BPL 2011

As I've been sitting at work, wasting away my working hours with frisbee organization, I thought why not have a flutter at the ol' blog.

So let's have a quick first look at the new BPL season, and who's going to make a splash, and who's going to sink like a Cobra. I fully expect my suggested placing to ruffle some feathers, and I'm sure they'll be incorrect, but I think they're an interesting suggestion of where teams are at.

This season sees some of the greatest roster changes in the last couple of years of BPL. UQ has lost it's Lovers representative team, Cobras has waned, Dojo have waxed and Buggers have stayed much the same. Heroes have strengthened through months of open season training and Slamtown have been quietly holding selections for their new look side. A team of rookies has snuck in to form Los Bandidos.

It seems as though this season may be one of the hardest to predict in many years ... on paper a couple of teams look particularly strong, but the rankings of all six teams should prove to be a shit fight for position.

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Buggers

The Buggers are perennial challengers. The one team that you can never quite write off from being in contention for the title. Over the last couple of seasons, they seem to have faded a bit from their winning ways, having lost JRay to inevitable retirement and reduced from two teams to one after the formation of the Cobras and a big league restructure. Mike has also had a reduced ultimate role due to changing priorities.

This has resulted in the last couple of finals being devoid of a Buggers team; That's something that would have been almost unheard of a year ago.

Nevertheless, the Buggers are one of the few teams that has remained relatively untouched amidst the league wide restructuring, maintaining their old stalwarts, and with their only pickup (as far as we can tell on AFDA) being Rob Lowe from last season's lovers. Being continually predicated on gradual advancement and discipline and having held their first open selections, in the next season they should be getting back to the form of the past.

Players to Watch:

As always Mike Nield is going to be a danger man on the field, but we should expect to see more from Stu Austin this season, as he relinquishes his long held (and well performed) duties as LD to concentrate, we assume, on picking up the MVP prize for the season.

This may be balanced out by the fact that Special is going to be playing on sleepless nights and stress meds for much of the season.

Young guns such as Tim and Trev will hopefully step up to take more of a role this season.

Old buggers Buzz and Spinner probably might do something useful as well, besides providing the humour.

Predicted Finish: 3rd

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Slamtown FC

Slamtown have been holding the middle ground the last few seasons since their entry into the league as a new team a couple of years ago. This in no way signals a lack of advancement, as Slamtown has been gradually grinding up their skill levels, but perhaps shows the burgeoning strength of the league in the past few seasons.

Their middle of the pack performance seems to be becoming a thing of the past however. Slamtown are one of the few BPL teams that has regular team trainings both in and out of season, and are the only BPL club sending a team to nationals. Playing nationals together as a team can only be an awesome thing for the general skill level of the team, however it may result in some post nationals blues and injuries that could provide a set back in the most important time of the season.

Nationals isn't the only ace in the hole though: They have also picked up new GC immigrants Al Don and Abra Garfield which will provide some sorely needed star power to an otherwise solid line up, and have quietly held team selections for BPL from a competitive player base.

This could be Slamtown's year to take down their first BPL premiership. But probably won't.

Players to Watch:

New import Al will add handler patience to a relatively receiver heavy line, and Abra will bring piles of athleticism and defensive presence to the sea side.

Look for just about every player on this team to bust long, and for ridiculous blades and overheads from the Mayor and Mike.

Predicted Finish: 2nd

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Los Bandidos

Now to the new team to the scene this year, Los Bandidos. These young guns have escaped customs and University to bring a whole bunch of new rookies to BPL. Formed exclusively for the purpose of strengthening UQ's eligible unigames players, this Club is aiming to bring an unconventional and athletic look to an aging league.

That is all I'm allowed to say for now.

Predicted Finish: 6th with style

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Cobras

Cobras have been a team of peaks and troughs. Every season, they seem to either be final contenders that can mix it with the best of them, or a sore covered wench whoring it in the gutter for a wooden spoon (Bit rough?). This season has seen the biggest roster change in their history with Wetnose and Dan Young moving on, Abra heading the Gold Coast and JJ heading to Bandidos. That's a lot of good players leaving for a young team, and there isn't much except rumours replacing them at this stage. Is Mike Nolan still around?

