Prophetic Bananas

Recovering from man flu and still suffering from a swollen ankle, I found myself watching tonight's game vs Mellow Yellow instead of playing. I devoured 2 bananas from the sideline in a hopeful prophetic display of our dominance over yellow.

AO got off to a poor start: 3-8
Then brought it back: 9-11
Mellow finished strongly to win: 11-13

AO Man of match: Dave (ran a lot! including a sprint for a point saving D. plus his regular aerial displays.)

Starky mentioned that perhaps if my bananas had been prophetic, I should be expecting a stomach ache later this evening.

Disheads are gonna get it

According to the BUML draw Heroes tonight are playing against "Disheads", and my prediction is that Discheads will get pantsed 17 - 0. Now I'm not entirely sure how to pronounce Disheads, is it Dish Heads or is it more like Diss Heads?

Urban Dictionary defines a dishead as "A person that abuses ecstacy" and another Google search returned a bible verse from Mark 6 "The man went, beheaded John in the prison, and brought back his head on a platter." Either way, neither of these give me the impression that Disheads stand a chance against the mighty Heroes tonight.

Got smack talk? Sound off in the comments below.

Thrustfest Needs You!

Thrusfest is the 'hat' one day tournament hosted by Griffith Nathan Ultimate Frisbee Club. 'Hat' means that there are no set teams going into the day and instead teams are assigned at the start of the day. This gives a good chance to play some fun frisbee with others from the disc community and hopefully some competitive games.

It is being held Saturday 21 August from 9am-5pm at the Griffith Afl ground (same as Monday night BUML) and is likely to only cost $20 for the whole day, with lunch included. Apparantly there only 15 or so people currently registered and they need to at least double it by Tuesday or else it will have to be cancelled. For more details check out http://www.griffithultimate.org/ and to register go to http://www.afda.com/rego/showteam.php?teamid=8124

With the Heroes Club looking to host our own tournament some time in the not too distant future it would be great to see as many people as possible come out and support this fantastic endeavor. This would be another chance to spread some of the Heroes spirit and get some more experience.

Skins Sale

If you've always dreamed about having skins but always looked at the price and gone, nope.

Check this out - half price skins...
http://www.torpedo7.com.au/content/productpicks/division/bike/skins_sale

New poll question: explanations to + or - choice comment forum open

comment with reasons for or against the positive or negative impacts for your vote

Wind Training

Tonight the new-look BPL mens team took on another new-look Cobras outfit.
Being a windy night, I copped a couple of throws in the face as the disc turned vertical in a gust on wind at the last moment.. this was before the game!

We had a warm-up game with Cobras agreeing to play 3 possessions at a time. We tried some 2-3-2, and O was frustrating in the gale force wind! The most pleasing thing is that the opposition also found it hard and would turn over the disc often.

Promising signs include Rick's work-ethic and great timing (a nice flick too to Matt in the end zone on Abra), and the way Matt injected himself into the game.

Carl made a war-speech about spirit. He was right. This season we have to play like we believe we are good enough to be there, and to fight out every point and back each other up. We need the fire!

Training will continue on Sunday at 3pm, Sylvan Rd for all. Matt will be running some skill drills.

Dischead's Match Report

Well it's that time again and I've managed to find a few spare moments (I've actually had loads of time, just lazy) to do up a match report for this weeks game. As you can see the title to this post is rather lacklustre and in all honesty I just could not think of anything clever to write about a 9-9 draw with Baby Chimis. Puns, jokes, and little quips all escaped me. So i'll cut my losses and move onto the "Match Report".

This Monday saw the Discheads outfit don their brand new jerseys and although my opinion is heavily biased, we did look amazing! The new jerseys definitely had an effect on player morale as everyone was pretty excited to get into the game. We lost the first point but quickly strung a few points together to be up 3-1 fairly early on. From that point on we traded points to 6-4. We were playing fairly comfortably and working well on Offence. During this time however, Bri strained her groin and our girl numbers were reduced to 3 ((we already had a girl pick-up Rachel (who played awesomely!)). Needless to say our girls were getting a bit tired and our passes and cutting game were beginning to falter. Baby Chimis clawed their way back into the game to jump to a 7-6 lead.

