Semi Final: Slamtown vs Buggers

*note - if you go to google images and type "buggers" you will find a humourous and disturbing photo that I was not game to upload. If only Wetnose was still around!

Without further adieu, (A Jew?! In these parts!!?) I present to you the Semi Finals interviews!!!11oneineoneeleven

First up we have Byron Bay Nice-Guy - Mr Kevin Stahlman!!! Can he out-do the Mayor?

1. Kevvy, undoubtedly you travel further than anyone for BPL. Is there any
uncovered talent down there in Byron that might be exposed when SFC
host home games on the Gold Coast?

It's fair to say that we bring the very best that the Gold Coast has to offer each week to the BPL. Byron has some great talent, but the 2 hour commute has put them off. I doubt the change to some home games next season will get these boys out, but if the SFC roster could include Donovan Moss and Justin Tiefer it would be a great boost and help to get us out of the 5'9" blues.

2. Slamtown recruited formidably during the off-season. Have Al and Abra
really been the saviours, or has your success been driven by the local boys?

First of all, these men came to us, drawn to the orange shorts and good times that is the SFC. No, they have not been the 'saviors', but they have fit in perfectly in places where we were deficient. With aL, he has brought a steady calm and experience to an offence that had potential, but struggled under pressure. Abra brings an infectious excitement and energy. They haven't saved us, but perhaps they were the missing pieces. Now if we could convince Fatty that he'd look good in orange... Formidable recruitment will begin in a few weeks.

3. How easy is it to smack talk the Buggers? Extremely? Would you mind
giving us a demonstration?

How's this: "The Bugs: A coupla old guys and one really tall one" That's all I got, they are a class act, and they're playing great disc. We know we're in for the fight of our lives. It's Slamtown's 3rd season, and we're in it to win it all. We respect the Bugs, but we must smash those c*nts if we're to achieve our goal. See ya Thursday

Cheers Kevvy, and now, it's over to the most Loverable Bugger in Moreton Bay - Trevor!! w00t

1. Trevor Lovering - Australian representative at juniors, given the following feedback:
"Has done f*ck all for the Buggers". You've co-captained Ignition at Nationals, has this
translated to increased initiative on the field on Thursday nights?


I think the best thing that I learnt from nationals is how to work within a team. Its not simply about playing your best, but playing in a way that the team needs you to play. In other words, yes.

2. Are the Buggers any good without Mike? It looked like the answer was "No", until
the final round, where you came back to salvage a hard-fought draw. This must be
an auspicious sign for the team, coming into finals?

I think we have proved that we are still up there with the best while Mike is stuck on the sideline, despite the predictions of some. It is a different team without Mike, and we are all the stronger for it. We are now a team with not only a threatening long game, but a smooth flowing short game. The game against Dojo gave us the kind of momentum that carries teams to the top.

3. Slamtown make a lot of noise, lots of cussing and the like,
but they've backed it up by taking second. But you guys
have got their number, right? You're all over it! Insert Smack:

All the noise and antics from Slamtown are simply a ploy to distract people from the fact that their game is nothing special. We have had our ups and downs during the season, done the hard yards. We know how to play under pressure (unlike some), and there will be plenty of pressure Thursday night.

It Be the End of an Era

The Brisbane Premier League's Director, Stu Austin, announced yesterday that he will be stepping down from his position at the end of the season.

This is a great loss to the BPL, but equally, Stu leaves the role in such excellent shape that the League will have no trouble continuing to be excellent (and of course, he'll still be there playing every week! So no need to get too depressed!)

Stu took on the role of BPL Director back in September 2008, joining an elite group of suckers for punishment volunteers that included his predecessors Jon Good, Andy Lankowski, Stew McGlashan, Jason Ray - all of whom handed over good ships as Stu is now doing - and has managed the last five seasons (Seasons 17-21 for those who keep track).

Efficient and passionate are the two words which spring to mind in thinking about Stu's work and the style in which he approaches it. Stu's passion for elite Ultimate is outstanding. His efficiency in delivering that has been fantastic.