Reece's angle for rebuilding the Cobras former glory seems to be an O-Week based poaching campaign, which could provide him with much needed import firepower, or could leave him struggling for a roster in quiet uni weeks.

The young guns in this team, Reece, Jack and Finn (Well ... not really young) have been making big strides in their performances for Firestorm in the last couple of months, but will have to comprise much of the leadership in a much changing club.

While I expect that they will surprise in their performances this season, I can't see them crawling their way out of the bottom 3. It looks like this will be a rebuilding season for the snakes.

Players to Watch:

Look out for the little guys of Reece and Robbie to be making big plays, and putting up most of the throws for this team. Jack and Finn will be workhorses down field, with Finn going to be picking up most of the big match ups.

Predicted Finish: 5th

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Heroes

After stepping in to BPL as complete new comers a few seasons ago, and relying on the big game experience of Jangles, George and Myall, it's time for the Heroes to take a step up. Heroes have kept a relatively consistent roster since they first entered the league, relying on a tried and true formula of consistent insular training sessions to build their performance. One great strength of the team is the close friendship that most of the players share, and this has helped them continue a legacy that's been going since the day's of Huddy and QUT.

This closeness has also been hindrance however. In Brisbane ultimate, with the lack of much independent coaching, one of the best ways to improve your ultimate abilities is to be exposed to new competition, new playing styles, and new team values, normally by playing on other teams, or with other people. Unfortunately, due to the Heroes' isolation in that respect from the greater Brisbane scene it's perhaps taken them slightly longer than most to grow in this regard. The assistance of Matt Boevink, and Firestorm training in particular will have a tremendous impact on this team, and I expect them to make great strides forward in the coming season. Heroes has long had the athletic potential to be a great team, but has lacked the training and game experience necessary to take full advantage. I expect that to change this season, although how much remains to be seen.

Players to Watch:

Jamie and Bevan are going to step up in their role as prized receivers this season, however it will be their defense that will make the most impact. If they can nullify other teams deep threats, Heroes will go a long way closer to the top of the totem pole.

The quick and short Jangles, Matt, Myall, George, Carl could be winners for this team, but they will have to look to improve their short game and rely less than they have in the last few seasons on looking for huck options.

Predicted Finish: 4th

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Dojo Mojo

As last season's major premiers, Dojo will be looking to continue the run of form that had eluded them in the previous seasons. Once known as perennial chokers, Dojo has finally broken the spree that had stripped all their minor premierships of the crowning glory. (Although it seems that we don't have a video to prove it. How ironic that the one final they don't record is their own win.) And with their roster this season, it seems hard to believe that they can choke again.

Adding to their previous strength, they've picked up wounded deer Julian Sacre and for the full season have Chris Cunliffe.

Provided that all there talls stay strong, this will surely be the strongest tall line in BPL history. With the backing of their flamboyant but generally successful handler line, it seems hard to believe that they could possibly choke this season. In fact, I think we'll have to set up a QUDA inquiry into match fixing. I'm looking at you Pete.

Players to Watch:

The tall ones. And the other ones. They should all be pretty good.

Predicted Finish: 1st

Color of Fist

Passion's undergone a bit of a revolution in the past couple of seasons. As a young team looking to get back to the lofty heights of grand final choking, we've selected a core of young able players, and have been working on the simple but effective principles of run hard, don't turn it.

Nothing really emphasized the start of our shift in attitude as much as our new jerseys. With a bit of revolutionary zeal, and a lot of passion, we've been schooling lots of teams and showing them what Jules eloquently calls the color of fist.

Next season though, UQ may try to consolidate it's BPL holdings. For quite a while we've struggled along, being one of the few clubs to blood BPL to the big leagues, and losing a lot of players along the way. With more room and depth in BUML to introduce players to higher levels of ultimate, it no longer seems as applicable to chuck fresh players in at the deep end to see if they float, so instead, we may look to go for one strong side once again.

