Tuesday, November 25, 2008

More photos from BUUF Awards

A few more happy snaps from the big night...

Josh Rynan (Most Improved Player) and Dylan Carter (Spirit Award) with their awards.


Nathan Job (Rookie Of The Year) and Sara Talbot


Myself and Sara going through the votes.


Greta Hunt (Clubperson Of The Year) being presented with her award.


2008's milestone players - Greta (50 games), Sara (100), myself (150), Amanda (100) and Sam (100).


Amanda and Monique Connell getting stuck into it.


Sam, Dan Rule, Aaron Rutigliano, Josh and Aaron Stewart.


The "Wags" table (don't tell them I said that) - Phoebe Reid (our wonderful AUG trainer), Daiha Fehring (our gun female rookie) and Ang Longhurst (Sam's personal manager).

Thanks to Sara and Amanda for posting some of these photos to Facebook so I could steal them. I'd post more, but pretty much every photo post-ceremony is Dan sticking his middle finger up at the camera.

Monday, November 17, 2008

Does size really matter?

Inspired by the readings on Bagel Fodder Ultimate over there on the right, I decided to delve into the propaganda-driven statistics offered up by the fine tertiary institutions of Australia. And some of the crap ones as well. The logical train of thought is that the bigger unis should have the bigger teams because, well, there's more people to choose from. Obviously this can't always be the case because there's a number of other factors here at play - previous success, the presence of an existing club, awareness of the sport, competition from other sports for the athletic folk, and the oh-so-attractive allure of being a drunken slob. But let's look at university size (undergraduates and postgraduates) and their ultimate team's finishes at AUG over the last three years.


UniversityStudentsCampuses200620072008
Monash Vic
55,000*
6
12th
4th
7th
Sydney NSW
46,054
3
5th
7th
2nd
QUT Qld
39,919
4
17th
11th
19th
Curtin WA
39,100*
1



Uni of Queensland Qld
37,518
3
2nd
1st

Griffith Qld
37,000*
4

18th
17th
UNSW NSW
36,789
1
9th
3rd

Uni of Western Sydney NSW
35,061
6

16th

RMIT Vic
34,107
3


13th
Deakin Vic
34,043
5


10th
Melbourne Vic
33,639
1
3rd
9th
4th
Charles Sturt Uni NSW
33,251
6

19th

UTS NSW
32,708
4

20th
14th
Uni of SA SA
32,187
4
15th


Macquarie NSW
31,660
1
1st
2nd
5th
Latrobe Uni Vic
28,000*
3

17th
9th
Uni Sthn Queensland Qld
26,174
3



Central Qld Uni Qld
26,000*
5



Victoria University Vic
23,600
5



Newcastle NSW
22,827
3
4th

8th
UWA WA
22,419
1
11th
10th
6th
Wollongong NSW
22,044
2


18th
Edith Cowan Uni WA
20,605
3


12th
Charles Darwin Uni NT
20,098
5



Southern Cross NSW
18,902
4



Adelaide SA
18,385
1
6th
14th
3rd
Uni of New England NSW
17,896
1



James Cook Qld
15,756
2



Flinders SA
15,110
1
10th
12th
1st
Uni of Tasmania Tas
15,050
2
8th
5th

Swinburne Vic
14,481
2



Aus Catholic Uni National
13,032
6



Aus National Uni ACT
12,482
1
7th
6th
15th
Murdoch WA
12,400*
3
13th
15th
11th
Ballarat Vic
10,500*
4
14th
13th
16th
Uni of Canberra ACT
9,000*
1



Notre Dame WA
6,000*
3



Uni of Sunshine Coast Qld
5,833
1



Bond Qld
3,200*
1



* - couldn't find the exact number, only an estimate


There's no consistency at all with these results - we have larger unis with a weak team (or no team at all) and we have small unis with successful teams. There's also the obstacle of different campuses - generally ultimate is based at one campus of a university, and the only cases of multi-campus involvement that I know of involve players who play ultimate anyway. They weren't recruited to the game through their university. However it is definitely an option teams should consider in the future, particularly unis with multiple campuses in the same city. Spare a thought though for CSU, who is spread out right across New South Wales, and ACU which spans four states.

Recruiting from other campuses is certainly a strategy Ballarat is going for next year. Our team is based out of the Mount Helen campus, yet we have Camp Street, Horsham and Ararat to draw from. We also have a luxury many other unis don't - Uni of Ballarat is also a TAFE provider, so we can also draw from another few thousand students at the SMB campus. It's all about finding and taking advantage of the opportunities.

Saturday, November 8, 2008

2008 BUUF Awards winners

Anyone who has played against Ballarat over the course of the year may have noticed that we got our opponents to vote on the best players from our team (3-2-1 for each gender). Last night we all got scrubbed up in our Sunday best and gathered at The Regent to count the votes over some beers and heckling. It was a really fun night enjoyed by all, topped off with the AUG votes counted by celebrity guest Dan Rule in a count that went down to the wire.

The minor award winners...

Rookie Of The Year - Nathan Job
Most Improved Player - Josh Rynan
Clubperson Of The Year - Greta Hunt
Coach's Award - Hamish Jansen & Daiha Fehring
Spirit Award - Dylan Carter

The top 5 in the female MVP...

Amanda Eastwood (68 votes)
Greta Hunt (47)
Sara Talbot (32)
Monique Connell (32)
Courtney Kelly (16)

And the top 5 in the male MVP...

Sam Kuchel (59)
Simon Talbot (54)
Dan Rule (34)
Nathan Job (33)
Mark Isherwood (19)

The two MVPs with their new bling

Monday, November 3, 2008

Putting the 'fun' in 'student services funding'

Anyone who was at uni between 2004-2006 will know about VSU and the impact on services provided to students by student-run organisations (aka unions, guilds). Now there's fantastic news...

Story sourced from around about here

Government plan to charge university students compulsory fee

STUDENTS will have a say in how planned compulsory services fees are distributed, universities say.

Under the Federal Government plan, universities will be allowed to charge the fee, capped at $250 a year, from July next year to help fund sporting facilities, child care, counselling and other student services.

But voluntary student unionism, introduced by the previous Howard government, will remain in place.

Universities Australia, which represents the nation's 38 universities, says students will have input in how fees are spent.

"We think it will be very important for the universities to be able to direct the funding to what's most needed,'' Universities Australia chief executive Glenn Withers said to ABC Radio.

"The announcement also requires significant improvement in student advocacy and representation ... The two will go hand in hand.


"We don't step back from that in any way. The student voice is absolutely crucial for communication for us understanding what the students want at management levels at university.''



How does this affect ultimate? Sports associations (in some cases, particularly at smaller unis) are very likely to score some of those funds in addition to the AUS funding they get. To quote a uni admin type from earlier in the year - "the sports association just got a big sack with a dollar sign on the front full of money, and I intend to get my hands on as much of it as I can." Get yourselves some funding for equipment purchases or coaching or "elite development" (roadie to Bathurst for Stampede III).

We might even see the cost of AUG next year reduced.

A little bit.

Please?