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Hi! If you're here because of a Weekly Times article, you should know that this blog has been defunct for quite some time. However there is a new home on the internet for Ballarat Ultimate over at their Facebook page. There you'll find what you need to know about playing ultimate frisbee in Ballarat.

2010 Nationals Preview - Part 4

As recognised in Part 2, the field for the women's draw this year is probably the most competitive in recent years with all teams lining at-or-near full strength. Pool L looks like it is going to be rather fiery, with only the top three at the end of pool play still in the running for the title, and as many as five of the seven teams capable of securing one of those three spots.


Pool L

SPORTING TEAM BOX ATHLETICO UNITED (2)
Base: Melbourne, Vic
Qualified: 1st in South
Last year: 2nd

Twice now STBAU have been runners-up to Wildcard at Nationals. This year STBAU's training focus has been on fitness and conditioning to ensure they can maintain four days worth of pressure on the NSW teams and bring back Victoria's first women's Nationals. They finished 2nd at the BC Invitational this year to a veritable Sydney all star team. Now given that STBAU were at full strength at BCI, and the talent from that Sydney team will be diluted across three teams in Adelaide, I'd expect STBAU to overcome their Wildcard hoodoo this year. However Southside are now in their way.

The gun: Liz Edye. One of the most consistent and reliable throwers going.
The workhorse: Michelle Phillips. Fast and fit, generates a lot of options on O. Will step up her D when she needs to.
The X-factor: Clare Hussey. Can send better hucks than probably half (or more) of the open players.

Prediction: 2nd




WILDCARD CLUBS (3)
Base: Sydney, NSW
Qualified: 2nd in East
Last year: 1st

This year Wildcard have adopted a rather straight-forward method of dividing their squad - those going to World Clubs, and those not. If Eastern Regionals is a good indicator (and it usually is), Clubs are definitely stronger than Spades, so there is no need to try and separate them from each other a la Colony. Rather, we can look at history. Eight players (Rosalie Ashe, Ju Birchall, Bec Carman, Tara Carraro, Sarah Crossie, Megan Gamble, Fi McDonald and Loren Viswalingam) on the Clubs list were part of the winning squad from last year. Throw in, among others, two of the U23 team (Nicky Cotton and Silin Garfield) and you have a pretty damn good core squad. I think it's between Clubs and STBAU for top spot in this pool.

The gun: Sarah Crossie. Veteran of many Nationals under the Wildcard name, and anchored the 2006 WUCC tilt.
The workhorse: Fiona McDonald. Similar style player to Michelle Phillips, but has a stronger D game than O. Will match up on key opposition players.
The X-factor: Silin Garfield. Strode on to the Australian scene like she owned the place around 12 months ago. Now wearing the green and gold in Florence later this year.

Prediction: 3rd




SAND DUNES (6)
Base: Sydney, NSW
Qualified: 3rd in East
Last year: -

2007 we had Manly (aka no No NO), 2008 we had Hills Angels and 2009 we had...well, neither. But in 2010 we have an amalgamation of an area with a strong ultimate history, and a fast developing territory. Throw in some Brisbane reps and some Wildcard alums and it's looking more like the ultimate team equivalent of Voltron. At Eastern Regionals they surprised no one and took 3rd place and look to carry that momentum into Nationals. Most of the play will be generated from the work of Nikki Shires, Fiona McCrae, Natalie Roxburgh and Yvonne Shepherd so we can expect some smart, free flowing offence. Plenty of assistance on O will come from Peta McNaughton and Anna Haynes, with the Hills contingent running D. I have them tipped to take 3rd spot in this pool, but they will be under fire from Wildcard Spades and Black Betty.

The gun: Nikki Shires. Experience in all levels ranging from Worlds to stacked Stampede teams.
The workhorse: Liesl Cornell. Two years ago was new to the sport. Now is on the U23 women's team. Should be looking to test herself here.
The X-factor: Fiona McCrae. Been involved with many Wildcard tilts, so should know how to play against them.

Prediction: 4th




BLACK BETTY (7)
Base: Brisbane, QLD
Qualified: 1st in North
Last year: -

Fun fact: The last time a Brisbane women's team was in the top 6 at Nationals was in 2005. Since then, Sultry have languished around the 8-10 bracket, not quite able to break into the pre-semis. Since last year, the Sultry name has been put out to pasture and the Queensland women's movement has been reborn as Black Betty. They made an impressive debut at BCI, finishing 3rd ahead of Honey and took care of business in Northern Regionals. But how far can they go at Nats? The cynic in me tells me that Black Betty's lack of real competition in the north means that they haven't pushed themselves as far as they can go and they could be caught off guard on Day 1. Their first game against Terra will set the tone for the tournament. Lose, and they potentially carry a 1-2 record into games against STBAU, Sand Dunes and Wildcard Spades. A win though will give them a big confidence boost on Day 2 and keep them in contention for a pre-semi berth.

The gun: Kirsten Nott. Experienced Brisbane Premier League and Australian rep who will prey upon weaker opponents.
The workhorse: Maylin Chuah. Has spent most of her career at the top level, with several Nats and Mixed Nats appearances to her name.
The X-factor: Simone Ryan. Can negate a lot of deep attacks with her height. Will keep offence honest in windy conditions.

Prediction: 10th




HONEY DS (10)
Base: Melbourne, VIC
Qualified: 4th in South
Last year: 11th

As the name suggests, this team is a handheld version of Honey. Not really. They're Honey's "Development Squad" - girls who have been hand-picked from uni and league teams to train and play together. Which, on the face of it, is a B-team. Honey are a very tight-knit club and if anything, these girls are going to enjoy themselves for the whole tournament and I wouldn't be surprised if they took away the spirit award. While only three of this year's team fronted up in Perth, they still have some experienced hands in Nicky Smith, Nicky Taylor, Amy Meehan and Liz Blink. Will struggle to be competitive against the top half of teams but should give Terra, Black Betty and Spades a bit of a run.

The gun: Nicky Smith. She's the voice you'll hear the most.
The workhorse: Alysia Roberts. Has played a fair bit at the top level and her experience should benefit this team.
The X-factor: Jenelle Morton. Fast receiver who isn't afraid of a contest. Playing her first Nationals but could easily have played two years ago.

Prediction: 13th




WILDCARD SPADES (11)
Base: Sydney, NSW
Qualified: 5th in East
Last year: -

Boasting probably the most clever team name at this Nationals, Spades have 7 of last year's champion team backing up for another tilt. Outside this starting line Spades are taking a relatively inexperienced team to Adelaide. When you look at this from a development perspective, next year Wildcard will have close to 40 players who have a Nationals campaign under their belt. It is this kind of forward planning that will see them be a powerhouse for years to come. So what about this year? Since their 5th place at Eastern Regionals, Keah Molomby and Kylie O'Brien have been added to the roster, which easily gives them another 3 or 4 points per game. How Spades start each game will do a lot for the confidence of the younger players - a quick early lead will settle them into a rhythm, but being behind after 6 or 7 points will see the workload fall on the shoulders of the senior players. A tough day 1 (vs STBAU and Sand Dunes) but they should bounce back well on Day 2.

The gun: Keah Molomby. No fear on the field and her team mates will feed off her intensity.
The workhorse: Rach Brennan. Will steady the ship on O and play smart D. Showed at AUG with UTS that she can lead a charge if the team is down.
The X-factor: Kylie O'Brien or Andrea Wang - take your pick.

Prediction: 6th




SOUTHERN TERRA (13)
Base: Australian Junior Team
Qualified: AFDA allocated
Last year: -

While I've seen them at training camps a couple of times this year, I'm yet to see Terra play under proper match conditions. Five of the 2008 silver-medal winning team (Emily Gibbs, Chloe McDonald, Sophie Murdoch, Cat Phillips and Nicky Sutton) are back for another World Juniors campaign and will be the lynch-pin of this team, particularly on O. It was their zone D that won the now famous semi final at Worlds last time around, and a fast and fit team has been selected that will implement that at crunch times again. One area that they could potentially be vulnerable in is a deep game. They don't have height for straight up aerial contests, and their inexperience at a National level could see them getting out-positioned. Expect to see them fight their one-on-ones on in cuts. Unfortunately I think there will be too many unrecoverable mistakes on offence to win games in Adelaide, but hopefully they will be able to go away, learn from those mistakes and defend their 2nd place finish in Heilbronn.

The gun: Cat Phillips. Stats, stats and more stats. Double if they're from hammers.
The workhorse: Chloe McDonald and Sophie Murdoch. The Castlemaine girls don't get intimidated and will play aggressive D.
The X-factor: Clare Hollebone. Matt Hill brought her along after seeing her at a couple of beginners clinics and she's straight into the team. Looking forward to seeing what he sees.