At this stage Bri valiantly offered to play in a handling role to ease the burden on the girls. This was a courageous move on her part and although playing through the pain she managed to handle really well and Discheads regained some composure to put on a few more points. Last possession was called at 9-9 and thankfully we were in possession of the disc. Baby Chimis played a really hard game and truely looked as though they had run away with this game. A shout out to Bev who as always led from the back (even though sometimes he wishes he could spend more time chasing down discs in the end zone =p).

Well done to everyone on Discheads as we once again showed that we are a competitive team in the top pool of this division! Go Discheads!

OffThePitch with a loveable ranger

Today’s OnThePitch is quite a few years overdue.
We took a moment after halibut to sit down and hope into bed with the Heroes numero-uno to get his opinion of the current mob of heroes. We caught Huddy feeling a bit off and under the weather...  and the sheets.
Me: G’day Huddy, c’mon move over...
Huddy:  sure... (A moment of awkwardness)... I'm still feeling like c***;  I just got into bed :(, so I've got plenty of time for this interview
Me:  oh really... geez, it’s knocking you about
Huddy:  has a bit. Doesn’t matter, I'll drug myself up, and hit the field hard on Sunday :) (I'm playing in Melbourne)
Me:  oh gosh, you certainly get about mate and totally glad to hear that you’re getting into bed to sleep and prepare for another ultimate tournament. (Readers should know that Huddy came down ill with this same batch of sickness at last week’s Halibut)
So tell me about this Melbourne tourney?
Huddy:  It's a one day Kings and Queens Hat tournament run by Monash uni. It’s a hat, but the teams change every game, and the winner is the individual woman, and individual guy with the most number of wins.
Me:  Hey that’s a cool concept; we might consider that for the Heroes hat tournament that’s in the planning stages at the moment. Would you be willing to lend your support behind that?
Huddy:  :D I love how keen everyone is, and will support just about anything. I'm happy to do whatever I can to help, given that's a bit limited being in Tassie.
Me:  whilst we're speaking about tournaments, how did you find Halibut this year?
Huddy:  It was good! Although smaller than I remember from 07, but a lot of fun.  I loved playing with Heroes again, even if I've only played with 3 of you before, and I see a lot of positive signs in the team. I'd love to sink my teeth into some of the finer points of skill improvement in the team. Give me a few hours and I reckon I can improve most people's throws and game play. More than anything else, it got me enjoying ultimate again, which I haven't done for a while
 Me:  I guess the cold Tassie climate can be a dampener down there: P. so how does the current mob of heroes compare to the first team you fielded?
 Huddy:  less rag-tag :). Having you, Gav, and Bev helps a lot with the skill/general sportiness. The first team was thrown together with whoever we could get, so to see some talented people playing for Heroes now is very pleasing. I guess the big difference is the focus. The first team was tacked together with a core of 3 of us, Lauren Me and Matt, and then whoever else we could find. The first few seasons our personnel changed regularly, so we couldn't get any sort of continuity. Then I handed over to Danny, and wasn't sure what would happen, but he got all of his mates involved and has done a much better job of making it what it is today than I could have.
Me:  Yes Danny and Sean are the modern day grandfathers of the club, without those two we wouldn’t be here. Well with the development of the club are you happy with the naming of the incredible HUC?
Huddy:  It's a good name, I like it.  I think that Captain Sam would've been appropriate, as the original was drawn by Sam Challis, but The Incredible HUC is a worth name as well.
