Australian Ultimate Page 9

The Barramundis!A Special Tale of Fun and Adverntureby ‘Jaunty’ Jo McClellan.

“It was a refreshing sunny day inMarch as 50-odd elite players set toit. Training Camp Four had arrived.With the Australian Open team(Dingoes) and Women’s team (AuroraAustralis) already selected, it wastime for the Mixed contenders tobattle it out. Competition was tough -but spirits soared as players shone infront of the selectors.

For the next few weeks these hope-fuls were to slog it out on the fieldproviding some great end of day playat many of the lead up tournamentsto Nationals. With one of the hardestselections ever made, the AustralianMixed Team for 2004 was to beannounced after the finals at nation-als.

So it was that the Barramundis wereselected. Weighing in at a total ofmany kilograms, and a completeheight to challenge any skyscraper,the following ultimate enthusiastswere set to sacrifice their weekends,weeknights, sleep-ins and lunchtimesto reach their ultimate peak in order

to take on the rest of the UltimateFrisbee world.

And so, the Barramundi’s are: SueBrown, Sarah Crossie, Tamara Davis,Lisi Jarrot, Kelly Kidman, Leanne King,Joy Lee, Jo McClellan,Keah Molomby,Carlie Ryan, Tao Browne, Lee Coady,Andrew Craig, John Damiani, AbraGarfield, Jeremy Hind, Matt Marcus,Adam Mortimer, Joel Pillar, ChrisStephens, Toby Vidler and Dave Zuk.

Back to field the Barras and Mundiswent - Canberrans brushing off iciclesas they set out for their morning andevening 100 throws; the one manbands like JD, Tao and Joel mentallyabsorbing the Barramundi vibe whilsttraining, due to the lack of other mixedplayers in their regions; and Sydneysiders matching it up with regularweekly games against various teamssuch as Sydney Uni (with their ownpreparations for their up and cominguni games).

With pounding it out on the track,learning to lay, mental preparation,challenging ourselves to climb horizon-tal ladders, talking tactics; mixing thefinest male and female cocktail (with

various dumps on the side), there waslittle time for much else. But somehowrelaxation was achieved as the teamdiscussed the social challenges ahead –such as where to find the finest choco-late in Zurich, how many travel scrabbleswill be needed for the flight over toEurope, and the correct procedure forspa plunging to achieve maximummuscle recovery.

After many pre-polls, campaign banners,flyers and speeches, our true blue ozicaptain Seppo (Matthew Marcus) andsidekicks Adam Mortimer and TamaraDavis were voted on to lead us to our firstever Australian Mixed Team victory inTurku this August 2004. (Specialmention to Milko, a close runner up.)

So flights are booked and on the 22nd

July the majority of the team will beflapping those wings to Zurich where wewill battle it out with the Swiss (inbetween chocolate runs), then toStockholm where we will play theSwedes (on their Ikea style, build it asyou go frisbee field, note hammer notincluded) and the USA. Then it will be afrisbee filled ferry ride across to Turkuwhere we will put our training to the test.Shall we bring home the gold? 15 otherteams to beat, so only time will tell…”

Go you Barramundis!

Barramundi’s Vice CaptainAdam Mortimer looks to

get one past Dingo Owen Shepherd. Photo by

Leon Smith.

Kenny Shepherd uses two handsand keeps

his eyes on the disc - pic by Leon.

Page 10

The Dingoes!

And let us not forget these kind and wonderful sponsors! change and employee performance. John

lectures in strategic management and planning atthe Australian College of Applied Psychology

where he also trains in the areas of performancepsyche counselling and psychology of injury.

Check out www.sportswise.com.au

Novel T - The Australian Junior National Squadare proud to be supported by Novel T. Novel T is

recognised as one of Australia’s leading manufac-turers and suppliers of quality corporate, sports

and leisure apparel as well as promotional items.

Have a squiz at www.novelt.com.au

The Australian National Squad Website waskindly designed by Roger van Swaay with

help from Kenny Shepherd. Nice work lads!

