The Five Rings of Ultimate with Al Don

It's been raining since Christmas here at the Dojo Gardens, and the sound of the burbling creeks can be heard even from under the deep eaves of our delightful southern verandah. The outline of the ancient pine trees can be made out only as a faint, distant silhouette amidst the constantly changing mists. Indeed, it is only when one hears the primal screech of black cockatoos passing overhead, and realises that those ancient pines are actually Bunya pines, that the illusion of living in Heian-period Japan starts to fade.

But then out of that very same mist emerges a figure with all the fierce athleticism of the great Musashi Miyamoto and you're right back there in the feudal golden age. The approaching figure bounds over the arched bridge, leaps over the stepping stones (set just below the surface of the pond), and vaults straight over the timber balustrade and into the vacant seat to our right, somehow leaving the steaming pot of green tea by our side completely undisturbed.

And in fact the only difference between our guest today and that legendary double-sworded duelist is that the man on our right is wearing a Doughboy Allstars shirt. It's the only shirt he owns, and his name is Al Don.

DojoMojo Blog: Ohaiyoo Gozaimashita, Al. Thanks for dropping by. Before we embark on a stroll through the mist, let's enjoy a nice cup of sen-cha and re-visit our game from Thursday night. Firstly I must say there are a lot of guys I've never seen before on the Lovers team this season (and they all look pretty handy). Have you got a lot of BPL rookies on the roster, or have I just not been paying attention?

Al Don: I'd hate to suggest that the Sensei hasn't been paying attention.... But there were only two new faces on the roster this season that weren't there when the Dojo scraped it home against us in the semis last season.. And for varied reasons neither of those two will be hanging around for the rest of the season..

DMB: Hmmm - seems I'd better start putting some names to faces then, so I know who I'm chasing around next time... I'm also curious to know how you would rate the Lovers' performance (eeew!) in that game, relative to what you're aiming for this season?

AD: Ummmmm.. If I was to rate it in one word I would have to say "pretty poor".. That's two words I know but I'm sure you get the point.. If we were to move towards a more numerical, say a standard scale of 1 - 10 with 10 being where I think we can reasonably be expecting to aim for over the season I'd struggle to bring us in with anything more than a 5.. Showed some fighting spirit and played a few pretty good points but in the schema of a whole game it was a pretty disappointing effort on the whole. Too many drops, too little intensity in the cuts, too many times being beaten on the open side downfield.. Was pretty happy with the way our attempt at taking the 2:3:2 defence to the BPL's major proponents of funny looking zone D's went though.

DMB: Room for improvement, then. One thing that probably couldn't have been done better on Thursday night was Coops' incredible catch of a pretty wild cross-field thumb-hammer from Watto (his second thumber of the night, after a sensational first effort resulted in a goal that no-one saw coming). Imagine if Coops hadn't managed to hold onto it - shortly after halftime, close to the Dojo goal line - reckon there might have been an opening there for a UQ comeback if that outrageous throw had gone to ground, as it very nearly did?

AD: Interesting question.. Fantastic catch on Andy's part and from where I was standing it was completely unexpected from the time the thumber left Watto's hand. It came at a point in the game where we had managed to put a couple of points together.. Think that it could probably be said that the Dojo at that point may have, somewhat understandably, relaxed into the game a little.. Would it have got us truly back into the game? Would like to say yes but honestly don't think that was the case.

DMB: Fair enough. We're always conscious of momentum in games, and while you're probably right about that instance we've seen teams (including ours) lose all their steam after seemingly minor incidents. And on the subject of momentum, no Dojo player has ever been more expert at this vague "science" than our erstwhile colleage Andy McLean. Last Thursday was Andy's last game in a Dojo jersey, and he's going to be sorely missed. Any "Magic McLean Moments" you can recall from your years playing and/or partying alongside him around the country?

AD: Hmmm.. A couple of fairly drunken evenings in Brazil pre-wedding where I saw him shaking it on the dance floor like I'd never seen the man do on home soil were certainly memorable for me. Andy was one of a fairly short list of what you might call "the quiet men" of Brisbane frisbee.. Always to be relied on to give a hundred percent on the field and almost guaranteed to never to get up in anyone's face about it. Also possessed of a very nice, and in my opinion somewhat underutilised forehand flick.. Someone who was always willing to lend a hand whenever asked off-field as well. A member of the community who will be missed by all after the transition to Melbourne.

DMB: Yes, getting used to all those great bars and fantastic cultural institutions is going to take some transitioning for poor old Andy. Bet he'll hate it. Sigh. Ah well - what are your thoughts on the other two games from Round 3? Both very interesting results...

AD: Very interesting results indeed. I'll start with the Passion/Buggers game. I don't think that anyone who's taken a look at the Passion roster and results so far should really have been surprised by the way this one went. Though the final scoreline was perhaps more than most tipsters might have had down for the split... The passion team are a very solid line with characters like Cheese, Gref, Jules and new kid on the block Daniel Henbest to name a few. If you don't know who this guy is yet you certainly will by the end of the season. Though if he keeps changing his haircut and general appearance at the rate he's been going since arriving in Brisbane you may not actually recognise him. The rest of the Passion roster are looking fast and fit as well. At this point, without wanting to put the kiss of death on them they are certainly my pick for the title this season. The Buggers are obviously still a solid line but it's different this season without the classic get out of jail that they've had in the back pocket for as many seasons as I can remember. You just know that they'll continue to dig deep and keep on coming up with exciting new recruits to add into the very reliable Buggers mould, and it would be a brave tip to say they won't make the finals.

And now for the Heroes/Cobras match. Fantastic result for the other new team in the comp. One I'm sure wasn't picked by many (any?) in the BPL tipping comp this week. I do know that there were many pundits out there suggesting at the beginning of the season that "they wouldn't win a game", that maybe "they shouldn't be allowed into the league" for fear of dragging down the level. Many of those same pundits were also suggesting that this might be the season for the Cobras to come flying out off the blocks and perhaps be strong contenders this time round for their first championship. Would be interesting to see what those folks are saying this week.

Heroes have a bunch of young, enthusiastic, albeit fairly inexperienced players along with a couple of more experienced blokes being given the chance to come into their own as playmakers and leaders at a BPL level. Watch this space for some more upsets from the men in green over this season.

On paper the Cobras look great with a roster full of talented players. They've got the throwers, the receivers and some great defenders as well. Somehow it just seems that the "whole" at this point, rather than being greater than the sum of the parts, is actually somehow far less than the sum of its' individual parts. If they can find a way to harness the energy and talent they've got towards playing good Ultimate rather than whatever they're turning it into at the moment then they might still turn it around and make a dash into the finals..

DMB: Indeed. And while we're talking about the Finals, which teams are you currently tipping to make it to the semis, and why?

AD: Like I said above, my pick at this point in time to take the Championship is the boys of the fist - Passion. Think they're closest to the complete package with some of the best throwers and receivers in the game in Brisbane at the moment and the rest of the squad looking fighting fit. From what I've seen they're also looking like they're really enjoying playing together at the moment. Think they're going to be tough to beat. I'm picking them to win the Minor Premiership and then go on to take the finals.

