Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Day Two of Australian University Games

I have come down to Melbourne to watch University Games and I will be detailing some of my thoughts on the games I see here on the blog.

For the first game there was a moderate up/down field wind, which dictated the play across all the fields. Zone was the choice of defence here. All teams were playing some variety of the four person cup, with two wings and a deep. The three games that I was keeping track off in the first time slot were ANU vs Deakin, USyd vs UWA and La Trobe vs Macquarie.

The ANU vs Deakin game was a tough struggle. ANU were still missing Rose Phelan from a concussion earnt yesterday, apparently inflicted by her teammate Ryan Ickert. Deakin had only nine squad members but were much more happy to take risky long shots that would gain yards even if they were not caught. This proved to be the major factor in them taking the lead at the start and middle game. The ANU have really sought out a possession focused strategy but in the wind and at a university level tournament, 5-15 passes which end in a turnover is not as good as 3-5 that land 40 yards further away. Some costly errors near the ANU's upwind endzone meant easy scores for Deakin and although ANU fought back towards the end of the game, Deakin staved them off to win by three. As expected James Kingsmill, Mica Hartley and Brett Massey were ANU's play makers in this game.

UWA vs USyd was also wing effected. UWA went up early in the game, taking some breaks off poor executions from the USyd team. USyd certainly rallied greatly and when I came back to check on the game they had shut UWA out of the game with the final result of 13-5 to USyd.

Macquarie versus La Troba was another tight game. Macquarie was in the lead from the beginning of the game and Neil Roxburgh was taking some great layout Ds. unfortunately Neil's time on the field came to an end when Ian Macdonald from La Troba hit Neil's knee after an upfield flick lifted up over a female La Troba player's outstretched arm and listed towards the middle of the field. Ian 'Macca' Macdonald and Neil made bids for the disc from opposite directions with Macca's mouth and Neil's knee being the points of contact Neil is likely to be out for sometime, possibly with an ACL injury. At that stage of the game Mac was two point up and after the loss of Neil, La Troba grappled back to evens. Point trading continued until time-cap. It was 12 all, scorer of the next point takes all. La Troba were pulling to Macquarie. Everyone was set for a huge point.....and then Macquarie worked it down the field in about five or six passes to score effectively unopposed. 13-12 to Mac.

The next time slot was largely uneventful for the fields I was near.

At lunch, the initial pools were broken up and split into two 'power' pools and one bottom pool. This meant that there would generally be less blow out 15 to not much matches and more tough games. ANU scored wins against RMIT and Griffith in the Bottom pool and I watched some of the results from the various power pool games that were running at the time.

Macquarie and Newcastle were duking it out to the northern end of my roaming range, USyd and La Trobe in the middle and UWA and Monash to the south. Mac seemed to take control of their game and maintained their lead until the end of the game. On the other hand, the other two games were much more interesting fights with the underdogs in both, UWA and La Troba, coming out to early leads. Both of these underdog teams had more athletic and bigger receivers and they generally pumped their long game hard, playing zone if it did not come off. Both teams took their respective halves 8-7 (La Trobe) and 8-5 (UWA). However USyd and Monash continued to fight to regain control of the game. USyd achieved this straight away, breaking down La Trobe's big huck plays and working the disc much more solidly. The turned this into a comfortable 15-12 end game score.

