heaps good ultimate

temporary closure

2010-06-21T00:55:00.000-07:00

Heaps Good Ultimate is going to take a hiatus for the next 4 or so months as I travel across Europe.
The journey begins in Stuttgart this weekend for Smurf's pre-tourny warmup and then on to Prague for WUCC and then Venice for some beach tourny :)

You can follow Smurf's journey at www.smurfultimate.com

All the best back home in Australia, see you all at melbourne hat 2010!

safda open and women's review

2010-06-17T08:13:00.000-07:00

Chris Davis does an excellent job running league. That's the first thing i wanted to say. Now, results and how well i predicted...

women, i was wrong. i really should have seen the strength of UE coming; Sarah Brice is developing in leaps and bounds (and a WUCC campaign can't hurt) and the rest of her squad is solid right through. The only team with no real obvious weaknesses, and the few times i saw them play they showed real strenght - these girls were good, and deserved what they got.

div 2, called it. bit dissapointed sunbeams blew the semi, but the oceanblue and ue final was foreseen, and the oceanblue win was obvious from then on. a real strong team with a lot of athletes, couldn't go past them.

div 1. final results:
flinders fury (+1)
joel and bumbo (-1)
ultimate evolution (+1)
flycatchers (+2)
adelaide uni (-2)
north adelaide ultimate (-1)

what went wrong? i'll tell you; firstly, flinders managed to capitalise well on j&b's weaknesses, and didn't let joel's big claims go to their heads. well done boys, you won back the title! UE's nationals training and campaign obviously helped level their heads and they ended up being the only real threat to either of the above mentioned teams' claim. with flycatchers, i kinda forgot sean is quite good, and sometimes matt ward still comes out to play. and their team is still half full of players from the 2008 winning squad. adelaide uni players either all got injured or just decided not to show up, and NAU's div 1 career is over :(

love it.

fantasy continued - O and D lines

2010-05-16T20:05:00.000-07:00

With my offensive line I tried to pick handlers that are both safe but adventurous; they will treasure the disc, but still make the throws needed. With the recievers I tried to pick those that are able to provide both a continuing supply of resetting in cuts and some very smart and threatening deep options. Also, every one of my O players have strong throws, regardless of position.

Handlers:
Phil White
Mike Tarn
Mark Evans

Recievers:
Alec Deslandes
David Sanderson
Nick Dowle
Robbie Andrew

Subs:
Scott Middleton
Ben Thomas

My defensive line has to be able to step it up a notch; more than just not turning it over, I needed a line that would make big D's and game winning plays. Handlers that would pull out layout blocks on the dump throws and recievers that would run through their players, out jump them, out position them and generally have just a little bit more fire in their belly. Frankly, I'd be impressed to see any team consistently get past the D line I've produced.

Handlers:
Owen Shepherd
Tom Tulett
Sean Lace

Recievers:
Jonno Holmes
Joel Pillar
Andrew Jackson
Will Christopherson

Subs:
Morgan Llewellyn
Rory Connell

You should note straight away that my defence line hosts my top 5 picks. I am a strong believer that the D line should be stronger, because that is the line that keeps on running when they keep on winning. And if ever O starts to struggle, which I highly doubt mine would, you can easily stack it for one point to get D back on, and begin another run. We'll win games 15-6 this way :)

Possible weaknesses:
As mentioned in my last blog there are a few players i've picked up that we haven't seen in action for awhile; Robbie Andrew, Phil White and Mike Tarn? I didn't see him at nationals. Seeing as Robbie never put much effort into training anyway, Phil is now preparing for U23 and assuming Mike is still playing somewhere, this doesn't overly concern me.
My O line is definately the weakest of the two, and if anyone else produces a D line as strong as mine it might be said that they would struggle. Firstly, my D line is phenomenal, I don't expect anyone else to match it. Secondly, my O players CAN play, and well. Some brilliantly. They all have nationals experience, some in very successful teams, and are strong throwers. As long as they keep their heads (and there are some pretty steady heads playing) they should be fine to keep the disc active and work it up the field to get another score on the board and D back on. I have no concerns about their ability to do this.

That's it. I believe that you will soon be able to vote for your take on the best picked team at forcesideline.com, and I for one am confident on which team I'll be backing.

Heaps Good Ultimate FTW!

my journey to fantasy

2010-05-14T00:59:00.000-07:00

for those of you that have no idea what this blog is about, go here.

Firstly, I am very aware that my team is SA heavy. There are several reasons for this. At the outset all my SA decisions are quite fair: Joel Pillar is a very valid second pick. Alec Deslandes, as I have previously stated, is probably the most underrated, hardworking, D getting player in Australia. And I didn't realise Cupcake counted.
After that though, i pretty much just ran out of good interstate players that I wanted. The selections were done pre-nationals which was a big disadvantage to me, having only played one nationals previously. Excuses aside, my team still rocks, as I will now elaborate on.

My selection process: very little thought was put into O and D lines initially, and only a little bit more on getting handlers and recievers. Good players can play anywhere, so my general plan was to pick up the next best player available the whole way through. For some of these I made mistakes, but nothing drastic.