After that though it gets a whole lot more interesting. Will list below the order I'm picking to finish the season up to finals:

2) Dojo - can't go past the experienced line you've got going there. I do think that the absence of Andy McLean will affect the Dojo more than some may expect. Beware the quiet man.

3) Buggers - they've got enough experience there and a good simple system to slot a couple of exciting looking prospects into to make this slot their own. Think that they'll also show enough mongrel fighting spirit to get them into a Final for I dunno the hundred and seventeenth time or something on the trot?

The battle for fourth.. As some bloke once said, this one's harder to pick than a broken nose..

4) Slamtown FC - They're rough around the edges but they've got the athleticism and the heart to edge out the rest for the last spot in the semis I think. They're also the only team in the long history of BPL to run regular training sessions. Way to lift the standard Slamtown.

5) Got to put my boys the Lovers down here. Think as per last season we're going to improve week to week and will have enough to get this far but, and it saddens my heart to say it, you'd have to give me some pretty impressive odds to get me putting down much money on us making the semis this season. Love to see you prove me wrong, Lovers..

6) Cobras.. Great on paper but yet to show it where it counts.

7) Heroes. They're going to be better each week. And had a fantastic result this round. Think the lack of experience will keep them here for this season..

DMB: Al, as usual you've thought of everything, and said even more. Thanks for spending a quiet Sunday afternoon here with us at the Dojo Gardens - must be time for a stroll past our roaring waterfall.

AD: It's been a pleasure chatting, Sensei.. Though for next time I'm really more an espresso than green tea sort of man.

Battle of Who Could Care Less

Another borrowed-lyrics intro? Oh yes!

Will you never rest
Fighting the battle of who could care less
Every day you wake up late
Sometimes I wish I was that way

It's not that we're trying harder this year to appeal to pop music trivia nerds (hi Joel Smith), it's just that sometimes Ben Folds can describe in a few irony-laden lines and with a fat, fuzz-bass and crash symbal accompaniment, what is about to take us a whole blog post to ramble on about...

Okay - first the facts. UQ Passion beat DojoMojo by 1 point last night in a game that, for people that weren't there, would presumably have been an intensely hard-fought scrap for a single point victory at the top of the BPL ladder. What actually happened was a festival of slack Ultimate, with neither team appearing to really care too much about winning or losing. Even the ever-hardcore JMac didn't really seem to be too concerned when a disc was dropped or a pass went astray. Weird.

Maybe it was just the sheer quantity of lazy or poor-option turnovers that dulled the players' enthusiasm last night? Sure, it was wet & windy by Brisbane standards, but nothing that people from less gentle climes would find upsetting. It was certainly an evening where hammers were a bit harder to catch, and with Dojo playing zone there were plenty of UQ hammers going astray. Needless to add that the hammer is pretty much the default throw for half the kenshi, and perhaps a little bit of adjustment to the conditions might have helped...

But really, it wasn't the sort of game that can be analysed technically or strategically. It was more just the vibe on the field where someone would get a great block and then one of their teammates would run over to the disc, pick it up and huck it straight out of bounds. Doesn't get much more careless than that.

Anyway, as Mr Folds knew all too well, not giving a damn is an attitude that is usually adopted to conceal one's caring a whole lot about something - summarised thus:

This should cheer you up for sure
See I've got your old ID
And you're all dressed up like The Cure

What the Dojo needs to do now is dare to show that we actually do care about the block our teammate just got, or even just the situation on the scoreboard. We're not going to win games this season without trying a bit, even though last night's game happened to also be the Dojo's first regular season loss since October 2008 (!!!). With 7 teams now in the league, gaining a spot in the semis is by no means a given, and a lot of the other teams in the league have plenty of reasons to care, such as ambitious newcomers Slamtown FC and last season's great underperformers, the Cobras. Time to take it all the way back to wax-on wax-off basics.

Vote away for above&beyond on the right.

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.

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...?

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.

Straight to the Point With Liam

It's 4pm on the day of the BPL semifinals, so we thought we'd sneak in a quickie with that most balletic of Ikebana (and sometimes Ultimate) masters - Liam "Wetnose" Gillions.

This is despite him making some rather "pointed" comments on our previous post, but we love that stuff.

So - while Liam was placing fresh orchids about the place we asked him to make a few quick tips in relation to tonight's semis. Here's what he had to say:

DojoMojo Blog: Righto Wetnose. Let's get straight down to it. Which teams are you tipping to win tonight's semifinals and 5/6 playoff, and why?

Liam Gillions: Teams to win: Messy, Dojo, Double forfeit.

DMB: Which of tonight's games do you expect to be the closest and most exciting, and why?

LG: The 5/6 playoff will be very interesting to watch. I don't know if a 4 man Rawhide will really have what it takes to beat a 3 man Passion. Should be an interesting zone defence set up though.

DMB: Which player(s) do you expect to make the standout contributions in these sudden-death matchups, and why?

LG: Whilst obviously Julz with be skying Sensei in the Dojo/Lovers match up, I think Mike Neild (if his ankle is alright) will stand up, like he always does in the big games.

DMB: Which player(s) do you expect to rack up the highest number of throwaways, and why?

LG: Throwaways will be a tie between Jason Ray, and Matt Eastburn. Tony Ross to throw the most hammers.

DMB: Who would you pick as your 3-person "dream team" to put in the commentary box for the Grand Final coverage?

LG: Obviously you would need to have myself in the commentary box (if not playing) but also would need M Ryan and J McNaughton for some good trashtalking and actually well informed commentary. Keep Sarah Sandford & Will Churchill well away from the commentary though.

DMB: Very interesting, Liam. It's always good to know that a spot in the commentary box awaits those that don't make it through to the big game - we'll be sending out our invitations as soon as the finalists have been confirmed!

*As we publish this post the terrible news has come through that tonight's semifinals have been postponed to next week, presumably due to the rather fearsome electrical storm currently passing through...

The Scottish Play

Our worst fears were realised on Field 3 of the Annerley Junior Football fields last Thursday night.

Sooner or later, we knew that all this video coverage would lead to trouble. You know what we mean - amongst us there are always going to be some with that certain disposition, that little weakness. They see the reaction that one little layout can cause and they can't help themselves. They yearn for a taste of that adulation, that feeling of heroism, that sense that they may be high-fived at random in the street by someone who happened to witness the feat.

The game started out sensibly enough, and DojoMojo quickly moved out to a comfortable lead with a combination of good choices on offence and strong commitment on defence. Here's how the first half went down:



But with a chunky lead in the bag, those suffering from Macbeth-style personality flaws saw their chance - especially when our fab filmographer Marijke Walls decided to try a new camera angle from the back of the endzone... The free-for-all that ensued was thankfully only brief, and to extend our Shakespearian analogy (this one's for you, Roger Church) Birnam Wood was kept well away from Dunsinane Hill, but it was long enough for Andy Lankowski to make his fateful bid at fame and fortune. It's buried in the middle of this second half footage, but we've repeated Andy's moment of near-but-so-far-from-glory a few times to make sure it can't be missed. Here we go:



So that's it. With that lengthy gag at Andy's expense we've pretty much neglected to mention that the game was a fairly straightforward success for the Dojo, especially once we got the message that Chris Cunliffe was going to pull down pretty much anything thrown long unless it was deadly accurate. But Chris and the Passion boys really missed the services of John McNaughton and just didn't have the throwing depth to keep pace with the Dojo on this occasion. They certainly made up for that with their high-spirited and unrelenting workrate, spurred on by Mr Armpits himself, Piers Truter.

