SAFDA mixed league review, spring 2009

Last night the last of SAFDA's 2009 mixed league was run and won, with both upsets and, as far as i'm concerned, plenty of expected results. flycatchers 1 managed to beat AU Rambo for div 2 third (and good on them for doing it!) while Donna Hay somehow upset div 2 undefeated favourites 7 Wonders for the win.
Restless flycatchers had too many key players dissappearing throughout the league to be the superstars i thought they would be, but still held their own for 3rd in div 1 over an otherwise impressive UE. NAU also managed to impress, and i hope this is a sign of things to come for the club. in all, i don't think i was too far off...

predicted:
Div 1.
1.FU: Try Sarah's Tops
2. Restless Flycatchers
3. AU: Rocky
4. FU: Firepower
5. FU: 7 Wonders
6. FU: Donna Hay & the Cupcakes
Div 2.
7. UE
8. NAU
9. AU: Rambo
10. Flycatchers 1
11. Flycatchers 2
(12. Ballmark Figures)

actual (with variance):
Div 1.
1.FU Try Sarah's Tops (-)
2. AU Rocky (+1)
3. Restless Flycatchers (-1)
4. UE (+3)
5. NAU (+3)
6. FU Firepower (-2)
Div 2.
7. FU Donna Hay & the Cupcakes (-1)
8. FU 7 Wonders (-3)
9. Flycatchers 1 (+1)
10. AU Rambo (-1)
11. Flycatchers 2 (-)
12. Ballmark Figures (-)

I also originally predicted MVP male to go to Minh Peart-Tang or Jordan Powell. Jordan didn't end up playing the league, and Minh didn't win MVP. On my initially posting of my predictions I suggested in the comments that Jony Warren-White would win it. He came second in Div 2.
My MVP female tip was for Tessa Bilney or Mel Tea. Tessa also came second in Div 2.

The MVP winners were:
Div 1 male: Sean Lace (FU: Firepower) & David Sanderson (UE)
Div 1 female: Kristen Burdon (FU: Firepower)
Div 2 male: Russell Nassim (AU: Rambo)
Div 2 female: Alison Clarke (FU: 7 Wonders)

There was also a 'most improved' award, going to Jason Ridley (FU: Try Sarah's Tops), Emma Victory (FU: Try Sarah's Tops) and Jodi Quast (FU: Donna Hay).
My predicted spirit winners came through with the goods, UE taking spirit for Div 1. FU: 7 Wonders won a no brainer for Div 2. Also want to send out a big congrats to Chris Davis for running a very successful league! Good times all round.

And thats a wrap. See you at the beach.

observations of offence from the sidelines

how much fun is injuries! not at all.

having a temporary inability to run has, though, given me an opportunty to observe parts of the game that i may otherwise have missed and therefore not have learned. the most striking thing to me i have found is a general lack of awareness on offence.
i see so many good cuts being looked off and good cuts not being made, when they would be really really good to make.

i may have forgotten, to a degree, what it is like to actually play and be in the action, but from where i have been standing on the sideline it has been frustrating as all everything to watch so many poor decisions being made when it seems that good ones are so obviously in front of them.

even from experienced cutters and throwers.
and it has made me realise that probably the most important skill to have on offence is being aware of what is happening around you and, with this knowledge, timing things well. this includes knowing the space to make and cut into, knowing when to cut and when to fake, being aware of the thrower or thrower-to-be and their abilities, recognising poaches and knowing where to look for the next throw before you hear the (often absent) call for the disc.

i think improving these skills would vastly improve the offence of any team.
i wonder how easy this is to apply once i start playing again.

pillow fight!

today i am flying to hobart with pillow fight to play in the aus mixed championships. i'm pretty excited for several reasons:

1. i currently feel confident that i can run, which is a pleasant change from my shin-splint filled AUG tourny last week (though this may change as the weekend progresses)
2. i am a significant player on my team, which means i get to play lots! this differs from karma's nationals campain when i was the mercy sub.
3. i get to mark top players in the country - we are playing kaboom first thing tomorrow.
4. i like frisbee.

this is going to be wicked.

flinders uni's uni games

i'm finally home and able to spend some time reflecting on this years aus uni games. Flinders did fairly well, losing to Monash in the bronze medal match and letting UQ and USyd fight it out for gold (which UQ won on golden point). this was not the result we were looking for though, and many of us have come home disappointed, especially as we all KNOW we could have done better. this is my take on what happened. i accept that some of you may dissagree with me.

first of, we came in pretty unprepared. unlike other years, we had spent no time at all hanging out and getting to know each other before the games, so already we had created space for things to be miscommunicated or people to get upset early. also, like other years, we spent next to no time training together. i don't think is a huge loss, as most of us play or have played together in the past, but it still would have been nice in developing better team cohesiveness.