The UWA vs Monash game was a different story. UWA had the big hucks to the big boys but they also scored several times through their under-cutters and women in the second half. Their women were much more effective for them than Monash's or the comparative La Trobe girls and their building up of their lead in the second half demonstrated that. On the other side of the disc, Monash was struggling against UWA's zone and uncharacteristic errors from senior Monash players and some badly timed drops from a few of their girls kept the UWA kids on the offense. Time cap was nearing and UWA was up by three points, 13-10. Monash fires up and attempts a rally. They score for make it 13-11, within the two points they need to keep the game alive if time cap goes. UWA take a timeout, which burns up the last few seconds of regular time and its game to 14. Monash need to score three times to win and UWA only once. UWA receives the pull and scrambles hard to make ground. They manage to make two shots into the endzone, one wild and the other only faulted by the receiver tripping up as they tried to make the catch. After some more turn overs from both sides, Monash grins out a score. 13-12. Monash pulls again to UWA but this point lacks the tension of the last, with only a few turn overs before Monash plugs another goal. 13-13, double game point. UWA received the pull again, working the disc up and down the field. There are turnovers falling over themselves to be born unto the frisbee field as both teams struggle to search for the killing blow that will finish the game in their favour. A UWA huck goes wild into their attacking endzone, Josh Cukierman picks up the disc and plays from the endzone line but makes a simple dump error and overshoots Sebastian Barr, resulting in a turn right in front of the endzone. Surely this must be the death knell for Monash! But no! Instead of going for the kill and moving fast to set up the score, UWA lets Monash set up defence in good time AND on top of that sets up a horizontal in the endzone. Such a huge tactical error is only justly rewarded with a scrappy set of cuts and a desperate stall nine throw out the back of the endzone. Seemingly aware of the shame that they have brought upon their WA brethern, the UWA kids promptly wilt away while the Monash team revels in their second chance at not sucking and within five passes the game is over, with Andrew "Mozza" Moroney taking a gently floating disc in the endzone to end the game in Monash's favour. A great comeback from the Monash team. Moz was a solid achiever for the Monash kids with Twiggy and James Eley (playing on a ruptured ACL!!!!) being the heavy hitters for UWA.

In the last round I saw USyd vs Melbourne and UWA vs Newcastle play. It was about this time that after spending the first half of the day having people tell me I was a green and gold selector, I figured out after a chat with one of the captains that that was actually highly unlikely. I later confirmed this with others. I don't know if I was even put up for voting but as I was not here in Melbourne on Sunday when it all happened. Sigh, another bureaucratic flight of fancy. Melbourne and USyd slugged it out in a real upwind/downwind battle, trading till a USyd 8-7 half. Chris Friese then stopped cutting deep for Melbourne and that proved to be the death of their offence. Melbourne's less experienced cutters got on the end of several decent hucks but misread them all. Melbourne did not score again and USyd won 13-7. USyd have a very even team, with heavy firepower provided by the loose cannon of Pete Liddicoat. However Max Halden and Carlo Seeto have so far not set a foot wrong, consistently maintaining possessive of the disc, getting blocks and scores without error. Another notable loss to Melbourne was the niggling knee injury that took Michelle Phillips out of the game. She has now missed several games to the complaint and will only play a limited role in Melbourne's tournament. The other game saw Newcastle University roll a drained UWA.

So that basically wraps up my scattered recollections of the day. I really need a big hat, a bike and some paper to note things down if I am going to ensure more accuracy in my reporting, so I plan on doing those things tomorrow.

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Cheap flights, anyone?

Howdy ya'll,

Just a quick heads-up about some cheap flights Qantas has on sale, I just booked flights for mixed nats for $230 return. If you're still wimping out because of money your excuse just got $100 less convincing. It's one of those 30 hour sales apparently, so get onto the qantas website pronto.

Friday, September 19, 2008

Kaboom's Top Team Announced

My spies within local mixed club Kaboom have delivered the lastest roster for the ACT's top mixed team into my waiting hands. Kaboom plans to send three teams to Mixed Nationals this year, but some late pull-outs among their men have opened new spots in their roster. If you're a man and you're in Canberra and interested in attending mixed nats in October (18th-20th) contact me at who.is.the.schmooze at gmail.com and I'll pass your details on the relevant folk. This is the first time the ACT has taken a focused, club based approach towards the mixed division and it will be interesting to see what kinds of dividends this change brings. So, who will don papaya shirts in the name of destruction this October?

Larissa Arney,
Gareth Beyers,
Asher Gentle,
Laina Hall,
Mica Hartley,
Heather Hemphill,
Pete Hemphill,
Jonathan Holmes,
Ian McKerracher,
Keah Molomby,
Jess Preston,
Vicki Saye,
Heather Tolley,
Thomas Walcott,
Thomas Watson,
Max Wheeler,

These kids carry the hopes of at least 4 certified minors and will no doubt do their clubmates proud in Brisbane. If you see any of them around the traps congratulate them on their selection and wish them the best for the tournament ahead. I should have finalised rosters for Kaboom's other two teams once our final few players are confirmed.

Thursday, September 18, 2008

The end of Hibernation

Well, Winter is finally over. Not only has the woefully inaccurate Augustine Calendar marked the coming of Spring, but the far more accurate Frisbee Calendar has finally wrapped up its winter leagues and begun gearing up for Spring.