As the second selector, and knowing that The Gack would get snapped up first, I essential got to choose the best current player in Australia. Several names come to mind, but Jonno Holmes' ability to lead a team and his individual performance, recently displayed at the World Games, is second to none. 13 picks later I got another chance and thought Joel Pillar a steal. His skills as a player is often under great debate, but allow me to stroke his ego: 10 years or so under his belt, one mixed and mens season at worlds, world games squad both times, coach and captain of every high level/successful team coming out of SA and can lift a team to victory. Even with his injury at the last world's he was still one of the highest stat getter for dingos, and I've seen him shut down the best of them. Just stop him from making rash decisions and you'll be fine.

I'm not sure if it was because he was in Brazil or somewhere at the time, but I was pretty stoked I managed to take Owen Shepherd as well. Also a World Games player (from '05), the man is a D machine and a very solid handler which frees up my first two picks into the field. I felt I needed another set of good hands though, and my recent experiences with Cupcake with Smurf and U23 told me he could do the job. Another brilliant mind on defence as well, and suddenly my starting D line was unbeatable.

As all the big names were quickly being taken, I had to start rationalising my decisions to get the players I wanted. From the outset of this draft I planned to get Alec at somepoint and knew that already someone should have lapped him up, but for some reason he is always overlooked. I took a gamble, put him on hold, and went for Andrew Jackson, or AJ. Although he was probably picked a little too early while other great players still floated about, his drive and energy, not to mention d's, impressed me along with the rest of Australia at last years nationals, and I didn't think it would be long till he was gone.

I have now made 6 selections, and the last 12 were to be chosen two at a time. I stuck with my strategy: pick the best you can think of remaining. Unfortunately I started to struggle with interstate names. I picked up a few good looking U23 kids and the best of SA and called it a day. Probably my biggest weakness in my final decisions was that a) I don't look like I know much about anything, which is only half true, and b) i foolishly picked players that have been out with injury for far too long. Still, both Robbie and Phil have(or would have) walked onto the aus U19 and U23 teams respectively, so they must still be considered up there.

I will continue with a look at my O and D lines in the next blog.

nationals, adelaide, 2010, hindsight.

2010-04-29T01:33:00.000-07:00

this nationals was probably one of the greatest tournaments i've ever participated in! i think that as i get better playing frisbee gets better, and the chumminess of our team this year was sensational, but additionally several specific things made this one extra good. i would now like to give you my top 10...

10. Sleeping in my own bed.
Granted, this means the team doesnt get to bond as much, but this wasnt really a problem this year and the joy of coming home each night and choosing fresh clothes from my cupboard and showering in my own house and cooling down in my own pool and sitting on my own couch and etc etc was... good :)

9. I-beam winning the mens' title.
I had friends in the loosing Colony team, but there is something special about a city's only team working their way up the ranks, being unsuspected of winning and through their own team cohesivness and years of training finally making it. i like that a lot. also, we never played them or either of the colony teams, so who knows, maybe we would have won...

8. Sporting Team Box Athletico United winning the women's title.
This team trains really really hard and has lost the final several times in the past. It is a huge payoff for these girls to finally get a finals win! The years of effort and 'hour of power' and playing against men and having wierd in jokes has finally come together in the best way possible. I also feel partly responsible, having played my part as an honorary member and cheering them over the line. Though i still think this whole 'honorary box' thing is just another way the girls are making sure they get plenty of male attention. whatever, it works.

7. Beating Chilly.
We did it at regionals when it was worth nothing, and then we did it at nationals to put us in the 5-6th play off! I don't think i played particularly well this game, but if nothing else i know that my voice played a huge part in helping my team. I came away with it raw and painful, but the whole game was spent yelling cheers, encouragement, spotting threats, echoing calls etc and, along with all the other voices in my team, this became a crucial part of our victory that day.

6. Re-learning the value of undercuts.
They are really really useful at helping teams win. And if i can do nothing else, i can make continual undercuts. Something to take home with me (which isn't very far. see number 10).

5. Having guests.
Throughout the weekend i had 10 extra (as well as the 10 my family already owns) people crash at my house. This makes life fun. Also on the sunday i played host to a pre-games breaki (6.30am!) for 15 ultimate playing christians from around australia. Not only was this a great time of bacon, eggs and maple syrup on pancakes, but it was a good time to meet, greet and know more people better. i like that.

4. Layouts.
Although i never reached my aim of one layout d per game, i did layout a fair bit and got a connection on at least one :)
there will be more next year.

3. Playing in the showcase game.
This wasn't near my best game of the weekend, but it wasn't my worst. And i loved playing in front of 300 plus people and having all my friends cheer me on. now all i need to do is find ways to make the team smaller and get more game time; the worst part was being in the sideline and thinking "i hope my friends don't think im not playing cos i suck." Also would have been good if we'd won.

2. Beating Heads of State for 5th.
- we have never previously beaten HoS.
- we have never previously come better than 8th.
- we have never previously been the top southern team.
This all made for a great ending. As Joel said in the spirit circle, at most of our harder trainings the cry "Golden point boys, don't let HoS beat you!!!" or something similar is often exclaimed. HoS are, for Karma, the team to beat. and we finally did it! What a game! Neither team cared until about half time when both thought "hey, the scores are still level, we better finish them/lets win this!" From then on the game grew rapidly in intensity, sideline talk, skill and clear headedness. The boys came together coming back from 8-12 to 13-14 to win on a glorious Chris to Jake flick into the endzone! And never a better time to do it! Yeah Karma, what a finish!