Prediction: 12th




Well that's it for this year's Nationals predictions, and for Ballarat Ultimate. It's been a great run here at Blogspot, but as of tomorrow I'll be at a new home on the internet and keeping up the usual brand of idle speculation, unwarranted potshots and blissful ignorance that you've come to know and love over the years.

2010 Nationals Preview - Part 3

Surprise! You get two posts today. It certainly helps that I wrote this one before I had written the other two, but for reasons no longer known to me I held it off until today. In Part 3 we look at the other half of the open draw - Pools C and D. More commonly known as the pools where two teams get punished on Day 1.



Pool C

HEADS OF STATE (1)
Base: Melbourne, VIC
Qualified: 1st in South
Last year: 3rd

For the second time in their history Heads of State carry the number 1 seed into Nationals. After an impressive 3rd place last year, they are chomping at the bit to go one step further and make their first final and continue their run towards World Clubs. They take a relatively unchanged lineup into this year - imports Eric Reynolds and Michael Stout have gone home and Tarrant Meehan is taking time off. They have been replaced by Kendall Thorn (Sublime), Jarrod Cowan (Monash Uni) and Chris "Toffa" Kaliviotis (Happy Pig 2009), and prodigal son Ashley Button returning. As always, the question that hangs over HoS is their mental game - can they win the tight games and keep their cool when the pressure is on? In my opinion I don't think this is their year, as they will most likely peak for World Clubs.

The gun: Jake Angelovich. Has had a phenominal 12 months. When he flips the switch he is virtually unstoppable.
The workhorse: Rueben Berg. A level-headed and smart player who also matches the athleticism and intensity of his team mates.
The X-factor: Mark Isherwood. The barometer of the team's mental state. If he loses his shit, the rest of the squad follow shortly.

Prediction: 5th




COLONY: PLUNDER (4)
Base: Sydney, NSW
Qualified: 2nd in East
Last year: -

"Hey, so if we take Thong who finished 2nd in Perth, and Fakulti who finished 6th and combine them, they'll come, like, 8th in Prague, right?" Well, no, but Colony - the result of the Sydney Elite Men project - are definitely going to make themselves known on an international stage in July. But until then, were are left with the traditional Sydney split - two even teams. And they're pretty damn even too. It's almost as if they went with the training scrimmage selection process of "stand next to someone the same size as you. Right, you're light and you're dark." But what matters on day 1 is who will win out of Heads of State and Colony: Plunder, because that is going to dictate who has a relatively easier run to the final. On paper, I think HoS might have the initial match-up but Colony will shine on day 2 onwards.

The gun: Ant Dowle. Can play anywhere, can match up on anyone. The man has it all.
The workhorse: Pete Blakeley. Everyone around him seems to move in slow motion.
The X-factor: Jonathan Potts. Some say he's past his best, and it's his first Nats since 2006 - can he still go out and win games?

Prediction: 3rd




FAKULTI (13)
Base: Sydney, NSW
Qualified: 6th in East
Last year: 7th/9th

Despite Colony plundering (top shelf punnery right there) most of Fakulti's top tier talent, the Sydneysiders have still managed to put together a relatively formidable lineup. With a decent mix of Fak veterans and enthusiastic newbies they should be able to challenge the mid-table, but I don't see them factoring in the top half of the draw come Monday. The disc skills among the handler set should be pretty consistent, but without a dominant receiver they will need to rely on a lot of run through the midfield, which the top level teams will be able to contain. Similar story D wise - they will need to work hard rather than rely on opportunity to get turns. I'm tipping them to break seed, but not by much.

The gun: Rhys Hearne. Has been with Fakulti for longer than most and will be taking the Captain Courageous role.
The workhorse: Alex Wong. Will provide a lot of the midfield run mentioned earlier.
The X-factor: Nathan Wong. Had a stellar 2009 with Fakulti and Macquarie Uni. Was unlucky to miss the U23s team. Very flashy player that will attract opposition attention.

Prediction: 12th




AUSSIE THUNDER (16)
Base: Australian Junior Team
Qualified: AFDA allocated
Last year: -

Last weekend I had the honour of being a Thunder punching bag in a practice game in Geelong. I had a shocker - more turnovers than completions and got totally bitched by several of the lads. But that aside, Thunder didn't exactly have a top performance either. To be fair they're still in the gelling stage of their elite development and know what improvement is needed. By the end of the game, they were playing like the team I expected to face. One thing I noted was a virtual absence of endzone gumbys - the 6 footers can be counted on one hand. They more than make up for this in pace and fitness and they are more than capable of an upset. Day one of the tournament will see them shaking the nerves off against the big teams, and on paper they should account for Fakulti. Sunday onwards will be their real test before Worlds. They will make mistakes but better to do it in Adelaide than Heilbronn.

The gun: Lochie Wise. Already has a couple of Nationals under his belt and going toe-to-toe with the country's best won't intimidate him.
The workhorses: Abraham and Isaac Stone. I was never sure which one I was looking at, but they both ramp up the intensity on D but know how to reel it in when playing O.
The X-factor: Marc Delgallo. Already has massive wraps as a receiver and willing to put the body on the line to get blocks.

Prediction: 11th





Pool D

COLONY: PILLAGE (2)
Base: Sydney, NSW
Qualified: 1st in East
Last year: -

And so here is the other half of the Colony brigade. I thought I'd be a genius and measure the difference between these two sides by how many of their contingent are actually on their World Clubs team. Pillage has 11 of them and Plunder has 10, so clearly Pillage are the better team. They also have the upper hand in training matches so it makes sense that I tip them to overcome their other half at the show. However that's not the point of note here in this pool. The Colony versus Chilly game at 5:00pm on Day 1 is likely to be the preview of the final. Whoever wins this game gets a sweet run through to Tuesday, so both will be rather hungry for early bragging rights. Pillage's key strength will be their defence and their ability to capitalise on any mistakes. Learn their names so you can heckle them in the final.

The gun: Pete Gardner. There isn't much the Garden Hose can't do on an ultimate field.
The workhorse: Abra Garfield. Must have the lung capacity of a horse, given he can sprint and scream simultaneously for six consecutive hours.
The X-factor: Tom Flanagan. Hasn't been to Nats since 2007, but still belongs there. Crazy throwing ability. By which I mean "crazy throwing" ability, not crazy "throwing ability".

Prediction: 2nd




CHILLY (3)
Base: Melbourne, VIC
Qualified: 2nd in South
Last year: 1st

The club that everyone loves to hate is gunning for their 5th national title, which would surpass the record of Pembroke High School in the late 70s and early 80s. However Chilly's efforts are probably more notable given that Nationals back in those days probably had two teams in bare feet. Chilly have their usual mix of stalwarts and fresh-faced rookies. Chilly's preparation always sees them reach their peak in the final two days, so expect a close loss in the early days, and a small rotation on Day 4. Their best performance usually comes in the final, so don't write them off early if Colony get up on Day 1.

The gun: Tom Rogacki. Has the ability to grab a game by the balls and make it his bitch.
The workhorse: Troy Booth. One of the fastest players in the game, and can keep up the pace for four days.
The X-factor: Shane Vuletich. The Franchise was a key part of their win in the final last year, and is being brought over for the same role. Fires when it counts.

Prediction: 1st




UMLAUT (14)
Base: Sydney, NSW
Qualified: 7th in East
Last year: 14th

Thanks to a wildcard, Umlaut get to have a second crack at Nationals. Last year in Perth they managed to topple a few opponents on the first two days but ended up in last spot. This year I believe that the Nationals field is of a much higher quality than last year, so will Umlaut be better in 2010? This year's lineup looks remarkably different, with a bigger squad for starters and more experience than last year's team. I don't see Umlaut being able to stand up to the top teams, but may be able to upset one of the mid seeds in the second phase of the drawer. That will be their best hope of beating their seed.

The gun: Wally Crocker. Intelligent player who will control a lot of the offence.
The workhorse: Dave Hayes. Will get plenty of under cuts and keeps the disc moving.
The X-factor: Michael Connolly. The Kiwi import should attract a bit of opposition attention.

