Last week was the Brisbane Premier League 2009 season 1 final.
After a close couple of semi finals the Dojo and the Messy Buggers ended up in the grand final.
For the ninth season in a row a Buggers team was in a final, and we managed to win our seventh BPL championship.
It was quite a game. We smashed them with man at the start. They played a zone on us and we couldn't deal with it. In particular our more experienced players couldn't handle it. The Dojo took half 8 to 7 after we were up 6 to 2.
In the second half we played a bit better against their zone, they played better against our man on man and we managed to make less mistakes to turn in the win with a score of 14 to 11.
One of the most enjoyable aspects of this season for us was the great work of the new players. The Messy Buggers had 9 blokes playing in their first season of BPL. Nine. Some of these guys had played a season or two of BUML, and others were brand new to the sport. We had 3 players who were in high school last year, and we all had a lot of learning to do as we got to know each other.
In our first game of the season Chris Burwell, Chris Cunliffe and the UQ lovers smashed us to 2. By the end of the season we had a team of blokes who knew how to work together, employ a team plan and fight hard for a victory.
Season 1 in 2009 was a great season for the Messy Buggers. Success can come in many forms in sport and I feel like we had a lot of different types of success this season.
Last Thursday finally saw the semi finals for BPL being played. While over on field two we noticed that Lovers benefited from Dojo's traditional semi final slip up, we certainly have some more info on what went down on field one in the all Bugger clash.
The game started out with both sides playing the traditional Bugger defence of hard running person-on-person. The first few points were long and tiring and saw the 9-man Slippery go 2-1 up against the savage Messy.
Messy then got their act together and ran off 6 straight points to have a handy lead, 6-2. Slippery had some uncharacteristic errors during this period, and everything just seemed to stick for Messy. Slippery managed to stop the run by changing up to a puppy fence zone, and Messy ending up taking the half 8-3.
After the break Slippery mounted a comeback with an effective utilisation of a poachy person-on-person defence and, when the time cap expired, Messy was ahead 10-9. Messy scored the point to lead 11-9, game to 13.
Messy scored the next point to be ahead 12-9, meaning that Slippery would need to score 4 straight points to take the spot in the Grand Final. Slippery scored the next two points to get the score back to 12-11, much to the delight of the sideline that was growing courtesy of the finished Lovers-Dojo clash.
Messy then worked the disc up the field and the disc was in the hands on Damian Wong about 10 metres out from the end zone. He launched a huge hammer to Micka, who took the grab and Messy were through to the final.
Great game by both teams, lots of Buggers heart and mongrel shown, and some great plays from both sides. On the Slippery side of things, Chaddy took some great contested grabs in all kinds of traffic. And for Messy, Silent George showed that he is more than a mute, doing a huge job of minising his man's impact on the game.
Messy are looking like they may be short on numbers, due to the delayed GF meaning some Messy boys are taking off overseas.
Look for the preview of the GF on the Brisbane Ultimate Blog, and we will give you all the low down after the game.
Well, not yet, but it is going to happen. Tonight, one way or the other, come rain, hail or shine, one of the MBB teams will be in the BPL Final on 18 December 2008.
If it rains, then Messy, as undefeated minor premiers, will automatically go through, with no more weeks available to move games back a week and will play the frisbee Dojo.
If not, it will be an all Bugger semi final with Messy v Slippery on field one at Annerley, tonight 7:30pm.
More details will follow the game, but it will certainly be a clash of the titans, and will see the Buggers through to their eight consecutive final, and bidding for their fourth consecutive title.
Last week the Moreton Bay Buggers, Messy Buggers team played in the Brisbane Premier League final. It was pretty good times, we built on the hard running games that we had produced during the league and continued with our traditional style of play in the final.
During some post game reflections it seemed apparent that our experience in playing and succeeding in big finals assisted us to play well in this game. All the boys seemed pretty calm and confident before the game, and we managed to inspire each other with simple tough play.
It was almost like we just won the game out of habit. We played well because we always play well, and the new guys in the team do their job like the old guys used to do when they were new. There is a real sense of momentum and history in our club which i think serves to drive everyone to play at their best.