1. No Sammy's Hat.
Sammy lost his red hat and it didn't appear all weekend. Best nationals ever.

Also, i heard UE had fun. And thanks Richie for the weekend. The end.

nationals, adelaide, 2010

2010-04-22T01:04:00.000-07:00

nationals starts in two days. better blogs have already written sensational predictions of the events, and i don't really have much more too add other than a couple thoughts of my own...

im playing in a showcase game. history has taught me that i play worse when being spectated. i hope to break the trend this saturday.

im predicting a colony v colony final unless HoS can rise to the challenge. either way a colony team will win.

karma will beat seed, but it'll be really really hard and joel will get broken. this is assuming alec is playing.

indies will beat seed, and make quarters.

im going to get up early on sunday to have breakfast with christians, but im looking forward to it so thats ok.

i spent $325 on cleats and compressions this week.

the junior girls will fare better than the junior boys.

twitter will be a great success. better than the party.

my main aims is to get free all the time on offense, and a layout d per game on defense. now that you know this please dont ruin it for me :)

i hope my friends and family come to watch. again, i hope i dont suck when they do.

that is all. follow my twitter of our games...

safda league predictions...

2010-03-24T00:17:00.000-07:00

this starts in less than an hour.

firstly, very impressed with the number of teams this year, particularly from flinders and adelaide uni, both sporting two womens teams and two div 2 teams!

and the women are going to be hard to call; from first glance it truely looks like it could go to any of the 6 teams; i think both the flinders and au teams have spread themselves to thin and, as a general rule, ue and flycatchers are still playing catch up to be able to dominate. having said that, i would pick flinders 'fun', the one lead by sarah pillar, as being the stronger of the two and with sarah's leadership and, probably more significantly, strong long throws, i'm picking them as my favorites for the win. the rest is too close to call...

div 2 is in a similar situation: split adelaide teams, split flinders teams, and several other clubs bringing their best div 2 lines. notably, ballmark figures have made a return. this excites me. adelaide are keeping all hush hush on their actual players so i can't comment on that, but i'd put flinders blue over flinders yellow and ue, with their coincidentally large number of div 1 players, above them both. this could be their first chance at a semi-serious title.

now div 1, time to get serious. from the outset, and im not the only one that thinks this, i can't see the title going to anyone other than 'joel and bumbo'. with the best handlerl, best reciever, and another couple strong pickups this looks like a sure thing. apparantly i've taken a 'pussy' approach to this team, but this was said to me by one of the bumbo team members who, in my opinion, didnt exactly join for strong opposition. all i'm saying is i don't think i'm the pussy one :)
their strengths are to strong to beat, but they have weaknesses - significantly, their several girls. i doubt that will be enough though.

again, adelaide havent released their lineup, but i speculate that they are in a similar boat as flinders; having lost a few key players from last year's finals lineup, they both may not be as strong but still will fight it out for a twenty ten finals spot. i pick flinders to come out on top.

ue have spent another summer preparing for nationals and therefore league, and this year it may finally pay off. they will be a close 4th. flycatchers have lost key members in craig and dutch, and even with the addition of sean lace it won't be enough to threaten the top teams. nau is slowly growing in strength and i wouldn't be surprised if they didn't finish bottom this year.

final placings:
joel and bumbo
flinders fury
adelaide uni
ultimate evolution
north adelaide ultimate
flycatchers.

see you on the fields in.... 15 minutes :)

super superleague review!

2010-03-20T22:36:00.000-07:00

in the face of my terrible regionals predictions (in my defense, it wasn't my fault...) its time to point out how well i predicted superleague. how very very well.

although my final standings were wrong by the narrowest of margins (percentage differences between the top two teams), which actually makes joel's claim true (i swear he threw the last game) all my reasoning was spot on:

Joel's team almost dominated the league, narrowly losing to Huy's team twice when they were playing savage both times and only having one other loss; last game of the season for first place. what happened there!? maybe brian's team just wanted it more...

Huy's team had one or two upsets but lost to Joel's when J's squad was finally filled out, and had, as predicted, all their closest games with Brian's team, winning and losing the first two games on universe point.

Brian's team was cohesive and well lead, and when their big star receiver finally decided to start playing they starting proving themselves against the stronger sides. Wasn't quite enough, but still meant they took out the otherwise-champions from claiming the title.

Dutch's team just wasn't strong enough, and early on changed their tactic to "play for the stats, not for the win". Even in this they only mildly succeeded...

Finally, a shout out to Chris Davis for being much more wrong than me about predicting this league. Nice try Chris. Better luck next time :)

Southern Regionals Predictions

2010-03-10T18:21:00.000-08:00

While the rest of adelaide is getting their bogan on for the clipsal karma and ultimate evolution are heading down to the always sunny melbourne for the 2010 southern regionals. and lets be honest; this is not the most prepared karma have ever been, and definitely not the most fired up - though we were never ones to get over-excited by our sport :)

with big loses like the middleton brothers, alec deslandes and cupcake all saving themselves for the home advantage at nationals we are even weaker than we will be in april, but that doesn't mean we are out for the count. lets look at some team match ups shall we...