 Me:  well the HUC stands for Heroes Ultimate Club - so we thought it fit rather well too
 Huddy:  Ah! Now I get it. That is good!
 Me:  You've made your aspirations quite well known about seeing heroes in other competitions, can you tell us about that?
Huddy:  I love Heroes.  I put everything I had into it when I was in Brisbane, and made sure the name was just "Heroes" rather than "Huddy's Heroes" as it was at the start, so that the name would continue.  I love the idea of tradition, and having Heroes built on ideals of Effort and Spirit above all else- and continuing to play with these ideals- makes me love the club even more. The idea of playing at WUCC actually came when I heard that the club was planning to incorporate.  It was at a time when I was mad-keen to play more and higher level Ultimate, and when I thought of it, the following thought was "why not?"   On top of all that, I want to stay involved with something that is great.  Although I started the team way back when, and seem to have a somewhat undeserved mythic status, it's through Danny, Sean’s and Carl's hard work (and probably other people I'm not aware of) that the club is what it is today, and I'm greedily being as much a part of it as I possibly can.
With Danny getting his friends involved, the club now has much greater social cohesion, and this change in focus, coming together to play together rather than being thrown together by happenstance, is what I think really started the club feel.
 Me:  Huddy that’s very philosophical... ok lets now have a look at the real Huddy, as it were
 Huddy:  ha! Okay.
 Me:  Apart from throwing a disc, what is your favourite buzz?
Huddy:  I'm currently saving up to buy a hang-glider. My Ultimate trips are slowing this saving down, but I'll get there soon enough.  Apart from that, I like multi-day hiking, reading, cooking.  I'm primarily studying med so that I can support my sporting, cooking, and book habits.
 Me:  nice that’s awesome!  Ok name five things that you hate?
Huddy:  Hate hey? Well I hate people writing "could of" as opposed to "could've or could have"
I have a lot of trouble tolerating intolerance
Med Students Gall me
People discarding cigarette butts, and I'd have to finish with people who want to lose weight from a pill.
That was a hard one though!
Me:  ha-ha love it. Alright this one is a little closer. It is common knowledge that you are a ranger, no offense. So all the readers out there have asked me to ask you; have you ever dyed your hair?
Huddy:  hahahaha! Twice. When I was 17, I thought it might be funny to go blonde. It was funny, but not in the way I thought.  Then I dyed my hair black for a "Doctors and Nurses" dress up party in 02, when I went as Dr Spock.  That one washed out though.
Me:  ha-ha if you’ve got pictures we'd love to see that. Ok 2 more questions. What did your teachers say about you in your school reports?
Huddy:  In primary school I was well loved, and my teachers all thought highly of me. As I moved into high school, I still thought highly of me, but recognised quickly that I wasn't terribly motivated.  Generally it was comments like "Huddy is a quiet, conscientious student who thinks of others. A Pleasure to teach."
 Me:  yea I guess id believe that, well you’d want to hope your doctor had reports like that... one last one. What’s the most embarrassing mistake you’ve ever made?
Huddy:  the really embarrassing ones I've managed to blot from my memory.  I know there's a couple of bad ones in there, but I honestly can't recall.  I guess one of the best would be tearing my hamstring doing the splits on the dance floor at a wedding.  I managed to cover it up, but when I told my then girlfriend, she found it very entertaining. Apparently the Mother of the Bride still talked about it years later.
Me:  ahaha yea that’s quite good, I imagine that hurt too
Huddy: well it was only a small tear but it hurt enough to stop me from dancing.
Me: maybe it was just a sign from above :P