I think that is all we ask for. For each player to know their role (which is often and preferably very simple) and to play that role for the team. (Sounds like a 3 times Brisbane Lions premiership coach Lee Mathews ethos to me hey Matty?)
I was thinking about this history and momentum. The expectation to do your job that just seems to be present and accepted by all the players and I'm pretty happy about it. Its a pleasure to be a part of.
After the final some people asked me how many league wins that was for the Buggers. I couldn't remember off the top so I thought I should find out and write it down.
Season 1. Our first season in the BPL was when Rueben decided to 'put the band back together' in preparation for nationals in Sydney 2006. We had black buggers shirts modeled on our hard shelled friend above, we sang along to the Spiderbait version of 'Black Betty' a lot and we made it into the final against Whippet Good and got beaten.
Season 2. After nationals Rueben headed off to Melbourne to do some other stuff and I (Mike) took over the captains role. Again we made it to the final of what was a 4 team league in those days. We played Whippet Good again who were seeking their 3rd consecutive win. We won that final and were happy.
Season 3. Still 2006 and we persevered with the black get up. This season was full of tight contests with the UQ lovers team which continued in to the final in which we won again to go back to back.
Season 4. After another very hotly contested league with UQ we made it to the final and lost to the UQ lovers. I think they went up 7 to 1 in the first half. Ouch. By this stage we were playing in blue patagonia, sweet.
Season 5. This was our best looking team on paper as the 5 or 6 new players from the last couple of seasons (Wet Nose, Jangles, Chadwick, Nick Cootes, Matty who is now in Canberra, etc) were becoming very difficult for other teams to handle. We had 14 players, O and D lines and we smashed it up. We won the final to get the trophy back. I cant remember who we played, probably UQ again. I think this was the first season with 5 teams in it when UQ built their second team.
Season 6. This season we split into 2 teams and recruited heavily again to build the Fresh Buggers and the Crusty Buggers. The Crusty old difficult players joined up with a bunch of brand new guys, and the 2 and 3 season veterans lead by James Larkin made a Fresh run at it for themselves. The Crusty team won against DoJo in the final that season.
Season 7. We got some Red shirts half way through this season and played as two teams again. The Slippery Buggers and the Messy Buggers. In an attempt to concur the world and hold a grand final with 2 Buggers teams (and nobody in the crowd we often joke) our teams were reshuffled to balance our experience. The Messy team won this final against UQ Passion and the competition was now up to 6 teams and looking strong.
Season 8. Most recently the UQ, MBB rivalry has continued with the Messy Bugger team again winning the final against passion. The Slippery Bugger team had a great season to finish as minor premiers.
In summary since we entered the BPL at the beginning of 2006 the Moreton Bay Buggers have been in every final, we lost our first and our fourth and won the rest to currently be on a 4 season streak. We have also recruited and successfully developed over a teams worth of quality BPL players. I think for me the aspect of the 3 years i'm most proud of is how successful our brand new BPL players have been. From league guns like Messy Buggers captain Wet Nose who started as a gangly and raw rookie in 2006, to our 2 high school students Steve Glen and Reece Stewart who have won 1 and 2 league titles respectively, new Buggers have thrived in the competitive BPL environment.
We plan on continuing with this challenge of finding and developing new talent as we look forward to welcoming 3 rookie Bugs to the upcoming BPL.
In 2008 the Moreton Bay Buggers are proud to present their playing teams. The Messy Buggers and the Slippery Buggers.
