2009 World Games - Day 1

For those of you in the ultimate community who don't ever check their emails (and subsequently, probably not this blog), the 2009 World Games are currently going down in Kaohsiung in Chinese Taipei. The Australia Crocs are taking on USA, Canada, Japan, Great Britain and Chinese Taipei over 3 intense days in the main stadium in Kaohsiung.

Day 1 has been run and won, with all games going as expected...

Canada 13 d. Great Britain 10
Japan 13 d. Chinese Taipei 7
USA 13 d. Australia 11
Japan 13 d. Great Britain 10
Australia 13 d. Chinese Taipei 9
USA 13 d. Canada 6

Perhaps the two surprises to come out of Day 1 was the margin in the USA/Canada game, and the performance of Chinese Taipei against Japan and Australia. Chinese Taipei were expected to be the minnows of this competition, qualifying based on the fact they were the host nation. However their mixed team competed at Worlds last year and their preparation has been intense, plus there is also the factor of the home crowd, which reportedly was more than 8,000. If you think the sideline is the 8th player on the field, then surely a crowd of that size would be the 9th, 10th and 11th.

At Worlds last year, Chinese Taipei got 4 points (game to 17) against Japan, 5 from Canada and 10 from Great Britain, so for them to get 7 against Japan this time around and 9 from Australia shows considerable improvement in the last 12 months. Wei-chiao Chang was the star at Worlds, with 26 assists for the tournament, and seems to be dominating the O again with 5 assists so far this time around. Lin-yi Lee is also replicating his performance from Worlds with 9 goals so far - the highest for the tournament - after 14 goals in 2008. Ying Li Huang is their top female target, with 3 goals and 1 assist so far (11 goals in 2008).

The USA/Canada game was expected to be a close, tough match up and perhaps a preview of the gold medal match. Both had relatively tough games in the morning - Canada overcoming GB after two breaks following long points, and the USA defeating Australia after a late break. Canada stayed with the US early on, but after about 20 minutes of gameplay the US broke away and went on a 10 to 3 run to close out the game inside an hour. The US defence was on fire, generating turns and then quick goals. Bart Watson and Dylan Tunnell were nailing their hucks, with Gabe Saunkeah and Chelsea Putnam on the end of them. Canada were trying to run a similar aggressive offence but weren't connecting on their long shots and fumbled close range throws under pressure from the US defence.

In the Japan-Great Britain game, Japan looked set to run away with a big win when they were up 12-5 about one hour in. Great Britain then dug their heels in and switched to their pommy (lol) zone. This proved to be successful and, after a couple of points with multiple turns, went on a 5 goal run to bring it back to 12-10. Key goal scorer (23 goals in 2008) Jane Holmes was on the end of two of them. Japan finally broke through the zone to take the win 13-10.


Today's games are (all times in AEST)...

10:30am - Australia vs Great Britain
12:00pm - United States vs Chinese Taipei
1:30pm - Canada vs Japan
6:10pm - United States vs Great Britain
7:40pm - Canada vs Chinese Taipei
9:10pm - Japan vs Australia

Both of today's games are must-wins for the Crocs if they want to make the gold medal game. Height is going to be the obvious advantage over Japan, with the Dowles, Mike Neild and Lauren Brown looking to be the deep targets. The danger man on the Japanese side is Masahiro Matsuno, who has 5 goals and 5 assists so far (23 goals and 20 assists in 2008). Sachiko Sameshima is the female target, with 4 goals for the tournament. For the Great Britain game we need to avoid all Ashes analogies since that didn't work on Day 6 at Worlds last year. The handling strength of Jonno Holmes and Liz Edye will be the key to taking apart the pommy zone.

Follow the games (well, text updates anyway) here, with commentary from the one and only Piers Truter via his Twitter feed. Also of interest is Jonathan Potts' Twitter feed as he schmoozes with IWGA and IOC officials.


Edit: The website I was looking at got the fixture wrong. Fixed it up now.

Fantasy Ultimate (not the sideline heckling game)

A couple of different factors have inspired this. My stellar performance in Supercoach and DreamTeam last week, my previous post picking teams from each state, and the one I did a while ago "drafting" players to club teams.

Oh, and the fact that The Huddle are doing this exact same thing but on a much larger scale.