Prediction: 14th




BAD APPLES (15)
Base: Hobart, TAS
Qualified: 5th in South
Last year: -

With their backs to the wall in the game-to-go at Southern Regionals, Bad Apples managed to win themselves the first open Nationals berth for a Tasmanian team in 3 years. After a few days of speculation following the tournament of whether they would have the numbers to make it to Adelaide, they confirmed their attendance with a few players coming out of the woodwork to go to the big dance. Two players they will sorely miss from the Southerns team are Mike Dunne and Tim Stoneman, who got most of their blocks and goals. Bad Apples' chances of success don't hang purely on Mike Baker's ability, but whether he gets the support he'll need.

The gun: Mike Baker. Holder of the Australian record for most tournament MVP awards ever.
The workhorse: Felix Kennedy. Fast defensive minded player who thrives in the open game.
The X-factor: Russell Nassim and Ahilen "G" Gankadharan. Two crossovers from Chilly B who work well together in the midfield, but will probably play further downfield in Adelaide.

Prediction: 16th

2010 Nationals Preview - Part 2

Just over a week away from the opening game. For those who won't be in Adelaide, I'll be covering Monday and Tuesday games on Twitter. Today we look at the first half of the women's draw. Since the division isn't fully booked out, the 13 teams will play in two pools, with the top place being rewarded with a free pass to the semi finals. Given the standard of the teams involved, I'd see the key games being Southside vs Honey (3:00pm on Sunday), STBAU vs Wildcard Clubs (same time), and even Sand Dunes vs Wildcard Clubs (9:00am Sunday) and STBAU (11:00am Saturday). But before I go predicting winners, let's look at the teams.



Pool K

SOUTHSIDE (1)
Base: Sydney, NSW
Qualified: 1st in East
Last year: -

After an absence from Nats last year, the sky blue (light blue, pale blue, baby blue? Whatever) jerseys are back in action this season and stamped their authority all over the dominant East region in March. Southside's hiatus has done nothing to slow them down and they enter the tournament as near-favourites, with cross-town rivals Wildcard and pesky Victorians Sporting Team BAU being their main rivals. So what to expect from Southside? Expect a long game, which is only effectively used by the top teams at Australian Nationals, so against the mid to lower level teams there will be aggressive D followed by run and gun O. Southside will aim to win games to 15 early and often.

The gun: Sarah Wentworth. Chosen in the interest of keeping this section short.
The workhorse: Carlie Ryan. Again, most of the squad could go here. They all work well together.
The X-factor: Lisi Moore. Prior to Regionals, Moore hadn't lined up for Southside since 2006 World Clubs in Perth. Will be interesting to see if she brings a new style to the team.

Prediction: 1st




HONEY (4)
Base: Melbourne, VIC
Qualified: 2nd in South
Last year: 4th

How long does it take to build a club from scratch into a national champion? Five years? Six? Longer? Look at it this way - in 2006 Honey took 2 teams to Nationals and finished 11th and 15th. Last year their A team finished 4th, and with WUCC looming they are looking to go one step further and make the final. Trouble is, Sporting Team BAU have been in their way of winning Southern Regionals, and Wildcard have been an obstacle at the national level. Throw Southside into the mix this year and things aren't looking good based on history. So what is different this time around? Only 5 of the 2006 team remain (Jo Creswell, Mel Gangemi, Cath Matthews, Michelle Rogers and Marcy van Blaricum) however they are missing key receiver Lauren Brown from their 2009 tilt so they may reel their long game in slightly.

The gun: Cath Matthews. Plays aggressive O and will be looking for power position a lot.
The workhorse: Jo Creswell. I figure seeing three months of "doing more hill sprints" status updates on Facebook is leading to some sort of payoff.
The X-factor: Kerry Justus. Will be the first look on deep shots in the absence of Lauren Brown. Has height and can take a high grab.

Prediction: 5th




KAOS (5)
Base: Perth, WA
Qualified: 1st in West
Last year: 5th

After arriving on the scene in stylish fashion last year, now it is time for Kaos to prove they belong in the top half of the draw. Without the home bed advantage and a much stronger field this time around, the WA girls will have a much harder time making the top 5. Unfortunately I don't think this crop can do it. That being said, 2009 was not a fluke. This time around without Charlotte De Latte, Lou Delane, Esther Barter and Simone Ryan leaves them without the experience that is needed in April. Couple that with the Firetails, Barramundis and as-yet-unnamed-u23s players that many other teams will boast and Kaos lack, I Kaos will be mid-table at best.

The gun: Danya Meakins. Has been a standout for UWA at Uni Games for the past few years. Expect her to be on the end of a few hucks.
The workhorse: Sally Ray. Fulfilling the captain role and will lead by example on the field.
The X-factor: Sarah McKerracher. Spent some time playing in the eastern states in 2008 so should know a few of the tricks others will get up to.

Prediction: 11th




SUGAR MAG-ROLL-IAS (8)
Base: Newcastle, NSW
Qualified: 4th in East
Last year: 3rd

Well last year I horribly underestimated the Newcastle ladies so this year I will paint them with a more optimistic brush. The Sugar Mags have a smaller squad (14) than most teams, but the sheer pace and fitness of their squad won't make this a relevant factor if we ignore the possibility of injuries. However the Mags have two big losses - Lisi Moore (to Southside) and World Games rep Katie Bradstock (probably to some other sport). The gains of Hope Watson and Sarah Jones will give the Kings some handy assistance on O, but the team could be exposed deep on D against the likes of Southside, Wildcard and STBAU. Should beat their seed, but top 4 might be just out of their reach.

The gun: Katie King and Leanne King. There isn't much these two haven't seen on an ultimate field.
The workhorse: Ellie Sparke and Liz Dodd. Have played side-by-side since way back when. Work incredibly well together as handlers or mids.
The X-factor: Tegan Sneddon. Instead of looking at the loss of Bradstock's pace, teams should be wary of Sneddon's.

Prediction: 7th




INDIES (9)
Base: Adelaide, SA
Qualified: 4th in South
Last year: 10th

Fun fact: The best performance by an Adelaide women's team at Nationals is 7th in 2005, however the more astute (and cynical) readers will remember that there were only 8 women's teams at that Nationals. Their performances under the Indies banner aren't that remarkable (2007 - 13th of 14, 2008 - 12th of 14, 2009 - 10th of 11) but I sense a change of fortune for the Ade-ladies in 2010. You see in the last 12-18 months there has been a concentrated effort on elite development in SA, with development camps, single gender leagues, WUCC tilts, AUG medals and the like. There were early rewards for the men last year with their 8th place finish, so can Indies expect similar payoffs this year? My tip is that with Nic Footer and Anna Rogacki on board, they will improve, but not extraordinarily.

The gun: Anna Rogacki. The elite player Indies have needed.
The workhorse: Karen Palmer and Alison Clarke. With Rogacki and Footer to anchor the offence, these two are freed up a bit and can run riot.
The X-factor: Lara Dyus. I am yet to see her play, but U23 selection warrants some attention.

Prediction: 8th




FACTORY GIRLS (12)
Base: Canberra, ACT
Qualified: 6th in East
Last year: 7th

Canberra women's teams are perennial mid-tablers. Not since the runners-up glory they enjoyed in 2003 have they finished outside the 4th-7th bracket. This year fACTory Girls carry in a squad of 14 and the number 12 seed. Having a look at the rest of the pool, I don't see this team overcoming the three teams required to have a crack at the pre-semis. Interesting (and possibly masculinity-threatening) to note is the age of this squad - the youngest is Erin Wallis at 24 years old. Many of their battles could become level-headed experience versus youthful exuberance. I think fACTory Girls could thrive in bleak weather conditions, but on perfect days they may be outgunned.

The gun: Vickie Saye. If you're going to tag anyone, you'll be tagging her.
The workhorse: Mica Hartley. Provided a lot of ANU's run through the middle at AUG last year, and I imagine she'll play a similar role here.
The X-factor: Erin Wallis. A solid anchor on O who will initiate a lot of play. Very handy on D as well.

Prediction: 9th

2010 Nationals Preview - Part 1

Ok, so my new site probably ain't gonna get a big fancy launch until after Nationals, so I thought I'd dust off and load up the old Ballarat Ultimate Commodore 64 to crunch some hard data and predict what is going to happen at this year's Australian Ultimate Championships. It all kicks (or pulls) off on Saturday April 24th in glorious Adelaide. This year nearly all of the best players in the country have made themselves available for the tournament, so it is sure to be one the highest quality Nationals seen in quite some time.

First off, we look at two pools in the Open Division - E and F.