Of course ... we'd have to choose a jersey for the new team. But I'd be fan of it looking something like this:

BCI

As you'll all know doubt be aware of by now, the Brisbane Canberra Invitation (a new elite open tournament) was hosted in Brisbane on the 27th and 28th of February.

There was lots of strong competition, and other uninteresting things. What was interesting is that I took some photos on my points off, and they are now up at http://shnurple.com/bci in full glory.

Some of the shots didn't come off so well, but were included because the content was pretty awesome. Also there won't be shots of everyone on the team, because not everyone happened to do something mad right in front of me on the sideline, or played that game.

This is one of my favourites though:

BPL Preview: The Season to Come

Stefan already did a preview over at the Gold Coast Ultimate blog, but I'm not one to let someone else getting there first stop me, and someone needs to stick up for the UQ side of the story, so here goes.

BPL this season is looking to be the biggest and best it's ever been, with the introduction of two new teams to the league, a host of new players, the retiring of some old hats, and various team switching shenanigans. Over the last few seasons, we've seen a trend of consolidation, whereby most of the established teams (with the notable exception of UQ) have concentrated on building strong and solid team bases. This was good news for overall league strength, but bad news in terms of league building.

This season the fortunes have reversed, and we're seeing a reshuffle of talent, as well as a massive influx of shiny new people.

The teams in the competition this season: Moreton Bay Buggers, Slamtown Flatball Club, Dojo Mojo Ultimate, UQ Lovers, UQ Passion, Cobras and Heroes.

Moreton Bay Buggers

No team has been more dominant in this format that the Buggers. There are many hypotheses for this (you could ask Buzz for some good ones), but most of them fall on a particularly winning combination of big Mike Nield, and little (in height only) Jason Ray, followed by a solid team of useful support acts.

Jray has been vital cog in the Buggers premiership machine for the last many years, but this season he's left them to his own devices, to go do whatever it is ultimate players do when they finish playing ultimate. Another cog in the works will be Mike's absence from several games this season.

Buggers haven't traditionally been a two horse act (some of you will disagree with me here), but with notables such as Jangles and George headed off to Heroes, Jimmy to Slamtown, and Fatty (the previous season) to Dojo, they're losing experience fast. With Stu, Spinner, Manuel and Tony Ross at the helm, it will be interesting to see how much of that winning tradition is left to rub off on the current team.

Cobras

Cobras are a team built for a new ethos in BPL, similar in manner and design to their southern brother HOS, if not in success. As a team, they get cracking on their warm up, do drills and things that teams do, and get really angry at each other. Unfortunately for the other teams in the Premier League, it doesn't look like they're going to have to much to be angry about this season.

The overwhelming impression of their line is solidity. This team doesn't have weak links. Every player has been playing BPL level or similar for years, and should be able to pull it out when it's required (or she's not looking). Cobras have star pickups in Robbie and Abra this season, along with the byron youngsters Abraham and Isaac, and big Joel.

While there inaugural season left a little bit to be desired for the team themselves, and for the rest of us who were expecting big things, this season might be there year. Certainly a team to watch for in the finals.

Whatever else they are, this team should be a nice little nursery for good value handlers, with Reese, JJ and potentially Jack all going to regularly step up to the plate in the coming season.

Dojo

Well, they have experience...

Does anything more need to be said about these perennial battlers? It seems every season they strap together a series of compelling round robin victories, only to fall short at semis or finals.

This Old Boy's club never really lags behind though, and despite the lack of new blood (only Peter Allen, Rohan Ferris and Jon Good have jumped ship in the pre-season transfer window) you can't really get better team chemistry than this. Somehow all these aging bones seem to animate themselves fairly well when you get into the mix of it.

Deep threats will be very real in Pete, Rohan, Dan Walls and Fatty and expect throws to come from all over the park. With what's looking like the demise of the Buggers, perhaps this will be the year that Dojo pulls through. Then again, perhaps not.

Heroes

We wanted a new team. Players were screaming at it from the rafters after last season's curfuffle of 5. But did anyone expect this?

I mean, really?