Anyway, that's it for another round of BPL. Two rounds to go until the finals, with Dojo set to play Messy Bugs and Rawhide in the remaining regular season matches. Previous form this season is a 15-10 win over Messy (or a Dojo forfeit if you believe LD Stu), and Rawhide failed to field a team. Plenty of motivation there for cracking Ultimate all round then...

And as usual, the A&B poll is ready for voting. Ryan, Stefan and Mike, the guys who seem to have access to the most computers, all took sickies this week so we should see a rare round of voting that is entirely reflective of on-field play...

Liam Gillions Adorns Our Tokonoma

Anyone familiar with the art of serving tea would know that no teahouse is complete without its Tokonoma, and the Dojo's garden teahouses are no exception. Of course, the Tokonoma itself is just an alcove, a “place of beauty”. Without a decorative feature it's just a void waiting to be filled. And naturally, who would be more up to this task than that inveterate void-filler himself – Liam Gillions (known more frequently, and rather obscurely, as Wetnose).

Many local Ultimate players know of Liam primarily as a deep-end danger and keen scholar of the game, never afraid to make the big calls. Few would ever have suspected that in his spare time he is also the Dojo's go-to guy for the Ikebana arrangements that so often adorn the otherwise vacant Tokonoma of our various garden teahouses (Johnny Mac chips in with the occasional calligraphy scroll as well). And it was while Liam was doing the rounds with his basket of sparsely-but-elegantly arranged flowers that we invited him in for a freshly whisked cup of green tea and a chat.

DojoMojo Blog: Liam – as usual the delicate beauty of your floral arrangements is inspiring. How you manage to play a tournament all weekend and still come up with this Ikebana genius the very next day is mystifying. Now - thinking back to last Thursday night, the game started out tight for a while, but once the Dojo saw the chance to take half it pretty much pulled away from there (late run from Messy aside). Even though it never seemed one-sided on the field, why do you think the second half went to the Dojo so convincingly?

Liam Gillions: We just did the simple things wrong. It doesn't matter how many turnovers or fouls you can generate, if we can't catch a disc then we aren't going to win the game. We had at least 3 uncontested drops in the endzone during the night, and when you add to that the numerous cold drops and cases of people pulling out of discs that they could clearly have caught you have a recipe for disaster.

DMB: Phew – tough! Sounds like there must be some Messy Bugs out there quaking in anticipation right now, wondering what sort of captain's correspondence you'll be landing in their collective inboxes over the next couple of days... Care to say exactly what you'll be emailing your team about during the week (and working on in your famous pre-game training sessions) as performance issues to address in the leadup to your next game?

LG: Like I said before, it is just the simple things that let us down. Our systems were good and our D wasn't awful. We were generating blocks, but just turning over simple catches.

DMB: Sounds like nothing to fear after all – just a gentle “please catch the disc”... Speaking of which - everyone knows that Jason Ray isn't a happy man unless he's got someone to huck it to. Any new guys stepping into that high-pressure position this season?

LG: Doesn't everyone want to cut long? Isn't that where the glory is? I am stepping out of that role a bit this season to give the other guys a bit of the run. Guys like George Salisbury (aka Silent George) and Damien Wong are guys that tend to fly under the radar, but certainly have the legs to go long and go there quickly. The whole team, with maybe the exception of Nandor, are young and quick and can all move, so I don't think it will fall onto the shoulder of just one or two people.

DMB: Well, at least that's one person we won't have to worry about marking long then... And Nandor – if you're reading, Liam asked us to make sure we clarified that he meant those comments in the most positive way. No doubt you'll sort out your differences in your own time & fashion... Anyway Liam, sticking with the topic of people you don't want to mark long - now that the option of just hucking to Mike when all else fails (or even straight away) isn't available, how do you see the Messy gameplan changing this season?

LG: We have a more experienced line up on Messy this season. This Buggers split this season was to put some top end players with our rookies on Slippery, and put a fairly experienced and well rounded line up on the Messy roster. This allows us some more options in terms of our reliability with our throws and knowledge of the game and positioning.

DMB: Well, whether that means you're using this season to build for the future or not, everyone playing BPL knows that neither of the Bug outfits are ever going to be easy opponents. So lastly, it'd make a pretty good story if Messy could make the final this season despite losing its erstwhile leader. Which other team will you be expecting to face if you make the distance?

LG: It'll be great if we can get there, and we will certainly be putting all our efforts into doing that. Obviously UQ have decided that they are sick of Mike having the trophy at his place, so have stacked the Lovers team and left JMac and the Passion boys a little short. I think the four semi finalists will be Lovers, Messy, Slippery, Dojo. I just hope that Dojo don't face Lovers in the semis, as you don't seem to have much luck against UQ in semi finals do you Sensei?

DMB: Ahh - good to see the pre-finals trash talk starting before we're even halfway through the season, Liam. And strangely unsurprising to hear it coming from yourself, an otherwise gifted practitioner of an art form as subtle and understated as Ikebana... Talk to you again when you next come by to refresh our suibans.

Will Churchill and the Sea of Tranquility

With the night sky over the Dojo's wooden garden pavilions illuminated by a full moon these past few nights, we knew that Will Churchill (known to BUB readers as will-i-am) would drop by for an evening of serene moon viewing. No doubt it comes as a surprise to many that Will's lunophilia is of a purely celestial, rather than puerile nature, but there you go.

While we sat by the edge of our reed-lined pond observing the reflections in the water we delved into a discussion on our game last week and some of the big issues surrounding the Brisbane Premier League right now. The conversation went something like this:

DojoMojoBlog: Will, as usual it's a delight to spend a quiet evening composing lunar haiku and discussing the finer points of Ultimate with you. I'm sure you'd agree it was a tough game for the new-look Passion crew last week. It seemed like your team (which now appears to consist of mostly young/inexperienced guys) ran hard early but quickly lost interest once the Dojo got its game together and started crunching the goals in?

Will Churchill: I do agree Steve. What made Passion a killer unit last season was that our team had a lot of depth once the disc got past Cheeseburger and Buzz so we'd keep moving and score. Albeit that we did have a tendency to become complacent with our wins and let some games slip out from under us (ie: losing to Dojo when you had 6 players was a real wake up call).

At the moment I see it that Passion has gone back to square 2 (never 1). When we started with ole Bretty Matzuka and Pottsy the rest of the team was greener than a fresh recruit being sent to war, or an over ripe cucumber. For the immediate future at least I see the Passion working to rebuild our strength and skill base and come next season, with the return of some of our players, we will be a force of reckoning once more.

DMB: Sounds ominous! Speaking of which, any Johnny-Mac-special grillings between games this week? Or maybe you'll be rolling out some new sort of half-time drill?

