The 2008 Ballarat Ultimate Awards

Not to be confused with the BUUF Awards, the Ballarat Ultimate Awards recognises stuff I thought was pretty sweet over the year. The process of determining the winners of the awards, with several nominations received, scrutinised by a panel of highly regarded judges, voted on by industry insiders and forwarded on to the editor of Ballarat Ultimate who said "fuck that" and made these awards and winners up on the spot.



GAME OF THE YEAR (Spectating)

Honorable mention - Jam vs Ironside (UPA Nationals final)
Bit of a landmark game, really, given it's the first time we've been able to watch a non-Worlds game live on the internet instead of on a DVD 5 months from now.

Runner-up - Flinders vs Melbourne (AUG Semi Final)
Good close game, funny watching Freisy lose his shit.

Winner - Australia vs Colombia (Worlds Junior Women's Division semi final)
An outstanding come-from-behind victory to put the girls in to the gold medal match. Also exciting to be able to watch it live from the other side of the world.



GAME OF THE YEAR (Played in)

Honorable mention - BUUF vs Yoghurt Slingers (Geelong League Season 3)
Why a simple league game? It was the return of Dan Rule and Sam Kuchel to the line-up for the first time in months, and BUUF had gone winless for a season and a half in the league. The other teams were even referring to BUUF as 'Bye'. For nearly five years the Ballarat style of game was carefully structured and patient offense, but this game we canned all that and shifted to a "run and gun" offense where there were two passing options - dishy or shoot. And it worked brilliantly. We've used it since to great effect and it'll probably completely reshape the uni team's mindset in 2009.

Runner-up - Heads Of State Youth vs Karma Chameleon (Southern Regionals)
I'm the first to admit that I'm rather shit in open ultimate, and right up until this game I felt way out of my depth. Actually I was out of my depth, but when Karma B decided to run a pommy zone for the whole game, it put Tarrant and I in our element. With great support from Timill, Lochie Wise and Lewi Broad we managed to take our small squad of 11 and take down Karma B's 19-strong lineup with relative ease.

Winner - Heads Of State Youth vs Sweet Chilly (Southern Regionals)
For someone who doesn't enjoy open ultimate as much as mixed, I seem to have had a great time at Southerns. This game went Chilly's way by a few points, but as cliched as it is, the scoreline didn't reflect the intensity. The tension was at ridiculously high levels after some questionable calls and the Heads Of State senior team making the most noise I've ever heard on a sideline, but everyone on both teams kept their heads and played at their best.



WHISKEY TANGO FOXTROT AWARD

Honorable mention - Furious George missing out on UPA Nationals
OK, so there's countless blogs out there covering the North American scene and only a couple for the Australian scene, but this was too big to ignore. Furious George - the Vancouver team that upset Sockeye and Buzz Bullets to take out the World Championships in their home town - couldn't back it up a few weeks later to qualify for the UPA Nationals. Talk about your premiership hangovers. In the end, Sockeye didn't even make it to the final as predicted, so you'd have to wonder if Furious would have.

Runner-up - Sydney Uni not selecting Calan Spielman for AUG
It's rare that a uni team even has to cut people from their AUG squad, and I'm sure that there's a perfectly reasonable explantion for it, but looking at it on face value it seems strange that they wouldn't want to take one of Thunder's most athletic players to a tournament where he could have dominated just about every opponent. It'd be easy to sit around and speculate whether he could have won the gold medal for Sydney, but with so many teams not fitting expectations at AUG it's tricky to say for sure.

Winner - Barefoot's fall from grace at Nationals
This season was all about Fakulti. Not all of Chilly's three-peat lineup was backing up for a fourth tilt and Fak were finally making the change from X/X to A/B. It seemed no one was going to challenge them, except for maybe Fyshwick and there was a bit of talk about Barefoot. Sure enough, after pool play, Barefoot had gone 3 and 0 and were looking good for semis. Then...well, no one outside the team is really sure. They failed to register another win and finished 12th. Even worse (or better?), Barefoot aren't even going to be around this season in the form they had for the last two years, choosing to reform as Thong/Southside/whatever.



