Today Australian teams played their first ever games at the World u23 Ultimate Championships. This tournament is being held in the beautiful city of Florence at a hippodrome (they race horses there). The opening ceremony was held in the Palazzo Vecchio (it is a huge palace in the centre of town) in a room full of priceless paintings and michaelangelo marble sculptures. The Vice-mayor of Florence welcomed us and WFDF President Potts opened the event by throwing a disc out to the crowd of disc players (the mayor pointed out that the statues were priceless when President Potts wound up a hammer. The throw was a floaty backhand in the end.

On the first night we were treated to a walk through the streets of this amazing town with all the other countries and an opening game between the Swiss and the Japanese open teams in a nearby stadium. This was a great game of contrasting styles. The Japanese play a very disciplined game with strict offence and defence demarcation (you play one or the other). They scored all their goals from within 30 metres and took few risks. The Swiss on the other hand were not as deep in talent, but their best players were the best on field. Their offence was high risk flicks, blades and hucks to big athletic receivers. The Japanese took an early lead, then the Swiss pulled back (by stacking their line) and then when the Swiss top line fatigued the Japanese ran away with the game. A very high standard.

The Aussie teams are staying in a little hotel about 15mins walk from the fields and both Sting Rays (u23 women) and the Goannas (u23 open) started their campaign at 11am as the day was warming up. The fields are a little dusty and lacking in good grass cover and the weather at the moment is about 35 degrees in the full heat of the day (at about 3pm). There was a light breeze that turned most of the fields (not field 7) into up/down field games. This breeze did not really affect the stronger teams, but some of the less experienced teams struggled to score upwind. Before I describe the games I would like to observe that the nations with good u19 programs are the stand out performers on day one. Nations without this involvement are fielding rookie teams against national teams (and players) with multiple worlds experience. You can really see the difference.

Starting with the Goannas – they played low seeds Italy on field 6. This was not a close game at all (17-3 final score). The Goannas came out like they meant business and after a few points of sizing up their opposition turned up the heat on man defence and a procession of blocks and pressure turns from the Italians ensued. The Goanna offence was slick and not really tested in this game. Stand out performers were Calan Speilman (good athletic blocks and great closing speed) and Tom ‘Cupcake’ Tullet (who handled well and chipped in with a Callaghan goal). The last 10 goals were unanswered. Tomorrow is a big day for this team as they will face their first tests against the Canada and Sweden. Canada are undefeated (smashing Austria) and Sweden were in a super tight game with Colombia (they lost) this evening. Sweden and Austria had a tight game this morning. It is possible that the semi-finalists in this division are all in the same first pool. The other pool does not look as strong, although Great Britain may be a step above the other teams in that pool.

The Sting Rays won both their games 17-0. First against the Germans and then against the Irish. They are playing well (all of them) and like the Goannas have not really been tested yet. The Germans struggled with the wind and the Irish did not do well when faced with the Sting Ray zone and straight up man defence force. You would be proud to see how well prepared this team is for the competition. I believe that the top four teams in this division are Australia, Canada, Colombia and Japan. I think Japan may be the team to beat. They beat Colombia this morning in a game that was tight until the Colombians ran out of energy. Colombia also lost to Canada in Similar fashion. Tomorrow the Rays will start their campaign against the other big guns.

I would also like to acknowledge the efforts of the support team here in Florence. Campbell Wratt and Joan Tulett are the managers that simply make everything work for us. The coaches Anna Rogacki, Megan Gamble, Lee Baker, John Liddicoat and Josh Cuikerman have prepared the teams perfectly. We also have Abra Garfield (sports psyche), Nick Gibson (Physio) and Carmen Atkinson (Chiro) looking after the teams. This program would not happen without them.

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