HoS: If the clash at BCi shows anything, these boys are well prepared and still have the (mental?) edge over us. With a stronger line up and two weeks more prep, as well as half the boys having another under 23 training and possibly the excitement of being selected under their belts they look strong. Did i mention their massive squad size? massive. And although I have faith that one day, not too far away (is it 6 weeks till nationals now?) Karma will triumph, I don't think regionals will be the place for that. Hold on to your history books for a little bit longer...

QFC: If the Afda numbers are anything to go by, this team will not be the ones breaking karma's stride. Timill talks big though, and thinks that his team of elite athletes will at least take the 5th southern spot. I call 6th.

Bad Apples: I know as much about the tasmanian ultimate scene as i do about the new season of gilmore girls; that is, virtual nothing save that there may be girls involved, but i'm not sure. I'm hoping they will put up a bit more of a fight than last year, and the travel over is worth while for them. maybe next year they could find some fields and host it themselves? the home town advantage could be the spark they need (though it's not working for us yet).

Ultimate Evolution: the home town rivals. i'm always excited about playing against people i know in far off lands, and this will be no exception. additionally, UE are looking stronger this year than ever before, and may not even need the extra southern spot to make it to nationals; they will be fighting chilly b for 4th, i'm calling it now. even with their extensive campaign i doubt they will be able to challenge the powerhouses of Hos, Chilly and karma :)

Chilly: the squad was strong enough in brisbane to get to the finals, and stronger now. even with the growing-daily-in-strength Hos team and Karma's new can-do attitude, I can't see them losing to either. that's all i have to say. sad face for us.

Chilly B: This team is nothing to laugh at. not the mighty strength of their A team maybe, but i think will still put up a good fight against the top. typically coming 4th, this year may change only if UE can get themselves in gear and play the game of their life. At this stage I'm backing chilly b for the win.

Gfuc: the young guns from geelong. although some of these guys have a couple of years in them now, they still need to attach themselves to some stronger individuals to help lift the squad. i don't think they will embarrass themselves though, and want to give a heads up to bad apples and QFC; don't get to comfortable.

Final placings:
Chilly
HoS
Karma
Chilly B
UE
QFC
Bad Apples
Gfuc.

A quick plug for the women: watch out for indies making their finals debut this year!

BC Invitational and other.

2010-02-24T01:11:00.000-08:00

3 days to go till the BCi.

i am thoroughly excited.

I haven't spent much (or any) time checking out the opposition, but i know that this is going to be one tough weekend; the top 8 teams from last nationals, in which we were number 8. that means every single game karma plays this weekend is going to be tough, no easy breaks. which will be one massive learning curve for karma. this is especially true as about 10 players from karma's 2009 A team have moved on to greater (more or less) things, bringing a whole new, younger, baby faced squad ready to prove themselves against the might of rome.

i am thoroughly excited.

follow my (our) progress on twitter.

in other news, smurf have launched a website sharing our campaign to world clubs in prague in july. feel free to check it out. note: its still fresh, give it some time to grow.

super league prediction 2010

2010-01-10T17:20:00.000-08:00

The super league teams have finally been drawn and announced, so now it's time to make my predictions! I’ve already heard some pretty confident but crazy claims but now I’ll set the record straight. You heard it here first.

Team 1 – Captain: Brian Scheel.
As probably the most inexperienced player of the four captains, that shouldn’t give any discredit to Brian’s captaining ability. I have always considered Brian to be an excellent leader and don’t doubt his ability to pick a good team and lead them to victory. And with first two picks like Brett Middleton and Tom Roden I think he has a great line up to work with. In fact, I might even claim that they have a chance for the title if it wasn’t that the number one pick is out for at least the first 3 weeks, a very big loss in a 9 week league. For this reason, although I think they have the potential for much more, I don’t see them making a big threat on the top team.

Team 2 – Captain: Rian Dutch.
I consider this team to be the most evenly spread. Even Dutch’s last pick, Jimmy Lech, is a quality handler that can throw under this level pressure. Working together as a team is definitely the best way forward for them, and if they can’t do that they are really going to struggle. Having said that I think this team will still struggle with its top line against some of the big names in the other teams, and as all teams are strong across the board (thus ‘Super League’) they may not be able to bring it when it counts.

Team 3 – Captain: Huy Vu.
This team looks very strong, and has been filled with both good handlers and strong receivers. With Huy and Sammy given options such as Morgan, Denis and Will I can’t see them getting beaten very often. Again, though, it looks like players missing games might cause a lot of damage, with both Morgan and Will missing the first two or three weeks. This is bound to hurt them early on, but may still give them a chance to make a run for the title in the final rounds. I put them in a similar position to Team 1 and feel that they may be playing each other for second. If this turns out the case, I’m going to back myself and put Team 3 on top.