HECKLE OF THE YEAR

Honorable mentions - There's a couple here...
"Get your f**king head in the game, champ. You're in a FINAL." (Mark Isherwood to Graham Prickett)
This came after about four minutes of Basil constantly yelling "Hey Spesh!" to try and get his attention.
"Nice forehand. Does it come in mens?" (Lewi Broad to...I forget who. Might have been me)
This was following some loopy bullshit outside-in forehand that hit the receiver somehow. It was clear that Lewi had been waiting quite some time for an opportunity to use this heckle.

Runner-up - "Sydney are still in this.....harr harr harr harr." (Tim Wise to whoever was listening)
After Flinders had gone up 13-5 in the AUG final. There is not a soul out there who can adequately explain why this was funny. It just was.

Winner - "You hit your peak in 2005. You're the Andy Roddick of Australian ultimate." (Frank Simmons to Alex Ong)
The anatomy of an outstanding heckle includes clever wit, perfect timing, clear delivery and devastating impact. This heckle nailed all of them. And just like explaining a joke is like disecting a frog (no one really learns anything, and the frog dies), the heckle shouldn't mean jack shit in written form. Moving on.



TOURNAMENT OF THE YEAR

Honorable mention - Halibut (Brisbane, July 26th-27th)
Despite a missed flight on the Friday night and subsequently missing the first game on the Saturday, this was a fantastic tournament. Great fields (felt weird playing on green grass), good food, and quality opposition.

Runner-up - The Big Wet 6 (Creswick, July 14th)
With all the big cities eating up so much of everyone's tournament time, it's great to see the small tournaments are still the most fun. It doesn't get much more country than ultimate on a footy oval, with the local players' parents cooking a BBQ for lunch as we all huddle around a barrel fire. I especially liked it this year because I won. Seriously, you should get to this tournament next year. Grassroots ultimate at it's finest.

Winner - Australian University Games (Melbourne, September 28th - October 3rd)
Many would argue it's hard to enjoy a tournament when you're getting your ass handed to you every game, but aside from that I couldn't fault AUG this year at all for sheer enjoyment. And I managed to make it through this year's mayhem without an injury or ambulance ride.

Keeping in-game statistics

Back in school, I played in the school's 2nd XVIII team in Aussie Rules. For years the schools in B-Town had been um-ing and ah-ing about establishing a seconds competition, and in 2000 they finally bit the bullet and started it. As was the case with most other teams, my school's 2nd XVIII contained some Year 10 students being groomed for the 1st XVIII, and mostly Year 12s who either weren't good enough for the 1sts or simply didn't want to train as much. It was almost a social comp, since we all got along with the other teams, and only maybe six or so players from either team putting in a real effort to press for selection in the 1st XVIII. Where am I going with this story?

At the request of the 1sts coach, we kept stats in our games. Kicks, handballs, marks, tackles, goals, behinds and hit-outs for the ruckmen. They were collected by whoever happened to be on the bench at the time, and the next day they were given to the 1sts coach to go over. Quite often, the kid who got 30 possessions simply by following the ball around the field would get picked over the kid who got 15 possessions, but stopped three or four certain goals with his work across the half back line.

Which brings me to ultimate. I've kept stats before and I was given a bit of paper with four categories - goals, assists, blocks and throwaways. The stats on the paper and what I observed in the game often told a very different story. Player A caught 8 goals and Player B got 5 blocks - they must have played a great game! But they simply were in the right place at the right time...it was Player C who got the break throws that led to goals, and the pressure on the mark from Player D who forced the risky throws.

So it got me thinking about what stats I would like to see for a team that I am the coach or selector for. Assuming here that I'd have sufficient helpers on hand to keep track.


OFFENCE

Goals - this one's a given, really. It's the easiest for a non-player to follow.

Assists - similar to goals.

TTA (throws to advantage) - this one is for completed hucks and break throws, as these type of throws are what sets up goals and what defenders are trying to stop.

Throwaways - the hucks that go nowhere, the dump throws that get turfed...clearly the fault of the thrower. Getting handblocked would go in here.

Unforced drops - exactly what it says on the tin.

Forced drops - these are drops from contests. This doesn't count if the defender gets a clean block...only if a receiver gets their hand to it but doesn't take the catch. Drops after so-called "phantom Ds" would count here.

Contested catches - counting the number of catches per game wouldn't really tell us anything. Nor would the one-on-one catches, given the number of times they happen every point. What would be interesting to know is if someone regularly comes down with the disc from a pack-grab. So a contested catch would be against two or more other players (ie: at least 3 players going for it).


