Australian Firetails - World Ultimate Championships 2008

4th in the world

2008-08-10T06:27:00.003+10:00

Yesterday we played in one of the semi-finals against Japan. Our offence had a shaky start coughing up the disc to give Japan a 3-0 lead. Japan had been filming our games against opposition and presumably this influenced their tactics of largely giving us the under cut. Poor execution and option taking meant Japan took the half
9-4 (?). We clawed back a few points in the second half, including a 3 point run, but left it too late. Japan took the win 17-10. Ash Martens was another victim of the poor quality fields with a bad ankle injury (torn ligaments, possibly break?) in the second half.

This left us to fight off for Bronze against Canada. All the semi-finals were being played on the stadium fields and the scheduling was incredibly tight meaning our game started 1.5 hours late at 5:30pm. We started the game flat giving up another 3-0 lead, prompting yet another time-out call to regroup. We got one on the board but that was it giving Canada half at 9-1. The second half we actually came out to play and put up a fight with the final score being 17-7 (so a 6-8 second half scoreline). It was a disappointing way to end the tournament, but we still have the satisfaction of coming 4th.

We ended the day thanking everyone who had made this week a success for us:

Pat - preparing our lunches everyday, pre-chopped lunch fillings and having everything amazingly at the fields when we needed it was awesome
Mike, Mark & Dan - for assisting with the lunches and being the pack horses for the physio table and first aid kit (& Mike for being our own personal photographer)
Annette - our physio, who kept us all running all week
Granny, Bel & Keah - for organising the pre-tour
Tom - Coach, for his contribution to getting us as far as we got
Lisi - for her fitness program which got us all into shape and always being willing to answer questions
Lisi & Granny - for running the warm ups and warm downs
Diana - for 7 months of tireless work; strategically, emotionally & physically. Leading on and off the field, always positive. An amazing job.
The family and friends who supported us both at the fields and from afar!

Semi-finals here we come

2008-08-09T02:16:00.004+10:00

As many of our avid readers are probably aware we had a sudden death win 16-15 over Great Britain yesterday in the quarter-finals. Here is a bit more colour for the readers at home...

We started on defense and the game went on serve till 6-6. Aussies called a time-out and put on a strong D line to try and get the break. Brits scored and then Australia gave up a break. A couple more trades for GB to take half 9-7. Hussey let fly with a full-blown back hand huck which connected with Laura Pearce's (GB) forehead 3m from the point of release.

Australia received to start the second half to bring it to 9-8. The D got 3 turns before finally converting to make it 9-9. GB sored, then Australia had a messy O point with 2 opportunities with the disc before GB scored again to make it 11-9. Trading continued to 13-13 to GB and time-cap going so the game was capped at 16. The Aussie D got 2 turns but failed to convert and GB took it to 14-13. The next point an execution error by Australia gave GB an easy score to make it 15-13 - match point for GB. The Australian offence scored courtesy of another Diana to Mama connection for 15-14. Then the Aussie D pulled out puppy and got the turn then converted to make it 15-15 - match point for both teams. The Australians again played puppy and on the second pass coming out of their endzone GB threw the disc into Liz Edye playing in the wall. Liz could have scored a Callahan goal but instintively batted the disc firmly to the ground. Ash Martens rushed to the disc surrounded by GB defenders faked a flick then threw a wobbly hammer to Diana Worman for the final goal.

A lot of emotion followed from both teams in a game which either team could have won. Diana Worman had a strong game with 5 goals, 5 assists and a lay out block in the endzone. Keah Molomby also had 2 blocks and Lisa McGinnigle was her usual dominating self as the puppy.

There were 4 games between GB and Australia to determine semi-finalists today: Junior Open, Open, Womens, Mixed.

The Junior Open was almost a mirror-reversal of the women's result, with the Aussie boys losing after being up. The Aussie Mixed team accounted for GB fairly comprehensively 17-11 (after it being 9-8 at half) and the Aussie Open team looked a shade of its usual self going down 17-11, and also losing Pete Gardner just before half to a torn ACL.

The most exciting game of the day (of which there were many!) was the Junior Girls semi-final against Colombia. The Aussie support base arrived (after the Dingoes game) to a half-time score of 9-7 to Columbia. The second half had many exciting plays with the Columbians getting to a 3 point lead 14-11. The Aussies had played man to that point, they transitioned to their well drilled pommy. They forced the turns and then scored 6 of the last 7 points to take the game 17-15 and earn themselves a place in the final.

While yesterday was the clash of GB & Australia, today is Japan v Australia with 3 match-ups: Mixed (semi), Womens (semi) & Junior Girls (final). Good luck to everyone.

Worlds heats up

2008-08-07T14:11:00.002+10:00

The competition and the weather got a lot hotter at worlds today.

With forecast temperatures up to 33C even our 10:30am game against Mexico was hot. The goal for this game was just to finish it quickly and get in the shade. We were pretty successful finishing the game in around half an hour 17-1.

