On Lightning and Cliches...

They say lightning never strikes the same place twice, but that's exactly what happened for DojoMojo last Thursday night. Well sort of, given that Dojo's game against MBB was at Annerley Junior FC fields and the previous round had been at Griffith. And then of course there's the fact that the Griffith game against UQ Lovers had resulted in a final point win, whereas last week's game against MBB was... well let's not spoil it for those that weren't there (or at the invisible-image-touting BUBlog afterwards)...!

Looks like they were right about the lightning.

And now that we've done enough stretching of analogies for one post we can proceed to give a brief and hopefully not-too-tedious rundown of the game itself. Let's see:

Things actually started out quite well for both teams offensively at least, with Dojo playing proper Ultimate from the first point of the game - surely a first this season?! After 6 points the scoreline was locked at 3-3, with the Dojo's zone D looking the stronger of the two, but still yet to get a block. Perhaps sensing that the Dojo was slowly getting the upper hand in the give-and-take early points, MBB decided to abandon their early attempts to share the disc around with lots of short passes through the Dojo zone, instead going for a full rosary of good old faithful hail-Mary shots to Mike in the endzone. It's an Ulti-cliche for a reason i.e. it works so it happens a lot.

Before anyone knew it the score had rapidly blown out to 10-5 in favour of MBB, and with the game looking more or less won and the kenshi looking pretty bored with the whole thing, MBB subbed Mike off. And this, as it turns out, was not a great move on their part.

Who can say what it is that's made the Dojo such a never-say-die team this season. No doubt the return of veteran Dojo legend Leon McIntyre has helped, as has the addition of rookie Darren Shi - a guy too young to notice when he's dislocated a shoulder. Perhaps the brilliant captaincy of Sensei C, who has selflessly subbed himself off the field and out of the way in both of the last two games, has also contributed...

What we do know for sure is that this season, the Dojo will take any opening it can find no matter how late in the game and how hopeless the situation. This time, the removal of Bug #1 from the field was exactly that opening, allowing the kenshi to press hard under on D without the looming threat in the deep and to throw long with abandon. By the time the Bug leader was back on the field (a couple of points later, as we recall it) the momentum had noticeably shifted and there was no stopping it. 10-5 MBB became 11-10 (MBB now in front by just 1 point) with one point to play!

In situations like this, it always feels like a win for the team that was behind on the scoreboard to draw the game in the final point, and that's exactly what happened after a forced turnover and a beautiful long-range score. For a game that started so evenly to swing so heavily in one direction then just as quickly and for just as long in the other is something we certainly can't recall being part of before.

So the Dojo keeps its Minor Premiership prospects alive (needing a win over the pseudo-newbie Cobras this week) by escaping from what appeared to be a fairly well-dug grave yet again. The question now is: will the notoriously unpredictable Dojo throw their final regular season game in order to avoid the weight of "favourite" status going into the finals? It certainly weighed heavily last season... Only time will tell, but until then we've got A&B voting to do right there on the sidebar.

Keep an Eye Out

It's Sunday night and we're doing our Dojo blogging duty. No surprises then that we stopped by the Brisbane Ultimate Blog first to see what the fallout had been from the Dojo's 13-12 win against UQ Lovers last Thursday night.

And whilst not quite of a Chernobyl-rivalling scale, the rumble that took place between Dojo and Lovers on the GU backlots last week certainly seems to have generated a bit of conversation, even ignoring (as we do) those who lack the cahones to post comments under their own name...

You can certainly understand why many of the UQ guys would have been desperately unhappy to lose out in the final point - if it had been us we'd be feeling exactly the same. They'd turned up early with a huge squad, warmed up like a tight unit should and hit the ground running from the first point. Contrast this with a customarily leisurely arrival for the (eight) Kenshi, standing around and chatting for a while before maybe throwing a couple of short passes before the first pull. If we're honest with ourselves we have to admit that it's a pretty shabby way to get the night underway, and after a brief flourish of Dojo throwaways it was halftime with UQ way out in front at a thoroughly deserved 8-2.

Fast forward to the final point of the game by which time the Dojo had managed to level the score at 12-12, through a variety of effective zone D's (helped by a gentle breeze into one corner of the field) and minimal-turnover offence (sorely lacking in the first half). The last point of the night however featured multiple turnovers from anxious hands on both teams, but the disc was eventually secured in the prophylactically-safe mitts of Sean Flanagan for a stupendously unlikely Dojo win.

Okay, so that paragraph made pretty light of the extraordinary effort involved in pulling back that halftime scoreline, and yes we're quite chuffed to have escaped that game with our undefeated record still intact. But to be perfectly frank, everything that had transpired previously in that game boiled down to the final point clincher, and it really could have gone either way. Dojo went in with a definite momentum advantage, but UQ were also within tasting distance of the win they'd worked so hard since before the game even started to achieve...

Anyway, it's experiences like these that both teams will draw on in the future, and one thing that does appear certain is that you can expect the Dojo to play half a game of excellent Ultimate on any given Thursday night.

A&B voting is back on the right!

Dojo Royale

Yes, it's been a while since we last posted anything here at the Dojo blog. Why? Well, we've been on a little holiday, played some golf, done some gardening and generally done anything other than play or talk Ultimate. In fact, we can quickly summarise the Dojo's on-field Ultimate exploits since our last post by simply noting that the Dojo has won every game, most by a comfy margin.

So of course when yet another "training week" came around (immediately following the BPL's Uni Games no-play week) we were looking for anything other than Ultimate training to occupy our Thursday night. And what better substitute for a night of hard running and intensive skills practice than to take our places around the table at Andy "Coopers" Lankowski's place for a night of high-stakes poker - the inaugural Dojo Royale poker night.

As you can see from the image below, some were taking the event very seriously. That's Andy McLean decked out in the unbuttoned waistcoat (and newsreader-spec shorts below the table), trumped only for seriousness by the "Hustling German" Stefan Schmidt, looking like a cross between Eminem and an elderly driver with his hoodie up and dark specs on (sadly not caught on camera). Stefan also saw fit to let us know on the night that he'd previously spent 2 years as a poker dealer in some sort of travelling German poker circus. The things he can do with poker chips are truly arousing.


What you can't see in that photo is the huge stack of chips sitting in front of Mr McLean. At this point of the night he was undisputed chip leader, and it wasn't long before the final winner was decided. So in approximate order of departure from the table (we really should've posted this sooner with a fresher memory), the players on the night were:

- Andy Lankowski (great host, lots of bad hands)
- Mike Morgan (made the mistake of thinking that his trip-4 on the turn was going to be enough to beat the all-in Sensei's pair of aces in the hand and a 2 on the river giving a sensational straight)
- Stefan Rappazzo (had been duking it out all night in his own brash ultra-rapid style, opting against all common sense not to buy back in at the 9pm deadline and yet somehow hanging in there for another hour or so)
- Stefan Schmidt (can't remember how he went out, but most likely it was bluffing big time with absolutely nothing in hand)
- Stephen Cameron (unbelievably unlucky to lose out with his solid 2-pair from the flop against a big spending chip leader McLean who picked up an outrageously unlikely straight on the river, not at all similar to the the way the Sensei had knocked Morgs out earlier on)

That left the pot at the mercy of Leon McIntyre (the chap looking so relaxed in the photo) and Andy McLean. And actually it was all over the very next hand. Leon was clearly keen to wrap things up for better or worse, and went all in after the flop with nothing but maybe a king in hand, Andy (with a massive chip lead) went with him with pretty much the same hand. And as the cards came down it was the man in the white waistcoat who came out the winner.

