Bush and Tiggers at Southern Regional Championships, Ballarat, March 14-15 2009

Bush, March 2009

Unofficial team report.

On the weekend of 14th and 15th March 2009, twelve ladies headed over to the rocking town of Ballarat to compete in the Southern Regionals representing BUSH. In an all-Tasmanian effort with no pick up players on the side, we were dressed to play and ready to run in the rain ... our hair and uniforms nicely plastered to our finely honed figures. We took on the team Honey in that first heavy downpour. With some tight d and assertive o, we gelled well from the start and the scores were close (5 to 7?) at the half......the old rivalry was concluded with a final score of 11 to 5 with Honey on top. However, we got our revenge on Victoria in the third game with a 12-2 win over the second Honey team - (you guessed it) - Honey Bee-Gees! Let's not forget the second game on Saturday: Bush vs Indies (SA). The Indies' fluro green strips usually clash with 'lemongrass green' Bush, however the downpour darkened our colour nicely so there was no confusion.

......Trimmed out in their finest after-fribee frocks and tresses, Bush headed out to down a few beers at the local pub, The Regent, with the rest of the tourney teams. The bar service moved at geologic speed, however, this didn't stop Bush from cutting some serious rug with their Tigger mates, showing those mainlanders. We didn't win the party, but we certainly won the dance floor!

Sunday dawned gray and drizzly, the Bush girls retreating to the St Patricks' classroom corridors to warm up with some indoor Nutbush dancing. The first game was against the first seed, Team Box. Bush came out fighting, scoring the first point, however Team Box soon took the lead, taking advantage of the windier conditions to put on a good zone defence. (not sure what the score was??)

The second game of the day saw Bush battling honey and the weather yet again. Honey's large and loud sideline and their ability to convert points proved too effective in the end and took the game. However there was a win for vegos everywhere when the days subway lunch arrived without a note saying 'vegos take meat out' as previous day occurrence.

Bush finished 3rd out of 5 teams after being seeded 4th and won spirit. Rumour has it that Heidi may have a photo of this team.

Full rankings

The final team rankings were:

Player list

The 2009 Bush team at Southern Regionals were:

Tiggers, March 2009

The full Tassie Tiggers team at Southern Regionals, Ballarat, March 2009: (back row) Jason Wong, Reed Burgette, Ian Tait, Tom DePree, Tim Stoneman, Grady Cowley, Alex De Moor, Steve Wright (front row) Huddy Fuller (captain), Michael Dunne (vice-captain), Felix Kennedy, Chris Mrzyk, Jason De Puit. Photograph by Jase.

More photos can be found at Jason's photo gallery.

Player list

A full team list for the 2009 Tassie Tiggers who went to Ballarat for Southern Regionals in March 2009 follows:

Day 1

After arriving at Ballarat on Friday, Tiggers woke up to heavy rain and a change of draw and seeding. Seeded 7th, Tiggers were thrust into the same pool as (eventual winners) Chilly, Karma, and Heads of State-White. After a bye consisting of a team meeting in a fogged up van, Tiggers got things underway against Karma.

Game 1 vs Karma: 4-13

Tassie competed well at the half (taken at 7 pts), only trailing by 3. Some good early play after stoppages worked well and surprised Karma, however Karma's experience told in the second half with them running away with the game. The first game for a young Tassie team was good, hard, and competitive on all fronts.

Game 2 vs Chilly: 1-13

This game was a bit of a white wash. Steve scored the only point with a spectacular layout off a sublime cross-field pass from Tom. Felix got a foot block and Jase the subsequent D. A good learning experience for all, and everyone played well, but were overmatched.

Game 3 vs HoS-White: 8-10

What a game! We led 7-4 at half, the HoS showed up and the extra support buoyed HoS-White and they clawed back to 8-7 when soft cap was called. The ensuing point last 15 minutes with Tim's winning point upwind being contested (out the back), and HoS-White.

Saturday night was highlighted by Tom managing to lock himself in the Women's bathroom at a strange little Asian restaurant for nearly 10 minutes. While we laughed ourselves stupid, Grady and Taiters made origami roses and the other patrons wondered what was going on.

Day 2

Game 4 vs Karma B: 13-5

After the near miss vs HoS-White, we came out strongly to win the first 4 points, 2 into a stiff, angled wind. There was good play from every single player, and the consistent pressure combined with the early lead broke Karma B. Our Zone came together and shut down their handlers, while our own threaded deft passes upfield. The cohesion and experience we gained from the HoS-White game made the difference in this one.

Game 5 vs GFUC/Roflcopter: 13-6

Gfuc surprised us with their talent and daring, being a particularly young team. However we got the 2nd point upwind after getting the first off a D, and never relinquished the lead. Although our legs were tired, our D was tight and our O reflected the teamwork we had developed over the previous day and a half. Once again, a solid game with everyone contributing.

There was significant and noticeable improvement in the younger players of the team. If these players can be encouraged and developed, they will be an asset to the Tassie team and ultimate community. Everyone stepped up more and better than I had hoped, and it left me feeling positive about the future of the sport in Tassie. Standout players were Tom DePree, Michael Dunne, and Felix Kennedy.

Development Grant recipient's reports

The following development grant players offered these insights:

Steven Wright:

Regionals was a very enjoyable and valuable experience. I felt that my own playing ability improved over the weekend, and I also gained important insights into high level ultimate when watching the best teams play. I will now be able to provide more useful advice to other players in Tasmania. I also think that the other players on the team benefited greatly from the weekend, and that this will spur them to further improve their game personally, and Tasmanian ultimate generally. I will most definitely be keen to play regionals again next year, and to hopefully play at higher levels in the future.

Chris Mrzyk:

I was glad to go and play regionals; I enjoyed it a lot on and off the field! I would be keen to do it again, and to play higher levels depending on future circumstances. I learnt from regionals that in order to go on and play higher, I need to work hard, improve my basic frisbee skills and increase my fitness because at regionals one simple mistake was costly half the time and the intensity was very high!

Jason Wong:

The regionals experience was a massive learning one for me. It allowed me to gain a greater perspective of the ultimate community. I observed the different intensity, players that aren't from Tasmania, the way it is played and the higher display of skill; Ultimate at a whole new level from what I am use to. It has been a fun experience and realising that there is a broader and highly skilled community out there, has inspired me to improve.

Ian Tait:

I didn't really know what to expect from Regionals, but found it a welcome challenge. Both the skill level of the opposition and the setting of the tournament upped the intensity of play - harder marking, faking, cutting, running. Took a while to get into it on the Saturday with the weather and the top teams in our pool. I feel a lot more comfortable and confident with how to play as a popper or wing/long from all those zones we played in the wind on Sunday. Having that familiarity with the team, and having fought hard together in the game against HoS was great, the loss disappointing, but a very close game. I really need to work more on my catching, and do hope we can all keep up some intensity through league finals over the next few weeks to stir things up a bit.

Thanks to captain Huddy Fuller for putting together the tourney report.

Full rankings

The final team rankings were: