Second Chances Are All The Rage

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

A Little Less Conversation, A Little More Action Please

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

DojoMojo 2009 in SF Style

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

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

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














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














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














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














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













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













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













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













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













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













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













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













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













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

Santa Delivers to UQ Lovers

The tree has been decorated, the presents have been wrapped, the rum balls have been rolled in coconut and the drinks fridge has been filled. Time for one last little pressie - a gift from us here at the DojoMojo Blog to anybody out there with an eye for top shelf Ultimate.

Well, maybe not the very uppermost shelf. With the Grand Final of Brisbane Premier League Season 3 2008 being postponed for a week, both the finalist teams found themselves losing key players to pre-Christmas travels. Messy Bugs were worst hit, losing at least 3 or 4 key guys and resorting to gun pickup Kristen Nott (from sister team Slippry, and one of only two females playing in the BPL) to make up a seven-player line. Facing up against a Lovers team missing really only big Julian Sacre, the Messy team were going to have to work a Christmas miracle to win their fourth (?) straight title.

So, with that intro let's get into the action:



More turnovers than goals! Not the most impressive game we've ever seen. And on it went:



Halftime saw Lovers way up and the crowd more or less giving up on the prospect of seeing a tight contest. Could Messy find a way to hold onto their hard-won reputation? Here's how the second half started:



But don't stop watching just yet - with the final looking like it was heading toward another blowout the focus of the UQ boys seemed to drift towards the contents of the post-game esky rather than scoring the winning goal, opening the door for a Messy comeback. But surely they couldn't come back from 15-8 down?



So there you go. A brief slip-up toward the end, but an easy win for UQ Lovers was never in doubt. Final score must have been something like 16-11. We're calling Pete Allen as Player of the Match, and not just because he kept his power grip flick in the bag.

And while we're here, we should also give a standing ovation to Dan Walls who this season took out both the DojoMojo Blog's Above&Beyond title and also the Brisbane Premier League's Most Valuable Player Award. So it's not just us that reckon Dan is the absolute business.

Next BPL season starts mid-late January 2009 and of course the coverage here at the DojoMojo Blog will be live (within reason) and uninterrupted as usual. Perhaps there'll even be the odd post in the interim...

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.

The Only "Training" We Do

As we glide out of the city headed for the restful Dojo gardens in the hills, reclining for the next hour or so in the the airconditioned luxury (spartan as it may be) of QR's long-distance service, we find ourselves at last with some time to reflect on the win that should have been last week on Field 2 at AJFC.

Perhaps that's not actually a good thing, as thinking back over the game instantly sends the mood of this writer plummeting, and with no video to show from our last outing of 2008 there's plenty of writing to do...

Or maybe there isn't. We could instead fulfil our duty of reporting on Dojo exploits this week simply by confirming that the semifinal between Dojo and UQ Lovers resulted in Lovers winning 15-10 and advancing through to a Grand Final matchup with Messy Bugs. Basically a replay of last season's final except UQ will have Al Don and Bugs won't have Mike Neild - so hopefully a much more exciting game for the spectators.

Anyway, a brief analysis of the lost semifinal would run something like this:

- Dojo makes spectacular play
- Dojo throws it away (or just drops it)
- UQ plays consistent, simple Ultimate all night and wins easily

From memory (this blog hasn't been around long enough to just check through the archives), the last Grand Final that the Dojo appeared in was this time last year - three whole seasons ago. That game was a memorably tight tussle against Messy Bugs, and eventually a 6-man Dojo (after two kenshi were taken out of play with nasty injuries) was unable to keep up the pace and lost by maybe 2 or 3 points. But the dogged commitment that characterised the Dojo play in that game has really only been seen on a few rare occasions since - this season in particular has been characterised by a glamorous but high-risk style that relies more on sheer talent than grit and determination.

So as we go into the Christmas break it could be said that DojoMojo finds itself at a decision point. Come good on the promise of the tall & talented roster by ramping up the commitment or just kick back and cruise knowing that we can still be strongly competitive during the regular season with minimal effort?

Hopefully this decision will be made over the break and the outcome will be made immediately obvious on the field. We can also confirm that a few changes to the Dojo roster will be taking place before the next season rolls out, and these alone will further enhance Dojo's prospects into the future...

And that's about all that seems prudent to divulge right now. We're also keeping up our sleeve the identities of the all-star cast that will be joining the Sensei in the commentary box for this Thursday's Grand Final game, but we can confirm that those invited are very experienced and opinionated campaigners...

Lastly, but crucially, the final A&B poll for Season 3 is updated to the right, and given the way the system works EVERYONE is still in the running! Who will join Matt Eastburn on the A&B Honour Board? We'll know in just a few days.

Secateurs and Beers with Julian Sacre

Yesterday, as we put down our gardening implements and wiped our brows after a long day of tending our rapidly-growing azaleas and black pines, we wandered back to our main Shoin via the bamboo grove with nothing in mind but a long, cold Yebisu beer. Rounding the corner we shouldn't have been the least bit surprised to encounter the unusually large silhouette of a steadily permbulating Julian Sacre.

Pleased to see him, but also keen to quench our thirst, we invited him up to our southern verandah for a drink and a chat about this week's much-anticipated (especially thanks to the rain delays) BPL semifinal matchup between DojoMojo and UQ Lovers. Here's a selection of the spiciest moments from our conversation:

DojoMojo Blog: Julz - who better to share a post-stroll, pre-game beer & a chat with than your immense self? Now - we see the only BUB tipper not actually involved in this weeks semi (Jangles) is backing Dojo to win. How does it feel going into the game as the underdog, despite Lovers' star-laden roster?

Julian Sacre: Its interesting that you choose to give out the underdog tag based on a sample size of 1. And that 1 is none other than Jangles! If we accept that he's representative of the Brisbane frisbee community then we're all in big trouble. But underdog or not, this so-called star-laden roster has been talked up in many circles from the beginning of the season, which I really don't think has been justified. If you compare the two UQ rosters there is very little separating those teams, and indeed the rest of the teams in this week's semis.

DMB: That may be very well be true, Julz. But then we also note that Pete Allen is backing Lovers, his own team. Sure - this is admirably faithful of him, but has he forgotten his uncanny knack of ruining a team's prospects simply by tipping it to win?

JS: I am backing Pete to put in a man of the match performance and reverse his tipping fortunes in the process. He took some huge grabs in last Monday's final squeezed between opposition defenders and is in top form. If he could only start using a power grip with his flick, he'd be unstoppable.

DMB: Well, he certainly says he's been reviewing footage of his flick and has some sort of devastating new move to unveil this week. At least we're hoping it's this week, or otherwise he's already unveiled it and nobody noticed... But now onto a man whose power-grip flicks we could all spend more time studying - Buzza. Who has been allocated the crucial job of escorting Mr Burwell to the fields?

JS: Buzz is so pumped for this game, he's already at the fields waiting. I drove through Annerley this morning and saw him throwing high 50m blades to himself. Rumour has it he was actually unavailable to play last Thursday (possibly due to your aptly timed 4:59pm intervention), so that storm may have been a really bad turn of luck for the kenshi.

DMB: Actually Julz, all our strategies rely entirely on Buzz being on the field - we'd be more lost without him than you! And speaking of key contributors, who do you think will make the biggest (successful) layout grab/D of the night? Not Andy Lankowski, presumably?

JS: Andy who? Nah... Dan Walls is the man.

DMB: "Andy who"? Perhaps three replays of Coopers' stunning layout attempt from our last game against your pink-shirted colleagues wasn't enough for you? And when it gets down to the semis it's a shame we can only video one game at a time. So what about the other semi? No doubt it'll be a tough tussle between the two Bug units, but which one do you reckon will still be standing at the end of the night?

JS: A 'tough tussle' alright. Based on recent history with those teams, we can only wonder whether those words might describe the game literally. If Wetnose calls a foul on Mat Ryan for breathing too loudly, we should all be on high alert. Assuming the game concludes in a manner that resembles a normal game of ultimate, I would expect Messy to come out on top. They've had a very consistent season and have a very experienced roster.

Hmmm, well then we'll leave the trash-talking of Liam and the Messy boys for next week (that's if they can get past their Slippry flipside tomorrow night!) - mostly as it would also implicate your teammate Stu Austin, and we wouldn't want to upset his delicate composure this close to a big game...

Another beer, Julz?