End of a journey

So Worlds have finished...

We Dingos were disappointed by our quarterfinals loss to GB. Despite our strong win over them in the rounds, they brought a better game to the quarter, and we played poorly.

It was immediately followed by the chance to see Southern Terra win a nail-biting come-from-behind game over Colombia on the showfield. Aussies through to a WUGC final! A first.

The two Friday wins were a bit of a slug but we prevailed over Finland (a strong run of Pommy zone helped) and Sweden (hot 4pm sun drained them) to take 5th. Other Aussie teams put strong efforts into their semis but none prevailed :(

Since then, its been photos, farewells, finals, dancing, mistaken identities, hangovers and missing teammates. Basically, busy!

Today is Captain Jonathan's birthday and we hope he is in good hands somewhere.

End of the pool

At the end of Day 3, and 5 games into Worlds, the Dingos have finished top of Pool C.

Today we played Colombia, who were more muted than their fellow South Americans, Venezuela, who we played yesterday. The Colombians' earlier loss to the Venuezuelans may have been partly responsible. But it may just have been the clinical offence of the Dingos.

This was followed by the Great Britain match - always a crowd-drawing event, especially this time. The offense punched in all its first half possessions, and the D got stops. Half time score: 9-4 to the Aussies, and the Poms were busy talking about what to do. The second half saw more of the same - Dingos contesting the British long shots, and clogging their cutters, while punching in pretty long shots, perhaps more than most games to date. Mike Neild had a highlight game, and was seen grinning afterwards for quite a while. Or maybe he was just excited to see former Dingo Lachie "Kransky" Yates once again.

For post-game recovery, we have been down to the cool waters of nearby Wreck Beach, with its toe-stubbing submerged rocks, clothing optional dress standards and crowds of Canadians getting some sun. Others have rested in inflatable paddling pools of icy water in the showers.

Tomorrow we play Sweden at 12:30 and then, on the showcase field, we play the US at 4:30. They're going to be good games.

Some words from the mouths of Dingos...

Ken says "I like the creative use of the hallway in the dorm accommodation - hallway guts is a winner." Except for light fixtures.

Dingo Pup Tim Lavis has some observations from his first Worlds: "With the level of competition, you expect the opposition to be brilliant. But they've still got two legs and two arms just like everyone else." Not sure what limb count he was expecting...

Glover relates "So Ant has some damage to his right hand on an attempt at a greatest vs Germany. After an x-ray today, he came back with a cast on. Captain Pottsy was seen looking for a pocketknife to get that cast off and get his mate back on field. Phone calls have been made back to Oz, specifically, Dr Laird, for further advice. I don't know what will happen next. Oh, yeah, and that GB game was the most energy I have seen from the Dingos." I am sure our team physio (Bianca), team doctor (Katie) and team nurse (Emma) will ensure that nothing hasty is done, and that Ant will be looked after.

Gus offers his winning protein shake recipe: "3 bananas, 2 eggs, lots of protein powder, ice, milk and a touch of honey. Blend on ice-crusher setting until frothy - as high as it will go baby".

Dingo day 1 vs Ireland

The Dingos are growing accustomed to our lodgings here at UBC. A sunny sunday greeted Australia's first day of play.

The Thunder and Barramundis played in the stadium this morning and there was a lot of Aussie cheering across both fields. France and Hong Kong suffered early losses. The Firetails also started their campaign before us against the USA.

We wandered across the campus to University Hill where a few teams were playing on fields nestled amongst some tall pines. Ireland was our first opposition and we were keen to get going. Both teams tested their vocal chords with a few songs before the game, a great way to kick start the championships.

With a full compliment of Dingos we began the game with a bang, reeling off the first 3 points. Ireland are a young crew of enthusiastic blokes and we had to play well to keep up with them.

Ant blocked a huck 5 metres from the thrower and then ran downfield to score to boost our lead. Ireland worked the disc short with many passes looking for a gap to huck long. Our defence was made to work and on several occasions we managed to keep them out of the endzone, force a turnover and then convert for scores.

The second half was also full of action. Tim Lavis and Andrew Glover were often running longs for goals. Tats was throwing goals and getting pretty excited about it. Relentless zone pressure resulted in a callahan to Paul Denyer. A memorable second half highlight was a long huck from the Irish which ended up just outside their endzone. The Dingos scrambled to defend the endzone as the receiver lined up a backhand to score the goal. Jonno Holmes loomed up on the far side, chasing his man and launched himself at the disc....

and completed a massive layout d, catching the disc in the process. There was a large and appreciative cheer from the crowd on the hill. Some more stifling defence closed out the game. End score 17-7.