Andof course we cannot forget to mention allthe friends, families, workmakes and employ-ers who have helped the players financially inachieving their goal of getting to Finland, and

of course, doing their best for Australia!Onyas!

Gatorade - has proudly sponsored AustralianNationals 2004 by providing product support toall teams, and is now proudly supporting theAustralian national teams with product supportat the World Championships.

Check out www.gatorade.com.au

Supersport Images - has kindly allowed us touse their images of the Australian Nationals2002 on this website. Supersport Images has 10years experience in photographing sportingevents worldwide. They specialize in photo-graphing marathons, triathlons, ocean swims,cycling, canoe races and fun runs.

www.supersportimages.com.au is the place.

SportsWise - The Australian National Squad areproud to be using the services of John Cooksey,Sports and Performance Psychologist fromSportsWise. John has a focus on business coach-ing, athletic performance and coaching psychology.With over 15 years experience working in humanresources, organisational change, John has con-sulted across all business levels on organisational

Here are the faces of the might men of the Australian Open Ultimate Frisbee Team, the Din-goes. Happy looking aren’t they? Well, actually, they’re serious. All serious. Darmn

serious. They want to bring home the World Championship!

But to do that they’re going to have to beat 17 other teams in the World’s toughestUltimate Frisbee competition - Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Great Britain,Ireland, Italy, Japan, Lithuania, Netherlands, China, Russia, South Africa, Sweden, Swit-

zerland and the USA will all be in the way. They came 6th in 2000 - what will 2004 bring?

Starting at the top left, we have Lachlan ‘Lachie’ Yates, Jonathan ‘Telstra’ Potts, Pete ‘Pete’Gardner, Tom ‘Gack’ Rogacki, Charles ‘Charlie Barley’ Blumer, Dave ‘Wavey’ O’Brien, Matt

‘Madman’ Dowle, Ken ‘Kenny G’ Shepherd, John ‘LTB’ Greenfield, Chris ‘Hobbit’ Warris, Piers‘Just Piers’ Truter, Angus ‘Gus Guy’ Keegan, Mike ‘Chopper’ Nield, Owen ‘Bjorn’ Shepherd,Sacha ‘Sachmo’ Vidler, Tim ‘Timae’ Booth, Jonathan ‘Jonno’ Holmes, Anthony ‘Ant’ Dowle,Steve ‘Camby’ Campbell. Not pictured are Roger ‘Rog’ Bralow and Anthony ‘Sol’ Solomon(because they are overseas of course, not because they are shy or look like elephant men).

GO DINGOES!

Australian Ultimate Page 11

Terrigal Talkin’Lovely lay - Photo by Joe HendricksonEditor’s Note: Well, after several

issues, we’re putting in our first apology.Pennoes went above and beyond beforeour last issue to put together a Terrigalreport, and somehow we forgot to print it!DOH! Sorry Pennoes - but here it is thistime (and hell, it is Winter, so we allwant to read about sand, surf and sun!)

“The 9th Terrigal Towel saw its secondyear being run by the Newcastle Univer-sity Ultimate Frisbee club (NUdiscs - c/oTD Andrew Pennington) along with theone of the tournament’s founders, TDSimon Farrow.

With a big late surge in enrolments, thisyear’s Towel was shaping up to be hugewith great sand, surf and mild-warmconditions in stall. However, on Satur-day it soon became apparent that a fewpeople had pulled out, leaving Simon andNathan an interesting challenge with thedraw. That aside, 14 teams were drawnfrom the hat and went out to challengefor the sacred Towel.

Not being there on Saturday, I can’tcomment too much on the play, but Iwas assured by all who attended that funwas had by all and that if the team I wasassigned to (Huck & Sea – Lilac) wasable to beat Kenny Shepherd’s team onSunday, we would oust them for a spotin the quarter finals.

Once the party came round, it was clearthat Kenny was doing his best to assistour team by consuming more than a fewbeers on the night and dancing his wayinto confusing daze (which lasted untilthe morning)!

Greenfield’s team – Crème de la crème).We matched it with them till 3’s, when avery long point left us knackered andresulted in White running away with it.

