Worlds Schedule

There are 15 teams in the women's division - Australia is seeded 6th.

The draw structure is:
- 2 pools of 7/8
- 1 cross over game for top 5 from each pool
- quarter-finals
- semi-finals
- finals

Th seeding for worlds is based on the last World Championships plus any WFDF-sanctioned national events in between (e.g. European's). This means teams like New Zealand who didn't participate in the women's division in 2004 and who have not played in any other WFDF sanctioned events since they end up tacked on the bottom. In a draw like this the seedings should not matter too much .

Australia's schedule is (with team's seedings in brackets):

Day 1
USA (#3)
Ireland (#11)

Day 2
Switzerland (#7)
Italy (#10)

Day 3
NZ (#14)
Finland (#2)

Day 4
Mexico (#15)
cross-over (if in top 5 in pool)

Day 5
Quarters
(and playoffs)

Day 6
Semis
(and playoffs)

Day 7
Finals

The other pool has the following teams:
1. Canada
4. Japan
5. Great Britain
8. Germany
9. Sweden
12. France
13. Colombia

Final pre-tour win over Riot

The Firetails finished up their pre-tour in Seattle with games against Team Canada and UPA finalists Seattle Riot. A three-way mini tournament saw each of the teams up against the other, with the Firetails getting the midday break.

First game of the day was Firetails against Team Canada. There was a reasonable upwind/downwind trend to the pitch, although the points seemed to be scored liberally at both ends. Some scrappy play from both teams early saw the Firetails up 3-1 with a good chance to make it 4-1 with a D not far outside TC's endzone on the downwind. A couple of opportunities were missed, and TC pulled it back to 3-3. Points were mostly traded to an early half, although an untimely drop at 6-6 saw TC get the half at 7-6.

The Firetails were on D after half and TC consolidated to 8-6 before some good work from Jo in the clam got a block on the line and the Firetails tied it up again at 8-8. Unfortunately a few more errors started creeping in, and TC punished the mistakes opening up a 13-9 break. A time out was to no avail, with a miscommunication turnover next point through the 4-man zone. Two more simple execution errors let Canada get to game point at 16-9. A solitary score at this stage was not enough and TC broke through the Puppy on the final point for a 17-10 win.

The game was certainly there for the taking, but a lapse of concentration against a team like 

Canada is liable to be punished. We also had a number of opportunities to open up a sizeable break early on while Canada was finding their feet that we should have taken better advantage of. 

With only a short break, Team Canada backed up against Seattle Riot in the next game. It was tight to 11-11 or so, but Riot rolled home in the last few points to win. Final score was around 17-12. TC were missing their interprovincial pickups and will have a few gun players to integrate into the team come Worlds. 

The final game saw the Firetails take on Riot, with the wind doing a full 180 degree change and becoming a little stronger. After a nice put from Ash to Mama downwind to go 1-0 up, the D line managed to generate five turns but were unable to convert until Gamble looped one over to Liz near the back of the endzone. A cheap D and a quick convert saw the Aussies up 3-0 for a solid start. Drops in two of the next three points could have proved costly - Riot were able to convert one for 4-2. The D line managed another five turns in the following point but couldn't score it, and the next point another drop against the 4-man zone had Riot tying it up at 4-4.

Both teams consolidated to 7-6, Firetails up. With half to be taken early at 8, the D line managed to generate another string of turns, several near the Riot endzone, but not be able to punch it in. Still with the opportunity to take half downwind, a disappointing O point followed, with several cheap turnovers. Riot took advantage and finally worked it in for the score.

The D came out firing after half and got the block on the next two points, the second off the Puppy. Keah put a sweet downwind huck to Lisi for the score on the second for 9-8. Riot turned up the pressure to tie it up and then get a break 10-9 before Firetails called a time-out to stop the run. Unfortunately a soft turn let Riot go up 11-9 with the Aussies needing an upwind score to get back to level pegging. With a Hussey to Di goal consolidating the O, the D got the upwind break after some good work in the clam, and then followed it up with the downwinder for 12-11 Firetails, game to 14. 

A sweet mid field flick from Viv to Granny downwind gave the Firetails the lead 13-12, but Riot were equal to the pressure and didn't give the disc up to even it up at 13-all, double game point. A huck from Keah to Di floated wide in the endzone, but hard man D saw Crossie get the block on the inside out, and a bullet cross field backhand from Gamble to Di finished the game 14-13 Australia. 