we also came into the games expecting a lot. this isn't a bad thing in itself but when we hadn't done much towards this goal it can be dangerous - we just kind of expected it to happen.

the first game we played against was the hot favourites of the tourny - UQ. this was the team to beat. therefore we pulled out all the big guns to make sure we did (aka joel and brett played everypoint and for the most part it was zone d and huck to bretty). we ended up beating them something like 12-9. i think this was our first mistake.

i am totally happy with the game becoming the joel and brett show when it needs to be, and this game it definately needed to be. i have no problem with this at all. my problem is that this was the very first game of the tourny and that we had ever played together as a team, and i think it was more important for us to develop as a team and play together as a team than to win this game. we set a standard for the tourny (joel huck to sweet-as) which we found really hard to shake off (the rest of the first day we could only win games this way, when we should have been able to beat these teams without joel or brett even playing). as well as this, now that we had beaten UQ (which i recently found out was their first AUG loss since 2006!) we felt invincible. this idea seemed confirmed when we beat both Monash and USyd on wednesday.

so this is the run down into the semi's - we had beaten every top team and felt invincible, and for the most part we had relied very heavily on joel and brett doing amazing things. therefore when we faced USyd again in the semi final on thursday, we went in really really cocky. i even found myself saying (and it was only afterwards that i reflected how stupid this was) that this game was a sure win and had already penciled us in to play UQ in the final the following day. when joel turned up heaps late (forgot his accreditation) we started becoming a bit rattled, but not enough to lift our own personal game, and we went down jogging.

that blowed. now all we could do was play for bronze. and Monash are a good team; they worked hard and deserved the win they had over us. and USyd gave UQ a real tough game, so i guess they both deserved to be up there too. still, i think things could have been different had we come to this tourny and that semi game more prepared for what we were about to face.

in other news, Joel and Brett both made green and gold, and my beard was publicly complimented by TD Bozza! the sun was beautiful and i think, regardless of the final results, we all had a sweet time. i did, and i didn't even play more than 2 games (thankyou shin splints). we also spent a lot of time with our shirts off, which is a tick in anyone's box. the fake tans didn't last long, but they were at least funny for the first day. feel free to check us out.

in other other news, UniSAdelaide lost to Team NZ in the Div2 final, securing a comfortable silver. no other teams seriously threatened them. both Roden and Alex are pretty badly hurt though, so i'm not sure whether they consider this tourny worth it. bummer.

pre-goldcoast preperation

in just over a week flinders fury will be heading to the goldcoast for their (6th? 7th or 8th? i have no idea) australian uni games campaign, and their attempt at a second gold medal. talk has been high over the last couple months (or year), with boasts as strong as us taking out the uni games tri-fector - sug, aug and iraug.

but talk is cheap. what of the actual team and the competition this year? how has the flinders squad prepared and how are they looking when measured up against some of the other big guns making the trip to the coast of gold this year?

in true flinders style, our training has been negligent of any actual frisbee related activities, and mostly involves us making wagers and claims on our personal and team abilities.

kiely has roped several players into a pact to head to each night's festivites, and as our unnofficial party planner has been busy making brightly colored headbands and pirate costumes.

thankfully joel hasn't made any recent bets on the games' outcome (it seems to be more detrimental to our playing ability than anything else) and has instead decided to approach this years competition with the same attitude as the last - 'eh, lets see what happens.'

in all truth, we may be a little underprepared and overconfident. although the team was selected early enough, a lack of communication (and a lack of communication about the lack of communication) meant that no one found out until a month ago. and so far our trainings have consisted of a scratch match against UniSAdelaide we are yet to play (though it has been tentatively booked in on monday, so fingers crossed...). also, if we are lucky, the uniforms will get here on time. if we're lucky.

this hasnt dampened anyones spirits though, and i have a feeling that if the team comes away with anything less than gold hearts will be broken. but the competition looks like it will give us a run for our money (which, in my opinion, added up to far too much!). anyone who takes a brief look at the UQ lineup (announced about a month earlier than ours) has no other option but begin to doubt our apparant unbeatable strength.

admittedly we walked all over sug this year, but we weren't much short of our max strength while even the poorly ballarat are now justified in claiming they'll make things difficult for us on the coast. things could definately get tough.

on a personal note, i too am not where i want to be at this stage of the prep. my training had just reached a nice peak when the shins decided to bring on the pain. now i am sitting around paying more of my dad's money seeing physios and simply hoping that things will get good before this time next week. i had better be able to run - i even had my hair cut for the occasion, but am yet to try out my sweet new speedy turning ability.

but i think i am losing sight of the real gold - the sand and the sun. regardless of the outcome (and as long as i am able to play) aug will be nothing short of an amazing experience. my first ever frisbee tourny was this very one two years ago, when i hadn't even played in cleats or on a full sized field before. and i am sure that when we rock up in our new uniforms and fake tans, walking on the fields with our yet-to-be-chosen theme song, and hearing all the other clubs go "holy crap, here comes flinders!", win or lose that will be a day worth remembering.