So, what happened at the end of Winter? Well, after I put myself out on a limb with my tips for the final round of WOL I was proven wrong as the ANU came from nowhere to clinch the title. They definitely improved over the final two rounds and in the end did well to deservingly win their final. The Mavericks, hampered by a short roster, put up a brave fight but didn't have the legs to pull the game back into their grasp. They came back from something like 9-5 down to bring the game to universe point at 11 all, but a great grab from Nat Cheong sealed the deal for the bookish ANU kids. Of course, more people were interested in the BBQ, where the harworking WOL organisers cooked up a stir fry with REAL VEGETABLES rather than the traditional "food made from industrial waste" sausages that are standard fare at most finals. Even the weather seemed keen to support the ANU, after threatening to rain all morning the heavens cleared for a beautiful spring afternoon of ultimate. Thanks must go to the crowd who stayed around to enjoy food, beer and a suprisingly reasonable game of ultimate.

The Winter Indoor League finals were back at the very start of September, and not only did I not watch the final I've forgotten the details anyway. Sorry. I was, however, watching two random teams play off for minor placings and thoroughly enjoying watching Twatson get schooled by the Hind sisters, who usually play for Div 2 team "The Bretheren". It's great to see so many keen and athletic players playing in our leagues. I hope that the development sessions we run during spring league give these players an opportunity to learn some new tricks.

The Kaboom Mixed Club is getting firmly into gear, with our final roster for our top team confirmed and the rosters for our next two teams being finalised now. I'll put that up in a separate post.

Also confirmed are the formats for the next two leagues. There are set to be some big changes to Div 1, so stay tuned and I'll try to post soon (as opposed to almost never, like I have been). Anyway, I'd better go eat something, since I keep meeting people for lunch without actually having the lunch.

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Spring League rego opens

The contact emails for this league are anthony.perry@centrelink.gov.au for divisions 2+3 and who.is.the.schmooze@gmail.com for div 1.

Here are the details from Anthony:

"Spring League

The ACT Ultimate Association’s Spring Social League will (hopefully) commence on Tuesday 7 October (day after the long weekend) for social league (Division’s 2 & 3) at the Dickson playing fields. The season will run for 9 weeks finishing on 9 December 2008. The cost per league is $25.00 (if you pay before week 4). Please note that you can wear cleats this season.

League Organiser

At the moment we do not have one. Unfortunately i cannot do as i am going overseas for a month starting this Friday. If anyone is interested in being the League Organiser please contact John Horan or myself for details. The league organiser also requires a couple of assistants to help set up fields each week (takes 10 – 15 minutes) and collect scores after the game. It would be a shame to cancel social league this season because we do not have an organiser

Divisions 2 and 3 (Social League)

Division 2 and Division 3 games will start at approximately 6.35pm and go for one hour. In total we are limited to a maximum of 20 teams. We operate of a first registered, first accepted basis. That means if you leave it too late, you may miss out. We will close Divisions 2 and 3 (Social League) if we reach our limit.

Players can register with a specific team or as individuals. Under no circumstances should a person register with a specific team unless they have the consent of the team captain. To register for Division 2 or Division 3 go to:

Division 2
http://www.afda.com/rego/showdivision.php?divisionid=900

Division3
http://www.afda.com/rego/showdivision.php?divisionid=901

To register a SOCIAL team you need to contact the person at the top of the registration page (and for the next 48 hours that will be me so get in fast) and provide a team captain and a team name. You will be asked to indicate a preference for which Division your team would like to play in. Then teams can be registered in their requested Division, on the understanding that it may change depending on registrations. The acceptance of any team is at the discretion of the League Organiser. Ideally there should be 12 players per team (7 male / 5 female). However the final team size and player mix will be determined by the League Organiser based on the number of people who register. If a group of people want to form a team but do not have 12 players there is no problem providing there are at least 7 players (4 male / 3 female). The League Organiser will allocate the remaining players.

The registration of a team does not mean that a team will be guaranteed a place in the league. Each player must still register individually. When we start to reach our optimum size the registration database will be closed. The people who have registered indicating that they do not have a team will then be allocated to those teams that do not have 12 players.

