UTas team photo, Adelaide, September 2006: (back row) (front row) Missing: Well everyone at the moment!
In September 2006, the first University of Tasmania (UTas) ultimate team to qualify for Australian University Games travelled to Adelaide, South Australia to play the Australian University Games. As the team finished 7th out of 12 teams at the Southern University Games, they entered the tournament seeded 14th. The 2006 Australian University Games had 17 teams and two initial pools. The UTas team started in Pool B with 8 teams from Newcastle (seeded 2), University of New South Wales (3), Melbourne University (6), University of Queensland (9), University of Ballarat (10), University of Western Australia (11) and a Flinders University B team (17). To make the quarter-finals, the UTas team had to finish 4th or higher in their pool.
Tim spent most of the first few days in the hospital trying to work out what was wrong with his leg and therefore did a lot of filming from the sidelines for the rest of the week. Most of the team made this a road trip, (everyone other than Che, Iestyn and Tim) taking the ferry there and back.
The UTas started at AUG by beating the 3rd seed and the defending champions from 2005, UNSW, 10-8, and became the talk of the tournament! The UTas team backed up this result by beating UWA 10-9 and looking like a very strong chance to make the quarter-finals.
Day 2 started with a third win for the UTas team over the University of Ballarat 10-4, followed by two losses, 15-7 to Melbourne and 15-5 to the University of Queensland.
Day 3 started with a fourth win for the UTas team over Flinders University 2, 15-2, which guaranteed the team a place in the quarter finals and a top 8 finish. The last game of the round robin saw UTas lose to Newcastle 13-8.
By finishing 4th in Pool B, the UTas team faced the first seeds, Macquarie University in their quarter-final, and lost 15-3. The next playoff game was against Adelaide University which UTas lost 11-10 in a very tight match.
The last game was a playoff for 7th and 8th place and the UTas team lost this game 10-5 to the ANU.
Full tournament results can also be found on Andrew Olennick's Ultimate scores website. For the record, the University of Tasmania results were:
| Game | Opponent | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | University of New South Wales | 10-8 |
| 2. | University of Western Australia | 10-9 |
| 3. | University of Ballarat | 10-4 |
| 4. | Melbourne University | 7-15 |
| 5. | University of Queensland | 5-15 |
| 6. | Flinders University 2 | 15-2 |
| 7. | University of Newcastle | 8-13 |
| 8. Quarter-final | Macquarie University | 3-15 |
| 9. 5-8 semi-final playoff | Adelaide University | 10-11 |
| 10. 7th v 8th playoff | Australian National University | 5-10 |
The final team rankings (available at the AFDA website) were:
| Rank | Team | Seed |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | Macquarie University (NSW) | 1 |
| 2. | University of Queensland (Qld) | 9 |
| 3. | University of Melbourne (Vic) | 6 |
| 4. | University of Newcastle (NSW) | 2 |
| 5. | University of Sydney (NSW) | 7 |
| 6. | University of Adelaide (SA) | 8 |
| 7. | Australian National University (ACT) | 4 |
| 8. | University of Tasmania (Tas) | 14 |
| 9. | University of New South Wales (NSW) | 3 |
| 10. | Flinders University 1 (SA) | 12 |
| 11. | University of Western Australia (WA) | 11 |
| 12. | Monash University (Vic) | 13 |
| 13. | Murdoch University (WA) | 16 |
| 14. | University of Ballarat (Vic) | 10 |
| 15. | University of South Australia (SA) | 15 |
| 16. | Flinders University 2 (SA) | 17 |
| 17. | Queensland University of Technology (Qld) | 5 |
Thanks to Ash Martens and Mike Baker for putting together the first UTas team to make it to AUG and to Shavawn for providing material for this team report!
| Shirt number | Name |
|---|---|
| 12 | Ash Martens |
| 99 | Kath Downey |
| 7 | Shelly Slater |
| 24 | Shavawn Donoghue |
| ? | Aaron Just |
| 27 | Che O'May* |
| 10 | Coit Stevenson* |
| 3 | Mark Verrall |
| 13 | Mike Baker |
| ? | Iestyn Parry |
| ? | Tim Johnson |
UTas team photo, Adelaide, September 2006: (back row) (front row) Missing: Well everyone at the moment!
Congratulations to Ash Martens on her selection to the Green and Gold merit team selected at this tournament.