Eventually White and Dark Green lined upto play in the final, which saw JohnGreenfield play against his girlfriend KirstyMcPhee. After a close beginning, and agreat layout in the endzone for a goal byKirsty, White ran away with it, final scoreabout 9-5. So Crème de la crème were theeventual winners of the 2004 TerrigalTowel!

Thanks to all those people who helped outwith the Towel, especially the guys fromthe Newcastle club, including the NatsGal’s team - the Sugar Mags; Heather,Paul, Scott, Terry, Felicity & Paul etc.

We are looking forward to making Terrigal2005 even bigger and better,

Cheers,Pennoes Co-TD”

Well, back to the party. We wereagain hosted by the WamberalSLSC, and had a fantastic spit roastwith all different types of dietaryneeds catered for – from those whodidn’t like lamb, to those who haveweird and wonderful allergies likegluten, lactose and potatoes (notmentioning any names Kristen).

Sunday’s games had a number ofclose encounters, with the mostexciting being between my team andKenny Shepherd’s team (Blue SuedeShoes - Royal Blue). Whilst we heldan advantage for most of the game, itcame down to the wire with the lastthrow on the buzzer to tie up thegame (and thus knock us out) beingmissed by two of our defenders andthen going through the hands of oneof Blues players in the endzone. Thismoved Lilac into the quarter finals…

It was to be a rough road however,with Lilac 7th and playing White (John

Page 12

Meet the New Pres

Kung Foo Frisbee! Photo by Joe Hendrickson and DJ

At the AFDA AGM in April,Leon Smithwas elected the new President. Leonhas been doing all sorts of good thingsfor Ultimate Frisbee for over a decadenow, but with his rise to the ‘top job’ wegot our reporters to track him down andask him a few questions.

Australian Ultimate: Let’s start easy- 10 words or less - why do you likeUltimate?

Leon Smith: Self refereeing reducescheating. Few smokers, good people,great game!

AU: Nice work. So how and whendid you originally get involved inUltimate?

Leon: Went through a bit of a phaseof throwing a cheap nasty “UFO” on thestreet with my father as a break fromHSC study, then went to Macquarie Uni(1991) and was lucky enough to meetMichael Free with a disc from Hat 3(there was only one “Hat” then) in hisbag. I said, “can I see that?”, he said,“let’s have a throw”. That was itbasically. He wrote, “Not doing any-thing at 6:30pm, come play Ultimate atGore Hill.” on every single Monday inmy diary there and then. A couple ofMondays later I succumbed. My elitecareer started a week later when Iplayed in a pick-up game, Simon Woodwas on my team, I got passed to andmanaged to hold the catch, then wentfor the behind-the-back-backhand-pass(as you do when someone is markingyou!) to Woodie. It hit dirt about 5mbehind him and the smiling scowl onhis face still haunts me!

AU: And when did you realise youwanted to be President of theAFDA?

I didn’t plan it, I was ambushed by myconscience! I went to the AGM at 2004Nationals thinking I’d put my hand upto be an officer or maybe a boardmember. When I heard Ash talkingabout the issue of separating theposition of CEO and President into twopeople (Jonathan Potts having beenboth), I thought I agreed with his

arguments and since the job ofPresident is now a lot smaller thanin the pre-CEO days, I figured Icould probably do it and nominatedmyself. JP promptly withdrew fromre-election, so there I was - a mugwith no-one to blame but himself.

2005, successful running of MixedNationals 2004 in Newcastle, WorldUltimate and Guts Championships2004 in Finland. On the latter point, Iwill be representing the AFDA at theWFDF Congress immediately beforeWorlds starts, and Jon is the currentSecretary-General of WFDF so he willbe thoroughly involved in it too.

I guess in the medium term - imple-mentation of drug testing at Australiantournaments and possibly also out-of-competition testing. This is one ofmany policies we’re finding we need tohave in place in order to meet therequirements for actually obtainingfederal funding through the AustralianSports Commission. It feels verybureaucratic and somewhat painful, butits making the AFDA a betterorganisation and will see us muchbetter placed to grow our fabuloussport.

AU: What about in the long term?