So there you go, nothing on the Dojo blog for a couple of months and now something that has nothing to do with Ultimate at all. Or does it???

BTW - extra points for spotting the non-Dojo ring-in in the photo...

BPL Is Back

After spending the two month off-season meditating and creating JCVD-style training montages atop the rocky outcrops of the Dojo's hillside estate, the kenshi descended once again into the fray of Ultimate combat in the miasma-smothered marshlands of the AJFC fields.

Of course, making training montages doesn't actually mean doing any training, so those Kenshi that didn't take advantage of the excellent off-season training sessions ended up using the first four or five points of Game 1 to get back up to speed. Hence the early scoreline in the first Dojo outing of the season (against UQ Passion) being something like 0-4 Passion...

But once the first Dojo point was on the board, the opportunity to set up a defence wasn't wasted and the kenshi went straight into a choking Zone D formation. This yielded instant results with lots of cheap turnovers near the UQ endzone and easy goals for the Dojo. So despite that heavy early deficit, the Dojo took the first half by a couple of points. Okay - it's not exactly the first time we've seen that happen...

The halftime break gave Passion's maestro Johnny Mac a chance to talk his young chargers through the intricacies of breaking a Zone D, and Passion had a lot more success getting the disc into those little pockets behind the cup (via the traditional BPL zero-wind over-the-top route) and managed to force the Dojo D to adapt into different Zone formations and a few points of Man. By now however the Dojo offence was looking after things very nicely, and before anyone knew it had closed out the game 15-10.

Kudos to Passion for their phat new shirts (goes to show that if you have to rip off a logo you might as well make it a good one) and committed playing style. This is a team we can easily see becoming much stronger as the season progresses, especially if JMac can get them working as a solid, motivated unit - which we're sure he can.

But the Dojo can always depend on the depth of its roster, as was the case in this game. And that brings us to the first Above&Beyond poll of the season, which is ready for voting on the right. It's a bye for the kenshi this Thursday, so the next outing will be on August 27th against the other UQ team - the Lovers.

Going Way Back

Before we get underway with the first round of the brand new BPL season tonight, we thought it might be an appropriate moment to indulge in a little Dojo history. A short pictorial history, to be precise, showing the evolution of the Dojo jersey over the years...

Some say that there is a mythical "original" jersey design out there somewhere, perhaps under the pile of dirty clothes that Watto never gets around to taking back to his Mum's place for a wash, but as far as we're aware the chronology goes pretty much like this:



1. The Cobra Kai Frisbee Dojo (2001 or maybe earlier - 2004)

Very cheap cotton XL-only black & white shirts sporting hand-printed graphics that show an afro-touting, gi-wearing martial artist mid flight. Worn during what were primarily mixed weekend matches where Dojo was, of course, the dominant team. Other teams included The Collective, Boot Camp, and a few others we can't remember the names of right now.

Seems Liam and his buddies over at the fledgling Cobras team have pretty short memories as well, but that's to be expected from what appears to be a bunch of schoolboys (at least Mat and Jimmy still run around like schoolboys, although we can certainly quote Will Churchill as having said that the same isn't true of captain Wetnose...).



2. DojoMojo (2004-2008)

These quality VC Ultimate shirts first saw action at the 2004 National Ultimate Championships in Brisbane, where the Dojo team starred in the second-tier competition, blitzing the division and defeating the Div 1 Tasmanian team, then losing narrowly to the Div 1 Newcastle team early on the last day. DojoMojo went on to destroy their opponents in the Div 2 "Plate" final, a game which included the notorious behind-the-back cross-field throw from Ryan Black to Dave Watson (who appeared to have been the only person expecting it), Watto then throwing the game-winning huck. Dan Walls was holding the video camera at the time and managed to get none of it on film.

These shirts also saw tournament action in the 2006 Nationals in Sydney where Dojo finished a pretty superb 7th. Notable moments were Dojo winning a spectacularly tense local derby against the other Brisbane team in attendance (MBB), and then losing out via Golden Goal to a double-Dowle'd Fakulti team in the quarter final round.



3. DojoMojo (2008 - current)

Earlier in the year, many people voted for this jersey as the best in the world. And at least a small fraction of those people were real, not just fake Google identities that Stefan uses to vote for himself in the A&B poll each week...

Made from silky soft, lightweight Patagonia fabric, these things are an absolute joy to play in. Dan Walls even lays out in his and it still looks fresh. We can't see these being superseded for a very long time.

You'll Want to Buy the Company...

The second off-season training night is on at the AJFC fields this Thursday night from 7pm - here's the message that went out last night to every SEQ ultimate player that's old enough to shave:

Men of the Brisbane Premier League,

Our off-season training sessions got off to a truly spectacular start a couple of weeks ago, and I'm not just talking about the cone arrangements that would have made someone doing a PhD in fractal geometry proud. We had a truly huge turnout - I'd guess that at least half of Brisbane's BPL players were there (even a few Dojo players!) - and Mike and Al put us through a whole array of seriously worthwhile drills, with the title for most pushup penalties going of course to Stu Austin...

We covered a whole heap of stuff that I could rabbit on about for ages (and may very well do just that at some point, not now), and the response on the night was that it was all really interesting and highly exhausting - great for keeping up the off-season fitness, and great for plugging into real games once we get back into it in August.

So, as planned we're doing another session THIS THURSDAY NIGHT from 7pm at the usual AJFC location. Do you want to huck, break, hammer and generally cause defensive chaos like John McNaughton? And no, I don't mean learning how to be left-handed. John is in fact recognised as one of Australia's top Ultimate coaches, and he personally guarantees that you will go away from this week's session with your throwing game improved more than your shave would be by switching from a Gillette Mach3 to a Schick Quattro...

See you all for some serious Ultimate betterment at AJFC 7pm THIS THURSDAY July 16th.


Stephen
+Al, John & Stu

Because You're Worth It

For those that prefer not to subscribe to any of the many, many frisbee yahoogroups we have for our sport, here's a copy of an email that went out this morning about some upcoming off-season BPL events:

Men of the Brisbane Premier League and beyond,

The BPL is about to become harder, faster and better. How? Read on.

Starting this Thursday night July 2nd, and then on July 16th and 30th, three off-season BPL player development sessions will be held at our usual Annerley Junior FC location and everyone is invited, including guys who aren't yet playing BPL but would like to.

Now, some might find it surprising that the Sensei of the notoriously non-training Dojo is here promoting training nights, but I can't wait to get stuck into these sessions and I'm pretty sure you will feel the same. Why? Because the organising group of Al Don, John McNaughton, Stu Austin and myself have put together a series of themed training events with a list of local legends (no, really) running the show. Here's what we've got lined up:
__________________________________
July 2 - Playing better Man on Man Ultimate

Offence coach: Piers Truter
Defence coach: Al Don

What's involved? Better cuts, better options, better dumps, better marking, better teamwork, more mongrel
__________________________________
July 16 - Throwing better and Marking better

Coach: John McNaughton

What's involved? Better breaks, better hucks, better swings, better force marking, better dump marking
__________________________________
July 30 - Playing better Zone Ultimate

Offence coach: Chris Burwell
Defence coach: Mike Neild

What's involved? Better disc movement, better cup breakers, better above & around options, better long hucks (oh yeah), better cup setting, better zone teamwork, better deep D, better setups & strategies
__________________________________

Did I use the word "better" enough? Well, that's because the whole idea of these sessions is making the standard of BPL competition BETTER by offering every player the opportunity (thanks to some help with the funds from QUDA) to improve their skillset and knowledge base. And by every player I mean YOU! This is improvement-focussed training that we should ALL be taking advantage of.