We should also add one element of Stu's directorship that isn't obvious or talked about but it unconsciously prized by players - consistency. Stu established how he was going to share information and run the league and delivered that, week in and week out for over two years - a challenge for any volunteer who's got other things to do.

This is not to say Stu hasn't had a willingness to change, reform and grow the League. Think of the introduction of portafields which brought a new 'professionalism' to the League. Add to that the commitment of two fixed seasons rather than the 'endless play' that players sought in the past, which made ladders and finals all the more climactic and enjoyable. BPL players now have a stronger understanding of competition rules, rostering and reporting, and their value in delivering exciting Ultimate. The League grew to its largest size ever at one point in his leadership, and the quality of the competition has never been higher.

This is not to say we haven't had controversy which we shall address humourously and remind everyone that we play for fun and it doesn't really matter - TomsteveMVP-gate, Passion-no-semi's-gate, 'goddamit the fields are closed'-gate(s), occasional-whiney-email-gate, anything-to-do-with-SteveC-or-Stef-gate - and no doubt heaps of things that anyone lacking omnipotence or an intimate relationship with Stu would be aware of.

Stu has handled stressed out and upset people and irate (or just slightly snarky) emails with an air of confidence and clarity, and we hope he hasn't been too stressed and upset by such events. We suspect the positive relationships he cultivated with the League Captains and senior players (the key to any successful BPL Directorship) helped to ease some of these hassles on the relatively rare occasions they came along.

We in the stately mansion have long appreciated Stu's support for the Brisbane Ultimate Blog and our efforts to help make the Brisbane Premier League competitive and exciting. We (and we include our commenters here) may have occasionally irritated him, but he always seemed to grin back and add value to our enterprise.

So, regards and cheers to Stu. But most of all, WELL DONE and THANKS!

[the above has been edited to add J-Ray to the previous LD list - the fact checker will be punished]

Tipping at the Halfway House

So the current BPL season is now half way through and, as promised, we have the current standings along with a little bit of commentary.

1= Sensei, Gref, Reece
While these 3 tipsters all are even on 67% correct tips, the definite leader is Sensei. He missed the first 2 rounds, but has tipped in the next 5 rounds consecutively. Out of the 5 tips he has missed, these have included the 2 draws involving the Buggers, and the apparent upsets of Heroes beating Cobras, Cobras beating Passion, and Lovers beating Slamtown.

Gref (2 rounds tipped) and Reece (3 rounds) need to remember the rules that you need to tip more than 50% of game for the season (being 8 round minimum) and pick their game up to make sure they don't make themselves ineligible for the end of season prize.

4. Stu
Sitting alone in 4th place, Stu's love of Bug has kept him going, but his apparent dislike for Passion has stopped him climbing any higher. Needs to pick it up to go back-to-back with tipping titles.

5= Jmac, Julz
These 2 guys show how winning on the field make it a lot easier to win your tips, as no one (except Jangles) does or should ever tip against themselves.

The Rest
7. Jdr
8= Wetnose
8= Pete
10= BW
10= Jack
10= Al
13= Jangles
13= Stefan
15. Carl

Interesting Points
- There have been a total of 237 tips this season, and 131 of these have been correct giving an average percentage of 55.27%
- The most successfully tipped round so far was round 4 when 82% of the tips were correct. People obviously foresaw that Bugs would beat Lovers (9 out of 11 tips), Slamtown would beat Heroes (11 out of 11) and Dojo would account for Cobras (7 out of 11).
- The least successfully tipped round so far was round 3 when 44% of tips were correct. No-one though that Heroes would beat Cobras (0 out of 13 tips) and people were divided over the results of Bugs and Passion (8 out of 13) and Dojo against Lovers (9 out of 13).
- No one is yet to tip the draw, yet alone tip is successfully.
- No one also knows what Pete is doing with his tips this season, except for setting up some elaborate excuse for the end of season as to why he didn't win/lose.
- Dojo is the most popular team to tip with 69.70% of tips in game involving Dojo being in support of the Kensei.
- People don't like support Heroes with only 2 out of 70 tips in their favour, giving a percentage of 2.83%.
- Tipping percentages for the other teams are Passion 64.71%, Buggers 60.87%, Cobras 60.29%, Slamtown 50.00%, and Lovers 43.28%.
- Frisbee players have no lives, with 6 of the 15 tipsters tipping every round so far, with another 3 tipsters only missing 1 round.