WC: Funnily, no. There was no grilling this week, the loss hit the team in a pinching sort of way and being the resilient youth we are we shall bounce back (great layout by the way, how's the... entire upper half of your body? Bouncing back? .... that was cheeky I admit :)

Actually, Johnny has taken the backseat for this season opting to lend his experience leading teams to a new player who is up to the role of challenging himself to manage the Passion. Nat (never Nate) Litzow has taken the reins so far and is doing a swell job. John is around as an encyclopedia of Ultimate related knowledge and strategy on field but the man running us is Nathan.

DMB: "Manage the Passion", eh? That can't be easy with a team of undergrads. Okay - here's a hypothetical: If you could poach one player from any other team in the league to come over and bolster the Passion roster, who would it be and why (don't be boring and say Mike Nield)?

WC: Well straight out the window are Buggers players. A leopard doesn't change its spots and a crustacean will never be a cool creature like a Unicorn or a Cherub that the club so diligently bases itself around. So I'm left with 3 teams to choose from. I'd probably grab the 'Big Guy' Julian Sacre and bring him home to momma. The man is a unit on the field and a difficult player to stop. Couple with Jmac and there is a game winning deal there.

(Let it be known though that as boundless as my love for the big guy is I still want it public knowledge about how I took Julian to school and tore down a contested disc in the air against him in the YUFL final on Monday. Honestly, I was awesome.)

DMB: Happy to take your word for it, Will. Perhaps Julz will like to contribute his thoughts via one of his legendary post comments...? And speaking of defectors like him, we've been hearing rumours that all those guys betrayed their Passion roots between seasons simply because Al Don promised them nice shirts. Any truth in that?

WC: UQ is pulling itself under a single banner starting this weekend at Mixed Nationals and we shall be touting our bitchin' new colours and strips. The plan at the moment is to integrate these strips into our 2 YUFL teams (3 come next year if everything goes ahead) and then try to garb the BPL and womens team in the same. It'll be some work but we're confident enough that the price is right and we have instilled the right kind of pride and fellowship in the club that such a move would work.

As for how Al is getting credit for this I don't know. Props go out to Gref Goranson for his l33t photoshop skillz and design f1air. As a preview, it might be a downer to see another dark team around Brisbane but I ask why the Buggers are red instead of the more aquine blue and black of their aquatic environs? That's just n00bish (ok, enough of the leet speak).

DMB: Whoa - we weren't really following much of that Will, but hopefully those "leet speakers" out there were, whoever they are. We here at the Dojo pride ourselves not only on our oldskool (is that leet?) style but even moreso on our extensive merchandise range. Surely a man with your unusual perspective on life can suggest some interesting additions (including to this blog)?

WC: Sweatbannds! Frisbee players don't wear enough sweatbands. Heck, I've played with 4 one game and it wasn't enough! That and caps, no not the crappy GAIA caps that you shead a tear over for lost potential. TRUCKER CAPS! The line outside my house of people wanting to borrow my Decepticon Cap is nothing short of the attention that the self referencing egotistical all round winner I am deserves (yes, I just said that). Caps and sweatbands baby - that's a money maker (coming to a UQ fashion outlet near you).

As for other things... you guys could really use a unicorn in the zen garden here. But you'll need a dozen stableboys or so. There is a price that comes with magical creatures. But you can at least sell it for $5 a bag.

DMB: Not quite sure what it is we'd be selling for $5 a bag, Will, but you'll be glad to know that there are already Dojo caps in existence (circa 2004 Nationals), and headbands too. They just don't get a lot of use these days, now that we're a primarily night-time team...

Anyway, enough about Ultimate - let's get back to those haiku. Thanks for the chat, Will.

So You Think You Can Pull

Another season of the Brisbane Premier League got underway at the Annerley Junior Soccer fields on Thursday night, and DojoMojo came out in force with subs to spare.

Dojo's Round 1 opponents were the new-look Slippry Bugs, or at least they would have looked new had their latest pickup, former Messy CEO Mike Neild turned up for the game. Come to think of it, we distinctly recall seeing big-haired youngster Reece (thanks for the correction) on the field in the Season 2 final last week as well...

In fact the sheer quantity of unexpected team defections (mostly of the incestuous bedhopping variety within Brisbane's two mega-teams UQ & Bugs) has taken many by surprise this season, especially given that it all happened in less than a week! And no-one would have been more surprised than poor old Johnny Mac who arrived at the field to discover that the top half of his Passion roster had suddenly decided it was playing for Lovers instead! On top of that, new LD Stu Austin deemed his moment of ascendancy an appropriate one to also ride away alone from the circled wagons of his old Rawhide compadres and follow the Lovers trend.

Yes - it's going to be a tough start to the season for the tipsters (don't think anyone tipped a Lovers/Messy draw), but as ever there's one team with a roster that can be relied upon season after season - and that team is DojoMojo. Okay, so it's never certain which (if any) of those rostered players will actually play in any given fixture...

Anyway, all this guff about the weirdness surrounding the new season must be a subconscious attempt on the part of this writer to avoid the main subject of this post, that being that Dojo simply cruised through to a very easy win over a 6-man Slippry team, eventually taking out the game 15-5. There were a few stutters early, and a few noteworthy efforts from both sides. Jangles must have got at least half a dozen run-through blocks on stationary receivers during the night.

To make it all easy to digest, we've collated the highlights of the game (and a few full points to give them a nice rounded flavour) into a single video. As usual the credit and thanks go to Marijke Walls for the camera work:



That last point on the video was also the last point of the night - interesting to hear Dan Walls behind the camera hoping for a turnover so he could get back on the field before the game was over... And on reviewing this footage we were surprised to discover just how much smack talking Matt Eastburn does throughout a game, at least one where he's not running so hard he can't see straight... Makes it all the more enjoyable to watch him drop that push pass over and over again.

But we've saved the best moment of the night for last, and it involves a brand new concept (creative direction by Dave Watson) that the Dojo will be progressively rolling out during the season - the choreographed pull:



That should do it for now. With any luck we'll soon have at least one of the top Slippry thinkers around for a few games of Go and a chat about the season ahead. In the meantime, feel free to vote for this week's Dojo MVP in the poll on the right. As usual, voting for multiple players is a-okay. Oh - and this season we're changing the MVP scoring system so that every vote counts, rather than the one-winner-per-week system we'd used previously. So vote carefully!

(Not Quite) Live and Exclusive

Here it is at last - the Grand Final from BPL Season 2 2008 between Messy Bugs and UQ Passion.