Please note that any person who registers a team is doing so on the understanding that they will have at least 7 players (4 male / 3 female) registered by Friday 26 September. If there are not 7 players registered by this date, the proposed team will be dissolved and any players registered in that team will transferred to the unallocated players list and allocated across other teams. Therefore team captains need to be organised.



Division 1 (Intermediate League)

The ACT Ultimate Association’s Spring Division 1 League will commence on Wednesday 1 October at the O’Connor AFL oval. League will start at 7.00pm and games will go for 90 minutes. The season will run for 11 weeks finishing on 10 December 2008.

To register for Division 1 go to:
http://www.afda.com/rego/showdivision.php?divisionid=902

League Size

The league will be limited to a maximum of 6 teams (which is all we can fit on O’Connor). In the event that we have more players than required, teams will be selected on a draft basis (i.e. unfortunately we may have to say no and decline your registration)

John Horan will be the Division 1 organiser. John can be contacted on who.is.the.schmooze@gmail.com


Cost

The cost for each league will be $25.00 (if paid by week 4 and then $30.00)

Funds can be transferred electronically to the following account:
Account Name: ACT Ultimate
BSB Number: 801009
Account Number: 309871
Reference: Put your name (otherwise we don’t know you have paid)

Registration Close Date

Registrations close 5.00pm Friday 26 September 2008 or earlier if the league is full.

Questions:

In the next 48 hours about Spring Social League can be forwarded to me at: anthony.perry@centrelink.gov.au .

Questions from Friday onwards about social league can go to the contact point on the registration page (i.e. click on the registration link).

About Division 1 can go to John Horan at: who.is.the.schmooze@gmail.com

Anthony"

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Things to get excited about

Hi folks,

Things are definitely getting into gear here in the CUB secret underground facility. Leagues are ending, leagues are starting, trainings are running, teams are forming, and schemes are being fleshed out as the winter hibernation ends and the Canberra ultimate coommunity gets ready for another rowdy 9 months of nightly outdoor leagues.

A few changes are in the pipes for the next bracket of outdoor leagues. Division 1 will move to Wednesday nights at O'Connor playing fields, development clinics and coaching will be on offer to Division 2 and 3 teams, and there's the possibility of changing the timeslots of Divisions 2 and 3 to accomodate more players in the future if required. Our ambitious grab for field allocations has provided us with a bounty of fields which we will exploit to ensure that we can provide the best facilities to out club teams, league teams and development sessions.

We've also tracked down a League Organiser for Division 1 and have several keen candidates for LOGs for divisions 2 and 3. Division 1 can also expect a shake up of format, four club teams will be introduced into the league as a way of improving the standard of the league, although we'll retain two draft teams for spring league to ensure a smooth transition. We should have an announcement on the formation of those club teams soon.

Booking fields has also meant we can pin down our training dates over the next few months. Kaboom training will stay at O'Connor on Thursday nights, as will Fyshwick United and Factory Girls training over the warmer months. We should be running roughly 4 weeks of bridging sessions at the start of the single-gender season to get any keen new players up to speed.

And finally, with the AFDA breathing down their necks, the Kaboom stewards are starting to thrash out some kind of selection plan for the three club teams they'll be sending to Mixed Nationals on the 18th-20th of October. Flights are cheap, so if you're interested in heading up but haven't let the Kaboom kids know either head along to training this Thursday from 6:15 until 8:30 or email me at who.is.the.schmooze at gmail dot com.

Details about registration for leagues, costs, times and all that jazz should be out soon, they'll get posted on the ACTUA website, emailed to the Autumn League list and posted up here. Stay tuned.

Monday, September 1, 2008

ACTUA meeting, Mixed Nationals, WOL next weekend

Hey everyone

Three things,

-ACTUA meeting tonight (Monday) at 38 Scrivener Street, O'Connor. Come along, contribute and eat pizza. 7:00pm start.

-We need to get our rosters in for Mixed Nationals really soon. If you are not on the list soon, you won't be able to join later but if you are on the list we can take you off at a later date. Therefore, if you want to keep Mixed Nats as an option this year, you need to let us know to put you on the list.

-Winter Outdoor League is on next Sunday, 14th of September at Downer Fields. Come along and watch the finals (there are semis and stuff as well - everyone has games).