Champion Stuff

So a little while back the Brisbane Ultimate Blog was called out for inviting tips for BPL every week, and then not announcing the winners at the end of the season (see the comments below this post).

Now, let it be clear, the tipping thing is purely for people's own entertainment, and possibly that of a few other people. Its just something that happens when you have time to tip, and Wettie gets around to tallying them up when he gets a chance to take a break from helping the bunnies wax our gold plated hovercraft.

Nonetheless, we do care about the long term thrill power enjoyed by you, our faithful readers. And so a few weeks back, certificates to recognise true tipping quality were printed up, and presented to our first place getter, Stu (see photo) and our sixth place getter, Jules (not worth a photo).

Well done all.A happy champion tipper hols up his First Place Certificate.

How's He Going to Carry 12 Frisbees? Just Give Him MORE!

Donations for JdR's charity run for the Royal Children's Hospital through the Clem7 tunnel have hit $250!

That means he's pledge to carry 12 frisbees on the 10km journey through the Brisbane underworld.

Special thanks to Ultimate community members and regular blog readers, aL 'the Don of Dons' Don, Stu 'Pants, as in "That's so pants"' Austin, Owen 'O-Shep' Shepherd, Andrew 'Mansauce, the World is Better with Mansauce' McKasker, and Adam 'Jangles' Beu for their donations. Please pat these guys (sadly, no gals) on the back when you see them.

If you need an extra reason to pull out that more of your Earth money ... JdR's non-Ultimate friends (are there such things?) are well ahead of the Ultimate community in making donations!

So c'mon Brisbane Ultimate (and beyond), lift your game!

Here's all those details again. Remember, you can donate as little as $2 ... it all adds up!

Ok everyone - there was some recent action in the stately mansion, which
has resulted in the Brisbane Ultimate Blog's own JdR deciding to take on the
challenge of the Clem7 Tunnel Charity Run. The charity bit for the run supports the Royal Children's Hospital - yep, its for sick kids (not "fully sick" like Trevor or
Paige, we mean "really ill").

You can sponsor JdR by going to: http://www.imworkingwonders.com.au/personalPage.aspx?SID=95751

To spice things up, for every $20 donated, JdR will carry a frisbee on the run. So if say he gets $200, he'll be carrying 10 frisbees (1.175kg of plastic), jovially waving them around to the other runners and such, (depending on his fatigue levels of course). [Edit - yes, you can just donate $5 - the $20 bit is the added up thing]
Yep, make a donation and you get to help kids, encourage JdR doing something silly, and promote flying disc sports, all in one go! Now, there's VALUE FOR MONEY.

BPL - Reviewing the Year

Brisbane Premier League Director Stu (bless him) has emailed out a bit of an off-field look back at 2009, and invited ye Blog to host discussion. So here's the post below, and the comments lines are open!

---------------------------------------------------

BPL is over for 2009, overall the season went pretty well but would welcome anyones comments on room for improvement.

Money
BPL still needs to pay AFDA and QUDA fees, as well as few more field costs but should end up with $800 to $1000 in the account. Which is a much healthier given that BPL started in debt this year. The main reason for the cash influx is because it's income has stayed the same (same number of players as last year) but it's outgoings have dropped by about 30% as we've only had to pay for one field, the benefits of only having 5 teams! BPL wants to keep a reasonable balance for any unexpected costs that may come up, but it's your money so let me know how you think it should be spent; developing juniors, free coaching, BPL merchandise. ......... ..

Teams
There have been several rumours going around of a sixth team forming but nothing concrete yet. I'll need to finalise the field bookings by the end of the year, so please let me know if you are going to establish a new team without an existing one collapsing!!

Fields
In order to cut down on the number of dodgy 'out' calls and to make the game more enjoyable to play and watch. BPL purchased two port-a-fields, which despite being a pain to set up and take down, seem worthwhile. If we are to re-expand to 6 teams then need to decide if we buy a third field, which will cost around $300.

Due to the issues with AJSC we have also moved around a fair bit this year but without missing any games. It sounds like AJSC are going to take a long time to get their lights fixed, you would hope they can do this by mid February but guess we'll just have to see. QUDA has put a lot of effort into it's relation with AJSC but at the same time is always looking for new venues, so if you know of anywhere that's available, let JdR and myself know.

Shirts
To help improve the image of the sport, BPL made a push for all teams to be wearing matching kit this year, and a big thank you to all those team captains and organisers who sorted this out. It certainly looks a lot more impressive watching 4 distinct teams playing on marked out fields, than a bunch of random people running around between some cones. Hopefully teams are able to accomodate new players in some way, and some leniance will be given to a 6th team if they do form, but hopefully everyone will continue with this.

Social
BPL hasn't had a free BBQ during a final for a while now, mainly because I don't have to time to organise it but if people want to volunteer and start this up again, just let know.

At the end of each season, BPL spends between $100 and $200 dollars (depending on current stock levels) on drinks for the final. Do people think this is a good social idea, or a waste of money that encourages drinking?

Rules
I've stuck to the rules probably more than previous LD's to make the job easier and to bring up the proffesionalism similar to the points above. Rules that are in place to make the TD's job easier are unlikely to change but other rules have been put in place due to demand, this demand seems to change from season to season, often by the same players. Any practical proposals are welcome for discussion.

In fact Jason, if you post this on your blog site, people can comment and discuss on there.

Regards

Stu

BPL Experimental Rules

Maintaining its status as the premier Open Ultimate League in the country, the Brisbane Premier League has been invited by no less than one of the key members of the WFDF Rules Committee to trial an experimental pick rule for the remainder of this season, and head honcho Stu has made the call and agreed to testing it out.

The experimental rule is:

"After a pick is called, play continues.

If the defender catches up to the player they were covering they should call "play on" and the pick is nullified.

If the player they were covering catches the disc before the defender can make up the ground, then play stops and the disc is returned to the thrower.

If an incomplete pass is thrown, the turnover stands and play continues."

Don't forget, BPL is now being played under the 2009 WFDF Rules (call us early-adopters). Make sure you're familiar before you get on the field this week.

BPL Season 3 2008 Roundup

We've been busy, but since we're somewhat the journal of record for the Brisbane Ultimate scene, and since super Stu has done the work for us (aside from the cutting and pasting), here's the end of BPL season wrap:

Last night Messy Buggers and UQ Lovers fought it out for the title of season 3
2008 champions, I'm not the best person for recalling games but it was was
pretty one sided in first half with UQ taking it 8-2. Think it got to 10-3 when
UQ players started to get pretty complacent while Messy never gave up, very
impressive for a 7 man squad. UQ finally managed to catch the disc in the
endzone to make it 15-9 to take the title and end a 4 season winning streak for
buggers.

Congratulations to UQ lovers for also winning the Spirit award for the season, average scores were:
1. UQ Lovers - 8.44
2. Dojo Mojo - 8.38
3. UQ Passion - 8.36
4. Rawhide - 8.31
5. Messy Buggers - 6.38
6. Slippery Buggers - 5.93

Despite Liam voting for himself (?!) in nearly every game it wasn't enough to win the MVP trophy as it heads back to Dan Walls' (Dojo) mantlepiece. The top scores were (MVP points/games played):
1. Dan Walls 10/7
2. Liam Gillions 7/8
3. Nathan Litzgow 4/6
4. Nic Coote 4/7
5. Jordan/Goldy/ Buzz all 3/5

I did announce last night that Mike Morgan came second but he only played 4 games and the previous rules specified that you had to play at least 5 to be in the running for MVP. On a similar note Granny (Rawhide) could have done well if he stuck around as he scored 3/3.

