Worst Huck Ever!

That's how the DojoMojo commentary team described the winning throw in the Grand Final match of Brisbane Premier League Season 1 for 2010, fought out by UQ Passion and Cobras (ummm Reece - anything to say?). And as far as describing the game goes, we reckon that's about all that needs to be said, given that we've got nearly an HOUR of exclusive, non-stop frisbee footage right here for your viewing pleasure, absolutely free of charge.

Oh there is just one thing, and that is that the naming & shaming that went on here at the Dojo blog a few weeks ago seems to have been a cathartic moment. Both teams, and most notably the Cobras, played with impeccable spirit and competitiveness throughout, with not even a single moment of controversy in the entire match. A great achievement by everyone involved, especially in such a high-stakes game.

And now let's roll the videotape!

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.

Natural Enemies

No, not DojoMojo and UQ Lovers. We're talking about the big news from Round 3 of the Brisbane Premier League: Heroes upset win over Cobras!

Sure, not many people tipped that outcome. In fact nobody did. Even the Heroes themselves are so stoked that they've posted about it not once, not twice, but thrice already on their blog. And why not.

Ah, but with the benefit of hindsight we really should've seen this coming. Anybody with even the slightest historical perspective knows that the Heroes (i.e. the good guys) always beat the Cobras (i.e. the perennial bad guys). You only had to be a child in the 80's (surely there are still some BPL players who were, not including children of the 70's like Buzz & Sean?) to know that the Cobras always lose out to the Heroes. Take for example that legendary heroic organisation the Mobile Armored Strike Kommand (aka M.A.S.K.). Episode after episode, Matt Tracker and his buddies stuck it to those inexplicably nasty characters from the Vicious Evil Network Of Mayhem (aka V.E.N.O.M.), later re-written into the GI Joe storyline as stooges of the fiendish - wait for it - Cobra Command!!!

Ryan Black has often lamented the tendency of the modern-day Dojo to lean more toward the teachings of Mr Miyagi than those of Ryan's beloved Cobra Kai crew, but we do it for a very simple reason - winning.

Which presumably brings us to a quick wrap-up of last night's game between Dojo and UQ Lovers. We'll keep it brief, as we'll be taking a stroll around the Dojo gardens with UQ legend Al Don shortly. But what we can say is that Dojo pretty much walked away with a comfy 15-8 win, helped along by some incredibly rare off-target throws from the Cornerstone of Queensland Ultimate himself, Buzza Burwell. We won't be seeing that again anytime soon.

Anyway, more on that later. In the meantime, we'd very much like to read what the new Cobras frontman Reece has to say about things, and of course we're keenly awaiting news of the other Thursday night shocker, the perhaps equally controversial caning of the MBB unit by the current #1 BPL team UQ Passion. Sadly, we fear we could be waiting some time, as the Bugs are known more for their "hail-Mike" offence than for having an up-to-the-minute blogosphere presence, and the Passion boys don't bother having a blog at all...

The Above&Beyond poll is ready to roll on the right.

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.

Lovin' It Sick

Poor old Johnny Mac. Last season his UQ Passion team were in the final, then most of them migrated over to UQ Lovers and now suddenly they're on the receiving end of a 15-4 hammering by pretty much the same Dojo team that they narrowly beat in the semi last season. Okay, we didn't have Lee O'Dwyer with us this time around...

Anyway, there's very little to say about the game other than it being an early tussle for the first few points before the Dojo got its game together and asserted its dominance. As so often happens in games with these sorts of scorelines, UQ scored most of their goals early while Dojo were using the first half-dozen points as a warmup and it was pretty one-sided thereafter. So let's allow the video footage to do the talking (thanks & credit as usual to the delightful Marijke Walls) n.b. very infrequent coarse language ahead:



Yes, some of those points aren't in chronological order but we've exercised our directorial privilege to arrange them in favour of a more interesting storyline. "Never lays out", eh Johnny? Does falling over count? Also included there was a rare insight into the mensa-grade strategic machinations of a Dojo halftime huddle...

But the Ultimate coverage from last night doesn't end there. Once Dojo and Lovers had wrapped things up on Field 2 there were still a few points left to be played in the Field 1 derby match between the two Bugs outfits Messy & Slippry. So in the interests of providing maximum Ultimate entertainment for nil cost we thought we'd include some of the highlights of the last few points between these two now-evenly-matched teams. Our in-house post-production team has been working by lamplight through the night in their tatami-floored rooms to bring you this coverage...