Team 4 – Captain: Joel Pillar.
Whatever team Joel leads is always going to be a big threat. Even with interesting first round picks (BJ who is out indefinitely and Hot-as and Fatty who are still relatively new players) his line has enough experience and depth to challenge everyone. Also with only BJ out from the get go they are likely to come out strong, and Joel has a habit of making his team grow stronger and stronger as leagues progress. I can’t look past this team as taking the win, and expect to see some of the newer players to step up to help make it happen.

Final Standings:
Team 4 - Captain: Joel Pillar
Team 3 - Captain: Huy Vu
Team 1 - Captain: Brian Scheel
Team 2 - Captain: Rian Dutch

Watch it happen.

the best of 2009

2009-12-31T22:27:00.000-08:00

it is finally twenty ten, and while i sit restlessly in my house wishing i had something to do my mind wanders to the year of ultimate that was. inspired from brisbane ultimate's (clearly much more thorough) example, here are my top 10 SA ultimate happenings of 2009:

10. Adelaide to host Championships
Although i suppose that this event did not technically happen last year, it was 2009 when the bid was made and nationals claimed by adelaide for 2010. This is exciting for several reasons; firstly, we will finally have another chance to redeem adelaide as a place that interstate teams CAN come and play in without getting some kind of disease. secondly, karma is probably about as strong as it has ever been and a home ground advantage may be just what we need for a fight into the semi's - as long as UE don't steal to many players with their own nationals campaign.

9. Flycatchers make lost of teams
In the mixed league just gone I was continually impressed to see Flycatchers, one of Adelaide's non-uni clubs, come up with the goods in numbers. The managed to fill 3 teams without having a university campus to draw from, bested only by the blossoming flinders club. Nice.

8. Playing with The Gack(s)
On a personal note, melbourne hat this year saw me teamed up with both Tom and Anna Rogacki, which gave me a real chance to flex my skills on the same team as the best. It was a beautiful thing knowing that if i started a deep cut as soon as the disc is headed in Tom's direction, I would probably score. Unfortunately we came a humbling 22nd (0f 24), the worst The Gack has ever done. My bad?

7. Southern Uni Games
Although flinders' efforts at AUG may have left much to be desired (which we will come to later), their SUG campaign couldn't have gone better. Not only were they the only club to send two teams, they managed to take home the gold with one of them. additionally, this tournament is considered by some to be a pivotal moment in the flinders career this year, boosting club moral and spirit by having over 20 new and old faces travel, play and live together in a much enjoyed tournament. this is a must-do for all uni clubs.

6. Adelaide win the open league
it has only taken them 3 or so attempts, but finally Adelaide Uni has managed to overcome the Flinders powerhouse to win their first ever Div 1 Open League. Adelaide's commitment to trainings and recruitment is finally starting to gain momentum, and i think this win, their ladies doing the same and their very strong presence in interstate competitions is making them likely favourites for leagues in 2010.

5. The year of female plenty
I've heard similar rumors in other clubs, but know for a fact that the numbers of women playing ultimate at flinders has at least doubled in the last 12 months. Not only was our recruitment much better organised and SUG's doing us some favours, but with the Adelaide Women's Invitational (5:2 women:men), weekly women's trainings in november and the Women's development camp with interstate coaches there was a lot offered and happening. With nationals in adelaide in 2010 the Indies seemed poised for their best campaign yet.

4. Flinders blowing Aus Uni Games
The team was stronger than last years gold winning team, the individual players better prepared, the anticipation high and hopes higher. We came out of the blocks charging to beat hot favourites UQ in our first game, and to go on and beat every other serious contender. Then we blew it. Flinders lost both their semi and 3/4 final and went home sulking with their tails between their legs. I have reflected on this previously, and have nothing new to add other than that in my mind, it still sucks.

3. UniSAdelaide
Possibly the only thing coming out of AUG's more dissapointing than Flinders' rise and fall was adelaide/uni sa's efforts. although those that actually played for them might feel differently, it appeared to me to be not much more than a waste of time; the team was forced to combine efforts due to lack of women which meant that they were placed in div 2, a div they would have completely outclassed if it wasn't for the new zealand team being stuck in the same boat. They wasted time smashing every other team but still managed to only end up with a silver. on top of this both Tom Roden and Alex Rodgers, key players for UniSAdelaide and their team playing at mixed nationals a week later (Smurf), were injured bad enough to be out for at least two months. Hopefully the sun and beer a plenty made the week enjoyable; I heard mostly positive things from everyone other than the aforementioned injured players.

2. Keith Calippo Classic
Sean's dreams came true and july brought the first ever Keith Calippo Classic to SA's outback. This tournament was in every way a complete success, boasting 8 teams (3 from interstate), a very successful party, the best first prize i have ever seen (an esky full of calippos), the all-important Country Bumpkin Cup and plenty of local support. Although the crowd was much larger for the Keith Cows v Flinders game then the Pillow Fight v Adelaide Uni final and the weather turned miserable toward the end, this was to me one of the highlights of the year. The tournament definately deserved the AFDA Tournament of the Year award it won. You can see the award hung in the Keith pub and read my review here.