Pool E

FIRESTORM (5)
Base: Brisbane, QLD
Qualified: 1st in North
Last year: 5th

Once again, Firestorm have to battle their way out of a cusp pool in order to have a crack at a semi finals berth. And Pool E is, if you will excuse the cliche, the POOL OF DEATH. Any of the four teams are capable of going through to the power pools, so expect some very close, hard fought matches on Day 1. With a slightly smaller roster than the other teams, Firestorm's best bet is to close out their second game against Eastern Greys early while Karma battle Fyshwick and hope that they are fresher going into the showcase game. If they can avenge their loss to Karma in the pool stages last year (they were also Mike Neild-less for that game) they should be able to fire in the power pools.

The gun: John McNaughton. Best lefty forehand in the country. Firestorm's key D man.
The workhorse: Adam Beu. While Liam Gillions is off being married, Jangles will be doing a lot of the receiving work.
The X-factor: Rob Trachter. Canadian import who impressed at BCI.

Prediction: 6th




KARMA (8)
Base: Adelaide, SA
Qualified: 3rd in South
Last year: 8th

Let's have a look at the last few Nationals and where the home team has finished compared to the previous year.

• 2009 - Perth. Sublime finished 6th, 8th the year before
• 2008 - Coffs Harbour. Doesn't count, no one's home town
  
• 2007 - Melbourne. Chilly won. Same as the year before
• 2006 - Sydney. One of the Fakultis came 2nd again, but the other went from 11th to 5th.

So as you can clearly see, science is on the side of the home team. There is no such thing as a home ground advantage in ultimate, but there is such thing as a home bed advantage (you play better if you sleep in your own bed the night before) so one would expect Karma to improve. With Huy Vu back on board, Karma should shake up some of the tournament favourites in the power pools. In any other year I'd see this lineup make the pre-semis however with the strength of this year's field they may have to settle with their seed.

The gun: Joel Pillar. Everyone knows him. I shouldn't need to explain.
The workhorse: Alec Deslandes. Can play O or D as required and gives Pillar an option other than Brett Middleton. Will rack up the D stats as well.
The X-factor: Tom Tullet. Already a club whore at age 19 (this is his 4th), Cupcake will work well with Vu, sending Pillar downfield.

Prediction: 8th

FYSHWICK UNITED (9)
Base: Canberra, ACT
Qualified: 4th in East
Last year: 2nd

After two runners-up placings two years in a row, Fyshwick will be hungrier than ever to bring the shield back to the nation's capital. On paper, FU can do no wrong. We know they have the list to win Nationals, but on the day they can't seem to be able to find the formula. But given their placing at Easterns with a relatively full strength team, has their chance for a title passed? If the Mighty Ducks movies have taught us anything, it is that you should never count out an underdog. But can you really give a team that boasts the likes of Jonno Holmes, Matt Dowle and Warwick Shepherd an "underdog" tag? Fyshwick should safely negotiate their way out of this pool and their tournament will begin on Day 2.

The gun: Jonno Holmes. The man is a freak. Expect to see him marked by the opposition's number one defender.
The workhorse: Max Wheeler. With the tall timber attracting a lot of attention, Wheeler will do a lot of damage on O.
The X-factor: Andrew Jackson. Made everyone stand up and pay attention in the final last year. Can he replicate that performance?

Prediction: 4th




EASTERN GREYS (12)
Base: WUCC Masters Team
Qualified: 5th in East
Last year: -

Usually there is a token team that fulfill the "wily veterans" quota of an ultimate tournament, but rarely do they actually boast themselves to be a masters team. With the WUCC tilt in full swing, the Greys will be looking to take some of the younger teams down a peg or two in what I assume will be some sort of ploy to steal their energy stocks. A telling factor in Greys games will be the weather - expect these guys to thrive in shit conditions, and given the fields' proximity to the beach an afternoon wind is almost a given. And if you'll allow me to consider a stereotype, expect a lot of shouty foul discussions as well.

The gun: Nathan Chan. Southside stalwart back when they existed, and a veteran (lol) of the Greys' last WUCC tilt.
The workhorse: Geoff Doty. Has never claimed he still has it, but he'll still try and do everything.
The X-factor: Piers Truter. Has embraced his masters-ness, but still played AUG last year. Go figure. I really hope a Thunder vs Greys match happens.

Prediction: 10th





Pool F

SUBLIME (6)
Base: Perth, WA
Qualified: 1st in West
Last year: 6th

It has been ten years since a Western Australian team finished higher than 6th at Nationals. The 5th/6th playoff seems to have been a bit of a hoodoo for Sublime, having lost that game four times (2004, 2005, 2007 & 2009). Will 2010 finally be the year they break through to the top 5? How do I put this gently? Erm...no. A home state Nationals last year afforded Sublime the best team they could field. This year they have lost Jason Carr, Paul Denyer, Tom Tulett, Kendall Thorn and Lochie Wise to other teams, plus Tim Delane, Max Daube, George Wong and Hamish Pope aren't coming for reasons unknown. Expect Sublime to slide down a bit, but not by much.

The gun: John Damiani. The "get the disc to JD" offensive structure has worked for quite some time.
The workhorse: Glen Fowles. Another player who had a great 2009, with Beach Worlds and U23s now on his resume.
The X-factor: Andrew Craig. Naans sightings at major tournaments have been few and far between lately. Let's see if the big man can still fly.

Prediction: 9th




I-BEAM (7)
Base: Newcastle, NSW
Qualified: 3rd in East
Last year: 4th

Every year Newcastle seem to stay shy of online trash talk and speculation in the run to Nationals, and yet they always seem to figure among the top few. Very few changes have been made to the team that came 4th last year - most notable is the loss of Gav Moore. I-Beam have always been a team that operate as a collective rather than a bunch of dudes who studied a playbook. Just looking at their warm-ups in Perth in 2009 - mini scrimmages all the time - showed that there is not much left for them to learn about ultimate. They just need to take advantage of any vulnerabilities they find in opposing teams and perform on the day. Despite rolling FU at Easterns, I don't see them being a better team than FU in Adelaide.

The gun: Tim Lavis. Equally adept as a handler and a receiver. Will be filling in gaps everywhere.
The workhorse: Chris Hill. Since 2007 has steadily progressed from a rookie with assloads of raw talent, to an elite ultimate player.
The X-factor: Jon Tatham. If Tats is in form, I-Beam is in form.

Prediction: 7th




ULTIMATE EVOLUTION (10)
Base: Adelaide, SA
Qualified: 4th in South
Last year: -

Thanks to the 5th qualification spot in the South, which they didn't even need, Evolution have broken through the Chilly-HoS-Karma-Chilly glass ceiling to line up for their first Nationals since 2006. However don't expect this team to be full of Nats virgins - most of them have seen action with Karma at some point in their careers. For the last few years Evolution has been viewed as easybeats at Regionals but so far their season has been their best. They notched up a win over Karma at Golden City Classic and nearly took down HoS as well. Evolution prefer a long game, with Denis Shine and David Sanderson aiming for tall receivers Kristian Pash, Morgan Llewellyn and Adam Dowley in the endzone. Expect some D antics from Sean Lace as well.

The gun: Denis Shine. I was tempted to say their "team game" is their best, but this isn't under 10s footy. Shine controls a lot of the offence.
The workhorse: David Sanderson. Will be the primary under cut most of the time, looking to hit receivers early.
The X-factor: Sean Lace. Wildly inconsistent, but if he gets a few D blocks early in a game, he will be a nuisance for opponents.

Prediction: 13th




GENGHIS (11)
Base: South East QLD/Northern NSW
Qualified: 2nd in North
Last year: -

Hmmm, I don't remember seeing this team registered for Northern Regionals. Non-qualifying bitterness aside, the Slamtown/Barbarians hybrid is basically a who's who of Queensland and Byron Bay ultimate who doesn't play for Firestorm. Despite the success of the Brisbane Premier League, Queensland seem to lack the depth at elite level that New South Wales and Victoria boast, so a 2nd North team that isn't Firestorm historically hasn't done well at Nats. In fact we have to go back to 2006 for the last time we saw two North teams in the top 10 (Dojo Mojo and Moreton Bay Buggers). Also having a small squad doesn't help - they're likely to run out of legs by the end of Day 3.

The gun: Andrew Badman. Also has the best surname in ultimate.
The workhorse: Jordan Stone. Otherwise referred to as "Hey let's make the kid do all the running."
The X-factor: Jason de Rooy. Because I know he'll read this.

Prediction: 15th




Pool K (women's) coming up tomorrow...

Where Is He Now?

As the fat bloke from Staind once said, it's been a while. Couple of reasons for this - the first being that my employer has decided I'm much to valuable to ever not be at work, and the second being a new project in the pipeline that will spell the end of Ballarat Ultimate in it's current form.

