Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Okay, okay!

Yes, we're aware that it's now Tuesday - five days since our rip-snorting game against UQ Lovers. But when one takes into account the rural situation of DojoMojo headquarters and the positively Heian-period telecommunications technology it's serviced by, these little delays start to seem quaintly charming rather than plain frustrating... Don't they?

So let's not muck around with lengthy descriptions of the game. Here's how it went down:

The first half saw Lovers score more or less two goals for every one of the Dojo's. They played some really, really smooth Ultimate, throwing sharp passes to just-open receivers and capitalising on Dojo mistakes brought on by committed defence, mostly of the man-on-man variety.

The second half? Well, at the very least Dojo managed to hold the game to a points-trading situation for the first 4 or 5 changes of end, but then with time fast running out things took a significant turn. But before we go too far, let's show some video highlights from early in the game (and be thankful that the steady-handed Marijke Walls was back behind the camera):



As we said, lots of quick, precise disc movement in there from UQ, contrasting with a pretty static sort of dump-n-huck offence from the Dojo (not to mention some fairly casual defence!). No wonder things were looking grim. Here's some more action:



Starting to look a bit more fluent for the Dojo now, with a trademark grab from Dan Walls at the end there. And what about the hangtime Ryan got on that high grab over Stu? And as much fun as it'd be to speculate that the wildly errant pull earlier on from Pete "The Kiss of Death" Allen was a pivotal moment, it's more likely that the multi-turnover point which Dojo finally managed to grind out was where UQ started losing a bit of belief and Dojo did the opposite.

Anyway, the video never lies (especially with our factually-faithful editing), and what you'll see below is a Dojo team in vintage form with the long throws and big grabs flowing freely. You'll also see (or moreso hear - time for a language warning!) a few Lovers' tempers start to fray (if they weren't frayed already by pre-game shenanigans) as the Dojo serves up the style of play that the Lovers themselves are usually notorious for:



And there it is - Dojo claws its way back from 9-12 down to take out the game 14-12 in pretty supreme style. Yes, UQ were missing the unparalleled throws of Buzz Burwell, but Dojo were also missing the non-stop mongrel of Gold Coasters Mike and Stefan, so we're calling it a fair fight at the very least and a very satisfying win. Especially considering we were in UQ's shoes this time last week...

That's it for now, then. As usual, the Above&Beyond poll for this week is ready to accept your votes for players that trumped their usual game (please only vote for yourself once this week, Ryan), and the current A&B standings have been updated below that.

Also of note is that if you scroll down you'll now see links to all the official Ultimate organisations that are relevant to the game we play here in Brisbane, and for those needing a rules refresher the latest WFDF Rules of Ultimate are linked below that.

Check back shortly for a chat with that most Wolverine-esque Lover, Alistair Don.

2 comments:

  1. Sweet read as usual there, love watching it on video even if we did lose. It helped me decipher what I am doing wrong with my flick hucks so now you're all screwed :P or not.
    Couldn't help but notice the whole footblock I got on you wasn't in there...how interesting :P

    keep up the good work. might start doing this with the uq website.

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  2. Thanks Pete.

    Sadly that great footblock of yours didn't turn up on the raw footage, but if it had it would have been included for sure. Something to offset that shocking pull...

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