So - be there starting 7pm this Thursday night at the AJFC fields for some kick*ss training that I personally guarantee will improve your game more than Loreal skin cream will reduce visible wrinkles.

Looking forward to seeing everybody there.

Spazzo Goes Above and Beyond

We interrupt our usual off-the-air mode between seasons to bring you two pieces of news featuring the Dojo's GC liaison Stefan "Spazzo" Rappazzo.

A quick scroll down the sidebar to the right will show you that the Above&Beyond standings for the season have been finalised after last week's Grand Final showdown, and as predicted it turned out to be very tight at the top! So tight that both Stefan Rappazzo and Andy McLean shared the #1 spot for overall votes gained. Sadly for Andy, he earned his votes playing in all ten games, whereas Stefan played nine for the same vote tally, leaving him with the title of DojoMojo Above & Beyond Winner for Season 1 2009, based on his higher votes-per-game stat. Stefan's name is now engraved for perpetuity on our Honour Board in recognition of his efforts in consistently pushing his game further and harder week after week.

The traffic jam continued in the minor placings as well, with Dan Walls, Stefan Schmidt and Sensei C all on 21 votes, Wallsy racking up the votes at the rate of 3.5 per game - the highest of anyone, trumping Spazzo's 3 per game. Perhaps we could change the ranking system next season to prioritise this stat over total votes? Comment below.

And of course, the beauty of the A&B system is that it reflects the regularity with which individuals perform above their own usual standard, rather than comparing players against each other. So it's intended as an incentive to constant improvement, and a means of gauging how people are progressing their own game. Who will earn their place on the Honour Board next season???

Oh yes, and the second BIG news item regarding Mr Rappazzo in his capacity as Gold Coast Ultimate Liaison (interpret that any way you like) is that he's just launched a brand new and very cool-looking website to promote the game in the town where even the parking meters are gold... Check it out.

Deja Boo Hoo Hoo

Haven't we heard this story before? A short-staffed Dojo team turns up to face a Neild-led Buggers squad that has been warming up for the game apparently since just after a carbo-loaded breakfast, the Bugs stretch out a big lead, Dojo stages a comeback, some Bug rookie crashes a kenshi or two out of the game, the lack of fitness from the we-never-train Dojo starts to show, and it all finishes with a flourish of hammers & hucks to Bug #1...

But don't think we're bitter, it was a great game with plenty for everyone (well, most people anyway - more on that shortly), and really the final difference between the teams was the number of offensive errors the Dojo made. The first five or six points of our video footage make for particularly unpleasant viewing if you're of a Dojo inclination, as do the last few.

There's no doubt that the Dojo missed Matt, Piers, Coopers and Goldie particularly as the legs started to get heavy in the second half, and that some extra numbers might have made the difference. But really, if the kenshi hadn't worn themselves out trying to get the disc back after all those first-half mistakes then the job still could have been done without the full complement. That wasn't the case though, and on the night the Messy team were convincing winners.

Here's something we found interesting, though. In putting all the footage together, we noticed something that, whilst not surprising, was something we'd always thought was only an impression rather than reality. So here's an amusing game to play while watching the video - keep a count of the number of JRay throwaways, and also keep a count of the number of times anyone other than Jason, Mike, Leon, Stu or Jangles touches the disc. We can't say for sure, but we reckon the JRay throwaway stat will be at least the same if not more. Now, no-one will be surprised to see Jason throwing some pretty wild stuff (or to see that he also throws nearly all the goals), but I think even Mike would be surprised to see how little disc the Bug rookies get during a game, especially when the pressure is high. There must be at least a couple of guys on that team who only touched the disc once or twice in the whole game!

But enough about that - what we've all come to see is plenty of sweet Ultimate action, so here it is, courtesy of the brilliant Marijke Walls and surprise cameraman Will Churchill (how he got hold of the camera we're not really sure):









"Thanks ladies" indeed. It was a real treat to have the 97.3fm ladies with their marquee, esky, fruit & drinks, and each Dojo player is now sporting brand-new cleat bags, water bottles, cold bags and cookies. Yes, cookies.

There's now a huge break of a couple of months between seasons, but the BPL will be back (will there be a new monkey at the helm???) with what will surely be a serious shakeup in the teams and perhaps administration. It can only get better (and hopefully bigger), so stay tuned.

And lastly, it's the final Above&Beyond poll for the season on the right. It's all up for grabs - will Dan Walls be able to get enough votes for his awesome efforts against one of the world's premier players to push him past current frontrunner Stefan Rappazzo? Will our German BPL MVP runner-up Stefan Schmidt sneak past them both? A place on the honour board is at stake!!!

ps Below the poll can also be found our latest blog addition - DojoMojo TV! Oh yeah.

Fifteen Seconds of Fame

If you happened to be listening to 97.3FM on the radio this morning at around 7.50am (and if you're female between the ages of 25 and 40 then the research indicates that you probably were!) you would have heard a little soundbite from the Sensei talking up tonight's big game at the AJFC fields. Yes - the Brisbane Premier League has really hit the big time, and some nice people from 97.3FM are going to be joining the huge crowd at the field tonight, bringing along plenty of freebies and giveaways with them.

And that's not all - even though our best efforts to make the audio of this morning's interview available here have failed, we should be on air again tomorrow morning giving a quick recap of what is sure to be a stupendous game of Ultimate tonight. The grandstand will be open from 7pm and the on-field action gets underway bang on 7.30. Our tip - Dojo to win 15-11.

The Game of Death

Yes - we've sailed the Sea of Japan for the title of this post, but it's only a short trip and over the millenia it's turned Chan into Zen, Penjing into Bonsai and Shaolin Kung-Fu into Shorinji Kempo, so we figured we could safely lean on the analogy for the upcoming Grand Final of the Brisbane Premier League, featuring semifinal winners DojoMojo and Messy Buggers.

Yes - the kenshi have finally climbed all the way to the top floor of the BPL pagoda in their black, red & white tracksuits to find a towering, short-jumpsuit clad Messy team waiting in the dark, shoji-screened room. It's the matchup that everyone had been wanting to see nearly as much as a Dojo v UQ Lovers final, but the huck-happy Lovers (apparently missing several key players through eligibility issues) lost out to a Messy team that has progressed from rookie-laden obscurity to genuine championship contention thanks to the inspirational on- and off-field leadership of one M. Neild, ably assisted by a solid core of experienced colleagues. Will the Dojo manage to poke enough fingers through the pagoda's paper panels to blind the sunlight-shy Buggers next week???

But more about that shortly. The news of the moment is Dojo's 15-12 semifinal win over what we understand to be the now-defunct Old-School Buggers (more on that later as well). In essence it was a tale of two comebacks, with Dojo stretching out decent leads only to ease off or slip up and see the OldSchoolers drag themselves back into range. And the good news is that it's all on video, thanks to Ulrike - yet another first-time filmographer, and ladyfriend of our resident Dojo Deutschlander, Herr Schmidt. Here's all the exclusive action:





There it is. Perhaps more than a little shaky at times but the job was done. Despite playing well below standard as a team, the Dojo still managed to win through without any real dramas. The question is, though - should this give the kenshi confidence in their strong potential going into the Big Game, or should it be cause for concern that when the stakes are raised the easy, natural Dojo game starts to tighten up uncomfortably? And here's another question - will somebody manage to post something this week on the Buggers blog for the first time since last season's semis???