"let's be good at FRISBEE!"

Adelaide Women's Invitational review

"In other local Ultimate news, the first ever Adelaide Womens Invitational was held on Saturday, and from all accounts was quite a successful day out." - SA Ultitip.
Props to Alison, Tessa, Em White and all the other ladies that contributed to the inaugural Adelaide Women's Invitational held last Saturday. I for one thoroughly enjoyed the day, regardless of the crappy weather that never seemed to be able to decide if it was going to be nice to us or not.

So for those of you that don't know, the Flinders Uni playing fields held a hat tournament on Saturday specifically designed for women. The teams had a 5:2 format (5 girls and 2 guys) with the guys getting 'drafted' into the ladies' teams. Aimed at all levels of playing ability in women, i found that it particularly catered for those really starting to get their frisbee eyes in, but yet to have a lot of disc time - relatively new players such as Kristen Rodgers, Em Victory and Mel Tea thrived!

It was a good setup. The guys were definitely useful on each team, but in no way dominant. It also had a good turn out, with probably around half of the regular playing SA ladies making an appearance, as well as a couple extras.
Between each ultimate game large-group spirit games were played. This was intended to make the day more enjoyable and interactive, and although it was a really good idea I think the weather dampened (i make puns) the overall spirit (and again) of the games. Regardless, teabagging, necking and water balloon toss still got a run for their money (some of those games may not be what you are thinking).
The lunches were good. Healthy rolls are still the trend - making me very happy - and the continued absence of broccoli can only be considered a positive.

Being a hat tournament, making friends and having fun was the most important part of the day, but that didn't mean they games weren't hard fought. Four teams were formed, named after the top four ladies teams of Japan, USA, England and Australia. MUD (Japan) was captained by Kath Thomson, Riot (USA - this is actually the second top team but calling a team Fury seemed a bit inappropriate ) was captained by Bron Dutch, Iceni (England) - Amy Feutrill, and Wildcard (Australia) - Louisa Battista. The individual game results are hazy (and unnecessary), but I believe Amy was able to lead her team to the gold, narrowly defeating MUD who were also the spirit winners of the day.

In the individual results, Richard Appleby came away with MSP male, Nicole Footer (who happens to be a Wildcard player) took the MSP female, and rising star Emma Victory won MVP.

SA ladies ultimate seems to be going from strength to strength, and next seasons' Indies team will be rewarded for days like these. I (and, I am sure, all the other guys hanging around) look forward to the future of women's ultimate in SA.

Yeah Girl Power!

hottest males in sa ultimate

for some reason all the flinders guys i asked to vote jumped at the chance, while anybody else decided that this was either weird, gay or both. i've therefore since found that these results are NOT a good representation of the overall opinions of sa ultimate, but instead just what my friends may or may not think. occasionally a girl had a say in it.

you also may be wondering why i have only covered guys here. maybe you too are thinking that this is gay or weird or both. you are wrong, i just don't want to die. if you want to get people to vote and publish the hottest girls in sa ultimate, go ahead, but i'm not going anywhere near that. i consider it a far too dangerous topic to touch, and, in all honesty, i'm really scared of girls.
having said that, i would love to read it if someone else ever got brave enough.

ok, now to act all officially and announce it in a dramatic way...

THE VOTES ARE IN!!
Adelaide, YOU have had your say, and it is now time to announce
THE HOTTEST MALES IN SA ULTIMATE!

at number 10: Joel Pillar.
known for his frisbee skills more than his looks, this is probably considered the biggest upset of the competition.

9: Alex Britten-Jones.
has been described as ultimate's "ballerina" on the field.

8: Rian Dutch.
ultimate's answer to Hugh Jackman, the "man's man" for those who are "gay for the bear".

7: Matt Ward.
the only man that was exclusively voted for by the ladies.

6: Greg Shrader.
rated well amongst the models for years and is apparantly still realing them in.

5: Ben Foley.
may have only done so well cos he was taking the survey, but was told that he "would have rated higher without pubes on your face".

4: Kristan Pash.
also highly rated by the public of ballarat, as soon as K is mentioned you know you have come to the business end of the competition.

3: Brett 'Sweet As' Middleton.
gone are the glory days when this man rated number 1 without competition. apparantly needs to hit the gym to reclaim his throne.

2: Sammy Ogden.
rated highly by girls and guys alike, but always second place. ballarat are quoted as saying "Sam Ogden is #2. everyone else equal first. no homo."

1: (we all saw this coming) Scott 'Hot As' Middleton.
the aptly named winner with the "face like a calvin klein model" never doubted his title as the hottest male in sa ultimate, and it seems that his claims have rung true. congratulations :)

and there you have it. i hope you are satisfied.
i'm not gay.
the fole.