Al and Julz Spin the Yundo

Alistair Don and Julian Sacre were deep in discussion about the geomantic importance of a strong Blue Dragon when we joined them under the deep eaves of the Dojo garden's Eastern Gate on Monday afternoon. Naturally, they weren't inclined to give away too much about how their interest in Feng Shui informs their zone D strategies, but they were more than happy to have a bit of a Q&A session about our game last week and indulge in some idle conjecture about the season ahead.

Here's what we discussed whilst enjoying the outlook and the melodic birdsong:

DojoMojo Blog: Julz, we know how much you enjoy a wander around our gardens between games, but Al - we had no idea you shared his enthusiasm. It's a pleasure to have you both here. Let's briefly discuss the game last week. Despite the score being very close for most of the game, in retrospect it never looked like the result would be anything other than a Lovers win. What do you think was the most critical difference between the teams?

Julian Sacre: Well, as you say there wasn’t much in it. I think it came down to taking the right options with the disc in hand. I recall Dojo forcing a few throws close to the endzone which weren’t really on.

I also think the reason why a Lovers win seemed inevitable was because we seemed to have a few more scoring options with the hucking and break-side throws of aL and Buzz combining with receivers like Will Larkin and Gref.

Al Don: I think there's a couple of critical differences between the teams. The choice of sky blue shirts for the lovers is probably the most important of those though. A serene feeling comes over you when you pull one on and I think that transferred itself pretty well into an approach to the game that helped us to stay calm and take the opportunities presented at the same time as not stressing too much over the numerous turns that occured during the first half of the game.

DMB: Hmmm - now your interest in Blue Dragons is becoming clearer, Al. It also seemed that your receivers were pulling down the hucks with ease most of the night, and yet Dojo had to rely primarily on Dan Walls doing something spectacular/silly/dangerous to make the long throws stick. How much of this do you put down to differences in defensive pressure?

AD: Yeah - I was pretty happy with the defensive pressure we managed to bring out last Thursday. The Lovers this season, with a couple of notable exceptions, are young and hungry for anything they can pull down on defence or offence. One of the advantages of playing a team full of students is that I think they really are lacking a little on the nutrition side of things. So when I told them to get out and get hungry on D some of them may have taken that a bit literally, thinking perhaps that some of the Dojo discs may have been weighed down with something edible. Tasty little morsels of sushi perhaps?

JS: Mmmm - sushi. But seriously, Dan Walls had an incredible game. Easy to see why he scored the MVP title from last season of BPL.

I think the defence did make a big difference. When Dojo (ie: Dan) did get some effective connections with long cuts to the endzone, Lovers switched to a straight-up force and I think this was enough to put a little bit of extra pressure on those hucks.

DMB: Okay - let's cut to the chase then. This new roster - Al claims it just "sort of happened", but this mass migration to Lovers seems about as coincidental as the fact that there are 24 stubbies in a carton and 24 hours in a day. Just what inducements did Al offer in building this new UQ super team?

AD: Inducements? Nothing more than the offer to play on a team with the potential for more beards. Who would have thought that would be as attractive an offer as it seems to have been?

JS: I'm not at liberty to say. aL put a clause in our new contracts that forbids us from speaking publicly about it.

DMB: All very strange. Beards? Contracts? And what about these rumoured new shirts? Will you be sharing with Passion (we all know they need some help)? What do you say about the speculation that fluoro orange may be the new UQ colour?

JS: Can’t say, sorry Sensei. We’ve been designing them for at least the last 8 or 9 years. But I shouldn’t even be talking about them - they’re nowhere near ready.

AD: Well I can safely put that rumour to bed right now. I at least would rather play nude than shell out for a fluoro orange team uniform. And if it comes down to it then thats what i'll be arguing for...

DMB: Let's all hope sanity prevails then. Perhaps yellow Hypercolour? So lastly, it's early in the season and most team rosters (not least your own) have had a big shakeup. But assuming you'd rate yourselves as Grand Final contenders, which other team do you expect to see at the other end of the field come December 11th, and why?

AD: It's always hard to write off any team with a certain lanky Australian rep in the mix but I think thats exactly what I'm going to do here. For the first time in my somewhat unreliable memory, there will be no Buggers team in action on finals night. My money's on a Lovers v Dojo final. After a few seasons now where the Dojo have started strong and looked to be the team to beat I think they're actually going to go close to putting it together for an entire season this time round. The injection of a few strike throwers from the depths of history combined with a bit more of the mongrel that players like Stefan exhibit will see the Dojo cruise through most of the season, win a semi and then go on to make a spectacle of it for the crowd in the final. I'll even go as far as to predict a 14-12 Lovers comeback victory...

JS: Yep - when we line up on grand final night, I expect to be standing opposite the kenshi… of course!

DMB: Amen to that. Al, Julz, thanks for your time.