Div. 2 Update

4 weeks have now been played with 5 weeks to go. Here is what the table looks like:

Team	Win	Lose	Draw	For	Against	Total
Bananas	3	0	0	42	16	6
ANU	3	0	0	31	22	6
Discotheque	3	0	0	30	24	6
The Punters	2	1	0	30	23	4
Boffins	0	2	1	22	30	1
Damn Beavers	0	2	1	22	28	1
Devolutionaries	0	3	0	21	36	0
Revelation	0	3	0	19	38	0

It will be interesting to see what happens in the next few weeks as teams yet to lose have to play each other, and those teams that are winless will play each other. It is still possible for any team to make the semis and no team is secure in the top 4 either. As for my predictions, taking away Bananas and ANU, who weren't registered then, the order is similar with Punters and Revelation basically swapped. As I said though this ladder could change dramatically over the next few weeks.

Nationals 2010

Nationals is now over.

Final placings are on the AFDA site: http://www.afda.com/trashtalk/showarticle.php?articleid=732

Congratulations to FU and FG for their performances. FU finished 4th and FG finished 9th. Both teams would have liked to have finished higher but were pleased with playing some excellent ultimate. The competition this year was very strong in both divisions.

I-Beam from Newcastle took out the Open division while Team Box from Melbourne won the Women's division.

Good luck to our Nationals teams

The Australian Ultimate Championships are on this weekend in Adelaide. Canberra will be represented by two teams, Fyshwick United in the Open Division and the Factory Girls in the Women's Division. Both teams have been working hard in preparation for the big event and the four days from Saturday through to Tuesday are their chance to turn that hard work into eternal glory and acclaim.

If you're interested in how the tourney is going, keep an eye on www.afda.com for updates. Unfortunately we can't even keep this blog updated or relevant, so there's little chance of any specific updates from Canberra folk as such. We should, however, get a mention in the daily summaries that usually get put up.

Good luck to both teams from the Canberra Ultimate Blog: Play well and stay healthy. If you see any FU or FG players around (look for the trademark aweful orange shirts of FU or the sleek royal blue shirts of the FGs) pass on your best wishes and adulation and try to get them to play on your league team. After all, they're your representatives, surely you should get some value out of that...

ACT Ultimate Development

Hi All,

My name is AJ (Andrew Jackson) and I have been employed by the ACT Ultimate Association to promote and grow our great sport of Ultimate in the ACT. I have been talking to ACT teachers and am hoping to have an inter-school league running by the end of the year. I am also looking to run some training sessions for high school and college teachers. As well as training teachers I am hoping to go into colleges and do some coaching during PE lessons.

I will be looking for some suitable coaches (level 1 or experienced) to help go into schools. If you are interested please send me an email to andrew99dot46 at hotmaildotcom (replacing the 'at' and the 'dot' s) or come and say hello to me at league. I will be wearing a Discotheque shirt with AJ and 12 on the back.

If you are an ACT teacher and want to get your school involved please also send me an email or come and talk to me. The more support the better.

AJ

Who's going to win Autumn League 2010?

Autumn league is coming fast and is looking like it will be one of the closest fought leagues in many years (at least the 2 years I've been playing for). I'm going to make some predictions (despite not playing the last 2 leagues!) which will probably be completely wrong. Hopefully everyone will have forgotten about them by the end of the league.

Firstly Div. 2: With 6 very even looking teams it is possibly going to come down to points differential and goals scored to differentiate the teams. These teams could finish in any order. My bet is
1) Discotheque (no bias here!)
2) Revelation (having a Dingo in Matt Dowle will make them dangerous on O and D)
3) Boffins (a consistently top 4 team)
4) Dam Beavers (another consistent top 4 team)
5) The Punters (darkhorse)
6) Devolutionaries (with no women registered so far they might struggle!)

Players to look out for: u19 rep Ben M-H (Discotheque), Matt Dowle (Revelation), Nat Blood (The Punters) and Liz de Hoog (Dam Beavers)

Now div. 3: With 15 teams choosing an order is going to be very hard so I am just going to choose a top 4.
1) Go Fetch (any team with a Kaboom player must be good)
2) Ugly Shorts (a strong experienced roster)
3) Dynoshite (former div. 2 team that will be tough to beat)
4) Spin Doctors (with 14 players they will outlast most teams)

Players to look out for: Hannah Angus (Ugly Shorts), Annette Zou (ANU), Mike McGee (Ugly Shorts) and Cam Wilson (ANU)

Now that I've given my expert (unbiased) opinion you can go down to the ACTTAB and make some informed bets ... Discotheque with a 4 point start!

Autumn League

Autumn League is a seminal Canberra frisbee experience. No other city in Australia has a league quite like ours, which starts out with mild April nights and ends in June with crisp evenings, occaisional fog and, even more occaisionally, ice forming on discs left lying on the sidelines. Long time Canberra players will tell you of how the cold makes frisbees harder and makes throwing more precise. Other players will tell you about watching finals with mugs of hot soup. Some will point out that the heavy dews in the later weeks of the season make the fields perfect for laying out. I will tell you that the cold only makes it easier to run hard and that Autumn League in Canberra is a chance to genuinely enjoy weather that most people miss by hiding out inside. It's a beautiful time of year in the ACT, a great league and always heaps of fun.

If you're keen for some ultimate as it should be played get yourself registered on the AFDA website. You'll need an AFDA number (which you'll already have if you've been playing at other Australian events). The rego page is:

http://www.afda.com/rego/showdivision.php?divisionid=1370.

The league runs on Wednesday nights, starting on April the 7th and finishing on June the 2nd. It's at the Dickson Playing Fields on Antil Street. Division 3 starts at 6:40 and Division 2 starts at 8:00. If you're already on a team then sign up with your buddies, otherwise register in the "players with no team" section and the League Organisers (Anthony and Sonia) will sort you out.

Once again, unfortunately, there will be no division 1 because the local club team players are all totally snowed under with training for Nationals and the World Club Championships in Prague later this year. More on that in another post.

Congratulations to our local Aussie reps

Hi All,

Two ACT players have been selected to represent Australia at Ultimate tournaments later this year.

Ben Matthews-Hunter will play for the under 19s Australian team at the World Junior Ultimate Championships in Heilbronn, Germany (in early August). Ben regularly plays for Discotheque in division 2 and has been training with Fyshwick United and Kaboom as well to get himself ready for the main event. We're all looking forward to seeing Ben duking it out with the best young players from around the world and wish him all the best for his preparation and tournament.

Andrew "AJ" Jackson has also been selected to play for Australia, and will play with the under 23s Australian team at the Under 23s World Championships in Florence, Italy in July. AJ's positive attitude and cheery tone have been a real hallmark of his time playing frisbee in Canberra and he'll be bringing that same enthusiasm to the field in the green and gold.

If you see AJ or Ben around the traps be sure to say hi and give them some poorly thought out technical or strategic advice. Both also accept donations.