Leon: Ultimate in schools andprofessional Ultimate. To get theplayer base up we need to infiltratemore schools. UFNSW has had greatsuccess in developing players fromschools - most of the juniors going toWorlds this year (hey, wow, everyoneknows this is a first for Oz don’tthey?!?!) came through northernSydney region schools playing Ulti-mate as school sport. But if we bringin more players, we need to give themsomewhere to take their skills andtheir talents - why not have a paidcareer as an Ultimate player? Look atwhat rugby union has achieved sinceturning professional in the mid/late1990’s. Could it happen to Ultimate?Do we want it to happen? Could a self-refereed game go professional, hit TV,and stay self-refereed?

Probably the biggest challenge is indealing with the vast difference indevelopment between the big, estab-lished regions (Sydney & Brisbane), tothe medium sized, established(Melbourne, Canberra, Perth) and ondown to the fledgling and/or small

AU: Hey, wasn’t Pottsy thePresident? But he’s the CEOnow? How’s that work?

Leon: The constitutional changesthat were passed at the 2003 AGMcreated a Board of Directors for theAFDA, of which the President is thehead, and also a paid part-time CEOposition. Jon has been Presidentsince the 2002 AGM, Pres and CEOsince 2003 AGM, and now is justCEO. He has consistently put inabout three times the effort that heis now getting paid for. I was keento work with him, to lighten his loadperhaps, or at least to see if wecould get more done together. Theseparation of CEO and Presidentprobably improves our organisationallegitimacy too because power isless concentrated than before.

AU: Ok, and what do you reckonare the big issues for the AFDA inthe short term?

Leon: Structure of Nationals for

Leon discovers something unpleas-ant in his disc. Pic by Tony Perez.

(Continued page 15)

Australian Ultimate Page 13

Regional NSW“Nah Mate - Central West play-ers are TOUGHER” (with FrankGarofalow)

“The inaugural NSW Central WestMixed Ultimate Frisbee Champion-ships were held at Charles StuartUniversity at Bathurst on 28 May.The invitational tournament sawteams from Dubbo, Bathurst, theBlue Mountains and Sydney meet ina mighty contest.

Govetts Leapers from the BlueMountains Ultimate Frisbee Clubwas able to come away with asurprise victory at the tournament.The Blue Mountains team enteredthe event as unlikely contenders, butwere able to pull off an upset winthrough sheer determination andcohesive team play. Sam Critchleywas the top scorer for the BlueMountains, and the tournament as awhole, averaging 6 points per game.Her ability to become invisible andreappear as the disc arrived wasmarvelled by all!

The Blue Mountains carried severalinjuries into the final against theSydney Slingers. It was a hardfought contest, with the lead chang-ing several times over the course ofthe game. In the end it was sheer

Ultimate Frisbee games used to befew and far between once you ven-tured out from the capital cities.

But the evidence is growing thatcosmopolitan disc-heads need to stickto their lattes no longer!

“Armidale Ultimate players areTOUGH” (with Pennoes)

“This is my conclusion after playingtwo weeks worth of Ultimate in one ofthe newest frisbee regional outposts atArmidale, in the New England region ofNSW.

As Armidale lies roughly at an elevationof 1000m, it gets pretty cool here inwinter time. Combine that with trainingat night, and I have to admit that theguys here in Armidale are keen on theirUltimate and must have developed thegenes for playing in the cold – cause itIS COLD at night up here. The tempon the ovals hovers somewherebetween minus 5 and plus 5 degrees,which make it quite difficult to grip thedisc as the muscles in your hand don’twork too well – I guess that’s why theyplay indoor overseas in the wintertime! J

Anyway, just to let you know that thereis a really cool bunch of guys playingUltimate up here in Armidale if you areever passing through. It is still in thedevelopment stage with knowledge ofthe rules a bit lacking, but there is noshortage of good spirited, fun Ultimateon show. Every time I have been, therehas been more than 20 people there,so look out for them in the future attournament. They have already playedat Banana Republic at Coffs this year,and hosted a Hat tournament a fewweeks back, so who knows, perhapswe’ll see them at Mixed Nationals inNewcastle?