And that leads us to yet another question - what will be the name of the new Gillions/Larkin-led team to emerge from the crashed & burnt wreckage of what was the Old School Buggers? Will Wetnose step down from his gig as guest correspondent on the Brisbane Ultimate Blog to become the regular mouthpiece of his new BPL outfit? Maybe he could even manage both. Either way, it'd be nice to have some new & improved competition both on and off the field.

One thing for sure though is that the A&B table is still wide open to anyone who can muster up enough friends or Google identities to vote for them(selves). Yes, Stefan (the Italian/Canadian one with many friends) is way out in front, but it is the very nature of the internet that anything could happen!!! Vote away on the right.

Buzzing In the Telepod

Yes, it's Tuesday again and we can only cross our fingers that the AJFC fields will be open for play this week. So, with all the world waiting to see if Wetnose really is worth 11 extra points to his team (sounds like there's at least one "1" too many in there, if you ask us), we've come across an interesting little Ultimate diversion to tide us over...

Most will have received their first lavishly-produced and super-glossy edition of the new-look Australian Ultimate magazine well before a copy found its way into the elegantly rusting mailbox that quietly announces the entrance to the Dojo gardens estate, so we apologise if this item is a tad out of date. But as soon as we saw this particular item we knew that something just had to be said...

Flip to page 9 (the centrefold!) of the new AU and you'll find an article on "Australia's Greatest Players". Now, whilst no-one can challenge the top-notch journalistic efforts of the authors, we did find immediate fault with the mention of one Chris Burwell, aka The Cornerstone of Queensland Ultimate, which notes:

"With perhaps the most extensive repertoire of any Australian to have every thrown a Frisbee, Buzz's throws were a thing of beauty. His inside outs, around the mark breaks on both sides and killer hammer meant no marker stood a chance."

All factually accurate except for one thing - the insidious use of PAST TENSE!

Other greats listed therein get the present-tense treatment - Ant Dowle's "pace and agility has made him a top block getter", for instance, but poor old Buzza is apparently past it. Knowing he'd be outraged (this is a man who we can quote as having said "I've never had fun playing Ultimate EVER!") we gave him a call to gauge his response and see if he may be in need of some counselling...

Predictably, Buzza was straight on the offensive, and like most grumpy old-timers started carrying on about all the "young kids these days" who know him only as "the greatest thrower of a frisbee ever to set foot on an Ultimate field", and how tragically one-dimensional this heroic vision is. Okay, he may not have actually said that last bit (doesn't make it any less believable, though) but we can faithfully report that he's taken this insult to his athleticism (which has also apparently taken up permanent residency on his staffroom table at the Qld Museum) as an incentive to get back into the shape of his old days when he was "3 times" as good as he is today.

But it seems it was eventually the write up of one John Greenfield (AU Ed 1 p8) that really got Buzza's cockroaches crawling, prompting him to proclaim:

"If Greenfield can go and reinvent himself from being a 'sensationally athletic block getter and receiver' into a 'high percentage handler', then I'm going to do the opposite and I don't care what anyone says about the fact that I'm 40. From now on I'm going to stop at nothing until I've transformed my game from the usual 'greatest thrower ever' tag to 'unbeatably athletic block getter and downfield receiver' status."

Let's just hope insect-man Buzza doesn't have any Seth Brundle-esque experiments in mind for this transformation. Be afraid. Be very afraid...

Monkey Magic

While the search continues for a monkey to replace the current BPL League Director, the bad news is that tonight's semifinals have been postponed due to the fields being largely submerged after Tuesday night's biblical flooding event. They're now scheduled for next week (28 May), with the Grand Final pushed back to 4 June.

But there's no shortage of Ultimate-related entertainment to be had in the meantime, as there's still plenty of dust being kicked up over the banning of the UQ Passion team from the finals series. In fact, the scene being played out one email salvo at a time is taking on the rather charming semblance of a small-town Western movie. It's got it all - a lynching, some disgruntled locals trying to chase a new hustler out of town, lots of quiet folk trying to stay out of the crossfire, and a sheriff that shoots first and, well, doesn't ask any questions at all... And like all the best Westerns, it's impossible to tell the good guys from the bad guys!

Anyway, it appears that a much-needed review of the BPL will be held during the (very lengthy) break between seasons. Not that there's been any official announcement about that...

This One Goes Right To The Top

Despite what he may tell you, the title of this post doesn't refer to our interviewee. Well, not directly at least...*

You see, the Brisbane Premier League has been thrown into turmoil just as we head into the finals series, thanks to a furore-generating decision on Friday by the League Director to ban 4th-placed team UQ Passion from playing in the finals due to their dodgy paperwork during the regular season. Sounds heavy-handed for a five-team amateur (and, yes, very competitive) league where everyone knows everyone else? But then rules are rules, right?

Well, the funny thing is that it's quite unclear exactly what rules are being invoked, especially when the LD himself apparently didn't see any need to review the team sheets in question after each round, thereby failing to issue a forfeit (as required under the rules) to first-timer captain Will and his team after the first slip-up.

So it's muddy already and we've hardly even got started. And in the meantime, the beneficiaries of all this (due to a similarly elastic application of the rules, or is it really blind ignorance?) are - you guessed it - Liam Gillions and his Old School Buggers team. How is it that luck just always seems to run Liam's way? You ask anyone and they'll tell you that he always wears the visage of a man who has just picked up the "bank error in your favour" card from the Monopoly board...

And now it's we who are lucky enough to have a quick word with him in the lead-up to his team's clash against the Dojo this week:

-----

DojoMojo Blog: Liam (and team), congratulations on making the semis in the most unusual of manners. Presumably the first thing you'd like to do is thank UQ Passion captain Will Churchill for filling in his team sheets incorrectly for most of the season?

Liam Gillions: Well we have really tried hard to get to this point this season. I made sure that the score sheets were filled in for every game just so we could get there in the end. I will certainly be giving Will a big hug next time I see him. But really, did anyone ever expect both Buggers team to NOT be in the semis? I mean come on, that's the whole reason we got [LD] Stu into the club.

DMB: Well that's certainly paid off big time. But do you think you can pull the OSB team back together and get everyone re-focussed in time for Thursday night? Jimmy Larkin and Mr Chadwick were saying something about the Hamptons...

LG: Well, we have actually sent some of the struggling team members away so that we can get things on track. Seriously though, we need to just forget about everything that has happened in the last 10 weeks. If we do that, then we can pull it off. This is getting back to the old days of BPL when you could lose every regular season game, then win 2 playoff games and walk home with the trophy.

DMB: Ah yes - the old days. Reminiscing just over this season, the last Dojo v OSB clash ended in a fairly emphatic 15-4 scoreline (even with Dan Walls, Dave Watson and Matt Eastburn staying home), so it appears there's plenty of catching up to do?

LG: Well Sensei, you are obviously forgetting that I wasn't there. 11 point swing, you ask? Well, I think it's probably a bigger swing than that. And Dan Walls, Dave Watson and Matt Eastburn? Who?