Me: And with that Huddy immediately kicked off the sheets, stood up, kicked a chair over and stormed out of the room. And that was the end of the interview. I don’t know readers, you can’t seem to have a joke with these Tasmanian red heads...
**Note: Huddy was not actually present at the interview and said chair did not exist. Parts of the end of this interview may have been edited for theatrical effect and presentation.
**2nd Note: Huddy was indeed sick, but more than willing to have a joke

KinderSurprise

I'm sorry for the rotten 'bad egg' analogies throughout this post but ill do my best to crack some jokes for you too. Last nights action saw heroes take the line against the poachers and if you'll remember last game it was a close fought match, in fact what we got was a bit of a kinder surprise as it were...

the game started much like last week, where we could do all but score for the first few minutes. Certainly our D was working very well, we had them pinned to their endzone for perhaps 4 possessions, but we just couldn't score. Kinda frustrating considering they were playing with 6 as well. But in the end we SCORED. 1-0. Our good defensive manD continued to reign supreme and we got a turn over with some nice blocks. 3-0. We didnt know what was happening, we were all over them, in contrast to our last game. Yes they were missing a few key players, but last time their whole team seemed fairly well drilled, for want of a better word.

Poachers put some rather good passes together to get a nice huck from Dan B to Theo to score which was maybe their only highlight from the first half. 3-1. From here Heroes extended their lead out to 8-1 with just good strong manD and towards the end a tough zone too. We offered to take back own zone and go to man again, a sediment that was remembered from last game when Poachers offered the same to us. In the same pattern poachers were able to get back into the game, with a handy pick up (Chaddy). They brought the game back to 10-5 in the end, but a bit of a case of too little too late. Personally I don't like winning games like this in our div2 league but the sentiment in the circle after the game was that it was spirited & lots of fun being had.
Shout out to all of our players last night, we didnt once score on a huck and where able to smoothly pass the disc around and control it, well done on that team.

Croft's goes down as Dstrel questions training surface

Ala Mick Malthouse and other annoying know-it-alls of the AFL, I see it as my duty to draw attention to the sub-par condition of our beloved Wests training oval. After asking out loud "What the f*#< is up with my ankles?!?", it was brought to my attention that a number of us pulled up sore after Sunday's session. Dave was complaining (no alarms and no surprises please) of ankle soreness, as was James. Could this have contributed to Gav's demise tonight and Luke "all" Star(ks) injury the week prior. For the sake of sensationalist media, the latter case must be considered, and the fact that Luke doesn't train on this ground should be disregarded entirely.

Who else has problems with the surface? Should we consider Oakman?

That is all.

AyyOhh

AO tonight recorded their first win since the pools were split!! Hooray. More importantly we played some good disc. It was nice to see the under cuts working for a change and their was a breif period where it looked like the dump-swing-score was going to be the new Agent move (as opposed to the regular hammer-to-the-middle-of-the-pack-in-the-endzone which hasn't worked all season). That only lasted a point or two though and we were back to our classic form throwing risky throws (a couple of which stuck for a change, but most ended up hitting the ground).

Cougars played well too, but dropped easy grabs far too often in the early stages. Huge endzone grabs coming from Tim and Ads for them.

Shout outs for AO to Vanessa, Dan, and James. Personally I think however we are all still playing less skillfully than we are capable. Things are on the up though. (Including injuries - Starky is recovering from a twisted ankle while I did mine tonight - it's swollen up big time!)

AO 9 def. Cougars 7

Heroes All-Star(k)s

The Heroes All-Stars will be representing the club at the:
Brisbane Indoor Ultimate Championships
This is the second year of its running but the first for the Heroes club (we'll win the team of the year yet!)

Date: Wednesday 11 August 2010 (Ekka Public Holiday)
Time: Doors Open at 10.15am – Game on at 11am – All done by 4pm
Venue: Clem Jones Centre, Zahel St entrance, Carina (same as last year) Look for the entrance next to the softball fields (the pool entrance will be closed).
What: For Brisbane folks, Indoor Ultimate is something different, but its more common in those parts of the world with snow. It’s a great change of pace – very fast, no wind, and even beginners can throw from endzone to endzone.
Who: Get your team together and get registered – space is limited! Roster size is maximum 8 players. 5 on the court at one time, max. three per gender.
How much? $130 per team – includes courts, insurance, prizes. Or $18 per individual.

**Note: Stealing from other peoples blogs is a crime, but in this instance I felt JDR wouldnt mind.
Heroes are probably looking good for numbers with 7 players, but if you're a girl and interested, drop Luke Stark an email and organize to play

Counting the history

Just before Halibut, the Incredible HUC and I were thinking... I know right! - I was actually thinking. Wouldn't it be cool to find out how many have gone before us to serve and protect, to fight for justice and the ultimate way. So both myself and the Incredible HUC mossied on further into the secret hideout and tripped over some boxes (its dark in that cave... oH i've said to much).

Here's the list of all the heroes that have been and come before the current players.
Heroes # 