Tomorrow we play Venezuela and Germany.

Opening Ceremony

Just about to head to bed after the first official day of Worlds.  The Dingos all arrived in Vancouver yesterday and we had a light run through today and did some throwing on some of the fields.  The entire Aussie contingent is staying at the Totem Residence at UBC and it is great to be together as a big unit: from the massive juniors troop complete with chaperones through to the Taipans with various children in tow.The opening ceremony was fantastic.  The Australian teams were the first to enter the "Thunderbird Stadium" and there was a decent crowd of 500 or 600 people to cheer us in.  The atmosphere grew and grew as more countries entered the stadium, filling up to several 1000 people by the time the massive Canadian crew had made their way in as the host nation taking up last place.

Preparing to enter the Stadium

The welcoming ceremony was an interesting mix of WFDF officials, local indigenous representatives welcoming us to the land, Brazilian dancers and Indian dancers from San Francisco.  The latter were a hit when they taught the entire stadium some Bollywoodesque dance moves which we then went along with in time to some simple sitar riffs.  Gold.  These preliminaries finished up (eventually ... ) and the showcase game between Canada and GB (mixed division) began.

Most people were expecting a Canadian landslide, and the hosts started strongly.  But the GB team was well drilled, athletic and didn't look overawed by the occasion.  Canada got out to a bit of a lead and was in front 9-5 I think at half.  However the Poms kept coming back and would not let go of the game.  In the end though, the Canuks proved too strong and ground out a 17-15 win.

Tomorrow sees the Dingos play one game against the Irish in the afternoon.  The Firetails are playing the USA in the morning, which should be a massive game, and then the Irish in the afternoon as well.

There will be a whole bunch of stuff going up on the official WUGC website so check it out - live score updates are happening I believe, so have a look if you like staying up late at night!

www.wugc2008.com

Jonno.

Telluride Training

I’m typing this as our ’08 Pontiac “Gutless Wonder”

 makes its way up the mountain passes of Route 825 between Gunnison and Denver, Colorado. Chris “Hobbit” Warris is at

 the helm and although the winding bends and spectacular scenery makes for many a Top Gear moment, the speed limit is being studiously adhered 

to after our silver beast was pulled over by the Colorado State Troopers not half an hour ago. Luckily Hobbit turned on the Aussie charm and Trooper Krasniski (I kid you not, that real

ly is his name) let our 73 mph in a 65 zone off with a warning.

The "Courtesy Warning"

Fellow passangers in the Gutless Wonder are Andrew Glover and Jonathan “Tats” Tatham. The four of us and an additional four Dingos (the Dowle twins, Paul Denyer and Mike Neild) have just finished up an intensive high-altitude (8750 feet or a touch over 2600 metres) training camp in Telluride Colorado. The little ski town that several of us have spent winter seasons at is arguably more spectacular in summer than in the winter months and we took good advantage of the sunny weather to complete some hikes and sprint sessions in the thin mountain air.

Housing the Aussie crowd was Greg Simpson, the Australian resident “snow shoveling pimp” that some of you may remember from my winter time communiques. Once again, Greg provided hospitality that would put a 75-camel-sheik from the UAE to shame. A wealth of local knowledge, all-area-access to Tuscan villa style Mountain Village mansions, the ability to spin a yarn like John Greenfield combined with an irrepressible enthusiasm for shennanigans large or small makes Greg what I title “a fully certified Aussie champ.”

After a relatively exhausting tour through the US south west and our final game against Johnny Bravo, we were keen for a relaxing few days in order to prepare for Worlds which kicks off this Sunday. Nonetheless we felt the need to put in several throwing and sprint sessions. All eight of us found the altitude to be a considerable factor as we gasped our way through the sessions. Hiking and sightseeing were a bit easier on the lungs, but not on my nasal passage which didn’t handle the thin, dry air very well and I managed to get what can only be described as an ‘explosive’ nose bleed that kept up for about 45 mins.

We are flying out to Vancouver tomorrow morning. Less than 72hrs until the first game at Worlds.  Very exciting stuff folks!!

Jonno 

Aussies with altitude

Yo!

This is Pottsy on Gussy's computer.

We are currently in Boulder, Colorado. Much has happened. We flew to Denver from a long but reasonably controlled night in Vegas. We came to play Johnny Bravo, runners up at UPA Nationals last year, and so one goal shy of representing the USA at worlds.