DMB: Hmmm - actually, maybe you're right and they're just figments of our imagination. We certainly haven't seen them in a while... Good to know you're not immune to mental delusions either though. Anyway, it's been a fairly controversial end to the BPL season, to say the least, and LD Stu tells us there's more to look forward to as well! Do you reckon as a result of all this we'll see some big changes in the structure of the BPL heading into next season?

LG: Would it be the BPL without some controversy? Although, this one has touched forces higher than I have seen before. I don't know if there will be any structural changes. Personnel changes perhaps? One thing is for sure, people will now know that the rules are the rules, and not following them will result in consequences. I for one don't think that is a bad thing.

DMB: Yeah. If only we could work out which rules are being enforced and who exactly is required to comply with what... The rulings to come out this week certainly don't stand up to even the slightest scrutiny. Ah, well - the other semi this week is between UQ Lovers and your sister team Messy. How do you see that one shaking out?

LG: Could go either way, depending on who turns up for each team. Jules will obviously be 15 minutes late, but if Burwell turns up then it could go the Lovers way. Also, it will be interesting to see what injury Joel Smith suffered last week as that could leave the Messy boys one experienced player down. What happened? Well, the pull came up and about 3 passes later, we realised that Joel hadn't moved from the endzone and was sitting there holding his ankle. Initial diagnosis from J-Ray: Torn archilles. And of course, we all know that Jason never makes a bad call in the middle on an Ultimate game. Don't we?

-----

Well, we think we'll leave it at that for today - this post has got long enough already. The decision to ban Passion has been made and the LD has made it very clear to everyone including the AFDA president that he won't be backing down no matter how tenuous the decision may be. As he says, "If BUDA, QUDA or the AFDA don't want that then they can find someone else to be their monkey rather than an actual League Director."

Yes - the BPL is in safe hands.

* As ever, this is not an official blog and carries no official endorsement. Plus all that usual guff about "the views of the author(s)" not necessarily being held by anyone else...

Block It Every Time

It's never been our MO here at the DojoMojo blog to brag about our exploits, so let's get this out of the way early - DojoMojo have emerged from Season 1 of 2009's Brisbane Premier League as undefeated minor premiers. Yay for us!

And that's all we're going to say about it, especially as there is still the traditional Dojo stumbling block of the semifinals to get through before the Big Game... Anyway, as it happened the last game of the season turned into a 15-4 blowout against the Old School Bugs. Dojo blitzed the first half 8-0 with a seemingly unstoppable offence scoring at will and a defence that capitalised on any sub-par options from OSB. The OldSchoolers managed to keep their pants on though, running in 4 points in the second half despite having nothing seem to go their way all night (well, except for a fumbled disc flipping right into Knotty's waiting hands).

There's probably very little other than that to say about the game (given our aforementioned "no bragging" policy), so let's get into the video. Guest cinematographer this week was a GC chap known as "Wazza" - you can tell when it's him with the camera by the faintly disturbing Darth-Vader-with-a-head-cold sound effects... Still, there's plenty of quality action on there, so for that Wazza we're eternally grateful:



Yes, we really need that QUDA funding for a video scaffold so we can put and end to those awkward moments where a great catch is hidden from view behind people on the sideline...

Anyway, that's it for another round. There's no game for the Dojo this week (the other 4 teams will be playing their final regular season games to settle the end-of-season standings), so as part of our tapering toward the semis we'll be working hard on our Rex Kwon Do moves courtesy of Andrew "Napoleon" Goldstiver. We'll also be watching the votes roll in for the A&B poll - things are getting tight at the top, and a spot on the honour board is still there for anyone to grab, especially those with a whole lab of university computers at their disposal...

A Bit Heavy on the Fizz...

We're tight for time this week, but at least there's video. And at 15fps and 1000 words per image, the paltry two and a half minutes worth of footage we've got adds up to more information than even the most extravagantly long post-doctoral thesis...

Video credits this week go to Suze Lankowski, who managed to acquire a few moments of game footage during the second half when UQ had finally managed to put 7 guys on the field (thanks to Big Julz turning up a little later than his customary 15 minutes...). The result of the game was a straightforward 15-7 win to Dojo, who did most of their damage to a very short-staffed Lovers team in the first half and then coasted home - who would believe that?!



A&B voting is finally up & ready for this round on the right, with pre-season favourite Dan Walls sure to lose his top spot this week after yet another Hong Kong junket.

Naked Ego?

We don't normally indulge in general Ultimate gossip here at the DojoMojo blog, but when this tragic/funny news item landed in our inbox this morning we couldn't resist sharing.

And that was probably because we instantly felt a sense of trans-global, anti-establishment kinship with Dusty Becker and his obviously very committed Oregon University Ego team-mates (who are apparently a very highly rated US college team) who, like the kenshi, haven't let their athletic ambitions cause them to forget how to live a little... Indeed, it seems that the Ego boys have a relationship with their College's student sports board that's not at all dissimilar to the Dojo's with our own BPL League Director (one day we'll look back and laugh, Stu).

So, Dusty & co, we just wanted to put it out there that we're right with you (assuming you're not countenancing doing these things simultaneously...) when you say: "Speeding, drinking, nudity — they’re not bad things... They’re things a big portion of the community doesn’t think are wrong." The story says that Ego players have had four speeding fines across the whole team in two years!!! Just four. We have no doubt at all that there would be many individual kenshi who've received more drive-by taxes than that over the last two years. And if nudity is "wrong" then surely we should all be reprimanded at birth???

Anyway, only a small insight into this unfortunate situation can be gleaned from the news articles, but this story seems to be a terrible one of moral misunderstandings, disproportionate punishments and a general lack of good humour. We're not sure how the student board can actually stop the Ego team from travelling to play - one assumes the severing of future funding would be the only viable instrument - but it seems obvious that this is a prime example of how the inherent anti-authoritarian nature of Ultimate doesn't always sit well within structures of authority (whether that be the local student board or the local constabulary).

It's easy to get used to the Ultimate players' privilege of each individual (rather than some impersonal figure of authority) making rule calls based on their own, personally accountable assessment of every alleged infraction, and often very difficult to accept that the rest of the world at large can't work that way as well...

Thanks Emma!

Who is Emma? She's the partner of one of the Messy Bug players without whom DojoMojo would have had to forfeit last night's BPL round. And that would have been a tragedy because the game that unfolded turned out to be an absolute classic.

How classic? So classic that some were comparing it to the finale of the recent US Masters golf (just without the plaid pants, massive prize money and huge audience). Looking back, it was a game that unfolded in 5 parts:

Part 1 - Dojo has 4 guys ready to play at 7.29pm, and it looks like the night's going to fizzle out before it's even started. There's only one person at the field not already spoken for - a young lady by the name of Emma who thankfully doesn't even hesitate when invited to join the kenshi quartet on field. The forfeit is narrowly avoided, but 5 players are always going to struggle against 7, and the Bugs score 3 or 4 unanswered goals before late arrivals Piers, Matt and Coopers (who would believe a grown man could take so long to tie his shoelaces?) are ready to play.

Part 2 - The Bugs continue as if they're still playing against 5, relying heavily on loopy hammers and floaty hucks to Mike, and the kenshi take advantage, quickly hauling in the deficit with all 7 players making equally top-shelf contributions. By the time the Bug boys are up to speed the Dojo has taken half and is on a serious roll.