So yeah, this could be considered a hiatus from thinly-veiled heckling and idle speculation, but there is something new on the way. Hopefully before Nationals.

Until then, I'll try and find 20 spare minutes to write up the Ballarat Ultimate Awards. After that, stay tuned.

Tickets selling fast

It was bound to happen as our sport grew, but teams are going to miss out on qualifying for the Australian Ultimate Championships this season. One or two might have missed out in 2008, and no one who could afford the trip missed out in 2009, but in 2010 I feel we're finally going to have teams in both divisions whose season will be over in mid-March.

The AFDA punched the numbers into the trusty old Amiga500 at their headquarters and released their regional allocations for this season during the week.

Open
North - 1
South - 5
East - 4
West - 2
NZ - 1

Women
North - 1
South - 4
East - 4
West - 2
NZ - 2


In addition to these allocations, both divisions will have the national junior teams competing by way of the AFDA allocated spot, plus there are two wildcards up for grabs based on how many players (not teams) take part at Regionals.

So, in my ever so humble opinion, I think the following teams are relatively safe...

Open
North - Firestorm
South - Chilly, Heads of State, Karma, Sweet Chilly
East - Sydney Elite, Fyshwick United, I-Beam
West - Sublime
NZ - Auckland Open?

Women
North - Black Betty
South - Sporting Team BAU, Honey, Bush, Indies
East - Sydney Womens, Sugar Mags, Factory Girls
West - Primal, Kaos
NZ - Raging Wahine


This all depends on a few things. Firstly, that the NZ choose to come. NZ teams are often found at Nationals in years ending with an even digit as part of their Worlds preparation. Auckland Open are attending the BC Invitational this year, so seeing them make a second trip over the Tasman seems unlikely. Nationals is a very happy hunting ground for Raging Wahine so it's really a matter of personal choice as to whether they come across. I don't think a 2nd NZ women's team is likely to come.

Also in consideration is the Perth teams. I think Sublime, Primal and Kaos will make the trip, but the 2nd West spot in Open is up in the air. A second Sublime team is not out of the question, and they will have to beat out Fear and Happy Pig for that spot, remembering that if a Regionals doesn't happen then they lose the second spot.

Now the cleverer folk among you will notice I have not quite filled all the spots in my "definitely should be there" list. And that's because the final spot in some of those regions is up for grabs between a few teams.

Open South - The last few years have seen the regular four teams from the South - Chilly, Sweet Chilly, Karma and Heads of State. However this year there is a 5th spot allocated because of last year's performance by the South teams. Sweet Chilly's last day win over Happy Pig in 2009 gave the South this spot. I think the usual four teams will be safe, but the 5th spot is going to be a pretty fierce battle between Heads of State B, Tassie Tiggers and Evolution. Karma B and a rumoured 3rd Chilly team may have a case but will probably fall short. GFUC will have most of their players taken by the Thunder team. Given the importance of the game now, I hope the organisers of Southern Regionals make the game-to-go the "final".

Women's East - There's all kinds of rumours coming out of this region. The Sydney Womens team listed for WUCC qualification is pretty much Wildcard plus friends so that team is a given. Sugar Magnolias and fACTory Girls should also be there. But the 4th team? If rumours are to be believed, there could be Wildcard, Southside and Manly teams all going for this spot. Plus there's Hills Angels to be considered. This is very much a "wait and see" spot.

Open East - Sydney Elite should be safe. Fyshwick United should be safe. I-Beam should be safe. In fact, these three teams should be in the top few at Nationals, let alone Regionals. But what of the 4th spot? Fakulti, although somewhat depleted, will be on the scene, but will they be one team or two? With most of their top players on the SE list, a X/X split would be very risky and may result in the first Fak-less Nationals since the clubs inception. Umlaut, Hills and some sort of Manly concoction will be snapping at Fakulti's heels for this spot.


What will certainly make things even more interesting are the wildcard spots. With only 1 allocation in each division, North are in prime position to take a wildcard in both divisions if they have more than 50-odd players at Regionals. East are also likely for a spot, given they have around the same number of Open players as the South, but one less allocated spot. The women will also pick up another spot, since they have always had the largest regionals.

So my early predictions say that in Open, North will get a wildcard and Slamtown will make their Nationals debut, and East will get the second with Hills also debuting. In the Women's, East will get one, but who actually goes is another story. I'll go out on a limb and say Hills Angels (a Southside/Manly conglomerate taking the original 4th spot. Hey, it could happen). South may catch a lucky break for the second wildcard, giving Honey Bee another chance.

Coming soon - 2009 Ballarat Ultimate Awards

So in the next few days I'll be weighing up nominations against non-existent criteria and determining the winners of the Ballarat Ultimate Awards, where the winners get the prestige of being mentioned on this blog. Categories carrying over from last year are...

Game Of The Year (2008 winner - Australia vs Colombia, WUGC Junior Women's Semi Final)
WTF Award (2008 winner - Barefoot at 2008 Nationals)
Tournament Of The Year (2008 winner - Australian Uni Games)
Heckle Of The Year (2008 winner - Frank Simmons)

And this year I'm ripping of some more AFDA Awards and adding to the list...

Catch Of The Year
Breakout Star Of The Year
Party Of The Year
Team Name Of The Year

Now accepting nominations/suggestions via the comments...

2009 Ballarat Ultimate National Draft - Men's Division

As I watched the AFL National Draft online to see who my beloved Bombers have picked up, I felt it appropriate to complete the men's side of the Ballarat Ultimate National Draft. The big observation to make amongst this is similar to the women's side, the social circles and inevitable recruiting that happens among the Sydney based clubs. Fakulti take up a lot of the uni club products (hence the name I suppose), while Hills attract the locals and league recruits. However this year the World Clubs team with a well-thought out working title of "Sydney" have taken up everyone who is any good, leaving Fakulti, Hills and Umlaut to fend for themselves. We're still likely to see some form of these clubs at Easterns this year, but whether all of them will make Nationals is another thing. So let's get underway with pick #1.



Pick #1 - Umlaut

And straight away I'm stuck. Umlaut at Nationals were mostly old hands at the sport who had the cash for Perth flights taking advantage of the lack of Barefoot/Thong/Feral/whatever and Manly sides who had graced the lineup in recent years. However with the birth of the WUCC-bound Sydney team, Umlaut may struggle to qualify this year, with Hills and a second Fakulti team likely to be their main competition for the 5th East spot. With Fakulti likely to be plundering the ever-growing UTS club for fresh blood, Umlaut need to make moves elsewhere. The Clay brothers can scour the Wollongong district, but I think Umlaut need to take a serious look at UNSW before Fak do. Hence the first "pick" who is the top prospect at UNSW.
Pick #1 - David Lim (UNSW)



Pick #2 - Chilly

So last year there were some questions over why Chilly gets two picks, one high and one low. Here at Ballarat Ultimate we like to encourage elite development, and reward clubs who have two teams at any tournament, let alone Nationals. Like Heads of State, Chilly have been sniffing around the GFUC club for a while in order to attract some young talent, however the Thunder rule of this draft has eliminated most of their prospects. Both Victorian clubs will be eyeing off Pete Nixon to see if they can draw him away from GFUC for a season, to the point where he could probably strike up a deal to play with GFUC at Regionals before going to Adelaide with another club. However there are two other players in the Victorian scene that Chilly should make some serious moves towards. I flipped a coin for this pick, with the other one going at pcik #12.
Pick #2 - Shaun Johnson (Deakin Uni)



Pick #3 - Sublime

And now we have our second club with two picks. Sublime put in a good show on home turf this year, and will be looking to do the same or improve in 2010. A number of Sublime players spent the spring spreading their wings and playing with other teams throughout Australia and Asia, and will come back to pre-season with hunger for success. And given the number of Perth players that tasted Nationals action in 2009, the competition to make the team will be fierce. Realistically, Sublime could send two teams to Adelaide again if the regional allocation formula swings their way. Looking at the crop of UWA players at Gold Coast this year, there were two who stood out and should comfortably adapt to the open game. One player was highly touted by some former UWA players, but Pick #3 stood out at the tournament and even attracted the attention of U23s personnel. He should supplement Sublime's current handler stocks quite well, and his height sees him as a deep threat on O.
Pick #3 - Rob Prast (UWA)