I'm looking for a few people to take part in this. I'll create a draft order and we take turns picking players for a hypothetical team that is aiming to win Mixed Nationals this year.

Any Australian players (ie: no 6-month exchange students) can be chosen, and once our "squads" are decided I'll consult some experts around the place on who the best team would be.

Sign up in the comments thread if you want to take part.

Successful moments in procrastination Volume 6-ish

So let's say we had a tournament with state-based teams. Ignoring all club allegiances - play for the state you live in. Who would be the starting seven on each team?

Queensland
Mike Neild
Buzz Burwell
Al Don
John McNaughton
Mat Ryan
Piers Truter
Tom Tulett

Western Australia
John Damiani
Paul Denyer
James Eley
Kendall Thorn
Tim Delane
George Wong
Andrew Delane

South Australia
Joel Pillar
Brett Middleton
Rian Dutch
Kristian Pash
Tom Roden
Robbie Andrew
Alec Deslandes

Tasmania
Mike Baker
Jemery Day
Michael Dunne
Ash Buttons
Felix Kennedy
John Kristensen
Huddy Fuller

ACT
Jonno Holmes
Warwick Shepherd
Leon Smith
Max Wheeler
Peter Hemphill
Asher Gentle
Matt Dowle

New South Wales
Gav Moore
Ant Dowle
Tim Lavis
Pete Blakeley
Ken Shepherd
Pete Gardner
Jonathan Potts

Victoria
Tom Rogacki
Dan Rule
John Liddicoat
Owen Shepherd
Lee Baker
Steve Wealands
Seb Barr


Thoughts?


EDIT - ok, so I spelled some names wrong. And got the state of residence wrong for some folk. Updated to reflect that.

Why volunteer?

So let's start off by blowing my own trumpet a bit. I got involved with ultimate in 2004 and started playing regularly in 2005. In that time, I served as BUUF's main man (never actually had the term "President" - it's a mildly interesting story of corruption. Ask me some time), VFDA General Representative, AFDA Director of Marketing and currently AFDA National Universities Coordinator. I have run around a dozen tournaments, plus Albert Park League for one season. I have been a driving force in getting several teams to several tournaments - most notably Eureka Goldigaz to World Clubs 2006. I have assisted countless other teams and volunteers in sorting their shit out and providing ideas. I also write some shitty blog on the internet somewhere.

I do all this because I want to. There's nothing out there that forces me to.

I get asked occasionally (mostly by my parents who want me to expend these efforts into a career so I can support them in their retirement) why I do it all for relatively little financial reward. I've never been able to adequately explain why - it usually amounts to "well no one else would". But then I read an article on Cracked.com (usually masquerades as a humour website) that summed it all up for me quite nicely

Source

You want to break out of that black tar pit of self-hatred? Brush the black hair out of your eyes, step away from the computer and buy a nice gift for someone you loathe. Send a card to your worst enemy. Make dinner for your mom and dad. Or just do something simple, with an tangible result. Go clean the leaves out of the gutter. Grow a damn plant.

It ain't rocket science; you are a social animal and thus you are born with little happiness hormones that are released into your bloodstream when you see a physical benefit to your actions. Think about all those teenagers in their dark rooms, glued to their PC's, turning every life problem into ridiculous melodrama. Why do they make those cuts on their arms? It's because making the pain-and subsequent healing-tangible releases endorphins they don't get otherwise. It's pain, but at least it's real.

That form of stress relief via mild discomfort used to be part of our daily lives, via our routine of hunting gazelles and gathering berries and climbing rocks and fighting bears. No more. This is why office jobs make so many of us miserable; we don't get any physical, tangible result from our work. But do construction out in the hot sun for two months, and for the rest of your life you can drive past a certain house and say, "Holy shit, I built that." Maybe that's why mass shootings are more common in offices than construction sites.

It's the kind of physical, dirt-under-your-nails satisfaction that you can only get by turning off the computer, going outdoors and re-connecting with the real world. That feeling, that "I built that" or "I grew that" or "I fed that guy" or "I made these pants" feeling, can't be matched by anything the internet has to offer.

It's very hard to adequately describe the feeling I have when I see teams enjoying themselves at a tournament I'm running, or team mates getting home from a tournament exhaustedly declaring they've had "the BEST weekend ever!" But think the above exerpt sums it up - the satisfaction of knowing that I made it happen.

Try it sometime. You might like it.