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.