It was a tough game, we were warned (by our hosts) that the disc flies differently up here, and they weren't foxing. There were quite a few pulls and hucks that sailed well out of bounds.

In the end it was a pretty disappointing game for us. Many uncharacteristic turnovers from us, both short and long, and spread amongst our gun players. And we failed to effectively shut down Bravo's deep game.

We could blame the changed conditions and poor preparation (ie Vegas and all that went before), but I think a fair amount of credit needs to go to the Bravo defence, which was fast and unrelenting. A pressure defence creates unforced errors from the offence, as throwers suddenly become less certain of which players are free and want to get rid of the disc before the count gets high.

To our credit however, our defence had a similar effect on Bravo, and there were many points where their offence struggled to advance the disc. We actually came out strongly and were up 2-0 before Bravo rallied and got on D and took the lead from us. We managed to contain the half-time score to 9-5. It was looking a bit like our 2004 semi (vs Condors) all over again, but to our credit, we regrouped and the second half was a lot tighter. In fact, we had the disc after time cap to bring the score to 14-12, but failed, and in the end they took it out 16-11.

No excuses from us, we were beaten soundly by a better team, and we learnt a huge amount from this game, which is why we are spending so much time and money on this tour. Sadly we are still missing some top players (but so were they), we are confident that they will play an important role in Vancouver and I can say personally that I'm looking forward to rejoining my teammates on the field of play.

Post-game the Boulder frisbee crew put on a killer party up in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. Played some fun party games with them till late in the night. A last hurrah for the Dingos party crew. We are each dedicated to putting in some more fitness work between now and worlds as we go our separate ways in the next week.

Those who've stayed in Boulder took in a 2 hour session at the track yesterday, followed by a creek swim and dinner at a local brew-pub and then BATMAN!

Today, 7 Dingos went up to 14000ft, twice. Man, that was the most demanding hike I've ever done. Walk 100m, heart rate in the mid 100s, just putting one foot ahead of the other, and then rest till you don't feel so dizzy any more. Repeat many times. I think there will be some good photos. We continue our altitude training over the next few days.

More later...

Pottsy.

Revenge of the Dingos

Best served cold, our revenge against the Condors was dished out on a platter of rubberised astroturf, surrounded by a running track of gold under the setting sun of a warm California sky.

We played the Condors under lights at the Occidental College sports fields in LA at 7pm on July 23rd.  The Condors of '08 are a younger, less experienced team than that which we met in the semi-final at Worlds in Finland - only 2 of those Condors have survived in this team.  The Dingos on the other hand have 12 returning players and for many of us, the semi of '04 was a disappointment that still niggles every now and then.

Coming out of the blocks fired up and hungry, the Dingos man-on-man defence was sensational, shutting down movement around the disc and generating turns through pressure across the field.  Massive blocks from Tim Booth (high overhead contested block) and Gavin Moore (full length layout in the corner of the endzone) were standouts.  The offensive machine looked like the Vogon Galaxy-Crusher Earth-Destroying Battleship fleet as the Condors were so much roadkill across the windscreens.  Tats was on fire, bombing long with impunity and throwing cross field hammers for Glover to pluck from the air for goals.  This was the first full game Glover played after fending off a back niggle, and he had a standout - cutting like a machine and backing up when needed.  He also had a nice assist when he streaked long, jumped for the goal and managed to nubs it so that the disc bladed towards the ground.  The ever aware Kenny Shepherd however was on hand, lurking as always, and made a massive layout to score - reminiscent of Gus' grab in the '06 Clubs Final.

Half was taken by the Dingos at 9-4 and things were looking comfortable.  To their credit, the Condors came out hard after the break and began clawing their way back into the game.  They started connecting with their long game, with Steve Dugan and Matt (a younger handler type) started smashing some backhands.  The pressure slowly built and they finally leveled the scores at 15-15 (game was to 17, win by two).  With a big crowd in attendance (and obviously Condors biased - there were only a couple of Aussie supporters including including Minh (ex Canberra) and some other connections) the US lads were looking fired up.  Some tough points followed, and the Dingos offense stood tall and the D line managed to get the turnover when required, a forced throwaway.  In the end the Dingos won 19-17.

This was our highest quality game of the tournament, and arguably our hardest.  The come back from the Condors was impressive, and it put our entire line under pressure, it was a great game to test our ability against a committed and talented team who wouldn't just give us the game.  The determination of the Dingos and the ability to remain focused at the crucial stages of the game was outstanding.

We are now in Boulder about to play Johnny Bravo.

Jonno, Tats, Chris and Glover.