Part 3 - The Dojo roll continues into the second half, and the lead gets out to 13-10 with 15 minutes left to play. With both calves cramped solid, the Sensei calls a breath-catching timeout (against the advice of game momentum mystic Andy McLean) and spends it lecturing the kenshi about how easily the Bugs could score the 5 goals they need to win the game, and how the Dojo has "all night" to roll in the 2 they need with solid completions and no risky hucks. Of course, the following 3 points see the Dojo throw 3 wild throwaways on the second or third pass, and the Bugs, who couldn't have asked for more, return fire with quick completions to Jangles and Mike.

Part 4 - Another Dojo throwaway, Bugs have the disc and work it into the redzone where predictably Jason looks for the hammer to Mike. Only this time it's a bit stray and Stu Austin is also looking to get on the receiving end. Mike leaps and gets just enough of a touch to knock it clear of Stu's grasp. Sometimes you don't need to be Andy McLean to know a change in fortune when you see it...

Part 5 - Knowing they've been let off the hook, the Dojo steadily works in the next score (a flat hammer to a backpeddalling Sensei who makes the catch in a somewhat inelegant fashion that Matt Eastburn later describes as looking like a falling tree). Some good old-fashioned man-on-man defence brings the turn on the next point before the Bugs can get it halfway up the field, and the kenshi don't waste their chance to close the game out with some quick, short passes, scoring in the front centre of the endzone... And just like that it's all over bar the speeches, and Mike Neild delivers one of the classics - dogged and determined in defeat as he is in victory.

So that's it - our best effort at communicating the feeling of the game (from a Dojo perspective) in lieu of any video footage. A&B voting is ready to roll on the right, and sadly there's no game next week due to Nationals in Perth. Good luck to all the Firestorm chaps heading to Perth - we have no doubt you'll do a lot better than your unflattering seeding and give quite a scare to several of the southern teams. More soon!

Travelling Without Moving

Even though the talk before the game was centred mostly around the controversial new "experimental pick rule" we in the BPL have the apparent honour of trialling, it was the other 8 or 9 WFDF rule changes that made for the real entertainment in Dojo's 12-9 win over UQ Passion last Thursday. Well, that and a h-u-g-e layout from Dan Walls that we're going to make you wait until the very end of the video footage (filmed by his incomparable missus Marijke) to see.

So while it may be true that the young scholars on the UQ Passion team have lengthy reading lists to wade through in their academic endeavours, it seemed quite clear during last week's game that the 2009-spec WFDF rules are most certainly not, as that old smoothy Andrew O'Keefe would say, "on the list"... Okay, captain Johnny Mac was no doubt on top of things, but clearly isn't as big into the benefits of spreading the word to his team via email-based training as some, so for a bit of fun we've included some of the highlights of the discussions around a variety of travel calls in the following video.

It's worth adding that we think it's a pretty strong affirmation of the integrity of the players in our uniquely self-referreed sport that the game never descended into the chaos that might be expected under multiple simultaneous rule changes and varying knowledge. Instead, the few unnecessary stoppages that occurred were resolved with equanimity and a complete absence of raised voices or frayed tempers - just the way Ultimate is meant to be. Anyway, let's get into the video:



DojoMojo leapt out to a massive 7-1 lead, taking half at something like 8-3, and then in trademark fashion switched on the cruise control, sat back and watched the UQ lads claw back to within 3 by the time the 80 minutes were up... John McNaughton and a chap we know only as "Eric" put in the standout efforts for UQ (yes Will, you pulled off some special-looking moves, but how many goals did you score???) and will need to be sat on with much greater force next time. At the Dojo end, Dan pulled down whatever swill was thrown his way in the endzone, whilst our three Gold Coast sluggers Stefan R, Mike and Cupcake worked hard all night in the front of the zone D and with the disc. Here's how things finished up:



That's it for another week. A&B voting as usual to the right, and with the new moon hidden behind rainclouds most of the week, perhaps we'll check out some Sumo action in the next day or so with that inveterate grappler John McNaughton...?

Now THAT was Old School

It's tempting at the outset to construct some sort of witty (well, at least half-witty) gag about the oddly-named "Old School Buggers" receiving a Dojo-style schooling last Thursday on field 3b at the AJFC fields, but it just wouldn't be accurate. And you know how much we here at the DojoMojo Blog value journalistic veracity above all else.

No, the game was a lot tighter than that. In fact the Kenshi started off in vintage Dojo style, quickly falling 2 or 3 goals behind while using the early stages of the game itself as a warmup. A tactical timeout was called before things really started spiralling, and what must have been a massively inspirational pep talk from the Sensei led to a fully charged Dojo scoring a string of virtually unanswered goals, leading to the Dojo taking half well & truly ahead.

Let's pick up the video now (filmed by the thankfully willing first-time cameraperson Brooke, partner of OSB's bionic man Chadwick):



Just one of the night's many big, big layouts from Dan Walls at the end there. And if you were wondering what happened to the team you saw wearing white shirts at the start of the game, well, we all changed into black just because it was the only colour Dan and his buddy Dave Watson turned up with (a couple of points into the game, of course...). [Edit: Looks like there's no explaining of shirt colours required after that tedious clip where nothing happens in the middle of the film. Seems we hit "delete" on the wrong clip, not that looking at blokes standing around in white shorts can't be fun...] Here's more action:



Big grab by our brand-new German rookie Stefan at the end there. And the Walls sweet-layout count is now up to 3...



Cupcake putting it all on the line there at 1:47 to save a rather shabby floater from the Italian Shower... And horizontal again at the end there, making the grab from a trademark Flanagan hammer to win the game look that bit more special.

So, despite getting a little complacent toward the end the Dojo rolls in an easy 15-11 win over the Old Schoolers. That wraps up the first round of the League this season, with DojoMojo and UQ Lovers the only two undefeated teams (by virtue of the drawn game last week). This Thursday is scheduled as a training week, with the second half of the season getting underway via a Dojo vs UQ Passion clash on Mar 26. There might be some entertainment to be had here in the meantime - we'll see what we can come up with - but in the meantime, this week's Above&Beyond poll is ready for voting there on the right, with current standings updated below.

Draw!

As the wet season starts drawing to a close here at the Dojo Gardens, we find ourselves with very little time to spare from our weekend outdoor labours of pruning, trimming, raking, weeding and of course mowing. So, having edited the film into some semblance of a watchable sequence of events we're going to have to leave it pretty much at that for now.

Worthy of note before we press "play" was the debut of yet another fresh Kenshi this week, the youngest Dojo player ever to wear the #1 headband - a chap known only to us as Cupcake (although there are some who call him "Tom" - one for the Monty Python fans there, and yes, because you Python fans are all pedantic nerds, we know it was actually "Tim"). Cupcake can be seen running around as only youth can, and frequently wondering how the Dojo mark is so often and so easily broken. It's something we've been wondering for a long time as well...

Anyway, here's the film:





Okay, so at this point we should note that the game might have looked a bit scrappy, but the flashes of brilliance in there give some hint as to the intensity of the contest between the two teams which still share the top of the table, thanks to the 13-13 outcome of this round. Sadly, stand-in filmographer Mike Morgan ran out of DVDs or batteries or something just when things were starting to get really tense toward the end, so you'll have to take our word for it that the game escalated into a classic struggle that saw Dojo scoring the last goal (thanks to an outrageous Sean Flanagan hammer flat & hard into the safe hands of Matt Eastburn in the very back corner of the endzone) to secure the draw. All in all a titillating preview to what most believe will be this season's Grand Final matchup...