The intensity throughout the entire game was the best it has been on the pre-tour and bodes well for Vancouver. While the turnover rate was relatively high, the pressure on D from both teams was also high and forced the offences of both teams to work very hard.

Overall it has been an excellent pre tour, and with a week to freshen up everyone should be raring to go for our first up rematch with Fury (Team USA).

Viva la Australie

Today the team played Viva, a women's team from Seattle. Firetails won 17-5. The focus for the game was offensive possession, which we improved on significantly from previous games on the tour. Tomorrow will be a much tougher day playing arguably 2 of the best teams in the world.

While the team was playing Tom & I made a visit to the local ER. We saw multiple health care professionals and spent 3 hours in hospital just to find out whether or not we needed to be on antibiotics for the flu thing we have. The end result was we need to just "suck it up" and rest. And what better to place to do it....

more pre-tour details

We rolled into Seattle yesterday and are enjoying Britta & Kevin's hospitality. I think there is some disagreement over whether the Rock Band game (beats the Wii hands down), the jet ski or the jacuzzi are the best features of our stay here. We have a rest day today, so large sums of money have been parted with at REI and various malls around town. There is a bit of flu going round the team, including the coach having lost his voice so hopefully today will be an opportunity for recovery.

We are all glad that we have no more long drives in the pre-tour. Over the last 3 days we have driven over 1300km with at least 18 hours in the car & vans (more for those who took the "scenic" route). This provided us with opportunities to get to know the team better, some cars having more poignant conversations than others. We also took in the beautiful Oregan Coastline and the amazing Californian Redwoods. Various wildlife has been spotted including a couple of elk, squirrels, skunks and very cute hummingbirds.

We have lots of good memories to take with us, Di's post-game cheer for Zeitgeist a particular standout. Ask her about it sometime!

We play Viva tomorrow morning, then Riot & Team Canada on Sunday, then all that remains is for the real thing... worlds.

Pot from Schwa

Wednesday night game in the wonderful state of Oregon. 

Schwa the layout queens and provider of a huge esky stuffed full of beer, power juice and firecrackers made us feel extremely welcome after a mammoth day of driving.

Post game providers of baked goods and Oregon stickers.

Wonderful hosts thanks Schwa! We love Oregon.

Firetails 17 - 12 Schwa.

Defined

We knew there was a Crazy Face on Fury, who paints her face for finals and goes by the name Joy. We didn't know what she looked like until we saw her unmasked.
After meeting her today, it turns out she looks just like our Joy, the Doberman. The excitement was overwhelming when they marked each other in the first point. We now have Plain Face.

find Joy on www.furyultimate.com

Sweet Momes...

...folks.

The Aussie Firetails started their campaign in the windy, rolling slopes of San Francisco. Known for its orange bridge, its lung-saving trolleybuses up steep hills as well as a few quality women's ultimate teams, San Fran made the Ausssies welcome with mild weather and light breezes. With most of the team tucked safely into beds in one of the city's most notorious areas, Tederloin, the Tails caught up on sleep ready to start the battles on Saturday.

Results:
Saturday
Firetails 17 - 9 Slackjaw
(mvp Tania "snowflake" King)

Sunday
Firetails 9 - Fury 17 (mvp Keah "K-bomb" Malomby & Vivalvi)
Firetails 14 - Zeitgeist 13 (mvp Grandma)

Off to the island prison tomorrow afternoon before heading up the coast, and our game against Schwa in Portland on Wednesday.

Stay tuned for more sweet momes.

Last training camp complete

The Firetails completed their final training camp in Australia today. We had two excellent days and a fantastic evening at the AFDA Gala dinner on Saturday night.

The next time we will all be together will be in San Francisco on 18 July. Our pre tour schedule is:

19 July (Sat) - play Slackjaw - San Francisco
20 July (Sun) - play Fury (Team USA) & Zeitgeist - San Francisco
23 July (Wed) - play Schwa - Portland
26 July (Sat) - play Viva - Seattle
27 July (Sun) - play Riot & Team Canada - Seattle

The World Ultimate Championships run in Vancouver from 2-9 August.