1. Smurf
Finally, Smurf. This club, a mixed club formed from players adelaide wide, have achieved more than any other in SA. Not only did they do the best at a nationals tournament any SA club has done in our history, finishing fourth at mixed nationals in hobart, they went on to qualify for the World Ultimate Club Championships in Prague 2010! If you hadn't already heard, the weekend was tense; 40+ degrees temperatures in brisbane, never won a first half and missed out on a clean sweep of the competition by one universe point. One thing led to another and they were fighting for their spot against a team they had already defeated, and it was down to another universe point. Needless to say they finally came up with the goods but not without each individual player hating everything first.

So thats my look at the best (and worst) of SA ultimate in 2009. If you have anything you'd like to add, please feel free to do so as I have only my own view to go on.
Looking forward to ultimate in twenty ten.

The Furys, 2009.

2009-12-30T01:49:00.000-08:00

These are the much anticipanted and all exciting results of the Flinders Fury awards (or 'The Furys'), 2009, as voted by those that came to dinner.

1. Best Hammer: Lesley Moore and Scott 'Hot-as' Middleton.

2. Best Eyes: James Lech.

3. Best Team Commitment: Alison 'Wonders' Clarke.

4. Best Sideline: Michael Davey and Sarah Pillar.

5. Person most likely to play drunk: Emma Kiel and Daniel Taylor.

6. Most Chivalrous: Ben Foley.

7. Most Obsessed: Sean Lace.

8. Volunteer of the Year: Dale Grixti.

9. Dark Horse - Brilliant but unnoticed: Chris Osborn.

10. White Elephant - Not brilliant but always noticed: Sammy Inches-Ogden.

11. Most desperate to win an award: Emma Kiel.

12. Most Spirited: Kelly 'Aids' MacKenzie

13. Most Improvable - Also known as the 'Sean Loves Potential Award': Andy 'Bad Boy' Badics.

14. Most Improved: Emvic.

15. The Kiely Is Awesome Award: Joel Pillar.

Hopefully the new website will be up soon with all this and more.
Thanks for playing. See you next year.

Flinders Fury win club of the year!!

2009-12-04T21:46:00.000-08:00

at both the South Aus Flying Disc Association awards and at the Flinders University Sports Association awards!

not bad hey.

SAFDA mixed league review, spring 2009

2009-11-04T18:36:00.000-08:00

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

2009-10-25T17:20:00.001-07:00

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!

2009-10-08T17:39:00.001-07:00

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

2009-10-06T15:46:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-16T20:39:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-29T02:57:00.000-07:00

"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

2009-08-13T08:17:00.000-07:00

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.

taking a look at the US mock draft

2009-08-05T21:39:00.000-07:00

if you haven't read the huddle's recent piece on their mock draft, you should get on it right away. it is explained there so i won't tell you too much of how it works, except that 10 selectors choose their ultimate frisbee dream teams from a draft of 'all the world's players' (the selected were at least 95% american, but then all the selectors were american too...) and then went on to explain why.

for the record, i think this whole thing is awesome. it makes ultimate look like a real sport that the media and fans are obsessed with, as opposed to just the players.

as far as i can tell, australia has the biggest non-US representation in the open draft with 3 selected: Mike Neild came in at number 34, Tom Rogacki at 65, and Matt Dowle at 71 (in contrast Masahiro Matsuno, Japan's superstar, was picked 5th). i'll be honest, this surprised me. not only do we have so many good players that i'm sure are up there amongst the best, but our super stars were picked so poorly! admittedly, Gack's selecter mentioned that he was "considered to be one of the best players in the world only a few years ago" but surely he hasn't deteriorated that much. Compare him to Chase, the US's answer to Gack in the '05 World Games, who was the number 1 draft pick (this did surprise some) even though he has reportedly cut back to just playing mixed, which is more retired than The Gack is.

each selecter had their own reasons for the decisions they made, but all of them were united in trying to get a hold of the tallest, fastest, jumpiest, most athletic players. Beau Kittredge was the second draft pick, and it was definately for his athleticism and not his non-travelling ability (check 1:23). so maybe they didn't pick many australians because our fitness just doesn't measure up. or maybe because they struggle to look past themselves. or maybe they just forgot.

no australians were picked in the women's draft.

ultimate players are everywhere

2009-07-31T22:09:00.000-07:00

how many of you out there have spent a short time recruiting, picked up some fresh blood and found that one or two of them are quickly on their way to becoming ultimate superstars?

yesterday someone was telling me about one of their new recruits; only been playing for 3 or so months and has strong throws and good field awareness. a little while back i recruited a whole team of year 11's and some of them are showing great signs of becoming the next rising stars. this year flinders have managed to recruit almost 10 new girls, and a few are already invaluable in the flinders squad. in fact, i find that every time anyone gets recruited, several players are destined to be the next big thing, or at least really strong, consistently useful players. and they usually are, or at least not enough time has lapsed to find out they're not.

so why is this? why is it relatively so easy to recruit really good players, and why aren't more clubs doing it?

in my opinion, there are loads of good ultimate players out there that aren't being reached, and there are several reasons for this. firstly, other sports get them first. in australia, and particularly in sa, we simply do not tap into the sporting market until way later (too late?) than the other sports. footy, cricket and netball dominate and ultimate is, at best, stealing players from them. not that i think they mind, they certainly have enough players, but the point is that we often don't get the creme de la creme of athletes.

