Orange Eastern Regionals

I think I must be suffering PTD, I've also been finding it hard to study and think about anything that isn't Frisbee which is the only think I've thought about for the past weekend.

Phil, Max, Tiger and I drove down on the Friday arvo, had a brief stop in Katoomba stopped drivers and went all the way to Orange.

I think it was a pretty amazing weekend and its great to see Fakulbee come so far as both individual players and more importantly as a team. I remember the first game we played together at Share the Love we still didn't know eachothers names, people were calling me Mark and Mark Semfel and not meaning it as a joke (except Elsey he still does it).

First day was easy 3 days with long breaks between each one, Taipans, Fakulti and Hills. I probably enjoyed the Fakulti game the most out of all of them even though we got schooled hard. Something like 15-3 with a cool down with Kai who bought everyone Ice Cream. Was a pretty good day but things got a lot more serious on the second day. The cool down was fun when Kai pulled up Tex to show a stretch Julian called out "Make him cry!"

Taipans we played well for about 2 points until they pulled out a pommy and zowned us. I was pretty happy with my defense and cutting this game, doing a pretty good job of it. Feeling a lot lighter and fitter than the last tournament I played. Hills was an average game, I dont think we played so well and it was more their drops than our fantastic defense that won us the game.

Ali B also brought out his new cheer for us, probably the most firey cheer I've ever seen. The whole team is screaming, also came up with a stupid one with Tiger/Max and Phil where each person calls out a letter in the alphabet until we get to S (The 19th person which fit perfectly with our huge roster) and the whole team called out FakulTEE.

The second day I also discovered strapping tape for blisters, I've never used the stuff before and its amazing! So much less pain than possible before!

This day was full of fire, hucks high moods and low spirits.

Our first game of the day was against Newcastle I-beam after we all warmed up got our seven on the field and the first pull of the day started after 3 throws Newcastle calls a timeout and goes "I need to get my shoes on!" and they all got their cleats on and did some warm up. Probably the second funniest time out called I've seen during Frisbee.

I saw some amazing plays happening today as Ali B fired up the whole team with his cheers

Who wants to win this guys? Lets do it Fakulti ...
FakulWHAT? FakULTI
FakuliWHAT? FakULTI

As he started running around in our circle as the team starts yelling and cheering. I don't think I have ever been this fired up for a game in my entire life in any of the sports I've played. The intensity was amazing the it really showed with Lu-wee scoring some huge D's and scores, Yoann showing me a game I've never known he could play, Wes Dowley and Phil holding the team together and some amazing efforts from everyone on the team, huge lays and perfect throws, our drop rate was so much lower than the previous day and everyone played amazingly.

FakulBLOCK FakulD
FakulBREAK FakulFREE
FakulSCORE FakulSI

We started the game with this cheer as Brendon came and dropped a Fakulti shirt in the middle "This is what we are playing for guys," we all realised how much we needed this game, we wanted to get to Nationals.

Our game against the gong was crazy, we took the half at 8-5 with Fakulbee showing a hucking game that I've never seen before, and it worked extremely well, the whole team played the hardest D I've ever seen and the whole team had an energy we'd never seen before as we battled for the last qualifying spot to Nationals. Unfortunately Wollongong replied in kind and took the game 13-10 or so at the time cap. We weren't able to shut down the combination of Tim Booth, The Crusher and Joe the tall friendly guy with a shaven head and a huge forehand huck. Brendan played some amazing d and he is so great on the mark in our zones.

This was probably the most painful loss I've had in Frisbee for a long time and the whole team's energy was down after this one, the only hope being a wildcard entry if we won our 7/8th play off. We finally had lunch at 3pm after 3 games. I think Tim Booth at the end of this game also gave one of the best Frisbee speeches I've heard in a circle that somehow managed to dodge the cliches and hit a spot with most of the players in the circle.

The game against Manly started out slow, our whole team energy was down after the loss against the gong, the first few points went by slowly, Manly were playing a great game wanting it more than us and you could see it in their play.

FakulWHO? FakulBEE
FakulWHAT? FakulTI
FakulWHAT? FakulTI

The sidelines began roaring the players began screaming, The whole of Fak A came out to support us on the sidelines as we fired up and finally equalised with Manly after the half. The last few points of the game were a blur with harder D and offense from both teams than I can ever remember, Manly surprised me with how hard all of their players played and Fakulti showed me again what we could do and why we wanted to go to Nationals. The last point I played I can't remember feeling that good getting a score, a short cut into the front openside, as my man run to the post, a circle of death cut to the back corner and Brendon floated the disc into my hands, I have never felt that good scoring in Frisbee in my entire life it was an amazing experience to have this chance.

The whole sideline was fired up as Julian was told over and over again to get off the field with his cheers and enthusiasm, I think he is probably one of the most motivated players I've ever seen, it is clear how much he wants to play with Fakulti and how much he wants to win and get that disc. Ken pointed out he has probably the fastest closing speed of anyone on Fakulti and is a great player becuase he wants it so much.

The last point was crazy, time cap went and Wes and Neil had a chat, game to 12. 10-9 To Fakulti. The last point I don't think I've seen Manly ever play D that tight, scoring a well deserved turn over, but we got the disc back and after a bit of dump swinging, I think dowley threw to wes for the score but it went too high, Mark in an ironic fashion managed the pull the disc down over 3 Manly players to take the win for us.

We had our showers, said good byes, went to the presentation and we won Spirit! Which was a bottle of Jager and shot glasses, its a shame none of the juniors can drink.

I lamented the loss of my blue gaia disc (someone nice picked it up to return it to me or someone stole it) and we made our drive home.

Best frisbee weekend ever.