Some will already know the outcome of the game, but for the sake of the story here we're going to leave that until the end. So let's set the scene:

A vast crowd had assembled on the sideline of the centrally-located field, set up specially for the occasion with extra space for beer drinking and even a nice little table with cupcakes (courtesy of Beth Rougier, and possibly friends, as far as we're aware). People had come from all over Brisbane to see two teams packed to the rafters with tall timber and disc-slinging sharpshooters fight it out for the title, and here's how it got underway:



UQ seemed nervy, and starting every point on offence gave them little time to set up their defensive strategy of getting Big Jules in Jason's face and having Johnny Mac chase Mike all over the field. On the contrary, Messy were cruising along with quick counters whenever they got the turnover. We pick up the action again with the Messy boys going into a huddle when UQ called a much-needed momentum timeout:



As the game went into halftime things were looking, well, grim for the men in pink (and a bit of white on this occasion). The commentary team kept on drinking though, becoming more & more loquacious as the game wore on. We hit the field to get some comments from a few local legends of the game, and here's what they had to say:



So, a unanimous verdict against UQ making any sort of comeback. But would they? Could they find the intensity that saw them overcome Dojo in the semi? The second half was about to get underway:



Hmmm - not looking good for the Passion boys, but from a Bug perspective the game was going completely to plan. The ever-reliable Jason-to-Mike connections were complemented by smooth flow with everyone on the field involved in every point. Things started getting a bit sloppy toward the end with Messy knowing they had it in the bag and UQ getting more and more desperate to score quickly, and this produced several multi-turnover points of the sort we don't expect to see in a regular BPL game, let alone the Final.

But we'd all come this far with it, so we decided to stick around to the bitter end:



Okay, not quite the bitter end. With all those stoppages and a few gratuitous interviews with members of the audience we found ourselves running out of mini-DVDs with a couple of points still to play... But no matter - the blowout win to Messy was never in doubt and no matter what Dan Young will tell you about UQ finally playing some decent ultimate in the dying moments the whole thing ended pretty anticlimactically. Okay - Wetnose's layout goal for the win was reasonably watchable. Much more so than Will Churchill's outrageously unnecessary (and unsuccessful) airborne bid from earlier in the game...

So there you go. From recollection the final score was something like 18-9, and for us it seemed that the biggest difference between the two teams was consistency on the night. The Messy boys bring the exact same game (not to mention pretty much the exact same roster) to the field every week and they execute their well-known gameplan with the same effectiveness game in, game out. No other team in the league seems able to do this, and it's hard to imagine Messy's reign coming to an end any time soon unless the other teams can match their reliability. If only Mike would update their blog from time to time...

But the best news of all is that BPL Season 3 starts up THIS THURSDAY NIGHT under the iron-fisted leadership of new LD Stu Austin. Early signs indicate that Stu will be running the league strictly on a need-to-know basis with a similarly dictatorial style to his predecessor Jon Good. Coverage here on the DojoMojo Blog will be uninterrupted, of course...

Prime Time Ultimate with Big Jules

Something very few people know about Julian Sacre is that he loves nothing more than taking a stroll around the DojoMojo bamboo grove on a Monday afternoon. Apparently it's during the time he spends there, alone with his thoughts of leaping high and running long, that he hones his unique and devastating mind-over-body approach. We joined him on his meditative perambulations yesterday to contemplate and discuss last week's SemiFinal between our two great teams.

DojoMojo Blog: Good afternoon Jules - it's always a pleasure to share our gardens with a connoiseur of serenity such as yourself. Let's give some thought to our game last Thursday. You chaps were clearly on a mission right from the outset (you even arrived on time!). Had there been some harsh words said between our previous game and this one to get the team fired up?

Julian Sacre: Absolutely! No disrespect for what was a very impressive Dojo performance that night, but to get beaten by 6 guys was a very humbling experience. In light of that recent history and the fact that you’d had a few weeks to recruit for a full team, we knew it would require a big step up to get over the line. And yes, perhaps my turning up before the first point of the game for the first time this season was a reflection of that. Still not early enough to have a pre-game run and throw with the team, but I think JMac’s little incident is proof enough that the so-called “benefits” of warming up are a complete myth. Of course, from what I’ve seen of Dojo before a game, you’ve known that for years. I imagine some Sensei-led meditation would be your favoured method of preparation?

DMB: Indeed it is. It's no secret that the kenshi spend long seconds meditating over their weekly emails from the Sensei before each game and, thus prepared, simply step onto the field ready to play... But it seemed you had a real plan this time around. Passion went with a zone D pretty much all night - was this a deliberate strategy to contain the free movement of the disc we'd had last time?

JS: You obviously moved the disc with ease in that famous (infamous?) 6-man win despite the efforts of a poacher in the lane. So yea – zone D was the defence we chose from the outset, and based on its success throughout the first half, we obviously kept at it all night. I think Nat suggested that we switch to a man D at one point and got his head bitten off pretty severely.

DMB: That'll teach him for questioning your strategic brilliance Jules - and it must be said that you were wise to ignore Nat's suggestion. But enough about you - let's talk about us. How would you say the performance of the Dojo team you beat in the Semi differed from the team you lost to in Round 9?

JS: Apart from the obvious disadvantage of having not just 7 guys on the field, but also a sub (what the???), I thought your disc movement was much less free-flowing. Your handlers seemed to keep the disc in their hands for an eternity, allowing our zone to set and reducing your options up-field. Maybe it was also just one of those nights – everything you touched in round 9 seemed to turn to gold, but there did seem to be that little bit missing in the semi-final.

DMB: More than a bit - the video shows that we basically dumped-n-swung our way to the endzone all night! But that wasn't the case for Passion - it seemed that not having JMac this time actually brought more of your guys into play with the disc and made for a more (new)Dojo-like offensive setup i.e fewer long hucks and lots of solid retention. Will you be asking John to stay home for the Final as well?

JS: Yea, I’ve always thought his pin-point hucks were holding us back. Nah… seriously though, we may allow him to play – as long as he promises not to do that foolish thing called warming up. I guess losing his handling did force some other guys to come back, but I'm not sure it really caused us to reduce the number of hucks and change our style of play. I think your zone D covered the deep threats pretty well, so there were very few opportunities to strike long.

DMB: Fair enough. And lastly, how much longer until the Passion team gets some proper shirts? Some people are convinced that your faded pink look is the only thing stopping BPL getting primetime TV coverage...

JS: I don’t think I've ever read about Passion on the Dojo blog without a reference to the faded pink shirts. This actually makes me suspect that your consistent criticism is not out of dislike, but more driven by a subconscious jealousy? If you are looking to get your hands on one of the jerseys, I think there are a few still available in women’s sizes. I could see it as a very fashionable addition to Sensei’s office at DojoMojo HQ. We could even arrange it to be signed by all team members and framed? If the result goes our way in the final next week, it could turn out to be a pretty good investment.

But you mentioned TV coverage – I was actually thinking that your success in broadcasting games on your very own blog could be the start of something big. Perhaps you could upgrade your coverage to include all games and offer them on a subscription service? I would definitely be one of the first lining up to buy a platinum membership to “DojoMojo Blog Pro”. If our sense of style is what’s holding you back, we can try harder in future not to drop the bright red undies in when we're washing our whites (for the record, I can’t take credit for that joke – I first heard it from a heckling Buggers supporter during last season’s final and thought it was pretty good. Look forward to more of that next week!).

DMB: All good ideas there Jules - we're really looking forward to receiving that souvenir signed Passion shirt, and at the very least there should be some exclusive coverage of the BPL Final here on the Dojo Blog (pay-per-view of course). Thanks for your time, and feel free to let yourself out the front gate once you're finished wandering...

Eight Was Too Many...