Pick #4 - Fakulti

Long known as a "learning club", Fakulti face the challenge this year of their leaders looking ahead to WUCC and will leave the club in the capable hands of...I dunno. Someone. Once you take away the likes of Pete Gardner, Ken Shepherd, Ant Dowle, Tex Blakeley, Matt Faulker and pretty much anyone else you can think of, the Fakulti looks remarkably like a chick-less SUUFA. So this year we can expect them to take on board a plethora of new talent, and as well as the usual recruiting grounds of SUUFA and Macquarie, UTS is likely to be the source of said talent. Pick #4 is not necessarily the best all-round player, but SUUFA have plenty of throwers but need someone to clean up their swill in the endzone.
Pick #4 - Ashley Symons (UTS)



Pick #5 - Karma

Karma are still struggling to shake the "No Pillar No Karma" tag that has plagued them since day one. They fought their way into the top half of the draw in 2009 but one Joel got injured they struggled to make an impression on the title contenders. So what do they need? First off, they need a plan B in crisis mode. The Joel-To-Sweet-As connection is one of the best in the country, but if that gets shut down when they're under the pump, they're left with a lack of options. Karma definitely have youth in their team, so anyone they'd pick would want to have some experience under their belt. Pick #5 was in contention for Thunder a few years back and recently returned to ultimate at AUG with Flinders, so it makes sense to get him on board.
Pick #5 - Ben Thomas (Flinders)



Pick #6 - Fakulti

Once again, we look to the university scene in Sydney for Fakulti's second pick. It is interesting to note that in previous years, the bulk of junior talent has come out of Sydney, however this year there are pockets of Thunder/Terra potential in Geelong, Brisbane and the Central Coast. Is this a blight on the youth development in Sydney? No. It simply means, just it has in the university scene in the last few years, that everyone else is catching up. As mentioned before, universities have been one of Fakulti's biggest breeding grounds, and Pick #6 comes from one of the most promising clubs of the last two years.
Pick #6 - Martin "Linus" Forrest (UTS)



Pick #7 - Sublime

Sublime's biggest problem is a lack of quality opposition to play against on a regular basis. Most WA players are lucky to see east coast opponents once or twice a year unless they're prepared to shell out for flights. The biggest losers in this are the intermediate players who are stepping up their game. They're the ones who are missing out on regularly testing themselves against quality opponents. Meanwhile in NSW and Victoria there are two (or more) club teams who scrimmage and in Queensland there's the Brisbane Premier League. While there are elite players in Perth there isn't quite enough to be able to sustain as high level play as there is in the east. So these intermediates join up with Sublime as their "next step". Pick #7 is well and truly ready for that.
Pick #7 - Peter Adan



Pick #8 - Firestorm

Firestorm are a funny bunch. Every year on paper it looks like they're finally going to make semis and challenge for the title. And every year they're left languishing around the 5-8 bracket. What is it they're missing? I have no idea. They seem to have all the ingredients in place, but it doesn't quite come together on the day. But enough of that - who is Firestorm going to add to their ingredients list this year? Up in Queensland they breed them tall, thin and fast in the mould of Mike Neild. And why wouldn't you? Who the hell would want to face a line of seven Mike Neilds? Now my lack of knowledge of the Brisbane scene is blatantly going to shine through here, so I may as well admit I looked at UQ's gold medal winning squad and just picked a name. Sorry Tyson Buhagiar and Ryan Garrahy.
Pick #8 - James Jackson



Pick #9 - I-Beam

I-Beam are an even funnier bunch than Firestorm. Their list isn't littered with Dingos and Barramundis the way Fakulti's is, but they are a very good team nonetheless. In 2009 they fell short at the final hurdle and ended up 4th, but there's no telling what will happen this season. Newcastle Uni's team at AUG boasted many I-Beam names, who will no doubt drag Pick #9 along to have a bid for a green and...silver, I suppose, jersey. Height is a valuable currency in ultimate and this guy is one rich motherfucker. He will be a good asset on offence as he settles in to the open game, and will also be a great defender once he adjusts to the whole "floating bit of plastic" thing as opposed to leather and pigskin.
Pick #9 - James Green



Pick #10 - Heads Of State

One look at my Facebook feed after their initial training camp for the season shows that Heads Of State is more than just a club - it's a way of life, or almost a religion. These guys eat, breathe and shit ultimate, and any addition to their team will need to adopt the same attitude if they are to strut it on the main stage in April. HoS are looking to boost their B-team this season and will take on the extra numbers required to have a solid crack at Regionals. Pick #10 will be a great addition to this team, and possibly the A-team in 2011. He played a supporting role in the The Jake Angelovich Endzone Show at AUG, and has the aggression and competitive nature that will see him suited to the HoS religion.
Pick #10 - Sam Cooney (Ballarat Uni)



Pick #11 - Fyshwick United

Ok so I'm doing more than 10 picks this year. Look at this as the first round of the draft where everyone gets a pick. FU went agonisingly close to a national title this year. Well, there were 6 points difference in the final, but they had done everything right up until then - defeating everyone, including Chilly, throughout the season and the tournament. But not quite where it counted. And so the 2010 season presents an interesting dilemma - a lot of Fyshwick players are Kaboom-focussed since they qualified for World Club Championships. Are they going to focus on Worlds prep or Nationals campaign until April and then WUCC for a couple of months? There's no reason they couldn't do both. Either way, they'll be snapping up Pick #11 for the future to ensure no one else gets him.
Pick #11 - Byron Vickers (ANU)



Pick #12 - Chilly

It's a bit anti-climactic having the final pick of the draft for the best team in the country being the club's second pick overall. Anyhow, Chilly are definitely on the hunt to boost their depth in 2010 with the impending but seemingly constantly postponed retirement of some big names - Tom Rogacki, Steve Campbell, Shane Vuletich to name a few. Rumoured plans for Chilly this year include a third team - something they did back in 2006 - for some of the "old boys", which would do well to fuel the rumours of a Chilly team in the Masters' division at WUCC. Either way, Chilly have a second target that was mentioned earlier in the article.
Pick #12 - Jason Gibson (Deakin Uni)




So there you have it. Let's revisit this in 12 months and see how wrong I was. Thoughts and comments to the usual address.

2009 Ballatat Ultimate National Draft - Women's Division

Realistically, there are a number of social factors to consider when trying to determine which clubs will pick which players, particularly in cities with two clubs. Specifically, the formation of social cliques and their links to various recruiting avenues. The most prevalent example I can think of is in Melbourne, where Sporting Team BAU (I think the name change is offical now) have a virtual monopoly over the junior talent in Victoria, while Honey have the uni clubs under their wing. While it's not entirely unlikely that these teams will pick a player from outside those groups, it's something I have done my best to consider in this draft. That being said, let's get underway with Women's Pick #1

Pick #1 - Honey

The dymanic of women's ultimate in Victoria is a strange one. While there are enough girls playing in the mixed season, very few actively seek passage into a women's club. It is usually a result of active recruiting that players join the clubs. So at the moment I feel there are a number of females around the traps who could step very comfortably into Honey's line-up. Looking at the uni clubs, there are three girls who would take to the women's game like a duck to water. While also considering Honey Bee's need for some handler strength and their second pick, Grace Lethlean (Melbourne Uni) was unlucky to miss out in this little exercise, but could very easily find a place in Honey.

Pick #1 - Jo Goold (Deakin Uni)

Pick #2 - Indies

Unlike the aforementioned two-club cities, Adelaide has just the one women's team so there is a natural progression of sorts from social or uni ultimate to the single gender game. The strong Flinders Uni club is the place to look for the next Indies star, given their history of producing Indies/Karma players in recent years. With a backyard Nationals in 2010, Indies will have a strong squad and can look to simply add depth. I can see Kelly Mackenzie and Emma Victory joining the team as well as this draft pick.

Pick #2 - Lesley Moore (Flinders Uni)

Pick #3 - Sultry

The Brisvegas girls had a disappointing 2009, with many players opting not to go west for the show in April. However 2010 looks more promising already, with the gathering of a team for a WUCC tilt which looks to be in conjunction with Kaos. Whether this affects the Nationals campaign of both teams remains to be seen since they have some very tough competition to qualify outright for WUCC and may instead be relying on a wildcard. UQ has always been a big recruiting base for Sultry, however the development of the QUT and Griffith clubs in recent years are starting to produce some very good players. One in particular was very impressive at AUG and Sultry should be getting their recruitment gary on real soon. Cristina Biasin is also worth considering as well.

Pick #3 - Terri Morgan (Gold Coast)

Pick 4 - Factory Girls

Canberra faced a problem a couple of years ago in regards to their elite development. Because most people there work for the government, the entire city knocks off work at 5pm (no exceptions), leaving themselves plenty of recreation time. The ACTUA folk have translated this into around 400-500 regular league players. However very few players decide they want to have a crack at the rest of the nation. That being said, they do have a great development pathway from youth to elite, with the first few graduates starting to come through now. Pick 4 follows the path of Charlotte Petersen - from the ACT youth team, to AUG, to Factory Girls - and more should be expected to follow that path in the future.