But before we press play on this, it's also worth noting that there were some highly controversial moments in the dying moments of this match which, thankfully for the generally well-spirited cause of the BPL, occurred off camera. We have no doubt those unfortunate incidents will be discussed widely elsewhere, so we're sticking to our policy of providing only the most hard-hitting Ultimate entertainment and BPL commentary here (n.b. a little more of that occasional coarse language ahead):



Yes, once again the batteries in the Dojo video camera ran dry with just moments remaining. And once again it didn't really matter - the match ended with Messy scoring to save a draw against their Slippry pals. Is "pals" still the correct term?

Anyway, enough about them - back to the Dojo. The MVP standings have been updated to the right and a new poll is ready to receive all the automated votes Stefan and Dan keep getting any computer near them to send in...

When the Batteries Go Flat...

We've been putting off writing about last Thursday's game against the all-new UQ Lovers team for a few days now, partly due to other pressing matters but primarily out of denial.

You see, just how Dojo lost to this all-star UQ team isn't exactly clear upon first examination. The score was pretty close throughout, the teams pretty much evenly matched on a pound-for-pound talent basis, but somehow the formely-maroon-clad, temporarily-in-light-blue and soon-to-be-in-who-knows-what UQ lads simply managed to quietly and inexorably pull away from a mildly implosive Dojo team.

Perhaps the scars on every bony surface of this writer (no doubt Dan Walls is still festooned with bruises as well) are a clue to how things seemed to fade away toward the end of the game. Whereas the Lovers played a smooth, full-field game all night, it seemed that the Dojo players were constantly forcing themselves to do something special to score goals or even just retain possession. As the game wore on, coming up with something brilliant every point proved more and more difficult and eventually the inevitable just sort of happened...

But let's not sell the game short - there was some absolutely first-rate play from both sides throughout the night. From UQ it was mostly sweet, sweet long throws from Buzz and Al into the wide-open hands of Big Julz or Gref, and from Dojo it was mostly Dan Walls putting his body in danger catching heavily contested discs and going horizontal to save an overly-ambitious Dan B throw for goal.

Given that the kenshi spent most of last season learning to overcome this self-defeating style, it's a little disappointing to see it re-emerge so soon. But no matter - it will only be a matter of time before the Dojo style adapts to the return of old guns Ryan Black and Andy McLean and the rhythm returns. For now, let's just say that next week's opponents UQ Passion can expect to have their deep defences severely tested...

We're also pleased to advise that Big Julian Sacre is out strolling the Dojo bamboo grove at the moment, and today he appears to have some colleagues with him. We'd better rush out to catch them by the Eastern Gate for a quick chat about last week's game and the season ahead.

In the meantime, our usual MVP poll is to the right, and the MVP standings have been updated below. Vote for as many players as you think deserve it!

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...

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...

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...

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...

Pink beats Black by 1

Well, Wesley Snipes may have advised us to "always bet on black", but last night, as that other legendary martial arts hero Jean-Claude van Damme once voiced through gritted teeth, that would have been the "wrong bet"...

But only just! With timecap called the scores were dead level and Dojo had the disc, but when a pass went to ground the Passion guys picked it up and soon scored in the corner with a tidy break-side play.

But nonetheless, DojoMojo are taking this extremely close-run game against last season's undefeated minor premiers as a big step forward from the shabby efforts of the previous two weeks. During the week we've been training ourselves mercilessly (under new conditioning coach Andrew "Sergeant Major" Lankowski) in our specially-made kenjutsu dojo, and have focussed on developing higher intensity and lower turnovers. What we saw this week was that this new regimen has had immediate effect, with not a sign (okay, maybe just one) of what Mike Nield described as our "indiscriminate" hucking of previous weeks.

The huge crowd (hi Morgan and Walls families) thrilled to the on-field action as they shivered on the sidelines, and as usual a fabulously hard-fought and high-spirited game was had against the UQ Passion lads. Their leader, the ever-so-suave John "Cheeseburger" McNaughton, will be dropping by shortly for his weekly calligraphy and ink-wash lesson, and hopefully we'll have a chance to hear some of his erudite comments on the game then.

Oh yes - and we should also mention that Stefan has won the MVP poll for the second week in a row. Well done Stef. Let's see how this week's votes go - lock 'em in on the poll to the right (you can vote for more than one player).