DojoMojo's run from nowhere to Premiership contenders came to an end on Thursday night against a very charged UQ Passion. Seems beating them with six last time was akin to beating a rather large nest of wasps with a flaming stick...

But all credit to the boys in pink - they got stuck into the game VERY hard and capitalised on early Dojo errors, of which there were several (more on that shortly). Perhaps UQ's masterstroke was sending home their captain Johnny Mac with a rolled ankle just before the start of the game, giving Dojo about 5 minutes of false security before Buzz "The Cornerstone of Queensland Ultimate" Burwell arrived to put things back in serious doubt, just moments before Game On was called.

Thankfully Marijke Walls (you're a lucky man, Dan) was on hand to film some of the action for us, and on reviewing the footage a pretty sorry tale emerged of a stagnant, hammer-dependent Dojo offence struggling to make yardage against a (frequently double-teaming but rarely called) UQ puppy/fence zone. This first video exemplifies just how hard Dojo had to work just to get the frisbee anywhere near UQ's endzone:


44 passes! And of course we weren't helped by a vast number of unforced errors.

Some of these I'm-okay-you're-okay establishments don't like to single out individuals for either praise or punishment, but here at the Dojo we take a more "traditional" approach a-la John Kreese. Whilst watching the video of the game, we couldn't help noticing that one player had more turnovers than the rest of the team combined, and this player was Lee "McLovin" O'Dwyer. We had considerable pleasure in producing this little compilation of Lee gold:


Great grab by Dan Walls at the end there - seemed unfair not to include that one... But at least Lee does it with style, right? More mojo than dojo, and obviously not big on reading emails. For this writer the funniest bit is Coopers shrugging his shoulders at 1:02... Not sure why there's no sound, but things rarely work properly the first time.

There's no denying however that the boys with the worst shirts in the league (kind of like musk sticks, and even worse when combined with the apparently fashionable white shorts) deserved to win through to the Final. Burwell of course generated most of the play around the disc, but everyone was involved around the middle of the field and the defensive intensity was high all over. It certainly seemed that the zone D suited the style of the UQ yoofs much better that their man-plus-one from last time around, and they seemed very successful at stopping the Dojo developing any real flow.

On offence they were simply safer than the Dojo, with very few risky options (this writer only recalls one long shot all night) and they always had the single-malt smoothness of Buzz's break throws to call on under pressure. Here's how easy they made it look at times:



So that's it for the season. Next week UQ Passion take on Messy Bugs in the Final and it's going to be a cracker. Will big Jules take his A-game to Brisbane's "dominant player at the moment" Mike Neild? Will Buzz and Jason spend all night trying to out-huck each other? Will John's ankle be the right way around again, and will Wetnose really wear a mankini? And what feats will the other 20-or-so guys pull out in the big game? Perhaps someone will make us an offer we can't refuse to film the action...

There's one final MVP poll on the right (voting for multiple players is fine as usual), but the outcome will have no bearing on the fact that this season's MVP winner is Matt Eastburn. Matt can expect his fabulous prize to arrive about the same time the tracksuit he won for the inaugral Dojo blocks comp back in 2004 does...

Mat Ryan on International Diplomacy

Despite the fact that our five-on-five game last week was a pretty sedate affair and ended early so we could watch the cracking Passion v Messy game, Mat Ryan (of Taipans fame) still had the good grace to accept our invitation to a post-game recovery session in the tranquil environs of the Dojo's onsen-style bathhouse.

With aches & pains massaged away by the Dojo's own Shiatsu masseuses, we retired to our outdoor thermal spring in a scene not dissimliar to James Bond and Tiger in You Only Live Twice... Here's what we discussed whilst having our shoulders rubbed and being served iced tea:

DojoMojo Blog: Mat, welcome to the luxurious facilities that help keep the Dojo kenshi in tip-top shape. It's a rare privilege to have such a well-travelled and tournament-hardened veteran of the game such as yourself drop by.

Mat Ryan: It's a pleasure, nay, an honour to be interviewed on such an august online publication. What's your readership these days? You must be getting say, 50-60 thousand hits a week?

DMB: On a quiet week, yes (g'day Graham in Canada!). But once word spreads about this little interview we expect to see that figure blow out exponentially... Now - down to business. A pretty poor effort from both our teams this week, although at least yours had enough to avoid a double-forfeit. Who were you missing, why weren't they there, and what sort of reprimands will they suffer during the week? Apparently water-boarding is entirely humane and legal...

MR: Yeah. It was a fairly mediocre turnout this week from both teams, particularly given that it was for the minor premiership. I heard the various excuses given by the Dojo squad but I suspect they are conserving their legs for next week's semi. Fair enough, it looks like it will be an all in brawl with the UQ Pashun after their last encounter (I wonder if Burwell will bring some tissues next week?).

I'm not sure what the story was with the Slippery boys though. I don't think I've ever seen more than 9 at any given fixture, so we're not exactly famous for our massive sideline. I'm not sure what discipline that Jimmy Larkin has in mind ... but he doesn't strike me as the waterboarding type. He'll probably just send a softly worded email in size 8 font.

DojoMojo Blog: Hmmm - the old sternly-worded letter, eh? Didn't work so well for Hans Blix in Team America, but we have had a fair bit of success here at the Dojo with our "virtual training sessions"... The most fun on Thursday night was had watching the Passion v Messy game. Obviously you were backing the other Bug team then, but next week I doubt you'll be cheering so loudly when J-Ray repeatedly hucks it to Mike?

Mat Ryan: Hey, as far as I'm concerned everything went exactly to script: Bugs are guaranteed a spot in the final while Passion and Dojo beat the crap out of each other. Obviously it would have been sweet to see a Bug v Bug final, but I'm not sure that would have pleased the Brisbane Ultimate community too much. That said, I'll be working hard to see the Slippery team follow up on their minor premiership. It would be great for Jimmy to mount the big hubcap on the mantlepiece at home.

DMB: Yes, well Jimmy is certainly a little terrier of an ultimate player, but the idea of him mounting hubcaps anywhere is something we'd prefer not to consider. So let's get back on-topic, as those media-savvy types like to say. The BPL table has been unstable all season, and now with the Worlds guns back to their teams and other teams going into the finals without some of their top shelf guys, is it possible to forecast a winner from the four semifinalists?

MR: Forecast? Look I could wax on about the relative strengths and weaknesses of the various teams but honestly I think this season is the most open we've seen in ages. Dojo are the dark horse and if they can put all their guys on the line at the right time, and those guys play to their potential, then they can win it. I think they have the deepest, most consistent roster. All the other teams have some stars at the top but they also have a bunch of relative rookies. It's a great competition to be playing at the moment.

DMB: It sure is, and with players from the Dingos, Taipans, Barramundis & Thunder all back on deck the tipsters are once again struggling to pick the form. Looking to next week's semifinals, which individual players do you reckon will make game-changing contributions (for better and for worse...)?

MR: I find it hard to go past Mike Neild as the dominant player at the moment. After his World Champs experience he is in red-hot form, outplaying some of the biggest names in World Ultimate. If Mike fires, and he receives good service from his team, then he'll be hard to stop.