On the road in Yosemite

Hey Folks,

Quick update from the road in California.  The Dingos have had an eventful 24 hours with an expedition to Yosemite National Park.  We stayed in "tee-pee" style tents at Groveland just outside the park ... kind of what I imagine Graceland would have been like if Elvis had of had 6 teeth, played the banjo and wasn't such a ladies man.  

We managed to test ourselves mentally, physically and possibly even spiritually as the team faced not only an 8 mile hike up the imposing "half dome" but finished the day with a discussion about what it means to be a dingo and what our expectations for the pretour are after a big night out the evening before.  The team really came together after this discussion.  This pretour is proving to provide the opportunities to play against elite level US teams and to become a really solid Dingo unit.  

Light relief for the day was provided by the Tatham, Denyer, A. Dowle, Holmes group in the race to the top of Half Dome.  Slowing to the back of the peleton to take a couple of photos, this group lost the main pack and one wrong turn and 6 miles of hiking later the four of us realised we were on the wrong ridge, on the wrong side of the valley, about 10 miles from the top of Half Dome where the other 20 dingos were ... the word D'oh sprang to mind.  Still we got some great photos of the Dome - as Tatham said "you can't take a photo of the dome while you're standing on the dome"  Both the official hike the Dome and the alternative hike-the-other-mountain-so-we-can-look-at-the-Dome were really impressive.

The magnificent view to Half Dome (at left) from the Tatham-Denyer-Dowle-Holmes Route.

Who would want to climb that thing anyway?

Tonight we head to LA to play the Santa Barbara Condors.  We are playing in the imposing sounding Patterson Football Fields at Occidental College ... playing on astroturf which will be unusual for many of the Dingos, but it is another challenge to be overcome and another scalp that we want to take on our pretour.

California Dreamin'

After swallowing the disappointment of the loss to JAM like a massive sea gherkin the Dingos got back on the wagon today with a convincing victory over another top quality US team - Revolver.  This is the other strong Bay Area team, made up with some Stanford college kids and some wiley old hands.  Dingos from the '04 Kaimana team will remember some of the guys who were on the Stanford team that beat us at that tournament.  Revolver has beaten JAM on a number of occasions this year and are looking to try to break into the semis at UPA nationals this year.

The Dingos were hungry for the game and bolted out of the gates with 3 defensive points in a row.  Blocks from Taylor, Matzuka and Holmes got the dogs on a roll and the Revolver offense was on the back foot.  The American's game was based around short, athletic handler types, relying on a couple of very fast receivers as their main go to guys but the monster Dingo defense was effective at shutting down all but the dinky little inside out throws that Seppo teams have come to love and use quite effectively.

In the second half, the Revolver lads had a bit of a comeback, generating some turns with hard running D, but generally the offensive juggernaut that is Dingo O rolled over the top.  Wavey Dave O'Brien had a really solid game, a couple of excellent "one pass" points where he hucked for goals.  Ant Dowle took some nice overhead grabs, Lavis and Tatham were strong all over the field.

Overall, an impressive rebound from yesterday's defeat and great to get the Dingos on the board with the first US scalp of the pre-tour.  

Even better than the win was the hospitality shown by our humbled hosts.  The Revolver lads turned out a massive feast of cold beer, steak, barbequed hotdogs and hamburgers, burritos filled with 24hr slow cooked pork tastiness ... mmmm slow cooked pork.  It was great to hang around after the game, chat to some of their players and eat some really fantastic food.  Nice work to all involved in that one.

We now have 48hrs of quality rest which will see us head to Yosemite National Park to hike "the Half Dome" before we head to Santa Barbara to play against the Condors.

san fran

Evening folks.

So we've been playing some ultimate here in San Francisco, but we've been doing some other stuff too.

We jumped off the plane and organised some vans to get around. Driving along the freeways north from the airport was a good way of taking in the lie of the land quickly. We arrived at the City College campus and threw the disc around on an artificial football field - very spongy. It is situated on the side of a hill and is open to a lot of wind. The temperature might have hit 15 degrees, but it felt more like 5 with the cool wind. Matt tried to explain the weather system hanging over the SF peninsula, but I didn't take it all in - something do do with hot air going up and cold air going down. So we've noticed that some spots in the bay area can be pretty cold, some areas pretty warm.

Later on Friday, our car (Owen, Dan, Joel and Ant and I) drove over to Golden State Park to play disc golf with Mike and Woody, our generous host. It is a permanent course in the middle of a huge and heavily wooded park. The course is a permanent addition to the park and well set up. It doesn't present the aquatic obstacles of the mac uni or queenscliff courses of Sydney, but was very challenging nonetheless. Pars were a rareity for us.

