It was only a 1 day tourney, but what made it so special for us was that it was the first time that Fakulbee (Fakulti's B Team) had a chance to play at a competitive level together as a team.
Our final Result was 9th Place someone complained about a screwed up draw, but we still played off for 9th/10th (last) but was a lot of fun.
I don't remember most of the tournament, but it was fun and I remember the good and the bad and what I learned from the day.
The Bad:
- Our first game against Fyshwich, or however you spell it. It was our first game as a team, and it was so messy and horrible. No one trusted anyone, knew their names, or anything that good teams usually do together. There was a few messy plays, and one or two flows the whole game, but we really were not at all familiar with eachother, having barely any idea of what positions, throws cuts we all liked. On top of that the skills side was worse than normal, with there being about 10 drops (seriously) in this game from easy throws, it wasn't a sort of drop that you could have gotten with 2 hands, it was the kind where you try to pancake it, its an easy dump throw and it slips out, it was painful to watch and our whole team suffered from the butter fingers.
- Phil White didn't arrive into the second game, it was good to see him arrive.
- Dave Roundtree destroyed one of the Westies (Bathurst) players by giving him a hard shoulder to the head (possibly accidental, we'll never know for sure). An ambulance was called and he went to hospital.
- Making a long cut, slowing down thinking its not coming, the disc coming, thinking I was going to get it, just missing it as the wind picks it up and makes it fly that little bit further.
- My feet are so ruined.
- I felt terrible the first 2 games (will explain in things I learned)
- Having the most effortless Callahan scored against us in the Manly game.
- In the same point, throwing 2 discs straight into the ground that were backhand, short dump throws. I have known how to backhand not into the ground for in excess of 4 years, back before Ultimate when Frisbee was just a red piece of plastic my dad liked to throw with me. That really stung, doing that twice in the one point.
- The whole day, I threw about 10 forehands, I got plenty of disc time just never used the forehands. I also made several bad decisions, seeing a long open cutter, knowing its not my throw but still trying anyway. My bad. I'm sorry.
- Me calling a Pick on an endzone throw against Manly. Marking Matt Swadling, disc goes up deep, I chase, I am within 3m but near the endzone someone cuts across in front of me and I call pick. I was definetly picked, but the argument was he was going for the disc. They argued and the pained look in their faces showed I was probably being too much of a jerk on the play. I said ok, you're right and dropped it.
- One point, Me, Mark, Tiger were in the wall and Phil was the pommy, we got a turn over and they turned it back. Someone busted long, and Phil chased it, Me max and Tiger set up with no Phil and the whole field was a mess, Dowley was yelling at us to get back on and make the mark up, after several throws, I looked around, and yelled MAN MAN MAN. Dowley got annoyed at me, but my reasoning was different - all we would have been able to do was cup on 3 strong Hills handlers which would have been pretty ineffective, our wall was messy, so I thought 3 handlers, 3 people in cup, we are pretty much in man when we have to run across the field (it was a messy cup), so we switched up. We had no mark who was now playing deep, so there was Phil already marked up. That left 3 wings/deeps and 3 free players in the middle, so I thought hey if they're doing their job they're going to be marked up, and we won't have a half completed wall, (which had just had a throw passed through a gap in the mess)
- The teamwork improvement by the end of the day, each game we played we gelled more and more as a team, it was amazing to see a team come so far in one single day, from a bunch of guys that barely knew eachothers names, who were too scared to throw the disc to eachother to a team that was running its set plays, pommy d and zone o so much more smoothly was a really great experience to be a part of.
- Some beatiful catch's lays and throws for the day, particularly one I remember of tiger, making a jump bid for a throw, being decked by the guy and catching it in a layout/fallout from mid air, fantastic catch.
- The westies, hi vis uniforms and hilarious plays. The thumber (bozza throws a thumber down the field) The smok-o, and the Flailing whale. The last was the best and was used in one of our last few points, which involved Bozza after 4 throws calling "4 THROWS TIME OUT" they take a long time out and then set up. They set up a tight neat stack, and 3 handlers out of the endzone. We call disc in, BAM Handler cut long as we finally realise that they stacked in the opposite direction. Also one of them yelling after losing a point "Hey! What about workers rights!"
- The westies Cheer, hard to describe. Lots of grunting and moaning though.
- Successful zone points were beautiful. Some fantastic popping from Dowley, and awesome handling from Wez, Phil, Phil, Aaron and Yoann. This is going to be a lot of fun.
During one of breaks, I ran into Jimmy who asked how I was feeling, I replied that I felt terrible and had no energy. I arrived at the fields this morning at 8 feeling horrible, wondering how I was going to get through the day. The day before, I had worked 7:45-5 after Friday night going out thinking I started a lot later, but staying out and then checking my phone to discover an early start. Saturday arvo, I had eaten 2 bits of bread for breakfast and close to nothing for lunch and a small bowl of rice for dinner, I went to Normandy planning to leave before 11. Unfortunately the party only got good at 11 and I ended up getting to sleep at 2 am for a 6:20 wake up for a 7 oclock leave.
I hadn't eaten properly for a day, and hadn't slept properly for two.
I felt like an idiot, I couldn't believe how stupid I had been to not realise the importance of properly preparing for something even as short as a one day tournament and I can tell you I paid for those last 2 days. The only good thing was that I hadn't been drinking because of the alcohol ban from Juniors squad, turned out to be an extremely lucky thing too.
I came to the fields half asleep with no energy at all.
So I learned, a tournament is more than turning up on time that day, its preparing yourself for the days, and even weeks before. I might think that I've worked hard for 2 weeks, I'll be fine that day, but rest and recovery is just as important as being able to catch and throw when it comes to your game.
I'll never do that again, I'm glad I learned at this semi-serious tournament rather than a more important event.
But hell yeah Fakulbee. This is going to be an amazing year.
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