Pick #4 - Annette Zou (ANU)

Pick 5 - Primal

As talked about earlier, Perth are the latest city to enjoy a two-club structure. Being a fan of ultimate-related gossip, I am quite attuned to the rift that exists between Primal and Kaos. However I'm not going to speculate why it goes on or what resolution may be at hand. What I do know is that Primal has a very different approach to recruiting not only from Kaos but from every other club in the country. Thanks to Anna Haynes' little-publicised work, Primal get a lot of money from the government for community development grants to help their recruiting efforts. And by "a lot" I really mean a-fucking-lot. Trouble at my end is that I have no first-hand knowledge of who they're targeting as far as adding to their club roster goes, so rather than pretend to know what I'm on about, Pick 5 gets held over for now.

Pick #5 - Pass

Pick 6 - Kaos

The recruitment avenue for Kaos is largely friends of who is currently playing for them now. Which means if you play for UWA or Murdoch, then Kaos is the club team for you. Unfortunately Murdoch didn't pony up for cross-country flights this year so UWA and their goddamn awful fluro yellow uniforms were the only westerners I got to see play this season. When not having bullshit rules arguments or showcasing the Twig & Peley Throwaway Show, UWA were a great team to watch. There is no doubt that their newer female players came out of AUG much more skilled and will be dragged along to Kaos training by Lou Delane, Danya Meakins and Simone Ryan. However I have to pick one.

Pick #6 - Ciara Fariss (UWA)

Pick 7 - Honey

And now we're back in Victoria. A while ago I attended a womens ultimate planning meeting, mostly for the chicks, but as a representative for regional Victoria. Going back two years you could count the number of girls from outside Melbourne playing women's ultimate on one hand, and they were all for the one team. Honey made inroads out of Melbourne in 2009 by getting Pam Carrigg and Monique Connell on their list, and they should be looking to cast their net further in the way Heads Of State did with great success. Unfortunately the Geelong girls will be tied up with Terra tryouts, so Pick 7 comes from the home of Ballarat Ultimate.

Pick #7 - Sara Talbot (Uni of Ballarat)

Pick 8 - Sugar Mags

So as is the common theme here, Newcastle is a one-team city, so joining the Sugar Mags is the natural progression after playing a uni season with the Power Dragons. There's no reason Wildcard or Southside couldn't have a crack at recruiting from here but when you've played a uni season with four players from the one club, you're kinda going to be biased towards that club. Newcastle Uni took three first year players to AUG and all of them were adequate players on Monday, and solid players by the Friday, so you can expect this pick, plus Jacklynn Taylor and Liz Vaughan to join Ellie, Tegan, Amy and Liz at the first training for the season, whenever that happens to be.

Pick #8 - Courtney Thompson (Newcastle Uni)

Pick 9 - Sporting Team BAU

The 'Box are an interesting lot, with probably the most in-jokes out of any team that has ever existed. Though I could be wrong, they don't seem to have any kind of open slather try out and it seems that to be you get invited to learn how to play Box-Lid-Goose. But now that we're at the top end of women's teams, we need to consider what they are looking for. Unless Miranda Roth or someone of similar ilk were to decide to move to Melbourne, STBAU are only going to be recruiting for depth. Having gone oh-so-close to the title twice now, in 2010 they will be - if you'll excuse the turn of phrase - out of justice. Whether they actually do recruit anyone is up in the air from a journalistic point of view, but Pick 9 is someone that will come heavily recommended by current STBAU players.

Pick #9 - Erin Adamcewicz (Uni of Ballarat)

Pick 10 - Wildcard

With a couple of National titles now under their belt, and a depth of talent that everyone should be jealous of, Wildcard are in the enviable position of players coming to them, rather than them going out to get recruits. My Sydney-based spy reckons that Cat Noble is set to pledge allegance to the red shirt this year, however I have deliberately left out Terra contenders from this article, so we need to look elsewhere. Rather than picking someone for instant gain or to fill a void, Wildcard ought to look for intermediate players who they can mould into an elite player over time. Which makes Pick 10 quite easy - go with the winner of the peer-voted Martin Laird Award.

Pick #10 - Kaija Salier (UTS)

So there's your first round draft picks for this season. As per usual thoughts, comments and the inevitable disagreements can be posted below.

Off Season

Things have been pretty quiet around here at Ballarat Ultimate since the return from the Gold Coast. Given that I'm 5 weeks deep into a self-imposed two month off-season, I'm finding it quite difficult to write about something I'm not actually doing. However it has got me thinking - ultimate needs an off-season.

The physical benefits off my off season have been incredible. My left knee actually looks healthy and not all swollen and bruised. My back hasn't been in better shape for two years and I'm not spending every Monday lathering on the aloe vera. The exception is the glorious "leg warmer" tan lines that I've now accepted are a permanent addition to the landscape despite my best efforts to get some colour on the rest of my legs. But it's not so much the physical benefits as the motivation to get out there on the field, and also to lay some administrative smackdown. Which brings me to the key reason for the need for an off-season.

To give our administrators a break.

Although I'm sure northern states will see this differently, us Victorians still pretend ultimate is a year-round sport, and organise tournaments and leagues accordingly. Anyone who has filled some sort of volunteer role will gladly talk your ear off about "burnout" if you ask nicely. They might not want to admit it but every volunteer has at some point, ever so briefly, just wanted to pack it all in and take some time off. But they don't. Some volunteers work through it, and some just, sort of...fade out. A nation-wide off-season would be perfect to give these folk a well deserved rest in order to keep their enthusiasm and motivation for their roles up around a healthy level.

So there's my idea. And of course my ideas don't go without a proposed solution.

A while ago there was a proposal to shift Nationals to October to leave the summer free for newbie hunting and development. While considered by many to be a not-too-bad idea, it was considered too dramatic a change. Besides, we want to keep our premier season of ultimate in the summer months. So my suggestion is to shift Nationals forward to January, and the "mixed" season to February to May. Keeping "uni" season where it is because of AUG, and we create a two month window in June and July for our off-season. So this would leave the calendar something like this...

June - off season
July - off season, regional UGs
August - Uni IVs
September - AUG, club pre-season begins
October - club tournaments
November - club tournaments
December - club Regionals
January - club Nationals
February - mixed tournaments
March - mixed tournaments
April - mixed state championships
May - Mixed Nationals

Stick Nationals on the Australia Day weekend to minimise time-off-work disruption. Doesn't matter too much with Mixed Nats since that's never on a public holiday anyway. We're not competing with rugby or soccer for fields for Nationals. Worlds tournaments happen in the off-season. Early uni development ties in with mixed season. Off-season is in the height of shitty weather season so no one wants to play that much anyway.

It all seems so easy. Anyone care to support or shoot down this idea?

2009 Ballarat Ultimate National Draft

So earlier this year, I knocked up a frisbee draft in about eight minutes loosely based on the AFL draft. This year I'm putting a bit more thought into it.

For those who weren't paying attention to the last one, the picks are based on the order of where teams finished at Nationals, with the lowest team getting pick #1, second last getting #2, and so on and so forth. I'm only including teams that aren't pick-upy or likely to be at Nationals in 2010. Now in the actual AFL draft, teams can pick players from wherever the hell they want, but for the purposes of realism (lol) I'm restricting teams to players from their own state.

This year there's something else that I'll be taking into consideration - since the Thunder and Terra teams will be competing at Nats in their own right, the candidates for those teams won't be in this draft.

Rather than waste blog material in just one post, I'll start out with the draft order and open it up to some speculation...who is the next big thing you've seen around the traps?


Women
1. Honey
2. Indies
3. Sultry
4. Factory Girls
5. Primal
6. Kaos
7. Honey
8. Sugar Mags
9. Team Box
10. Wildcard

Open
1. Umlaut
2. Chilly
3. Sublime
4. Fakulti
5. Karma
6. Fakulti
7. Sublime
8. Firestorm
9. I-Beam
10. Heads of State
11. Fyshwick United
12. Chilly

Post-AUG Ruminations

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 Divisions

Aside 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 Quantity

Already 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 welcome

At 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 management

Outside 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 ahead

This 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.

2009 AUG Preview - Part 4

It has been a wonderful journey, but like all good trilogies with an shitty additional fourth chapter “reboot”, you kind of wish it had come to an end earlier. After feigning knowledge about anything north of the Murray, you’d figure a look at the South teams would be a bit more accurate given that I’ve, like, seen the teams play. That is what I would like you to think anyway.