Big thanks to the guys here in Armidalefor letting me join in!” Pennoes flies.

will that allowed the Bluey’s to pullthrough, with a final score of 11-9.

The Blue Mountains team dedicatedits performance at the tournament toMorgan Beck, a former member ofthe club and good friend who unfortu-nately passed away recently.

In the preliminary round, the Slingerswere able to beat the Blue Mountainsusing highly inventive tactics - thefemale slingers choose to play in

boots and that’s all! [this should getpeople there next year - Ed] Thiswas a brave move considering thevery cold late May day but provedquite effective. By the time of thefinal, clothes were restored, and itjust gave the Blue Mountains theedge to get on top of them.

The Charles Stuart University teamput on a brave performance tosecure the rubber chicken of third.The CSU team also put on a greatlunch BBQ for the players. The firstgames after lunch were a bit sloweras the snags settled in.

The Dubbo Dingos had two secretweapons - Ben Gawthorne andHarrison “H” Davies, both 12 yearsold, with throws that most seniorplayers can only wish for. Lets hopethese two stick with it so we cansee them in world juniors in a few.

Twelve months until a rematch?Let’s hope not. Maybe this canbecome a quarterly event.”

Damon Cupitt of the BlueMountains lets one rip at Bathurst.

Page 14

Fantasy MiddlesThe Adventure Concludes - who’d’ve thought that we here at AU would manage to get away withstretching a single joke over three issues now! But if you haven’t worked it out yet, we’re building thegreatest (fictional pop culture) Ultimate Frisbee team EVER! We’ve got the Handlers – Captain America,Tron, and Odd Job. And we’ve lined up the Longs - the Flying Nun, Inspector Gadget and the Flash. Soall that’s left is to fill the Middle - with Xena (Warrior Princess), Phoebe Buffay and Edward Scissorhands!

Middle 2 - Phoebe BuffayWhen not hanging around the CentralPerk Coffee Shop in downtown Manhat-tan with a group of her friends, PhoebeBuffay spends a lot of time out in left field(actually, she’s left field all the time). Thisof course makes her exceptionally diffi-cult to mark - her craftiness is legendary.

We’ll be frank and say (behind her back)that, despite the slyness, Pheebs isn’tthat much on the pitch. However, if yourteam just played the Smelly Cat team,then Phoebe is just the person you needleading up your cheer.

Middle 3 - Xena, Warrior PrincessMiddle 1 - EdwardScissorhandsIf your team is having troubleworking the disc down the field,its probably because the cutsaren’t coming thick and fastenough. So we figure if youneed some cutting done, thenyou need to get EdwardScissorhands on the team.

Edward is an artificial man withscissors for hands, who livedalone until the Avon Lady camecalling. Innocence is what heknows. Beauty is what hesees. So of course he lovesUltimate Frisbee.

Unfortunately, having extremelysharp blades for hands some-what hampers Edward’s abilityto catch a flying plastic disc.Actually, if he gets anywherenear a disc, the call afterwardsis usually “Check disc”, fol-lowed by someone tossingsome shredded plastic towardsthe sideline. Bother.

best known for her ‘chakram’, therazor-sharp aerobie-thing whichshe throws with amazing skill(although on the Ultimate field shecan’t make it bounce back toherself because of the silly ‘nopass to yourself’ rules!).

All in all, Xena is without a doubtone of the greatest UltimateFrisbee players of the fictionalworld, and not to be triffled with!To use her own words, Xena has

“many skills” (not the least ofwhich ismaking nerdsdrool). Shepossesses apotent combi-nation ofcharisma,agility, acrobat-ics, martialarts anddeadlyacupressuretraining. Shehas masteredmany weap-ons, but is

Ok, so maybe you’re thinking thatif you were playing against a teamthat had Phoebe Buffay in it, andEdward Scissorhands was forcedto stay on the sidelines due tosafety concerns, you’d be able towipe out our fantasy team. Well,we have only three words for you -Xena, Warrior Princess!

Australian Ultimate Page 15

Odds and Evens

Australian Junior Tom Walcott at an un-disclosed location with the Oldies

regions (Adelaide, Darwin, Dubbo,Dunsborough, Hobart, Newcastle,Townsville, Wollongong). Trying tocater to that variation in development isa challenge.