With the initial pool play complete we were now into cross-overs. Finishing second in our pool meant we met the second placed team from the other pool, Canada. We played Team Canada on our pre-tour and had run hard with them so were hoping for the same in this game. Unfortunately the heat was affecting a some of our players and simple errors in the first few points gave Canada a 3-0 lead. We picked things up after a time out but the Canadians physical game combined with the heat meant we didn't peg back the early lead we gave them. It was 9-5 (?) at half. We scored immediately after half to 9-6, with the Canadians answering to make it 10-6. A long point followed where perhaps 15 picks were called, on pretty much every pass which made it difficult for our offense to get any flow. There was some good flow but overall the Canadians played very well and took the game 17-9. The highlight post game was the dance-off between Kylie and Jill Calkin.

We take the 4th place ranking into the quarter-finals which puts us up against Great Britain (5th) at 11:30am tomorrow.

A satisfactory day at the office

2008-08-06T12:38:00.002+10:00

Day 3 brought an early start with our first 9am game out at satellite fields "Jericho". Our physio Annette was up strapping at 6am, we all received varying amounts of sleep depending on whether we were being serenaded by Dingos, having hall way guts played outside our rooms by the masters or sleeping next to the smoke alarm which went off incessantly at 4:30am.

Despite the disrupted sleep we were at the fields with plenty of time to spare with lovely views of the mountains to inspire us. First up the big trans-Tasman clash. We traded to 3-3 before a few breaks from strong defense, including a layout D by Lisa McGinnigle, to take a comfortable half time lead 9-5. The second half we continued well getting to 16-10 (?), including another layout D by Lisa. The Kiwis pulled out a zone after that which we had been working well against, but closed it up and got us stuck in our endzone and soon it was 16-11. Hard pressure from the Kiwis, and less than optimal choices by us, had the Kiwis on a run getting to 16-13 before we finally punched in the last goal. A win but not quite as satisfying as we would like. The game also saw the return of Vivian and Gamble following days off with the flu, they both performed strongly.

We had a long break as our second game was in the 4:30pm time slot. We were fired up to take on the Finns (finalists at Worlds in 2004 and #2 seed). We came out with strong man defense and took a 4-0 lead before the Finns called a time-out. They scored the next point but we continued to force the errors and took half 9-2. The second half contained more strong defence before Tania went down heavily (later diagnosed as a torn ACL). The team was shaken but continued to execute smoothly to finish the game 17-5. Vivian was again a stand out with several perfect hucks and strong defense deep.

Tomorrow we finish pool play with a 10:30 game against the Mexicans. This is followed by a cross-over game (probably against Canada) in the afternoon to determine our position going into the quarter-finals.

The other Aussie teams also had a strong results today, 11 wins and 1 loss across the 6 teams. Tomorrow brings some much tougher match ups in the other divisions.

Day 1 & 2 - Firetails 3-1

2008-08-05T13:40:00.002+10:00

Two days of worlds are over and the Firetails are well positioned.

Our first game of Day 1 was against Team USA who we played a couple of weeks ago in San Francisco. We came out fired up on D and had a very close first half, including the opportunity to take half 9-7 before a couple of basic errors allowed USA to take half 9-8. Receiving going downwind to start the second half we should have evened things up but an incompletions allowed USA to take an upwind goal. They then applied a suffocating 4-man cup which we struggled to advance against. After a 4 point run we finally got back in the game but then just traded out to finish 17-12, a disappointing result though we did take a lot of positives from the game.

Later on day 1 we played Ireland, who are a younger, less-established team. We had some very clinical points but unfortunately quite a few that were far from clinical. Final score 17-2 but quite a lot we could improve from.

Day 2 we had Switzerland first up. We came out and pressured them a lot early to take half 9-3. In the second half the Swiss pulled it together and scored some excellent goals, we mainly traded the second half for a final score of 17-9. Our offence was very crisp and a marked improvement from the Irish game.

Last game of the day we took on Italy. Italy had played NZ earlier in the day and gone down by a few, the Italians came out pumped up and with nothing to lose, and we ended up in a very tight first half. Goals were traded till 5-5 before we changed up the D and took half 9-6 (?). The second half our defence remained stifling and we took the game 17-9.

Following that we were very excited to watched the U19 girls beat Team USA. Day 2 was a very good day for Australia with 8 wins, 2 losses across the 6 teams.

We are largely injury free, with Annette our physio keeping us all running. Unfortunately a bit of flu is going round and we were without Gamble or Viv today, hopefully both will be right to play tomorrow.

Rock band, Seattle Storm, Britta's

2008-08-02T04:09:00.002+10:00

The Faces

2008-08-02T04:02:00.000+10:00

Worlds Schedule

2008-07-31T01:44:00.000+10:00

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

2008-07-28T12:36:00.002+10:00

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

2008-07-27T07:51:00.003+10:00

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

2008-07-26T07:24:00.002+10:00

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

2008-07-26T02:15:00.002+10:00

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

2008-07-21T15:11:00.002+10:00

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...

2008-07-21T14:42:00.003+10:00

...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

2008-07-06T20:28:00.003+10:00

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.