DEFENSE

Blocks - hitting the disc to the ground before the offense gets it. Straight forward.

Intercepts - catching rather than blocking the disc. Worth more than blocks as the attack can get going straight away.

Forced turnovers - plays which lead to forced drops for the offense. Also includes throwaways on high stall counts, and stalling out on the mark.


There's plenty of stuff you could keep stats on, but these are the key ones I'd want to know about. Any others you would want to see?

G-League update

Wow, I haven't written about Geelong league for a while.

Well, we're in the tail end of Season 3. We've seen a longer season (9 of 10 rounds completed) and two new teams - Khaos and Storm. And we've seen BUUF's revival from a winless season and a half, to a Goldberg-like winning streak. Of course it certainly helps when you get folks like Dan Rule back from Worlds, and Tarrant, Doobie and Amanda finishing uni for the year.

So at the moment the ladder is topped by Khaos (led by Dave Pelletier and Tyler Dickson) and Yoghurt Slingers (defending champions, led by Jake Angelovich and Josh Logan), with Storm (Lewi Broad) and BUUF rounding out the top four. First season champions Vintage (Cal Broad and Nick McCoy) missed their chance at the finals this week with a loss to the Slingers, and Flying High (Pete Nixon and Andrew Berry) languish at the bottom.

Coinciding the school holidays, the league goes on hiatus until January 27th, with round 10 being played on that date. BUUF face off against Storm, who are the other in-form team, after what will probably be a month-long battle of Facebook sledging. The semis are the week after, with what ought to be a quality grand final taking place on Tuesday February 10th.

The importance of building professional relationships

Monday and Tuesday were very productive days for me this week. Our little tournament in B-Town, the Golden City Classic, has gone from a "definite maybe" to "full steam ahead" in just over 24 hours.

As of 4pm last Friday, I was waiting on the council to get back to me about the use of Morshead Park, a venue we've never used before but I've had my eye on for times where we couldn't use Vic Park or the Uni oval. And this was one of those times. Unfortunately I didn't get confirmation before the council shut up shop for the week. So I had to wait.

I spoke to Racheal at the council on Monday about where we were at. Racheal has been very helpful because she knows that once we have the fields booked, we take care of everything else ourselves - the cleaning, the rubbish collection, and most importantly the public liability insurance. We also bring visitors to Ballarat. Racheal said that she was waiting to hear from Tony at the soccer club. Now I know Tony because I had dealt with him before when trying to find a new training venue earlier in the year. I called him up and asked about the fields - he said 'no worries', and Racheal confirmed the booking.

After setting up the rego page and sending out the first email of what I'm sure will be many, I made a big list of stuff I'd need. I shot off a quick email to my media contacts (Geoff, Mel and Fitzy) telling them to expect a formal media release later in the week. On Tuesday morning I went to see Geoff and Leighton at UBSA about using their PA system, BBQs and shade tents. While I was there, I sorted out a substantial loan for BUUF to buy custom printed discs for O-Week. They then spoke to me about BUUF doing a demo in Week 1. Later in the day, I spoke to both Mark at 21 Arms and Damian at the Bridge Hotel about a function, but decided not to book either of them until I knew how many teams were coming.

It was all too easy. And it got me thinking about the work I'd done to build that kind of rapport with all these people.

B-Town is a small town posing as a big city. As cosmopolitan as we like to think we are, there's still people who point at aeroplanes. It is very rare that you need to go more than two degrees of seperation to find someone who can do something you need. That's what makes it easy.

But once you find those people, make the effort to meet them in person. And dress well. I always make a point of scheduling face to face meetings with people before or after work, so I'm already dressed in business attire. I carry a folder with paper to make notes, even if I don't intend to use it. It gives a clear impression that I'm there for business and I know what I'm doing. It's little touches like these that get you remembered and makes a huge difference in the other person categorising you as part of a "sporting club" and not a "recreational group". Some others...

* Always follow any meeting up with an email that confirms any decisions that were discussed.
* Keep them in the loop with big news for your club. Eg: qualifying for Nationals.
* Try and have the same person from your club contact them each time, but take other club members to face-to-face meetings.

All of these actions keep your club active in the memory of other organisations, and establishes your club as an ongoing entity, rather than a series of one-off projects.