So that's the end of 2008. Enjoy Christmas, eat and drink too much, get slower and fatter and look forward to playing BPL again at the end of Jan. More to come on that, I'm trying to see if we'll have 5 or 6 teams next season but will probably just have to write two different year plans based on each option.

Stu

And thanks to Stu from everyone for running the season.

Toeing the Line

From the desk of Mr Stuart Austin:

Hey JdR not sure if you do guest blogs but I thought I'd send you an email as I still can't fall asleep at 12.30am after a game of frisbee that finished fricking hours ago!! This is a personal view of mine, not one as league director. Anyway....

A call that comes up regularly in BUML, BPL and S&M league games is people being called out of bounds on an unmarked field. This happened again tonight against Dojo, and nothing against Dojo, they made the same call that everyone else makes, OB.

Quick synopsis, Al throws the disc down the line to Jules, Jules takes a quick glance down field to work out roughly where the line is, plants his massive size 14's and catches the disc. Inevitably a call comes from the other team "your out, your foot was on/over the line". What line? There isn't a 3" white line that you can stick your foot inside off and try and make a play on the disc!

There's also the problem that of the 5 sideline cones, you'll be lucky to get three to line up properly, it's just the way things are. Which then brings out the line "he's out by those endzone cones". Come on people, let's be reasonable. If someone catches the disc a metre out, then yes they are out. But when someone catches the disc a foot or 18" outside of the invisible white line that they tried to stay inside of, do them a favour and hopefully next time when you try and catch the disc inside the invisible line they may do the same for you.

Stu

p.s. cheers Dojo, good game. Apart from that old guy Eastbran.

Three bits from me on this topic:

- when in doubt, the two cones that the offensive player is attacking should be the ones used to line things up.

- I don't really know why people have 'halfway' cones.

- if anyone is interested in doing the work of marking Ultimate lines at the Annerley fields between now and next March when soccer starts up, let me know.

And I For One Welcome Our New Austin Overlord

Congrats to Stu Austin, the new Brisbane Premier League Director.

Despite a hard push here at the formerly independent and non-partisan Brisbane Ultimate Blog for our own candidate, Mr Wetnose Esq., and the efforts of write-in candidate Tomsteve, Stu took the vote.

Expect sweeping changes as the new regime tightens its grip on power, including upon the press.

Hang on, there's some banging at the door.

...

...

GREETINGS READERS. BOW DOWN IN THE NAME OF YOUR NEW LEAGUE DIRECTOR, AND THE NEW MANAGEMENT HERE AT THE BRISBANE ULTIMATE BLOG, NOW RENAMED THE SNN OR STU NEWS NETWORK.

THE FUTURE IS BRIGHT AND SHINING. THE REMNANTS OF THE OLD REGIME ARE TO BE DISMANTLED AT ONCE, AND THE ARCH TRAITOR good IS TO BE HUNTED DOWN AND TRIED FOR HIS CRIMES, AND EXECUTED BECAUSE WE KNOW HE'S GUILTY. DID WE SAY THAT? WE MEAN, HE WILL GET A FAIR TRIAL, AS WILL THE WETNOSE, WHO IS NO DOUBT COWERING UNDER A COUCH SOMEWHERE, THE RUNNING DOG.

LONG LIVE THE KING.

RETURN TO YOUR WORK, PATRIOTS.

Mass Debaters

Well the debate has hotted up in biggest election to take place in 2008: The race for the new BPL League Director. The candidates have sent out statements that are so hot of the presses, its like touching a ranga's hair.

Stu Austin:

For those interested, my previous Tournament Director experience is:

South West Student Indoor Regionals - 1999, 2000, 2001

Student Indoor Nationals - 2000 (you play a lot of indoor ultimate as a student in the UK!!)