Saturday we drove to the city for some shopping before heading east over the bay bridge to Berkeley for an afternoon with Jam. Downtown Berkeley is pretty lively and welcoming. We shared a few pizzas and beers with the Jam lads (thanks Greg) before heading west again to the cooler climes of the city area. The night finished at Zeitgeist, a bar with a lot of character and patrons with an equally vibrant attitude.

More soon.

Game 1 - Pretour

Saturday 19th July 2008

Berkeley, California USA

After some earlier morning Golden Gate Bridge Gazing (or 'peering through the fog at a mass of cables hanging from the clouds' as it could more accurately be phrased) - the Holmes, Neild, Glover, Tatham, Lavis car unusually found itself at the fields before any other.  An unusual situation in anyone's book.

Tim Lavis "So what's the big deal about this bridge huh??"

The rest of the convoy arrived shortly after and before long our opposition:  San Francisco JAM arrived.  They had already called yellow for jersey colour, which suited us just fine as due to some form of "technical error" - see Gaia website for that one - we only had the green and green strip.  Still we looked mighty fine when we were all cleated up and ready to run.

JAM are a serious US team.  They made semi-finals at UPA nationals last year and are an established West Coast powerhouse.  

Dingos and JAM

The game began scrappily with some basic errors from both sides, and many of the Dingos looked like they had stepped off a 14hr flight yesterday ... which the majority of us had.  Things started to warm up when Tubby got a massive double handed high block between two seppos that took me back to the Yorsten block of 05 Nats final.  Our offense started clicking a bit better and we managed to take the first half 6-5 (halves being time capped at 45mins).  We decided to try out the Japanese zone we had been practiced, and with a high floaty pull and a hard run down, the JAM offense caught the disc, had a look at the zone, and called time out on stall 8 without throwing a pass.  The zone remains a work in progress, but certainly has potential to throw quality opposition off balance.

In the second half JAM begin applying greater pressure around the disc and on our downfield cutters.  Ken Shepherd was a standout, solid with disc in hand and two memorable 20-30m forehand into-the-wind forehand throws for goal.  Jonathan "Tats" Tatham came off the bench in the second half and was inspirational with his hard cutting and solid throws including a Newcastle special to Tim Lavis who skied some chump to take a very high goal.  

Things remained tight going point for point and before you knew it (well before this reporter/player realised it) it was timecap at JAM 11 - Dingos 10.  We finished the point with a score and it was game to 11.  I don't remember too much of the last couple of points, we made it to 12 all doublegame point and we were on D.  We came out on man and put a lot of pressure on every pass but a bladey hammer that split two dingos and somehow landed in the outstretched hands of a laying-out JAM player sealed the win for the locals.  

To say we were bitterly disappointed would be a gross understatement of the face Mike Neild gave me as we cooled down after the game.  Having said that, we were generally happy with how we played.  Our man-on-man defence was very strong across the board and the team is already starting to knit together into an even stronger unit.  

A highlight of the game today was the support from the Barramundis, who are in town and begin their pre-tour in the next couple of days.  It was fantastic to have some Aussie support on the sideline and it bodes well for Vancouver when there is going to be a massive Australian contingent.

Hospitality in San Fran has been sensational.  We contacted our billet by phone as we were driving to his address, the conversation went something like this:

Mike Neild - "So it's Mike from Australia here Seth ... how are you going"

Seth  " ........ "

Mike Neild "No.. no.. we're in San Fran now"

Seth "......"

Mike Neild "Yeah, so there's actually 5 of us ... not 3"

Seth "....."

Mike Neild "Well we were thinking of going out to dinner somewhere if you're keen to join us"

Seth "...."

Mike Neild ".....really"

Seth "...."

Mike Neild " ..... no ...  no none of us are Vegetarian"

Seth "...."

Mike Neild "well that sounds sweet, we'll see you in 20mins"

(hangs up)

Mike Neild - to the rest of the car - "so Seth's cooking us spicy sausage and rugala pasta sauce and we're all good to stay there."

Rest of car - "sweeeeeeet"

Dingos with wings

G'day folks

Its Saturday, its San Fransisco and its pretty exciting to be in town.

Over the last 48 hours the Dingos have said good bye to our family, friends and country to chase our Frisbee dreams.

We negotiated the 13 hour flight as individuals and small groups to arrive on Thursday and Friday up here in California. After a few individual detours we meet up as a team at the San Fransisco City College playing field for a team chat and throw around.

