Thursday, June 26, 2008

Sad News

Last night a mounful bunch gathered in Hackett to farewell Dario Poletti, a player who was known and loved by most during his year-long stint in Canberra. Dario came to us from Singapore although he started playing ultimate in his native Italy. Although he missed the university campaign last year he came good and was an invaluable part of the Fyshwick United push to the finals at nationals this year. His speed, great timing and ability to pull out ridiculous stuff when the circumstances demanded it will be greatly missed, as will his hilarious "If you name my name" routine, which deserves to be honoured in the AFDA hall of fame.

In honour of Dario, the ACT Ultimate Association will be lobbying the federal government to increase our immigration intake from both Italy and Singapore. The Dario bill, as it is known, is due to be debated in the upper house on the 12th of August, and anyone who knows how worthwhile Dario is will no doubt email their local member in an effort to push this bill through. If we can just get his fiancee (soon to be wife), supervisor and family to move here there will be no compelling reason for Dario to live anywhere else (except for the cold, but he was getting used to that). I'd like to imagine that Italy is a whole nation of Darios just looking for somewhere better to live, and Australian ultimate can only benefit from having more Darios around.

The team here at the CUB secret underground facility wish Dario all the best, congratulate him on his impending marriage and cordially invite him back to mixed nationals and nationals, provided he plays for us rather than coming along with his Singapore club Freakshow and getting stomped on.

1 comment:

  1. Hey - if Singapore want to play Mixed Nats, they have to let AFDA know by mid-July at the latest, to see if a slot can be made available to them (or they could just try to qualify through the ACT slots, I guess).

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