secondly, which follows directly from firstly, is that we aren't putting in much effort in getting players eagerly or early. there is next to no school recruitment in sa, and a lot of people simply don't know that ultimate frisbee is even a sport, let alone a sport that they could play. we need to widen the net and get excited about it.

what i'm really trying to say is that the level of ultimate frisbee would be increased drastically if we started doing half decent recruiting. it is ridiculous that I am playing the highest level of ultimate in sa. if i was playing any other sport with the same amount of intensity (or skill) i would be lucky to be in div 3. as another, much better example, consider Katie Bradstock, one of australia's world games players. apparently she has only been playing ultimate for the last year or so, but previously played netball at an international level. this means that her disc skills are probably below par at best, but her fitness is top notch, and that is enough for her to be playing at the highest level. no one would get away with that in any other sport.

basically, i believe that there are ultimate players everywhere, we just don't know how to recruit them. if we could do this better, ultimate would be bigger, more widely recognised and the competition much stronger, which as far as i can tell is a win win for everyone involved. i'm open to hear ideas about how we could fix this, and even have a few myself which you may hear about later. alternatively, i may be keeping them secret so i can start my own super club. who knows...

Keith Calippo Classic review.

2009-07-30T07:16:00.000-07:00

first up, good job to Bruce and Jake for getting it happening. in all it was a fun time that was well organised enough to run smoothly - way to make it happen.

and now here is the run down. the Keith Calippo Classic (KCC) is south australia's 'only interstate tourny', seeing as no one ever comes over for anything else (unless we host regionals or sug's or something). and in this case, we met the vic's half way by holding the tournament in keith, 3 hours out of adelaide and 5 out of melbs on the dukes highway.

let's start with the name, which has a story of its' own. in december of last year sean lace, myself and several others hit the road for the now infamous melbourne hat. we picked up jake in keith on the way over and while there decided we needed supplies. sean wanted a calippo. unfortunately he couldn't find one anywhere, got really angry and vowed to host a tourny in keith, called the keith calippo classic, to extract some sort of revenge on keith. it doesnt need to make sense. anyway, after he started talking about it, Bruce and Jake made it happen, cos sean sucks at everything (except, apparantly, skying me).

so on the weekend of the 25-26th of july, 2009, the first ever (annual?) KCC took place on the football fields of keith area school, keith, SA. 7 teams made the trek over, and the locals, Keith Cows, which was a mix of local footballers, netballers and adelaide pickups, decided to make a healthy appearance as well. with only three fields two teams had a bye at anyone time. the 8 teams were split into 2 pools and at the end of a warm and sunny day one the standings looked like this:

pool 1:
Adelaide Uni (with Joel as a pick up)
Ballarat - Urban Justice
Flinders Uni (with pick ups)
Balls of Fire (melbourne team made of international students)

pool 2:
Pillow Fight (mixed nats contenders, mostly flinders and adelaide players)
Ballarat - Mercenaries for Justice
Keith Cows
Bridgeport Brawlers (Sean and friends, some bearded)

not many surprises. adelaide had virtually no experienced players but roden and joel, and the dynamic dyo proved themselves strong enough to overcome the other teams. with a lot of the flinders strength spread around they struggled a bit. Pillow Fight came out hard with some time spent training together already under their belt, and managed to defeat Ballarat, the only other experienced team in their pool. The keith cows and bridgeport brawlers played off in the afternoon for the 'country bumpkin cup', but sean alone wasn't enough to take it and keith won their first ever ultimate frisbee trophy.
The party that night probably brought the most business to keith's only pub that it's had in years. as the only partyable location in keith, other than our tents and hotel rooms, all 80 players flocked their and danced away to dj Will untill the smart ones realised that any longer and they would be gone the next day. the dumb ones kept partying and suffered for it.

day 2 was brighter and earlier than anyone expected.

playoffs:
keith v balls of fire. this was a chance for keith to play a team that wasn't full of more chumps then themselves, and actually have a crack at winning a decent game. one day's experience seemed to be enough for the athletes, and no doubt their pickups helped a great deal. they won comforably.

bridgeport v flinders. sean is still a chump. flinders win.

for 7th: bridgeport v balls of fire. both teams yet to win a game they wanted this one bad. sean was getting angry. unfortunately balls of fire had too many players that had been playing for (only slightly) more than one and a half days, and althought they had to fight hard for it, they took their first win.

for 5th: keith v flinders. straight up, this was the game of the tourny. flinders had a generally stronger line but keith had the home town support, and something to prove. flinders took an early lead, working the disc too well around the new locals, but k and sando stepped up, and all their footballer recievers stopped dropping it. the game was tight and the crowd (which was the largest of any game so far) was excited. the locals cheered their team home and too victory, and flinders, now normally one of the super strengths at a tourny, sulked the 3 hours home in 6th place.

the semi's:
pillow fight v ballarat urban. this was set to be a tough game, but pillow fight had learned from the day before, while ballarat lost most of their strength drinking the night before. pillow fight took half 9-0 and then game 14-7 ish.