Previous League Director experience:

Started Bristol Winter League in 2003, and continued in 2004.

BWL was slightly different to BPL as it had about 8 to 12 teams (depending on how cold it was) travelling in from a 150km radius. Therefore the league was a series of 1 day tournament on the first Sunday of each month from October to February, with teams playing in pier pools. You then had promotion/relegation after each event. Unfortunately in 2005 Bristol Plastic Factory (the main club in Bristol) decided to turn it into a pickup league so that they could recruit new players, at the first event they only had 20 players and it was never run again :-(

Since then I have been doing a bit of coaching here and there but haven't run any tournaments/leagues for a few years now. As for next season of BPL, the only change that I was going to make (which has already been discussed quite a lot on the blog) was that only first place seed wins field 1 for the next season. If the 2nd place team wins field 2, then teams 3, 4, 5 and 6 each end up playing 50% of their games on field 3, which isn't really much of an improvement on this season (other than for team 3). If only team 1 keeps their field then they never play on field 3 and the other 5 teams only play 37.5% of their games on field 3.

I'm sure discussions will continue as to the use of other fields, currently the Monday night fields 3 and 4 are being used on a Thursday night.

I'm not sure if my connection with Lookfly could improve the league in any way, their could be some sort of sponsorship, this would have to be discussed with BUDA and Lookfly. Obviously it would never be at the expense of the players. Dog-cup merchandise would always be optional rather than part of the player fee.

Stu

Wetnose:

Well while I don't have the previous league director experience that Stu does, I certainly feel like I would still make a good league director for the ever growing BPL.

I have helped run tournaments over the past 3 years since I started playing Ultimate, and have this year taken on the role of treasurer for Firestorm. This position involved liaising with suppliers, cost calculation and budgeting, along with collecting fees from players; all roles that would aid me in leading the BPL into a next few years.

As I said, I don't have the same past experience of being a league director that Stu has, however there is always the ongoing complaint from people that there are not enough volunteers in Ultimate. If we are only going to use people that have experience and not bring in new volunteers to help them grow and gain experience then eventually the experience will leave and we will be left with people who don't know what to do and are not able to be assisted by people who have the experience but no longer wish to have the main role in their hands.

I am also looking into changing the draw to not "reward" a team that comes third by sticking them out on the dark field. I am looking into two scenarios: One is that both the first and second place teams from the previous season gain home fields and everyone else is rotated through the other fields. The other scenario is only rewarding the reigning premiers with a home field and rotating games through the other two fields.

Unlike political elections, there will be no mud slinging and I will let Stu say anything he likes about what he wants to do without me commenting, and I'm sure he will do the same.

I am very excited about the possibility of helping BPL continue its growth and development of the best players in Brisbane, and ask you to please vote for me.

Cheers

Wetnose


So there are your candidates, the power is in your hands. Votes can be entered/changed here until 11 September.

And So ... It Begins

So the letterbox here at stately Brisbane Ultimate Blog mansion has started to fill up with frickin' junk mail ....



That whole 'mankini' thing could become Wetnose's own Swiftboat affair ....

I'm not sure what to make of this one ...

None of these are endorsed by anyone.

House of Flying Voters

So as of this morning, BPL now has two candidates for its new League Director.

Such is the massive power of the media. We feel a bit like Rupert Murdoch.

What's super crazy beyond all expectations and comprehension?

Its going to be a vote!

This is madness on an unprecedented scale.

Ultimate works best with a mildly benign dictatorship. We all know this - if it didn't we'd start turning up to AGMs.

What are we going to get here? Candidate statements? Running mates? A Town Hall Debate? Slush funds? Spin doctors? Lurid photos suggesting bizarre sexual dressing up activities? Scurrilous emails warning us of the ongoing threat of British League Directors to our precious aussie male fluids?

Having voting leads us only in one direction.

CIVIL WAR!

I guess one good thing could come out of this.

Will the loser go and offer to run Monday nights for Dan and Adilia?