But Ultimate isn't about individuals. It will come down to the best team. So while Mike or John McNaughton or even Dan Walls might play the game of their life, the semis (and final) will be won by the best team. That said, games are a lot easier to lose than win. And I reckon there are a bunch of guys out there who can lose a game in spectacular fashion. I'll be keeping a close eye out for players who look like they are having a howler. The frisbee field can be a very small place with no-where to hide...

DMB: Very tactfully put, Mat - it's easy to see why you're a multiple Worlds Spirit winner. And speaking of Ultimate matters on a global scale, is there any particular experience from your recent Vancouver expedition that has changed your approach to the game as we play it here in Brisbane?

MR: I think the feature of Worlds which impressed me most was the amount of contact that occurred with almost no fouls being called. I believe there are 2 reasons behind this:

1. In most cases the contact did not actually influence the outcome of the play. Contact occurring in the contest usually happened after the catch ... So there's no point in calling anything (and being great players, most catches were completed). Also, contact occurring during cutting was more often initiated by the cutter than the receiver. The cutter would often run a tight line close to the Defender then jag away into the space.

2. Foul calling is perceived to benefit the D team rather than the O team because it disrupts the flow and slows down the game, allowing the Defence to re-orient. Offence is all about creating chaos and exploiting the gaps.

There seems to be a general shift in the individual interpretation of the contact rules by both O and D teams. I think it makes for a faster, more spectacular, and perhaps ironically, fairer game. By comparison Brisbane (and Australian) ultimate seems quite slow and stuttering, with more disruptions and more disputes. And I just hate disputes.

DMB: Superb stuff Mat. Many thanks for sharing your keen insights into the game here and abroad, and for taking the time out of your day to drop by the Dojo bathhouse.

Waving the Gunbai with Johnny Mac

Scholarly as ever, John McNaughton arrived at our Dojo "Sumo Showdown" over the weekend with textbooks in hand and could be seen between bouts busily memorising what appeared to be the notes from his elective subject in pre-Socratean sophistry. Not sure what that has to do with his course in Human Movement (or some such Phys-Ed pursuit), but those ancient Greeks did invent the Olympics after all...

And as if that preamble isn't obscure enough, once the winning Rikishi had been awarded we then got down to dissecting last week's game. Here's what John had to say:

DojoMojo Blog: John, as usual it's a privilege to have you join us here by the Dojo Dohyo. It's hard to believe that's really Dave Watson and Dan Blacklock wearing Mawashi and grappling each other, isn't it? Anyway - onto last week's game. When you looked to the other end of the field before the first point and saw just the six Dojo guys standing there, how did you expect the game to play out?

John McNaughton: The six were no slouches, most having played several Nationals, but I thought we should take the game comfortably. The Dojo didn't look very fired up, Passion had recently been talking about getting more fired up and playing better, and we had essentially our full roster present. I thought it should be a comfortable victory against a team that probably wouldn't fight hard if they started going down.

DMB: That's funny, because we've already admitted that we were thinking the same thing. But something strange happened and we quickly started turning the run of the game in our favour. A few points in, it seemed that the quick disc movement from the Dojo offence was actually rushing the numerically superior Passion D. Is this how you saw it?

JMcN: You were certainly rushing us, but I feel that our D positioning was quite average. Dojo has become excellent at taking short opportunities, maintaining possession, and looking to create flow generated by handlers, and our poor handler marking certainly didn't help us to defend this. I think your perception is true, but for analysis' sake, I would add that one of our D weaknesses (inexperienced handler defenders) played into your strength, allowing this to happen.

DMB: Sounds about right John. And then you tried something I don't think we at the Dojo have ever seen before - a team doing drills at halftime (admittedly doing drills anytime isn't really a key part of the Dojo Way). What were you trying to change about the way your guys were playing?

JMcN: Really? I think more teams should try it. We ran a very simple defensive drill, one on one, to try to teach people to play proper man on man defence. We'd been getting roasted open and under all game, so I was trying to get people to wake up and learn to cover a position. Unfortunately, it didn't help a lot - we came out with a couple of quick points (playing junk) and then didn't change after that.

DMB: Indeed. Perhaps you should also try our own patented email-warmup technique? At the very least no-one can say it doesn't work... Still, there was plenty of first-rate action on field, and it was a shame we couldn't get any video from the game. The Buzz Burwell / Dan Walls collision would have provided some excruciating viewing afterwards... Any other moments stand out as particularly memorable from the night?

JMcN: I actually missed that moment... I thought Dan's IO backhand huck, length of the field past a poaching lane defender, was one of the best throws I've seen this year. Sensational. A good D from Andy on a Buzz scoober that saved a goal, Dan Walls taking a couple of excellent catches under pressure, Matt E had some excellent throws (low percentage but accurate and completed).

DMB: Yep - we certainly got away with more than our share of low-percenters. It was also clearly evident to us that a fair degree of frustration was building in the Passion camp through the game, and Buzz Burwell, that purveyor or fine entomological anecdotes, had some interesting words to say in the post-game huddle which seemed to sum up the Passion sentiments quite effectively, if somewhat less than elegantly... Without giving everything away, what will you guys be changing next week to avoid having that happen again?

JMcN: I think our warm up (or lack thereof) is a problem. We've talked about it for the last few weeks, and haven't actually changed anything. Most people do some stationary throwing before a game, and that's it. We may institute a team warm-up, including both the physical and skills-based, and see if this brings results.

DMB: Well, with a born leader of immense charisma and magnetic manliness like you at the helm John, we've no doubt that Passion will be back playing your famously dangerous style of Ultimate very soon. Thanks for taking a few moments out from your studies to discuss the game with us. Sorry you also had to endure the unpleasant sight of Andy McLean getting a wedgie and a slap in the face from Lee O'Dwyer here at the Dojo Sumo Hall...

Whippin' It Good

It was an unmitigated delight to spend an evening at the Dojo's very own sushi bar with Jon Good last night, knocking back the unagi-don, yasai tempura and a big sukiyaki number. Whilst polishing off the last of our warm Otokayama sake, Jon was at his loquacious best as we recounted the events from last Thursday night. Here's how it went:

DojoMojo Blog: Jon, it's a delight to have you here at our brand new sushi bar. I can't believe how much grilled eel and warm sake a lean chap like yourself can put away. You truly are a man of many talents. But enough idle flattery - how about our game last week? What a turnaround from our previous "clash of the boutique teams" round! What happened, Jon?

Jon Good: I think the biggest factor was that Dojo seemed to have finetuned their email-based warm up, whereas Rawhide didn’t have a full line until the very start of the game. It’s a sign of our age range: too many baby and work related duties - I am one of the youngest players on the team!

DMB: Yes - many have conjectured that the team name "Rawhide" is derived from the sparseness of hair on the scalps of many of the players. Indeed - you sport the rawest hide of all, Jon! It's all a clever ruse, I'm sure, to make the younger teams take it easy against you until BLAM! - you layout right past them. Of course, these smoke-and-mirrors tricks were perfected by the Dojo ninja forebears hundreds of years ago. What did you think of our new pre-game psych-out strategy of lining up in white shirts, only to switch to black when "game on" was called?