We are currently split up and staying with various members of the 2 teams that we will be playing this weekend. The generosity and hospitality of the international frisbee community is as always a pleasure to be on the receiving end of.

This afternoon we play our first tour game against West Coast powerhouse and 2007UPA semi final team San Fransisco JAM. We then have a match up on Sunday against the other top quality team here in town called Revolver.

We are eagerly anticipating these excellent opportunities to play as a team and build our confidence for the big show in early August.

We are all here safe and comfortable and looking forward to sharing some travel and frisbee stories soon.

Cheers

Mike

Dingo Tracks - June

G’day Dingo family and fans.

We are now within 40 days of the beginning of World Championships 2008 in Vancouver, and the Dingos have been working hard and growing strong.

During June we have been focussing on:

- nailing down our tactical systems and strategies

- getting all our injured teammates back onto the field

- continuing to build our strength and fitness

- and training as a team through a few warm up matches

The Dingos of 2008 feel like we are bringing a great mix of traditional well used strategies and some new and unseen systems to our Worlds campaign. Through the early weeks of June our defensive and offensive leadership groups finalised the range of tactics that we will use at Worlds. Throughout the month the team as a whole and our specific playing groups have been spending time gaining comfort and proficiency with these tactics.

Our Captain, Vice Captain and Coach have generated some exciting new systems that we hope will allow us to utilise our full playing strength to win games through intensity and running power.

In June our Captain Pottsy and our Vice Captain Hollywood Dowle both returned to the playing list in games against other teams. These two leaders have added much to the team dynamic both through their playing ability and their presence in huddles and during key moments in games. At our last training camp on the 21^st and 22^nd of June we warmed up as a group of 23 players and our 24^th was bouncing around on the side line so much that I’m sure we’ll see Tats back throwing bombs to the team within the next 2 weeks.

As we approach the end of the month the Dingos are increasing our focus on strength, speed and power. All the players are adding in additional plyometric power sessions, and we anticipate this helping us to improve our performance over the duration of the tournament. There are Dingos all over the country from Perth to Adelaide, down to Melbourne, Ballarat and Canberra, up through Wooloongong, Sydney, Newcastle and Brisbane. We are all out on cold (coldish up here in Brissy) winter nights running around tracks and drilling our bodies. We are working hard and felling strong.

During June we were fortunate to play a series of games as a team against both the Australian Masters team, the Australian Masters team including some current Barramundis and ex Dingos and last weekend the New Zealand Open team in a Worlds length (17 points, 100 mins) game.

We are very grateful for these opportunities to play games as a full squad and are confident that June as been a good month for our development as a team. Special thanks to the Kiwi boys who travelled over with half a team to play some intense games with us and the Taipan boys.

June has been a good month, we are fitter and strong than we were a month ago. We have better systems and are more comfortable with our strategies. Some highlights we are looking forward to in the next month will be hitting the Australian team Gala dinner in Sydney on the 5^th of July, spending a few weeks putting a cap stone on our physical training at home and then heading over to the states for a 2 week pre tour.

Thanks for reading folks, and thanks for your support. Continue to keep up to date with the Dingos here at our blog

Or at our new web site at http://sites.google.com/site/australiandingos/Home

Cheers

Mike

Dingo Tracks - May

The Australian Mens Ultimate Frisbee Team Monthly Newsletter – May

May is a big month for the Dingo boys:

- We recovered from Nationals where the majority of us played four days of mud churning Frisbee.

- We have 2 training camps in Sydney during May, 1 at the start and 1 at the end.

- We also participated in the first of two National Ultimate Frisbee League (NUFL) events which was also held in Sydney.

- We played our first game together as the 2008 Dingo team, very exciting and a great opportunity.

- On top of this action all the boys participated in their own local team and personal training program.

Its all been happening, we are building.

One of the exciting aspects of the first camp at the beginning of May was the return of our two internationally inclined Dingos, Brett Matzuka and Andrew Glover both returned home from overseas in time for this training camp. Brett arrived back in the country on Saturday morning in time to chime in with a few great blocks during the second session.

Aside from the large number of blokes who finished the weekend on the sideline through injury issues this was a great camp. Some good strategy development occurred and we spent some quality time exploring our nutritional and psychological preparation under the tutelage of T. Booth. I think I would have been alright in the visualisation session if Tim didn’t keep telling us it was alright if something strange happened like a pink elephant arrived at the visualised game. As it was I had to keep catching forehand bombs over some gun elephant playing for Germany.