1    Huddy Fuller 
2    Matt Rudorfer
3    Lauren Kunde
4    Josh Rubenstein
5    Danny Strelan
6    Jared Pukallus
7    Nathan Litzow
8    Lindsey Parsons
9    Sean Mailander
10    Kneel Purdy
11    Stewart Gormal
12    Jacinta Oudyn
13    Name Removed at individuals request
14    Tom Daley
15    Kevin Chuang
16    Jemma Regan
17    Sarah Marthe
18    David Benfer
19    Peter Melling
20    Sebastian brown
21    Meagan Bulley
22    Alana folkes
23    Luke Stark
24    Michael Strelan
25    Alex Thompson
26    Kathleen Watt
27    Aaron Webber
28    Bradley Applegate
29    Carl Behrendorff
30    Jules Christie
31    Kelly Freyling
32    Andrew Goldstiver
33    Emily Goldstiver
34    George Salisbury
35    Hector Alveal
36    Laura Hampel
37    Amy Wong
38    Branislav Antonijevic
39    Lauren Hutton
40    Cristian Mocanu
41    Laura Sonter
42    Tenille Ashdown
43    Christopher Brown
44    Candice Croft
45    Gavin Croft
46    Tom Naulty
47    Jo Ashdown
48    Brianna Fyffe
49    Lisa Hirsimaki
50    Bevan Rudolph
51    Matthew Schultz
52    Sarah Thompson
53    Katie Truss
54    Craig Behrendorff
55    Justin Modra
56    Chantelle Smith
57    Adam Beu
58    Dustin Czok
59    Christopher Fox
60    Juan Guerrero
61    Myall Hingee
62    James Morrell
63    Paul Sanguinetti
64    Vanessa Brown
65    Stephanie Moroz
66    Chloe Nielsen
67    James Ryan
68    Adam Busby
69    Adilia Murabito
70    Adam Dowley
71    Brenton Mottershead
72    Adam Baker
73    Karen Hartmann
74    Tatiana Maya
75    Andrew McCasker
76    Omar Medina
77    Melissa Dodd
78    Danielle Raftopoulos
79    Misa Ushikubo
80    Robyn Parkinson
81    Cameron West
82    Josh Weir
83    Andrew Beencke

84    Alex 'Chaddy' Chadwick

85    Helen Warning

86    Buzz

87    Peter Allen

88    Matt Stubbs

89    Matt boevink

90    Juan

91    Suzanne Facy

92    Sandra Poon

Ok so we have 80 92 individual players whom have at least registered on a AFDA nominated heroes team. This is impressive. And this will only grow!
Other random facts:
- First Heroes team established in c2007 and named "Huddys Hereos"
- Danny Strelan and Sean Mailander are the grandfathers of the team having played in every season since the first team was entered as Huddys Heroes.
- Famous names inc: Nathan Litzow (original player - who would have known?), Andrew Goldstiver, Emily Goldstiver, George Silent Salisbury, TomSteve [BPL MVP ;-)] Jangles (adam beu)

(Disclaimer - Ive checked and re-checked that their are no double ups of names but if a mistake is found let us know cause we want to get it right. Also I know some might have been playing for heroes before others but the numbers go by the official registrations as per AFDA, so if you weren't organized enough to sign up to that, that's why you might have a higher Heroes number. Any new players will now be added to the bottom of the list, this goes for players who might come before others and we did not know about them. I don't want to re-assign individual lifetime heroes numbers, purely cause I'm #29 and I can only remember one number.)

Keep in the know

Ok for all those things Heroes Club related that dont get posted on the blog, please feel free to sign up to the Heroes-Ultimate Google group. This will include training info, tournament info and parties.

heroes-ultimate@googlegroups.com

Expect to be able to read emails from the club and get yourself in the know. This is especially good for all those newer members to the club and then now when people say they didn't know about things, there will be a reason (its cause you're not signed up to the group!)

Discheads leak

Discheads unveiled their new logo with more new 'material' to be unveiled next week on Monday night. Their late press release was called by co-captain Jo
"The team is proud of the new logo and hopes that it can bring some new spark to the Discheads"
By all reports this announcement was months in the making but rumours still circluate on the whereabouts of their new uniforms. Inside sources point towards a further announcement in the coming week.

Dischead's Date with Destiny

Last night we embraced the challenge of our first match in the top pool of Division 2 BUML. Our opponents were ExQuIsItE, who we always knew would be very challenging. After an awesome weekend at the Halibut tournament a number of our members were a little sore but also very keen to get back out on the field and play!

The opening few points were really long with neither team being able to stamp their ascendancy on the game. We traded points to 3-3 before eXqUiSiTe pushed ahead and called a time out with an advantage of 8-3. To our credit, after the break we came back fighting hard and managed to trade points to 10-5, which was also the final score of the match. Windy, cold conditions made handling and catching very difficult but more often then not we managed to make smooth passes and good grabs. Hopefully next time we play ExQuIsItE we can give them a real run for their money!