JG: I don’t know what washing powder the kenshi use, but the brilliance of the white burned out my corneas; then switching to black rendered the whole team invisible to me. You were truly the silent assassins.

DMB: Excellent. But enough about us - how are Stu Ausin, Sean Flanagan and Joel Smith being punished during the week for leaving a team full of semi-rookies to fight it out against Dojo with just a few experienced hands for guidance? Oh yeah - and does Tim Ferguson still play for Rawhide??? Haven't seen him an a while...

JG: Stu, Flan, and Joel are all married and/or heavily hen-pecked, so the Rawhide collective rest safe in the knowledge that the women will do all the work for us on this front – similar to our cutting on Thursday night, where Beth seemed to be the only one doing the hard work. Ferg decided to opt out of this season: some may say that family prevented him from committing to the team; others may say that a wording change in the concessional league fees rule prevented him from only paying $15, claiming he was travelling from Airlie Beach each week. I think those who know our friendly capitalist know where I stand!

DMB: Hmmm - sounds like another Ferg-gate scandal brewing there. That man certainly has a bamboozling spreadsheet for every occasion... But it was good to see Stew McGoo adopting the position of wise old mentor for the newer guys. What is it about Stew that makes him the perfect man for this delicate job?

JG: As you know Stephen, McGoo was the main driving force behind Leo Baekeland inventing plastic back in 1905: McGoo had already been working on tactics in anticipation of the sport finally being invented by those New Jersey school kids decades later. You simply can’t buy that level of experience. Also, without JDR, Joel, and Ferg there on Thursday night, there were no other people to talk over during timeouts – a rarity for Rawhide.

DMB: Ahh yes - if only we feeble-minded non-fluid-dynamicists could understand a word Dr McGoo was saying we would all see the game as it truly is, just a descending array of numbers... But anyway, my last question, and it's a critical one for all those following this BPL season, is how is Rawhide going to win back the growing support it was finding on the Brisbane Ultimate Blog tipping competition?

JG: As the regular season draws to a close, those needing to gain ground on the tipping leaders may be forced to back the underdog. I am also thinking of bringing in a rule for next season involving some kind of collective age handicap – this will make us much more competitive in the tipping competition!

DMB: Well, some underdog-backing would certainly mix things up a bit, and amazingly Pete Allen managed to get one tip right (out of 6 from the past two rounds) when his Lovers team somehow managed to roll Passion last week. John McNaughton once again has some serious explaining to do...

Anyway, thanks again Jon for sparing us some of your time and pithy comments here at the DojoMojo Blog.

McCheeseburger Speaks

Despite being a few days late for his calligraphy class, it's a pleasure to have former Aussie junior captain and now scholarly leader of the UQ Passion team John McNaughton take a few moments out from his brushwork to chat over a nice big bowl of miso and a large quantity of warm sake. It does get cold in these shoji-screened rooms during winter, after all...

DojoMojo Blog: Thanks for sparing us a few moments John. I know you're a busy chap, so let's get straight into it. Firstly, just how surprising was it to see a full complement of Dojo players running laps and warming up a full half hour before the game? Did this bizarre sight have any effect on Passion's own immediate pre-game warmup?

John McNaughton: It was definitely a shock. I'd read on the Dojo blog that they were discussing the potential benefits of warming up, especially in light of the exclusive interview with Mikey about the work he's done with Buggers, but had absolutely no expectation that this discussion would be transformed into action (in true Dojo style). However, clearly this is Dojo Revolutions in 2008, like the Rawhide Revamp. It didn't have a great deal of effect on us, I don't think. We don't warm up particularly well ourselves, and personally, I was on the way back from watering the bushes so wasn't hitting much of a warm-up anyway...

DMB: Ah - so it's you the soccer girls on the next field have been complaining about! It seems they would rather have their bushes remain unwatered by the likes of you and your fellow students, John. Anyway, enough about idiosyncratic warmup practices. Just when it looked like Dojo might be gaining the early upper hand, Big Jules finally managed to get his cleats on and the Passion game immediately seemed to open up downfield and clamp down on D. Surely this wasn't just a coincidence?

JM: Nothing about Jules is a coincidence. Especially in Buzz's absence, Jules added an extra thrower with the ability to break and huck, and obviously an intimidating cutting & defending presence. One of the 2007 BPL Rookies of the Season has really come along nicely, and with some extra high-level experience under the belt this year, he's been great for us.

Of course, he's only been great from about the 6th point each week - he seems to be making it a habit to avoid all the fanfare and excitement at the start of a game, preferring to subtly slide into the action. Modest to a fault, our Jules.

DMB: You'll have to start calling him "The Faulty Tower", eh? No? Okay then, we'll stick to asking questions. The lead changed many times on the night, and neither team was ever more than a couple of points ahead. I remember the first point after halftime being very lengthy, and finally (after 3 turnovers?) resulting in a crucial score for Passion to level it 8-8. Any special McNaughton magic in the halftime huddle which helped the men in pink lift a notch?

JM: Mate, I don't know if I've had too many cups of this fine extra-dry sake, but I'm struggling to recall. I might be able to remember some parts of the game itself, but the half time speech is a hazy time. I imagine I probably talked up the fact that we'd got 3 in a row just before half, and seem to recall making a bit of a tactical adjustment. Don't remember any real magic - I prefer to inspire with action than with word. Sometimes I even manage to do it.

DMB: Yes, few would argue with you there. It seems that all you McNaughtons are men of action rather than words. Now - you've mentioned that you found it easier to contain the Dojo offence using a zone rather than man D. Why do you reckon this was the case?

JM: Dojo have really done well in the last season or two of improving efficiency with the disc. You're less huck-happy and more focussed on disc retention. It's a pretty simple style - resets to handlers interspersed with (mainly) open-side shots to hard-working cutters. Your cutters work hard though, and your handlers are quite good at maintaining possession, so unless we manage to make a play and force something, you seem to be getting good at working it down the field to score.

In contrast, the Dojo are somewhat lacking in throwing strike power. It is a deep team - everyone is able to throw solidly, but there is an absence of truly deadly throwers who can carve up the zone. That helps its effectiveness, I think.

DMB: Spot on, John. We've found through bitter experience that our long throws are often more deadly to us than our opponents, so it's definitely something we're working on. Okay - lastly, can we expect to see the Passion team get proper shirts sometime soon? Rumour has it that you instruct all new recruits to take a normal white T-shirt and stick it in the wash with some red undies (or at least ask your Mums to do it for you)...

JM: Sounds like a Bugger-prompted question, my friend. Bring in new red shirts and then try to make the established teams with similar colours change... All part of a mental disintegration campaign, perhaps? I'm not at liberty to disclose anything on this front - it's in the capable hands of the UQ club exec. We'll have to wait and see what happens.

DMB: Yes, it hasn't gone unnoticed that BPL now features teams wearing red, pink and maroon. Matt Eastburn has been wanting Dojo to go red for years as well, but thankfully everyone ignores him...

Anyway, thanks again John for sparing us a few moments. Your comments have as usual been informative, entertaining and inspiring...