As usual, the Above&Beyond poll is ready for voting on the right, and this weekend due to tournament commitments we'll be accompanying UQ's big Julian Sacre on his private jet so we can interview him about our drawn game before he takes to the field at the Terrigal Towel event. More on that early next week.

Return of the Video

That's right viewers - the top quality video footage you'd become used to last season and had been missing so badly is finally back. With Dan Walls on a covert Dojo mission in Hong Kong (sharing the night-vision goggles with sidekick Dave Watson) our resident filmographer, the longsuffering Marijke Walls, was also absent. This left it to the Sensei and a mystery man we found on the sidelines, known only as "Matt", to grab the footage of Dojo's Thursday night triumph over a rookie-laden Messy Bugs.

With the word count getting pretty stratospheric here of late, we might change it up this week and let the moving pictures do the storytelling:





So that's it. A nice, comfy 14-8 win for DojoMojo, keeping the early perfect record for the season at 2-0-0. Lots of Zone D and free-form O was the order of the night, with special kudos to new signing Piers Truter for driving the defensive setup and spending all night doing the Ninja assassination on Mike & Jason, and also to our new German rookie Stefan Schmidt for stepping right up to top-flight Brisbane Ultimate fresh off the plane.

Above&Beyond voting is underway again to the right, and because it sadly didn't turn up on the video we thought we'd make special mention at this point of the very large block Andy McLean got on Mike Nield in the endzone...

Perhaps we'll have a Bugger over for a stroll through the gardens shortly.

Second Chances Are All The Rage

It turned out that Will Churchill had quite a bit to say as we sat on the verandah overlooking our reed-lined pond last night, waiting for the moon to emerge from mountain mists. So let's get straight into it:

DojoMojo Blog: Welcome as usual, Will, to the serene surroundings of the Dojo Gardens. We know you normally prefer to speak in 17-syllable poems, but do you think you might be able to elaborate a little on your thoughts about our game last week?

Will Churchill: Hell yes, Steve! Like a trip to the playboy mansion, being asked to visit the Dojo grove for a second time is like meeting God again and getting a chance to ask a question better than "why are we here?" Second chances are all the rage.

DMB: Excellent - let's get comfortable then with a nice cup of tea and a little shakuhachi music. Now, that was a pretty good first game of the season the other night, with both teams getting the feel for their new player mix, resulting in plenty of spectacular action, including a couple of big layout blocks from the Passion boys. What was your pick for biggest moment?

WC: I'm not going to float my boat too much but I have to say that layout D I got in the dying minutes of the match was pretty huge. Big distance, killer intercept. Not much can look sweeter. Speaking from UQ’s perspective not much else went that spectacularly. We did some basic things right but we also did a lot of them wrong even though the game was really competitive. I don’t want to come off as scathing and I understand that the boys haven’t played together as a unit for quite a while but I have big ambitions and plans for where I want us to end up. Some good work was done by Dan Young but Dan did what Dan does and that’s bring down the big ones in the end zone. We pulled our weight but I know we can do A LOT better as a unit. I’m really looking forward to our next meet.

DMB: So are we, Will. Sadly though it won't be on those super-cushy GU fields. The late change to Griffith didn't seem to cause too many problems in getting players there on time, and once underway the softness of the fields seemed to encourage horizontality. Looking forward to another game there this week?

WC: Those fields have some really nice grass! Big props to JDR for finding some alternative fields so quickly. Another game there will be really appreciated while our fields regenerate to all their glory. The rain doesn’t hurt them being soft either.

DMB: Some big (or at least bigger than usual) changes at UQ this season, Will, and you've got plenty of fresh young guys on the roster. What new tricks are you planning on teaching these young dogs this season?

WC: I can’t help but feel I have gimped the club a little this season. While we have reverted back to the “classic” split for UQ (Buzz and Jules aside) I’ve noticed how passion only has 3 players noticeably over 6 feet tall (Gref, Dan Young and myself). For the moment that means our game will focus on under cuts rather than risk “the precious” in an unfair contest deep. However we’ll be able to change things up significantly when spiritual leader Johnny Mac returns as well as when the Lovers “Old Guns” decide to start showing up so we can get Nathan Litzow back on the pink side. This time next week UQ Passion will be back to strength.

DMB: You might have noticed that the Dojo has a few new guys as well this season. Sure, they're not rookies, but how do you see the Dojo brand of ultimate adapting to this season's re-jig?

WC: I have noticed that the disbanding of Rawhide sent skill into teams which hasn’t hurt the balance of the league, which is good. Dojo now has even more capable handlers oozing out of your ears which makes throwing a zone upon you even more unappealing. As for the Dojo brand of ultimate changing with this new influx of players, math has an answer. Dojo+Rawhide= MORE HAMMERS! Actually, ANYTHING+RAWHIDE=MORE HAMMERS! Just look at the Buggers. Since Tony Ross joined the team Hammers and Hammer related turnovers have increased Hammer percent!

DMB: Yep - we love a good hammer, of course preferably when completed in the endzone. Who doesn't! And now it's time for an early form call. Finalist teams for the season will be (and why)?

WC: Ok, the BIG question. As much as Mike will probably throttle me for saying such, I don’t think we’ll see a Buggers team in the final this season. Word in the endzone is that Messy Buggers are really trying to bring their newer guys up to a high standard by sharing disc and getting everyone involved more often. While a great move to get some fresh blood into the Buggers club it’s not going win them a final least the idea is dropped in favour for the Mike/J-Ray show to get some points on the board and win games which I think is going against the whole mentality that is directing Messy’s path. That said, this whole statement could backfire completely and the new players pick the game up and explode into frizbee greats who don’t need the Mike/J-Ray show to win games.

As for “Old School” their line whilst always strong is manageable with no monster threats (Unless Jimmy has the disc within strike range and Wetty runs long because you can bet your ass that disc will fly) . These guys will play a great hucking game through the season but their defensive capabilities are on par with other teams.

UQ on paper looks “classic”. The Passion team has changed slightly but is the sleeping Juggernaut it was last year. Offensively it's a fast, quick moving short game team stocked with young players who are good with a disc, but it just needs to get its options re-opened deep to truly restore itself to power. When John, Nathan (and don’t forget Arlann Christie) come home the deep option will really open and get goals. Defensively the collective experience of the team will get a lot of turn overs in our favour. If I recall correctly our zone was devastating.

Lovers…..need to show up to games. They had an easy win last week but they have tougher games in front of them. On paper they are quite the team (even without aL). Buzz has slipped in quite nicely in aL’s absence whilst Finn and Jon Good give Cunliffe a chance to play deep reciever. Not to mention Jules who is not only a nightmare when he’s following you playing puppy but he’s Burwell’s best friend in the endzone.

THE DOJO! I’ll call Dojo in top3, leaning toward a grand final position. You guys have a solid team now that has no excuse not to score “O”-points. Keep the goals consistent and get that forced turn and you have a gamewinner. But I do have some thoughts. Germans are not a primary foodgroup and should be eaten sparingly for offence, they should be taken as a supplement to the offensive staples. Taller teams will make you lose easy “O” points if you play them too often. Finally get Coops to put that disc! Coops (I know you're reading this), you NEED to jack it once in a while! (*bleep*, do it often that’ll really shake up expectations of what will be thrown) There were a good few deep cuts that were very on when the Disc got swung to you and they have to be taken. You can’t become predictable. I am guilty for letting my man beat me deep on a swing to you because I knew it wasn’t on and I had him waaaaay covered on his return cut. I’m not saying be reckless, but players need to think twice about what a handler may pull out of his bag of tricks. Sensei I will leave it to you to devise the appropriate “encouragement” for the man.