NUFL 1 provided the best 80 men in the country with an opportunity to play against each other while representing their club teams in a round robin style tournament. The Dingos where on show at this event playing for both their local club teams and in a Saturday afternoon showcase game against an All Star team composed of top quality players from the Mixed team and other great players from around the country.

The game was very tight in the first half with the All Stars getting up early with some excellent long connections before the Dingos steadied to take the half by 1. The second half had the Dingos switching right on and running out to win the game with only another point or two put on against them. We are very grateful for this opportunity to play as a team and look forward to a rematch at NUFL 2.

Our final camp during May is this weekend and it promises to be a fast and furious 2 days. Our Defensive and Offensive leadership teams have been solidified and have now created a series of team structures that we will continue to refine over the next 66 days. Most players are deep into their fitness programs and I anticipate a lot of speed and strength to be on display on the field.

With the last 2 weeks having seen some passionate and strong words from our team leadership and some inspirational visual and verbal stories from team members we are all very focussed on completing May with high intensity and dedication to our team mates and our team.

Thanks for reading and continue to follow us on our push towards Vancouver and some good things.

Cheers

Mike

NUFL 2008 – Let loose the (dingo) dogs of war

OK - so I just saw Owen's post. I still stand by my comments below which were written before I'd seen what he put up.

With less than 24hrs before the first NUFL game things are really starting to heat up in the preparation for Worlds. The five teams for NUFL 1 – Country, Barefoot, Fakulti, HoS and Firestorm are all very strong squads and each will be led from the front by a posse of bristling Dingos.

One of the ongoing challenges facing the Dingos in the lead up to Vancouver is the ability to play against quality opposition as a full squad. This was demonstrated quite graphically at the training camp last weekend when, despite the fact that this was the first time we had the full pack of 24 dingos together, by the end of the weekend there were only 16 fit dogs on the paddock.

Tomorrow afternoon will be a great opportunity for the men’s team as a Dingos-Allstars game is scheduled for 3pm. This promises to be a cracking match. It will be the first opportunity for the ’08 dingos to play together as a full squad, the majority of the men from the Mundis will have a hit out against their Dingo cousins, and just to add a little spice there will be quite a few players who narrowly missed out on both teams and will have plenty to prove.

The Allstars haven’t been selected yet, but here is my take on what the team could look like going off who has been registered on the afda tourney page:

Mundis: Al Don, JD, Adam Mortimer, Seb Barr, James Yorston.

A bit light on from the Mundis (Tex? Chilly/SA boys??), but these four should provide a solid base for the All Stars. JD is always a pain to mark, Al will be stepping it up and representing as you would expect from a newly elected Australian Captain, Seb and Adam will be generating a lot of the handler movement around the disc.

Best of the Rest:

Likely team members – Woodly, Cletus, Reuben, Jimmy T-H, Sacha Vidler, Tom Tulett, John McNaughton, Tom Watson, Fatty Faulkner, Kai, P Liddicoat.

I’m sure there will be a few other players out there on the team, but I reckon the above could do the job adequately (ie put up a bit of resistance and then roll over for the Dingo humping they were destined to get). The HoS boys – Wood, Rueben and Cletus along with Jimmy “n’ankles” Todd Hill will give some needed height to the Allstars and it will be good to see them tussling with the big Dingos like Ant Dowle, Tatham and Mike Nield. There is certainly plenty of speed with Fatty, Twatson, Kai “Quads” Wing Young and Yorston all quick across the turf. Cupcake, Johnny Mac and PLiddy will bolster the handling skills alongside the Mundi lads. Sacha Vidler will inject some much needed venom (verbal, physical and spiritual) into the Allstars and you can be sure he’ll be keeping the Dingo defenders on their toes.

There are a bunch of players here who must have only just missed out on a spot on either one of the rep teams and I’m expecting big games from them. Tom Watson apparently tore it up as a punching bag against the Mundis last weekend so watch out for him. Likewise, Rueben, Woodly and Johnny Mac should be fired up for the contest.

Keep your eye out for the mouth-watering explosive powder-keg of a Liddicoat v. Liddicoat match up. Mmmmm powder-keg. Other match-ups that will be good to see will be Johnny Mac v. Hobbit, Glover v. Quads, Lavis v. Don and Fatty v. whoever is holding the disc.

This should be a really impressive game. I’m expecting a close and hard fought first half, but the Dingos will pull away in the second half and should win 15-9 if you want me to put a figure on it. To see if I’m wrong, come down to Centennial Park at 3pm Saturday May 17^th.

See you there,

Jonno.