Way back in the early days of Southern Uni Games, Melbourne Uni (aka Moho) were the leaders. A SUG without them being in the final was unfathomable. Fast forward to SUG 2009, where they were playing off for bronze. Here it has definitely been a case of everyone else catching up, because honestly, Melbourne are not a bad team. With a name change (MUtation) and new attitude…actually scrap that last bit, I’m just in a mood for cliché. A notable exclusion is Tarrant Meehan, who probably discovered that being drunk is awesome. Chris “Warpaint” Freise and Michelle Phillips are the stars of this team, ably assisted by Jude Mitchell and Ben Phillips. Injury scares to Chilly B stars Tim Horden and Ben Robotham in the last couple of weeks might have an impact on the team’s depth, but otherwise they should poll well during the week. Probably not a medal contender on paper, but then again they weren’t last year, either.

Cross-town rivals Monash are on a path to avenge their shitty Thursday/Friday performance in 2008. Many of last year’s team are back on board, including HoS trio Andy Moroney, Seb Barr and Cletus Johnson – who is recovering from a bullshit rumour and should be fully fit come Monday. The disc skills on this squad are exceptional, with Ash Thornton, Chris Folkes and Josh Cukierman throwing the disc to the likes of Mich Rogers, Lucy Ross and Sam Ludowyk. The wildcard on this team is Steve “Toey” Thomas. He played a part in Chilly’s 4th national title this year, and with a deadly combination of speed and height, there will be very few opponents who can match him going deep. Only concern is a niggling shoulder injury that has kept him out of action for the last couple of months. Monash also have someone else that factored in Chilly’s national titles – Steve Campbell. It will be his first stint as a non-playing coach, so it will be interesting to see what difference he can make. Expect to see Monash at the medal presentations, and not just heckling either. They have also adopted a club first - uniforms that don't look goddamn awful.

Defending champions Flinders Fury seem to be a bit of an unknown right now. Sure, they have Joel Pillar. And Brett Middleton in place of Alec Deslandes. And Sarah Pillar in place of Erin Wallis. And if we were going to run the old Mr. Ultimate pageant again Scott Middleton would probably win. But can they repeat last year’s gold medal? I feel they are going to have a heavy reliance on their boys to move the disc. Last year Ali Clarke and Erin Wallis did a lot of it, whereas this year Sarah Pillar is likely to be backed up by Sam Odgen and possibly even Chris Osborn. Doesn’t matter either way – most shots at goal are going to be “Joel To Sweet As”. And given that will work a lot of the time, why wouldn't you do it? Anything less than semis would probably be unacceptable to Joel, but now that Fury have already done it once, are they going to be that hungry for it again?

And now for the last time to be previewed - BUUF. I could be sneaky and not reveal anything, or I could talk a whole lot of hyperbole bullshit. But I'm going to try and take an objective look at things. And honestly, I think we should get to the pre-semis at least. It has been mentioned elsewhere that we lack the depth needed to win gold, and in part I agree. We definitely have a "strong 9" and a "weak 9" (when comparing both groups to each other, not to other teams), but how well it all fits together on the day will be interesting. The leadership of Dan Rule is going to be a massive influence, especially for maintaining mental strength and focus that was sorely missing in 2008. This year the team has shifted from a structured offense and defense to an aggressive, organic style of play that should catch a lot of teams by surprise.

Stay tuned for Part 5 - the "Special Features" disc, with players to watch, key matches and predictions.

2009 AUG Preview - Part 3

Once the almighty powerhouse of Australian ultimate, the East region has either fallen by the wayside in recent years, or (the more popular theory) the rest of the country has caught up and pretty much overtaken them. Part 3 of our look at this year’s AUG focuses on the four teams coming out of the Sydney and Newcastle area.

First off, the UTSexperience. As has almost become tradition, the talk coming out of the Harbour City is that UTS are the big improvers of the season and look to be ruffling some feathers at the big dance. However…I just don’t see it happening. Yes, they have added Rach Grindlay to their roster. Yes, they have plenty of tall receiving power in Henry Thomas (will probably handle, though), Hugh McCormack, Evan Sieff and probably even throw Linus Forrest in there. Yes, they have plenty of AUG experience across their squad, most of whom are having their second or third crack at it. Yes, they still wear teal. But I still remain uninspired.

Further…up the road, I suppose…we have the fallen giant in Macquarie, who are two years deep into the post-Dowle era. Their squad has plenty of talent across the board, but outside Megan Gamble there doesn’t seem to be a true superstar who will win them games. Sure, the likes of Tiger Webb, Nathan Wong, Yoann Greau and Rory Connell are very talented players, but I really think this club misses having a Dowle to count upon in crunch times. It will be interesting to see if Gamble adopts a “give the disc to me and I’ll sort it out” approach, given that she will take all but a handful of opponents to town. I think pre-semis might be the limit for these guys in 2009.

And now to everyone’s favourite silver medalists – Sydney. After rumours of sweeping changes being made at the club following last year’s disappointment, SUUFA have spent 12 months preparing, recruiting, training, getting psychological evaluations, sprinting, throwing, designing new uniforms and selecting what looks to be…well, pretty much the same team as last year. Notable exclusion again is Calan Spielman, this time through disease rather than policy. Subbing out the female handling power of Tara Carraro and Izzy MacAuley for the speed of Fi McDonald and Loren Viswalingam means they will probably shift to a more aggressive offence, but that means they’re relying on Brett Latham to not throw it away. Hmm. Better leave it to Mike Tarn and Sarah Crossie

Finally, the resurgence of Newcastle from no-show in 2007 to powerhouse in 2009 is almost complete. Led by the younger of Those Bloody Lavis Boys, the Novacastrians (seriously, look it up) will be playing most of their males upfield, with Liz Dodd and Ellie Sparke moving the disc. 2008 could almost have been seen as a training run for this year, as the squad is quite similar and the on-field cohesion should be a lot stronger. If EUG is any indication like it once was a while back, then Newcastle should be considered favourites for the event alongside UQ.

2009 AUG Preview - Part 2

Two posts in one day? What the hell?

So now we take a look at Division 1. 12 teams in two terribly seeded pools who will battle it out for glory. This is simply too big to keep contained within one single post. Plus I get more hits if you come back every day. And it also makes it seem more substantial than Mozza and Tiger's previews. Internet journalism at it's finest, ladies and gentlemen. On with it...

Part 2 - The States That Don't Matter

Looking westward, we only have the one team coming from two hours behind. UWA are out to defend their 6th place finish from last year. Kendall "Twig" Thorn will be playing the part of Captain Corageous in the absence of James Eley who has finally opted to get a knee reco on what is left of his ACL. Speaking of substitutes, Peter Eley will be fulfilling the "looking like a girl" quota of Glen Fowles. And speaking of girls, UWA's strength this year lies in their females, who this year discovered the joys of women's ultimate and actually having the disc thrown to them. I feel that UWA will wind in their long game and play a more run-and-gun offence, with Twig playing back rather than deep.

Moving north now, we come to locals Griffith Uni. After two years languishing around the bottom of the table, 2009 has seen the sport establish a strong foothold in the Gold Coast and the squad should have a lot more depth than before. Joining stalwarts Mike and Terri Morgan this year are Tatiana Maya and Tom "Cupcake" Tulett who will give them the handling experience they missed sorely last year when Stefan Rappazzo went back to the Land Of The Moose. Whether they have a structured set-up, or just let Cupcake run loose and keep out of his way, will remain to be seen.

And now to look at the team that science has proved cannot survive in temperatures below 22 degrees Celsius - UQ Lovers. Like 2007, they enter the tournament as an early favourite led by John McNaughton. It will be fairly predictable of them to, in crunch times, get the disc to John or Al Don who will jack it at Will Churchill or Julian Sacre. However Megan Barnes and Blair Sheard will provide good reason for them to stop looking off their girls. Provided everyone stays fit they should be playing off for some bling on Friday.

And by now you should know the other state that doesn't matter. ANU have already improved on last year's finish simply by being in division one, but the question is can they go any further. The three players to watch on this team are Mica Hartley, Andrew Sutton and Andrew "AJ" Jackson. Hartley and Sutton are playing the roles of the grizzly old veterans and will direct midfield and handlers respectively. But AJ is likely to attract a lot of attention following his standout performance in the final of Nationals. His defence ability has been proven, but can his O stand up to increased pressure? Unfortunately I don't see ANU making an impact beyond the initial pools.


Tune in tomorrow for a look at the East and the South.