OK, so now that AUG has been run and won and things have had time to settle down. Rather than provide a journalistic-type review, I thought I'd lay some rambling thoughts down on the keyboard. That, and my memory isn't really crash hot and I don't really remember many details of games.
Two DivisionsAside from the glaringly obvious need for AU/USA and NZ to be in Divison 1, I felt the two divisions worked well and did exactly what I believed it would do - provide more competitive games for all teams across the entire week. It may have simply been our approach to each game, but BUUF didn't have a single easy game all week, and I'm sure that was the case for most teams. If the number of teams competing at AUG stays above the 20 mark, I feel that the two division structure should stay, but smaller registration numbers than that should be placed in one division. The challenge we have now is how to decide who goes in what division - do we adopt some sort of formal process or the old "look at the rosters and guess" method?
The two divisions is also a long term decision. This year there was a 12 team Div1 and 11 team Div2. Next time we're back in Surfers I want to see a 16 team Div1 and 20 team Div2! Impossible? Not really, given that since 2005 there have been
32 different universities competing at AUG. Plus the 5 other unis that have been to a
regional Uni Games in that time. Plus the 2 that have sports unions that want to get an ultimate team together. Even further down the track, we want to see Open, Womens and Mixed divisions at AUG. Imagine that.
Quality Versus QuantityAlready I've heard some feedback from players - "we wanted to play more games!" But I also observed something on the final day that I haven't seen in previous years - a near-absence of injured players. Sure, there were some doozies of injuries, like there are at pretty much every ultimate tournament ever, but being able to go home with all limbs in tact is an aim that every player has. It also meant that all the games on Friday were high standard games of ultimate, not just fourteen people with limps throwing a frisbee around.
Making the newbies feel welcomeAt AUG there were a few teams full of ultimate virgins who thought a week of frisbee sounded like a top idea. However I did overhear comments from other Div 2 players (with some experience with tournaments) about how these teams were "wasting our time." These comments annoyed me somewhat because no matter what, we are always going to attract these sort of teams because ultimate still has a 'novelty' aspect to new players.
That being said, most people made efforts to meet the new teams and make them feel part of the incestual lovefest that is the ultimate community. There were people offering advice, shitloads of gary, and even Robsquad got together for the ACPE vs UNE game to dish out some modified encouragement. If these efforts can translate into just one of these teams forming a club and attending other tournaments, it is well worth having these teams at AUG. If you need further convincing, just talk to anyone who saw the Wollongong vs QUT game on Wednesday arvo (Tiger, Tanty and anyone else from Macquarie, I'm looking at you).
Support staff and off field managementOutside the national teams and maybe a couple of club teams, there are very few non-playing personnel with teams. This year, BUUF had three non-playing "staff" - a trainer, a team manager and a "secretary" (stats and other odd jobs). With these three on the sidelines, plus everyone else fulfilling their assigned duties, we were by far the best prepared team there. We had our own shade tent, water barrel, sunscreen, first aid kit and food available at all times, and it ensured the players could always remain focussed on the game at hand.
However the non-players role wasn't exactly our invention and wasn't exclusive to us. Only 2 out of the 12 didn't have a non-player in a formal role on the sidelines, whether they were a coach or a team manager. Two years ago, this number was a lot smaller but it was speculated that that would change, and will continue to do so.
The challenge aheadThis year there was even more of a reliance on Nationals players to drive the teams than there was last year. This is troubling because next year uni ultimate faces one of it's toughest challenges - growth of the competition in the face of the three mid-year Worlds tournaments (Clubs, U23 and Juniors) and AUG in Perth. However if uni teams put pencil to paper and start planning the 12 months ahead, there's no reason (outside cost of flights) they can't get a team together and have a run at a medal in what is likely to be a weaker and therefore winnable competition.