DMB: Well there you go, Coops. Time to start hucking it to whoever Will is marking. Thanks for that detailed run down, Will. Your analysis seems spot on as far as we can tell, and we'll be giving Lankowski your number so you can sort out his long game.

WC: As always Stephen it’s a pleasure to come visit the Dojo grove. Now that I know I’ll be invited back occasionally I need to go return some items to the kitchen and the silverware drawer that I took after our last interview… no hard feelings right?. See you in the endzone. Will-i-aM


[Unrelated post-interview note: They may not be working yet, but very shortly we'll be trialling some AdSense ads here at the DojoMojo Blog. All proceeds (if there are any) will go directly towards the ongoing improvement of this blog and/or a seriously sweet new merchandise line.]

A Little Less Conversation, A Little More Action Please

While we're waiting for Will Churchill to join us for some nocturnal haiku recitations on the moon-viewing platform, we thought we'd better get back into the habit of sharing news of Dojo on-field adventures.

For those likely to skip the blurb and go straight to the video - sadly you're out of luck this week. The change of location to Griffith Uni playing fields at Nathan meant that our resident filmographer Marijke Walls was more interested in doing some serious Financial Stimulus at the nearby Garden City shops than getting the usual gratuitous closeup videos of her man Dan. Next time...

So we'll have to rely on our own pocket thesaurus to help describe the action from Round 1 of BPL Season 1 2009.

The Kenshi had done some serious team training between seasons, sending many an email about what should and shouldn't be done on (and off) the field this year. Of course, the first actual "training" run last week saw an immense flow of apologies and unavoidable absences... The most memorable virtual training effort was without a doubt from evil mastermind Dr Phil Stocks who sent around several frankly brutal emails taking the team and even certain individuals (why is it always Eastburn that cops it?) to task over various areas of perceived sloppiness, only to send a bleating email prior to Game 1 advising of his unavailability. Cue much guffawing and circulating of witty ripostes... So the Dojo is taking it right back to basics this season and making "turning up at the fields" training priority #1.

And of course what makes getting the Kenshi interested in training so difficult is the fact that the Dojo wins games regardless. The first outing for this season against a youthful and very much work-in-progress UQ Passion was a case in point. With the pre-game warmup consisting of a bit of a chat, donning of cleats and a quick throw or two, and the average age of Dojo players being more or less 10 years beyond that of your UQ yoofs, the Kenshi still managed to roll out a 12-9 win.

And you can see by the scant interest in this week's A&B voting that nobody really did anything out of the ordinary. But that doesn't include the Passion boys, who pulled out some spectacular layouts both on O and D, ran very hard and maintained their intensity throughout. This is a Passion team that just needs somebody like John McNaughton or Al Don at the helm to inspire all those young runners to greatness. And to instil a bit of order on proceedings. But as it stood on the night, the younger, faster, fitter, keener UQ Passion just didn't have the depth and patience to match the throws, experience and cohesiveness of the Dojo. We certainly don't expect this situation to last, though.

This week is sadly another "training" week (i.e. a bye) for the Dojo, so there'll be precious little to report on until the following week, but like any self-respecting news source we'll be doing our best to make something up. There are also just a few hours left in the Above&Beyond poll to the right, and hopefully just a few hours left until we hear Will's thoughts on last week's game.

DojoMojo 2009 in SF Style

Tomorrow night will see the return of the Brisbane Premier League to the Annerley Junior Football Club fields, and the first 2009 training run of a new-look DojoMojo roster.

We've been busy during the summer break refining strategies, honing bodies and inducting new recruits to the Dojo Way and, as evidenced by the roster below, Dojo '09 is an even taller, faster, bigger-throwing team than Dojo '08 was. Tone Loc may have said "'88 was great, but '89 is mine", but DojoMojo is bringing that into the right-now. Gen Y kids reading this may not immediately comprehend, but then they've got YouTube to provide their oldskool education for them.

So, as uncustomary as it is for us here at the DojoMojo Blog to indulge in vainglorious team bios, we couldn't resist the temptation to announce this year's frankly kickass team, especially when (to continue the oldskool theme) we discovered that 2009 will also see the release of the third sequel to Capcom's 1987 classic Street Fighter. Without getting too nerdy (we leave that to our buddies at the Brisbane Ultimate Blog) let's look at the team:














Andrew Goldstiver (aka Goldy) - a towering behemoth with long range and devastating moves, one cannot become the "Greatest Fighter in the World" without first getting past him.














Andrew Lankowski (aka Coopers) - flat-top hair and a special-ops field presence give Coopers the visage of a man who never quits, and who unfortunately also has difficulty tying his shoelaces.














Andy Mclean - has the smooth, textbook moves of a man who stays up very late at night training himself to exhaustion while listening to "Eye of the Tiger" on his headphones. How he found the time to acquire a Brazilian fiancee nobody knows.














Dan Blacklock (aka Blackcock - says it right there on the back of his shirt!) - is possessed of a diminutive presence that conceals deep and quietly seething agression. Dan likes to run a lot.
EDIT: Turns out Dan likes to run so much that he's taking indefinite leave from the team to focus on his illustrious distance running career...













Dan Walls - nobody can deny Dan's rightful title of "Master of the Disc", and he is without doubt the player that Dojo opponents least look forward to meeting on the field. The disc just comes to him - no-one knows how.













Dave Watson - one of the very original Kenshi, Watto can occasionally be heard breathing the word "Shoryuken" when sending the disc long. Legend has it that he founded the Dojo along with his sparring partner Ryan Black, nemesis Dan Walls and a few notable others way back when Tone Loc was still doing the wild thing.













Matt Eastburn - a very strong physical (sometimes a bit too physical) presence on the field and master of the seriously destructive "Spinning Piledriver" move, Matt has a strange enthusiasm for the colour red.













Mike Morgan - the fact that he's an Irish surfer says it all: the man is an unstoppable mutant and never, ever quits.













Dr Phil Stocks - his famous one-two combo of wink & smile conceal a fiendish mind and an all-consuming evil nature (just ask his students). Phil has seen things no human should ever wish to.













Ryan Black - THE original big hair Dojo kenshi. The moves of every single Dojo player are just their own interpretations of things Ryan invented years ago, and to this day no-one has matched his behind-the-back throwing prowess in the heat of tournament play. Without Ryan and his buddy/rival Watto, there would be no Dojo for its current sensei to curate.













Sean Flanagan - is peace-loving by nature, but lethal when challenged. Nobody knows how old Sean is, or how he manages to apparently suspend himself in the air, and some say that his incredible ability to catch and deliver a frisbee to and from any part of the field derives from some mystical form of teleportation.













Stefan Rappazzo (nickname witheld for political correctness) - is a non-stop slugger who wins his way to the disc with brute force and aggression. He is a monster on the field and in the huddle, constantly spurring his team on to play harder. He is Canadian, NOT American.













Stephen Cameron (aka Sensei) - is protector of the Dojo Way, keeper of the secrets of the Hadouken, the Shoryuken and the Tatsumaki Senpuukyaku, sends a pretty good email and writes the occasional self-indulgent blog post...