adelaide uni v ballarat mercenaries. this was gonna be a good game from the start. ballarat used their deeper line right from the start and took half 9-3, but joel doesn't like loosing. adelaide fought back and ballarat cracked, joel and roden almost singelhandedly taking the game away, both stepping up, with adelaide taking the game in an amazing comeback, final score 13-11.

ballarat missed two chances for finals and played a scratch match for 3rd. in the words of the td, they both came equal 4th. nobody watched or cared, not even ballarat, and they all went home soon after, leaving only a small, lingering crowd (most of which were getting lifts home by the remaining players) to watch the final.

final: adelaide v pillow fight. i'd called it from the start - the final was gonna be pillow fight versus whatever team joel was on - and i was right. from here on though, i had no idea how it was going to end. pillow fight had a much deeper line but adelaide had two strong players that had taken their team home to victory all weekend. pillow fight knew the score, and came out hard, showing that they weren't gonna let anybody take this from them. they took the first 7 points with little difficulty, 7-1 up, and then joel picked up his game, it started to rain, and adelaide took a few before pillow fight managed to take half, 9-4. the score doesnt show it, but pillow fight were running scared. they started making drops and bad decisions, throwing it away at will. meanwhile joel and roden (and special mention to the guy who hurt his ankle who played terrific. val i think) worked it up with incredible ease and kept on scoring. it started getting dangerous and pillow fight were looking for the clock, calling time out at 10-7. unfortunately for adelaide (but thankfully for pillow fight) the clock caught up, and they had 3 minutes of game time left after the time out. pillow fight fought hard for the last point so as not to risk any overtime, and won the game 11-7.

for their victory they were rewarded with an esky full of melted and refrozen calippos and cornettos, and they shared the spoils around to the other players and 10 remaining spectators.

mvp male went to isherwood, mvp female to someone who wasnt there, and msp to hot-as. dennis won the 'worst veteran' award; a picture book and a magnifying glass. then everyone pissed off home cos the weather sucked and they were tired.

original mixed league predictions, spring 2009

2009-07-29T21:50:00.000-07:00

this was originally posted two weeks ago on my other blog. you can check it out with all it's original comments here.

tonight south australia's mixed ultimate frisbee comp begins, and it is all very exciting. there are 11 teams (4 flinders uni, 3 flycatchers, 2 adelaide uni, 1 ultimate evolution (ue) and 1 north adelaide ultimate (nau)) that will be divided into div 1 (6 teams) and div 2 (5 teams) after the first 3 weeks of games. these are my predictions.

picking each division is fairly easy. the only chance i'm taking is that i'm backing all flinders teams, including myself, over ue and nau. donna hay's game against nau tonight will be a big one in deciding this, with donna hay two strong players down already. the other big game that will be an influential decider for the divisions is ue v flinders: firepower. ue have a good lineup but often struggle to bring home the goods, while most of the flinders kids, although largely inexperienced, usually have the spark that gets them over the line. therefore these are my initial division standings:

div 1:
flinders: 7 wonders
adelaide uni rocky
flinders: donna hay and the cupcakes
flinders: firepower
restless flycatchers
flinders: try sarah's tops

div 2:
adelaide uni rambo
ue
flycatchers 1
flycatchers 2
nau

when finals time comes, i predict a flinders: try sarah's tops and restless flycatchers final. adelaide uni rocky is the other big contender, but the flycatchers line is just too strong, and a joel to brett connection in sarah's tops is almost unbeatable. firepower will give rocky a run for their money but they have to many inexperienced players that they will suffer for against the consistency of adelaide. donna hay and 7 wonders will have a tight game for 5/6th and this time i'm backing myself to lose, 7 wonders coming away the victor.

in div 2, ue SHOULD clean up, and i expect that they will. nau and rambo will fight to play ue in the finals, but i think rambo still have a lot of players needing a lot to learn, while nau have been playing together now for a long time. flycatchers 1 will have the edge over flycatchers 2.

final standings:
1. flinders: try sarah's tops
2. restless flycatchers
3. adelaide uni rocky
4. flinders: firepower
5. flinders: 7 wonders
6. flinders: donna hay and the cupcakes
7. ue
8. nau
9. adelaide uni rambo
10. flycatchers 1
11. flycatchers 2

mvp male will go to minh peart-tang or jordan powell.
mvp female will go to tessa bilney or mel tea.
ue will win most spirited team.
i am thoroughly disappointed ue didn't enter two teams.

a blog on sa ultimate frisbee

2009-07-29T21:43:00.000-07:00

i am not the most qualified person for this job. there are many other people, some that don't even live in sa, that could write a better blog on the happenings of ultimate frisbee in south australia. none the less, i like frisbee, i have opinions, and i've started writing blogs. therefore this blog exists.

i don't know where it will go or what it will look like in a year or so, but i don't feel that i need to plan that far ahead. instead, i am just going to begin and see what the future holds.

i have another blog that can be found here which is also quite new. originally made to encompass all areas of my life, i will now leave that for my personal musings and any ultimate related stuff will be posted here. feel free to read both, or either, or none.

a post on my other blog that may be of interest introduces me and the heritage of my nickname, the fole. that happened through frisbee circumstances, and therefore possibly somewhat related. it can be found here.

in all, i hope that this is an enjoyable experience for everyone involved. go play ultimate.
the fole.