PS The above smack talk and posturing is all speculation. I have no idea who will be on the All-star teams so sorry if I’ve offended or missed anyone. If you want some personal smack talk, come see me any time you like.

First game together

The Dingos are well into their 2008 campaign.

We have our first game as a team this weekend. The Dingos will be playing an All-Star game during the NUFL1 tournament.

The All-Star team should be a great opposition with many Barramundis and up-coming talents on board.

The Dingos are aiming to put into practise their tactics, role structure, playing time management, and sideline noise.

Spectators are welcome to attend: 3pm Saturday at Centennial Park, Soccer Field 3 (this is at the western side of the Park, on Grand Dr).

The All-Star team is:
Al Don (Captain)
John Damiani
John McNaughton
Max Wheeler
Adam Mortimer
Nick Renwick
Seb Barr
James Yorston
Lachlan McDonald
Mark Isherwood
Sam Schroeder
Stephen Johnson
Kai Young
Matt Faulkner
Rueben Berg
Stu Austin

We can only hope the All-Star team has a better uniform than the Dream Team that played Victoria in the AFL tribute match last weekend.

The Dingo April Newsletter

The Dingos started April by finishing March, and we finished March with a 2 day training camp in Sydney. This was our first official training camp post selection, we did manage to fit in a cheeky bonding camp during February however this time the cleats were out and there were no sand dunes, ping pong tables or clay blow pipes in sight.

We had a number of administrative tasks to knock over during the training camp and we successfully completed the following:

elected Matt Dowle to be our vice captain and work with our previously elected captain Jonathon Potts

welcomed our new coach Rueben Berg to the Dingo team

voted on a couple of Kenny’s uniform options (the green shorts look to be the go this time around)

made some key decisions about our pre-tour of the states, 2 weeks in San Fran, Vegas and Colorado hopefully playing some great U.S. teams

discussed some extra support team members who will join us on our pre-tour and at the tournament. Alex Chadwick, Emma Booth and a yet to be appointed local North American physiotherapist will all be involved with getting the team physically and mentally prepared to play at our peak during late July and August

shared progress with our individual training goals from March and outlined our personal focus areas for the month of April.

One of the things of note that came from the camp for me was that everyone there over the weekend felt like a Dingo. At the bonding camp back in February there were rookies and returning players, leaders and learners – all selected to play for Australia however not all yet Dingos. On the field and during team discussions at the first training camp all the blokes there held the same value as Dingos, we all carry the hopes and prospects of each other, we all need to believe and work hard to succeed. It’s was a good feeling.

Since the start of April the Dingos have been back in their regional areas building for Worlds (and Nationals on the side) in their own special way. The gimps have been getting to know their Swiss balls better, many blokes have been in the gym (or the park with big rocks) working on their cores, rotators and extensors, the track sessions have started and training reports have been going up on the training blog and spreadsheet.

It is a little hard to be fully focussed on either worlds or nationals during April, as I think most of us have the attention of our hearts and minds split a little on each (the proportion may depend on how competitive your nationals team is). None the less if you are watching you will see the vast majority of the Australian Mens team working hard down in Coffs Harbour next weekend.

• Steve and Tim will making it happen Wollongong style.
• Paul will be cutting all weekend I expect with the Sublime boys.
• Anthony, Matthew, Pete and Ken will be running lessons on field 1 with Fakulti.
• Abra, Gus, Gav and Dave will welcome Tubs back on the Barefoot team thanks to some focussed rehab of his damaged knee (frisbee lifestyle injury I think).
• Jonno will be involved in a kind of imposing Canberra team, explain that.
• Tim, Chris and Tats will be doing the business for the I beam boys.
• John L will be defending the national title with one of the two Chilly teams.
• I’ll be seeing what we can get out of the youth (Frisbee wise, not age wise) of Queensland on a Firestorm team.
• Joel is hopeful of being back on the field and leading Karma from the front.
• Dan and Owen will be working desperately to defend their number 1 seeding with Heads of State.
• Brett and Andrew are currently overseas and so will be drinking protein shakes, running around in circles and throwing forehands into the wind somewhere.
• And Pottsy will be coaching the Newcastle women and doing a lot of swimming in order to get his ankle right and keep his enthusiasm to play managed.

So that is the Dingos in April, we’ve been training, thinking, I know I had at least 1 dream, and generally laying the ground work for what we hope will be a great year of achievement for our team, and all the Australian teams heading over to the World Ultimate and Guts Championships 2008.

Thanks for reading. We’ll be back with some more news in May.

The Dingos will see you at Nationals.

Mike