Well done everyone!

p.s our jerseys will probably be ready for our next game! (fingers crossed)

Halibut's Heroes Wrapup

Halibut was run and won over the weekend. Heroes to our credit surprised many with the performances we put in for our first tournament for many of our players. We did have the tougher side of the draw with both winners and runners up in it (John Doe & Bryon Bay). We managed to put some good plays together across the entire tournament and definitely progressed as a team throughout our 6 games. Every person on the line contributed as well which is not meant as a 'nice' thing to say, but really every person really did their parts, esp our girls on the second day. Adilia challenged them to step up to the boys performances on the Saturday and they responded very well.
Quick wrap of our games went like this:
Mr burns casino
7-15
-came out firing winning 2-0
-they got organized and got 3-2
-won half 8-4
-we managed to say in there but conseded to many turn overs

Barrel of Monkeys
3-15
-by far worst game
-windy and annoying

John Doe
2-15
-team of super stars and eventual winners of Halibut
-scoring against them meant alot considering our bottom of the standings rivals were pantsed (didnt score)
-we played exceptionally well on d and it took a lot of great throws for them to score, i wouldnt say they ran straight through us, we put a fight up believe it or not

Bryon Bay Ultimate
5-15
-other grand final team
-morning after party...
-best spirited game of all
-post-game spirit game, clothes came off, people got naked, lines of clothes got sent across the field, fun was had.

Fish and Discs
11-9
-fiercely competitive with evenly matched players across the board
-time capped game
-we were strong in the 1st half
-they came back at us in the second
-scores at 9-7 time cap is called and game to 11
-9-8, 10-8, 10-9 and finally 11-9 win

Slamtown
6-15
-last game and everyone's legs were dead
-game of handlers
-traded points early to be 4-4 and 'had them scared'
-they got 2 injuries one little toe/foot problem and one badly jarred finger
-their skill and class began to shine through our tired bodies but we had a fun game
-we kept up with them in the first half but fell away in the second

BUT the most talked about aspect of the heroes was our spirit prizes, here is a sample of what we gave out to the opposition captain and best spirited players.

Superheroes Div 1

Last night superheroes played against Wushi. I dont really remember to much of the game. Heres what happened. They started with 5 players. We started on D. Came down with zone. got the D and scored. They scored 1-1. They found they're other players. Scored a few more times. We scored with a huck from Carl to Danny and then the assist from Danny to (Laura???). Then this happened

and then this happened...

i think this summed our game up fairly well as only pictures can. We just dropped the disc far to often and made sure to do it close to Wushi's endzone. We are a team better than our performances suggests, kinda like the Lions this year. One day we'll get it together. The club welcomed Robyn to for her first Heroes match. Congratulations Robyn! (also a new recruit to Agent Orange)

Final score something like 17-3(maybe more not sure)

re-match

the closely fought traditions of both the heroes club and the Dyspnoeics club was again exploited to give a rather close win to Heroes. With the windy conditions last night wreaking havoc early on the green side of things the first point took ages. By memory I think both sides dropped a total of 3 endzone catches before the first score was finally caught by LauraDhampel in the endzone with the assist made by Carl to make it a sweet behrendorff-point to get started (we call it a BP). The rest of the game played out in the same fashion, although both teams did manage to adjust to the wind quite well it must be said. Heroes got a few break ups early and stretched our lead out to 6-3.
Time out was called as a sudo half time and both teams certainly enjoyed a bit of a longer timeout break than normal. Our super hero intelligence spies reported that Dyspnoeics abstractly utilized some water bottles and constructed the blue prints of a zone play, unfortunately the secret spies mission ran late and we only got the info when we took O next point. Their well constructed cup crashed our O and they were able to draw some errors in our play (this is something we need to work on in future weeks). So the cup and the wind lead to some stone cold drops and throw aways. Dyspnoeics scored the next point, last possession was then called during the next point and all of a sudden the game finished 6-5 to Heroes.
Big shout out to Sean, Mikey and Tomsteve for good handling considering the conditions plus having very sore legs from Halibut.

Super Heroes Div1 tongiht

Contrary to what we all believed and was announced at Halibut, Superheroes indeed have a game on tonight:
2/08/10 Wushi Vs SuperHeroes @ Annerley 3a

Div2 games are as the BUML draw as usual