Heroes out and about

During the leagues take the summer break, several Heroes have been busting their guts training with Firestorm. For the uninitiated, or those that just dont know/care, Firestorm is Brisbane's Elite Ultimate Club thats central activity is to play at the elite level at Nationals. Involved in achieving this are several tournaments during the season, like the Sydney-Melbourne Open, Northern and Eastern Regionals, the Brisbane-Canberra Invitational and ultimately Nationals in April (22nd- 25th).

The first representitive team has been selected with the includion of a few Heroes members for the Sydney-Melbourne Open. These boys are noneother than Sebastian and Chris Brown. Huge props to these boys! The club should feel very proud to have these boys in our ranks.

The Sydney-Melbourne Open is held during 17th and 18th of Feburary, in Sydney.

Browntown Takes One In The End Zone!!

After scoring early, Heroes fell asleep on the sideline and on-field with some uninspiring play and sloppy marking, allowing Slamtown to huck to unexpected receivers. Heroes were down 4-1.

With a demand to improve on the basics (completions, aka throwing and catching) and a request for more sideline talk, the quality of play lifted. A few Jangles to Bevan plays came off and Adam D went on to have a blinder, beginning with some hard puppy pressure to force throw aways. Adam used his reach (he has height, but have you ever seen him jump) to swat the disc away from the outstretched hands of receivers. He hit every dump, but my favourite Adam play was when George made a great cut under on Horo and Adam came streaming and screaming through to collect the Dishy in power posistion and wind-up that big arm of his to huck to score (Morrell receiving? on the back line in the middle).

The positivity definitely lifted and the sideline talk kept everyone in the game. I remember getting caught out early on with players streaming down my wing and no sideline talk, but this changed in the second third. I think Slamtown took the half after long discussions saw a spirited Fox backing down to a solid argument Slamtown's best politician.

There were some exciting moments, when we got SFC to stall count 9 a number of times, but they got away with stuff like scoobers to Jody and the traditional Heroes-mac-on to Al. James Larkin was one player we failed to shut down. For the amount of D's we got and shots we had, our conversion rate was very low.

Sebastian worked really hard in the second half, but the real Brown-town belonged to neither Sebastian or Jody, but that of little brother, not-the-rapper Chris Brown. Chris Brown had 16 attempts to score in the end zone. Often perceived as cutting hard, handlers would float it out in front of Chris, only to see him time and again, labouring, stumbling and seeing the disc float out the back of the end zone. This lead to much taunting. To claims that we thought he was cutting, Big Brother Sebastian lamented "People often think that about Chris?" Jamie was of usual harshness: "Are you going to catch it this time, Chris?" Yes, it reminded this blogger of those who had come before him. Like Trevor, Watto and Tomsteve, the young Ceasar seemed cursed.

Finally, I think it was Bevan, pulled one out of the sky and Chris was found all alone in the middle of the end zone. Bevan put it in at about the height where all our hearts were, the throat, with Chris finally obliging and taking a sitter. The crowd went wild!!! (*insert tumbleweed)

In the end I think we went down 14-10, but I may be wrong.

Heroes at Nationals from an (insider's) outsider perspective.

HUC had a truly outstanding representation at Nationals across a number of teams.  Given I was able to play with and against a few of you, I thought I'd give a brief review of what I saw.

Quoll
Dan and Gavin acquitted themselves in outstanding manner with the Tassie team.  They both slotted seamlessly into the structure of Quoll and had a number of critical and inspiring moments on both O and D.  Dan was his usual irrepressible self, constantly cutting hard and going for 2nd, 3rd, and 4th efforts.  Dan took a crucial layout grab backing up for a poor throw, and Quoll went on to score the point.  Gavin similarly had fantastic positioning throughout the weekend, with very solid throwing and catching.  Although an injury slowed him down in a few games, a standout moment was a great read and top-of-the-jump D off a threatening throw.

Firestorm Ignition
Playing for 15th was a fierce and competitive game, and I got to see a few Heroes in action that I hadn't seen before.  Jamie had a great game, taking a number of fantastic grabs and getting a D or two at critical moments. His talent is very clear and it will be good to watch him become a superstar. Adam Dowley was solid in handling and a lynchpin of Ignition's attack.  Safe hands at the back with reliable throws, it's great to see Adam at HUC.
Sebastian continues to improve every time I see him play and this was no exception.  He took two super grabs that I can recall, one a full stretch layout to score.  In this game, Sebastian's confidence and assuredness was the most improved aspect of his game.
Although I was often too busy grinding my teeth to notice the opposition, I do recall Chris using his super-leap and hands of iron to take a screamer of a one-handed catch above a pack of friend and foe alike, all of whom where comparatively standing still.
Super-sub Carl came on for a point, and I had the pleasure of marking him.  Ignition scored, and I didn't shut Carl down well enough, so he takes the points on that one. Apparently two stuffed ankles trumps a tweaked hamstring.

The Betties
To my chagrin and disappointment, I didn't get to watch any of the Heroes girls playing at Nationals.  The feedback I got was they enjoyed themselves and got a lot out of it. I'd love to hear more from those who played/watched.

It is great to see so many HUC players out and about at national tournaments.  I can't wait for more!

(apologies to anyone I missed)

Slamtown

Thursdays game saw the Heroes take the line against the big shooting slamming flatballers from the coast.
After last weeks lack lustre performance, the green machine came out with a strong will to bring the intensity and when we got a turn over on the first point from a (insert) wayward stef throw, we capitalised and put in the end zone for 1-0. Then throughout the first half the game was relatively even with slamtown breaking us to take a 2 point lead at half. However the difference between the two teams was the initial pull on the point. I cant remember how many times we turned the disc over in our own half (and endzone) because of a great pull and chase, clamming us inside the endzone with our stack not realising it, and being to deep. With Adam out our handling line was a bit weaker and the gold coast zone worked well for the most part. BUT as soon as we broke that cup, I think slamtown will agree we walked all over them to score freely (for those 7 times.. ) But still and yes this sounds lame the score line didnt reflect how hard the game was played, with our game finishing last of the three and with one memorable 10min point. On a positive note defensively we didnt let the orange 'shooters' loose and kept the D fairly tight all evening. As soon as we stop shooting ourselves in the foot with dumb turnovers (myself included) Heroes will start putting wins on the board.
As ever this season theres no 'easy' games with most teams being able to turn up on their day and win. Next week is no different when Heroes vs the well lubricated machine that is Dojo Mojo.
Memorable moments for the game was Ye Old brown town connection being ever sweet as usual. OH AND... James getting skied by probably the shortest man in the league, Danny. Well done dan. In comparison its like thisguy in red beating this guy in blue (wait is that a Red Vs Blue reference!?!)