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.

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...

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.