Anyway, here they are, straight from BUML to you, the Heroes. There isn't much doubt in a lot of experienced minds, that this is going to be a challenging season for the young team in green. The step from BUML to BPL is a big one, and it can be challenging even for individual players not to fall on their face a few times. Nevertheless, Heroes will be a welcome new addition to the ranks of BPL teams. Always impressive with their large rosters of keen players, they've been developing some exciting latent potential in their two Monday night teams, which will be great to see when it gets let out ... and maybe refined a touch.

This is where more experienced players have stepped in to lend a hand. Players such as Dusty, George, Jangles, Fox and a little pickup called Myall, will all add a much needed pinch of je ne sais quoi to the Heroes mix. Look for this young outfit to start frustrating more established teams when we get later into the season, and perhaps grab a couple of upsets while they're there.

My expectations, however, are that this will be a challenging and fruitless year for the small green people, but hopefully they learn a lot from it.

Lovers

UQ teams have suffered as a whole in the last year or so. 2009 saw Buggers reconsolidate into a single stronger team, Cobras form, and other teams reinforce their holdings. UQ however has kept two teams, which allowed more players to be developed at a time, but also left them weaker. Combined with excursions of players to more fertile grounds, 2009 wasn't the best year.

Lovers however, are never a team to be overlooked. They won the competition only a few seasons ago on a golden run, and are always looking to come back strong. Players such as Buzz, Al and Nathan present significant match up quandaries to any opposition, and pickups from Chimis will bolster this team's legs. The player to note in my opinion on this team will be Brenton Williamson, who'll be playing his first BPL after 'being discovered' at AUGs and picking up some sweet skills.

The dilemma for lovers however comes in the team's age. The split in the last few seasons, has left Lovers with the old, and Passion with the new, and neither seeming to do the more successfully out of it. Lovers average age will be pushing 30 this season, but in BPL experience has never been a bad thing.

Look for them to post a stronger middle of the pack finish in this league, after blooding a couple of young guns last season.

Passion

There's only one team in this league that has jerseys the colour of fist. This is that team.

Passion are a team of streaks. When they first started as the brainchild of some old dude, and an annoying short guy, they struggled for a season or so, but built into a promising run. Unfortunately people left, and they struggled some more, and then built into a more promising run. It was only one and a half years ago that it seemed Passion was making every final, and then following Dojo's lead.

Unfortunately more people left, and they struggled a bit more again, and perhaps now they're ready to get right back into the winning times.

Tighter selections have led to a deeper squad than in the last couple of years, and the most fast, young legs of all the BPL teams. With an average age hovering somewhere on that 20 mark, what this team needs most is a bit of experience to push it over the line.

Jules, JMac and Gref are looking to provide that, with Vinko stepping up to play a more pivotal role as well. Players lost in the last season include Joel and Will Churchill, so this team won't be at their best, but perhaps are now headed away from their worst. Look out for them in the finals end of the draw.

Slamtown Flatball Club

Is there a better way to name your local Gold Coast ultimate club? I would argue not, and in this group of fresh BPL players, will be a whole lot more competition for Brisbane ultimate.

Having represented the GC in Regionals and Halibut tournaments over the last few years, this team doesn't lack for experience. Nor does it lack for team cohesion, with dedicated team trainings for the Nationals push later in the season.

Gold Coast locals have flocked under the new banner, with BPL stalwarts Jimmy, Nandor, Phil Stocks and Stef all taking the Slamtown helm.

This dark horse also has it's share of new blood with big game experience in Mike Morgan, Lee O'Dwyer and Darren Shi to name a few.

What should we expect from this team? Who knows? But I'd say they'll be fairly disciplined, and also fairly deep.

Will they be good? Probably.

Where will they be at the end of the season? Pushing semi's at least.

Wrap up

So that's an introduction to the teams, but where will they be in 3 or so months time?

Here's my rough bet for final standings:

Cobras

Dojo

Passion
Slamtown

Lovers

Buggers

Heroes

Tell me your own and prove me wrong.

Welcome to the Friz

Hey Ladies and Gents of the Ultimate world,

Here's just another attempt to comment on the world of ultimate, in particular Australian and Brisbane ultimate, for your viewing pleasure.

Hope you enjoy it,

Gref.