page=member_fees

QUDA set its fee at 20% largely to establish the system with a relatively tokenistic amount. There is a sense that QUDA has however been relatively haphazard in collecting QUDA fees, and some events and tournaments in Queensland haven’t been invoiced or chased for payment. Hence one of the primary jobs for a QUDA Development Officer would probably be working with the QUDA Treasurer to get this system working properly.

So, How Would It Add Up?

So, to the figures. By our rough estimates, based on a scan of the AFDA registration system, AFDA would have collected around $21,618 in Queensland in 2011 (not including Nationals).

If QUDA had collected its 20% QUDA fee on this, it would have earned $4,323. This is obviously not enough to employ a Development Officer. But certainly, Step One for QUDA is to start properly and seriously collecting the QUDA fee.

Many events in Queensland do not use the AFDA registration system, and so do not pay AFDA fees (and problematically for QUDA, many of these players are therefore not actually members of QUDA) – this includes Leagues on the Gold Coast, Townsville and UQ (plus Cairns being pretty rough, but then its new and learning). If those Leagues had have been included in the AFDA/QUDA fee system, then our guess is that AFDA fees for Queensland would have gone up to around $28.5k, and QUDA fees to $5.7k. So a second step for QUDA is to continue trying to get those Leagues to become proper members of QUDA (we should acknowledge of course that there is a debate to be had about whether or not a Brisbane-based Development Officer can deliver x% of their attention to regional areas. Our sense is that this is certainly feasible, particularly given QUDA’s long term goal of growing the sport throughout regional Queensland. Also, given these places currently don’t pay anything to AFDA or QUDA, there’s have to be some progressive increase of fees – ie not all at once).

Then to finally get to the point (and I thank you all for reading this far!), there is the option for QUDA to pull the % lever and increase QUDA fees. Here’s our estimates:

Increase the QUDA fee from 20% to 50% of AFDA fee (and collect it all) would generate $10.8k on current takings and $14.2k if the ‘lost leagues’ were gained. This would be a $5.50 increase on a current BPL or BUML fee (assuming 14 player team) (typical and largest leagues in Queensland) and $2.38 on the Halibut fee (typical two day tournament).

Increase the QUDA fee from 20% to 75% of AFDA fee - $16.2k on current Leagues, $21.3 on all Leagues. $10.16 increase on BPL/BUML and $4.36 on Halibut.

Increase to 100% and its $21.6k on current or $28.5k on all, for a $14.78 increase on BPL/BUML and $6.34 on Halibut.

Here's the spreadsheet - click to embiggen. It may not be completely right, but we think its good enough to support this discussion. Please don't point out minor errors to us!

So what’s this all mean?

Well, Assuming you employ someone for half-time and it costs about half of what it costs UFNSW, you need say $24k/annum, with coaching income on top of that to fill out another half to a full day. So the question is: Should QUDA then increase its fees to 75% of the AFDA fee from 1 July 2012 in Brisbane, and say in the regions first start collecting it at 25% and then increase it by 25% each six months until its 75%?

What do you think?

To pre-empt a response from some who may say “So its going to cost more for me to play Ultimate. I play BPL and BUML all year, plus Halibut and the Q-Hat and Northerns, and so it’ll be pouring $65 a year more into QUDA’s coffers. What’s in it for me?”

Aside from a brief “Do you want our sport taken more seriously in the future?” which of course would require a lot of unpacking in terms of benefits and so forth (and requiring Ultimate players to think beyond the next season is a challenge, to be sure), perhaps a simple “Growth = more playing opportunities for you in the future. Growth = more Leagues on different nights in different places, growth means more teams and divisions in existing Leagues and tournament (meaning more competition). Growth = a higher standard at the higher levels (including being more competitive on the national scene).

So, thanks for reading all this. Its a month until the AGM. This isn’t a decision for the AGM – its a decision for the QUDA Executive. But no doubt when they are elected at the AGM, they’d like to go away and start to plan their year of office with an idea of what people would think if they made a decision to increase the QUDA fee and employ a Development Officer.