When Andy Morris writes the History ofAustralian Ultimate in his old age Ihope we can look back on these as stillvery formative years where the mes-sage that Ultimate is a real sport wasjust as big an issue as how teams areselected for Worlds or whether weshould be looking towards professional-ism.

AU: You said you’ve been playingsince 1991 - where do you thinkyou’ll be in 2021?

Leon: Hard to imagine I’ll hopefully be49 some day! Hope I’m living comfort-ably in a peaceful world. If that doesn’teventuate I might have to try to dosomething more active to stop peoplemurdering each other the world over.

AU: And finally, how are youhandling being Pres so far?

Leon: I’m just getting into the swing ofit after 10 weeks, feeling my way, tryingnot to obstruct positive activity beingcarried on from the previous board,while encouraging steps by otherindividuals within Australian Ultimatethat will move us, collectively, forward.It certainly adds to the volume ofreading and writing I have to do, but itsimportant and I volunteered to contrib-ute, not to just wear the title.

AU: Thanks Leon.

(Interview with Leon - from page 12)duty and put in countless hours ofgreat work: Mat Ryan, Roger Church,Emma Spranklin, Genevieve Healy,Sara Cargill, Maylin Chuah, KateBayne, Emma Tickle and Paul Hefford.Thanks for my present!!! The baitcaster works like a dream.”

“Special Thanks to: Kate Spranklin,Chris Haines, Dale Lingwood - The OnSite Administrators; Jonathan Potts,Ashley Scroggie - AFDA; The SultryTeam, Moreton Bay Buggers, DeathBy Crocs and the Sweat-o-saurusBBQ girls for all their hands on assis-tance - Yeah QLD!; Tim Ferguson, SueLoveday, Diana Worman, ChrisHitchcock and Terry Kennedy, ShawSportz, Sport and Rec QLD, BrisbaneCity Council, Gatorade, Red Bull,B105, Triple M, ABC Radio, and theresidents surrounding Kalinga Park.”

(Nats 2004 Roundup - from page 5)

The Hot TippersYou may remember last issue weasked some of Australia’s top “Ulti-celebs” for their tips on who would dowell at Nationals 2004.

Well, we’re not going to bag thosepeople who’s tips went awry, but wedo have to acknowledge thecountry’stwo hottest tippers.

So congrats to ‘Rascally’ RachGrindlay, who was the only tipper toname the top three in the OpenDivision - Fakulti, Southside andChilly. Rach, a glorious AU no-prize isin the no-mail for you!

And nice work by ‘Delightful’ DiWorman, who was the only tipper forthe Women’s Division to name all topthree – Manly Muffler, Southside andMelbourne’s Salt. No-prize for youtoo mate!

What about the Emus (aka theAustralian Masters Team for Worlds) ?We ran out of space this issue, butfear not, with ye editor on the team,there will be a thorough post-mortemnext issue! Meanwhile, here’s aninspirational picture of Dom Ventura(below, not up!) showing how its done!

Fun with Newbiesfrom alt.sport.disc

“Three years ago I lost one of mycleats for a couple days so I showedup for practice wearing one cleat andone sneaker. I joked that I did it on

purpose as the newest theory was towear a tennis shoe on your pivot foot

so pivoting would be smoother.

The next day one of our rookiesshowed up with one tennis shoe and

one cleat. Nice work.”

Crusade II - The Gladstone HatJust got a bit of space here torabbit on about what’s becomingone of the best little tournaments inthe nation - the Gladstone Hat!The hat was conceived as a way toget Ultimate players from Northand South-East Queensland in oneplace for a weekend to have a wildtime. And once again it suc-ceeded, if the picture sent in to usof the winning team (below) isanything to go by!

If Undeliverable, return to:Australian Flying Disc Association IncPO Box A1086 Sydney South NSW 1235

Postage PaidAustralia

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Booked your flightsfor the Tassie TwoHat yet? October 9in Hobart. Photofrom last yearbyCharlie Prevost.