Bob-a-Job with Pete Allen

Some people know Pete Allen as a young man capable of destroying the game of any frisbee team simply by tipping it to win. But we here at the Dojo know him as a mild-mannered student (not really sure what he's studying) who, unlike most other Gen-Y kids, earns his pocket money the old-fashioned way by doing odd jobs around the Dojo gardens.

Before he had to run off to lectures yesterday he spent the morning raking the pebbles of our meditation courtyard into patterns resembling waves breaking on a rocky shore, and when he'd finished we chatted for a while about our semifinal last week and the upcoming BPL Grand Final between his team - UQ Lovers - and Messy Bugs. Here's a sample of the insights Pete had to offer:

DojoMojo Blog: Beautiful work with the rake as usual, Pete. It's understandable that a man with your delicate touch finds using the power flick grip a little tricky sometimes... Now - let's firstly discuss our game last week. Try as we might, we just can't actually remember Lovers scoring 15 goals in that game. It's like you guys won without us really noticing! Can you explain that???

Pete Allen: I can’t really explain that win at all last week, the first half was pretty terrible on our part in terms of offense but the defense really kept us in the game, along with some dodgy offense from you guys as well... The second half is where we really got away with a few breaks, slowly building the lead. I’d like to think that the telling off from Buzz during one of the huddles struck a nerve with the whole team and made us play a heck of a lot better (I believe it was mainly directed at myself for multiple wayward short flicks at the start of the game *cough* flick powergrip sucks *cough*).

DMB: Yes, there was only 1 point in it for a long time there, but as the legs (and brains) of the kenshi started running out of steam the big plays started to be less and less successful. No doubt the many easy turnovers and errant hucks from the Dojo were a welcome gift?

PA: As unusual as it is to see Dojo turn the disc over it did happen a lot during the game. And yeah it was a little bit of a gift. Maybe this is why Dojo hasn’t won a semi-final this year. But that is the game of ultimate - you can have the best game ever one day and then not catch a disc the next. I reckon the main reason that can blamed for Dojo having a plethora of turnovers was that you warmed up. You should have stuck to the old faithful Dojo email warm-up.

DMB: Hmmm - well, that'll teach us for spending too much time at The Cultimate Opinion. And with that loss we've clocked up a hat-trick of semifinal losses for the Dojo this year. As much as it may not be in your best interests, is there anything in particular you think the kenshi need to work on to redress this situation?

PA: Losing a hat-trick of semi-finals is not ideal but when you keep playing UQ in the semis it is bound to keep happening. They don’t lose semi’s that often (or is it that Dojo doesn’t win semi’s - I’m not too sure). What I envision for next season is a semi-final where UQ doesn’t play Dojo and we end up with a Dojo vs. UQ final. That is what the people of Brisbane want to see. For you guys to pull this off though, you may have to think about getting some younger blood into the team sometime in the near future. It may hurt to do it, but then you’ll at least make sure the Dojo Way continues in the years to come.

DMB: Yes, well we've got some plans in motion on all of those fronts. And if only Dojo hadn't been handed a penalty forfeit earlier in the season then that dream of a Dojo v UQ final may indeed have been realised tonight... But no matter. Can we expect to see more of the "strong silent type" of play from Lovers in the big game tonight, or will you perhaps be letting your long game off the leash? It's only Wetnose guarding the Messy endzone, after all...

PA: Not quite sure what you mean by “strong silent type” of play, if you are referring to the improved short game we have this season and the fact that we don’t talk much then maybe we will see more of that this week, but it will be intermingled with the massive long shots we are capable of even if Julz decides to go to Sydney early (Wetnose doesn’t really phase us, even if he has become quite a force in the air). I’ll be doing my best to woo the opposition players into a conversation on the field before suddenly busting long.

DMB: Yep - as far as we're concerned, the "conversation fake" is the primary benefit of a classical education... And lastly, which player from each grand finalist team are you expecting to see something really spectacular from?

PA: My picks for plays of the game on Thursday are: from Messy - Silent George, who is freakishly fast across the ground, and maybe he’ll dive to take a spectacular goal or something; and from Lovers - Al Don will get a massive D to win the match. All in all if the game actually happens then it will be the most spectacular game you will witness this year.

DMB: Then let's hope it does! We'll certainly be at the fields with the video camera at the ready, hoping to see an epic struggle for end-of-year BPL supremacy. Thanks for the chat, Pete.

Last Ride Into the Sunset?

It's Monday. Four full days after the rain stopped for just long enough to allow the final round of Brisbane Premier League for 2008 to be played (without completely destroying the fields) and yet nothing until now here at the DojoMojo blog.

And it gets worse - there's no video this week. With no Marijke, and just the one wobbly-handed sub available on the sideline at any time, the camera stayed sadly stowed in the kitbag. Luckily we've got last week's highly gratuitous, failed layout attempt from Andy Lankowski to enjoy over and over again until the finals get started this Thursday night...

So, in the interests of providing quality (if not quite up-to-the-second) Dojo-related BPL reportage, let's quickly look back to that last regular season game against Rawhide. Hmmm... Well, what sticks in the mind from this distant vantage point is that it was a reasonably perfunctory win for the Dojo. The highlight of the night from this writer's perspective was without doubt the precision hammer for a goal from Matt Eastburn to a full speed receiver flanked by a pair of defenders, neither of whom were more than a couple of steps away. Sadly that set a precedent which many others attempted to emulate (without success) later in the game... Final score was 15-7.

The Rawhide compadres were as well-spirited and keenly competitive as ever, but not unlike UQ Passion from a few weeks back they just don't have the depth of numbers to tackle the Dojo this season. In fact, they may very well not have the numbers to even take the field next season - a very unfortunate state of affairs. It seems those UQ and Bug mega-teams just keep gobbling up all the fresh new talent, like the Microsoft and Apple of Brisbane Ultimate. If there are any entrepreneurial youngsters (or oldsters) out there wanting to step out of the shadows and shape their own team, now would be a good time.

Anyway, the A&B poll is updated for voting as usual on the right and most importantly - vote for us in the logo battle over at The Cultimate Opinion. As this post goes online we're just narrowly in front of team "AIR", about whom we know very little.