Messy Buggers
MIKE - Moreton Bay Bugger since 2003 at Nationals. Club captain for the past 6 BPL seasons. Receiver, however in this league i'm sure i'll continue to bother Jason by coming back under for short passes. JASON (JRay) - MBB since Queensland first called themselves Buggers (2000?) Has played in every bugger team in the BPL (7 leagues). Handler, big backhand, passionate competitor. NANDOR - MBB stalwart for the last 6 seasons, big mark, good use of the frisbee. Will play as a handler and middle/popper. MICKA (The Vicar) - 3rd season as a Bugger this league. New to the game, runner and catcher. Will get a lot of tough match ups on D during the league. GRAHAM (Special G) - a Queensland and Bugger hero from way back, Special is playing his second season back after some time in Victoria. Downfield cutter and occational handler i think. STEVE - After an orthodox introduction to our sport (steve played his first BPL without spending anytime in the mixed/intermediate leagues) Steve is back and keen. Steve is young, tall and athletic. WET NOSE - A real Bugger at heart, Wet Nose will be a key note cutter on the Messy team. Into his 3rd year of Frisbee now after playing at Nationals and NUFL in 2007. SPINNER - "Mike i had an accident, stacked my skate board, 6 stitches." "I think i'm going to get the cap put on my tooth made out of gold" "I've been talking to the girl, the Gold Tooth (GT) is looking good" "Yeah long live the GT, i just close my mouth whenever I walk past the boss" - Meet Spinner. GEORGE - One of our three brand new Buggers on the Messy this for this league. George is just screaming out for a good nick name but i can't quite work it out yet. The man is very fast across the ground, knows how to go and get the frisbee, and doesn't talk about it much. I reckon we'll get a good nick name together for him before this league is done. REESE - Played his first Frisbee at Kelvin Grove State College then progressed into the YUFL and now is jumping right in with the big boys. DAN (Nugget) - is the third rookie on the Messy Buggers list. He has been playing in the YUFL for a while and is now ready for take on the BPL, looking forward to seeing how he makes the transition.
Slippery Buggers
JAMES - Club vice captain and captian of the Slippery team for this league. James has been with the Bugs since we started playing in the BPL. MANUEL - newish Bugger playing in his second BPL season, Manuel come all the way from Bogotá, Columbia. Very versatile, Manuel will handle and cut down field at different times, knows his way around a frisbee. JOSH - another new Bugger. This will be Josh's second time playing with the big boys in the BPL. Josh has been training a bunch in preparation for Nationals and the Buggers title defense. Tall, fast and knows how to cut, Josh will get onto the end of a bunch of stuff in the endzone i suspect. JANGELS - After 2 nationals, 3 Unigames, some NUFL experience and 4? leagues as a Bugger Jangles will take a large role on this team. BEEJ - Our English import playing his second season with the Buggers. Beej as been smashing it up at Nationals training and I expect some big things from his this league. NICK - A quiet achiever and stalwart performer for our club. Nick is one of the most accomplished all round players in the competition and will continue to cut and throw damagingly this season. A real foundation of this Slippery team. FELIX - Every teams needs a US import and Felix is our man. New to the city and to our game, Felix will play his first season of the BPL for the Buggers (1 of 6 potential rookie of the year candidates playing for our club in season 1). Felix holds the shared record for top attendance at Firestorm training for 2008, he will continue to improve during the season. NOTTY - 1 of only 2 women who play up in this open competition, and 1 of only 5 QLDs picked to represent Australian at the upcoming World Championships in Vancouver. Notty plays as a handler for the MBB club. DAMIAN - Returning to Frisbee after a few years break Damian will play in his first top level open comp with the Slippery team. Damian shows great restraint and poise with the frisbee and should be a good addition to our club. CHADDY - Playing in his 3rd? season for the Buggers Chaddy is an endzone bandit from way back, the man loves to go down there and take a big grab. Chaddy is focused on getting fit and smashing it up this season. Chaddy is also yet to register on the afda.com site (James just do it for him). ERIK - Hailing from NZ and Capalaba Erik is another of our 6 rookies to the BPL. Erik is a big unit and has clearly spent a fair bit of time on the Fris, he will play in front and behind the disc for the Slippery team i expect.
Righto so there are our teams, 11 Messy and 11 Slippery Buggers. Games start tomorrow, i'm looking forward to seeing how we all go.
As I write the coveted R.C. Dog cup trophy takes pride of place in my lounge room. Thanks to the efforts of the Crusty Buggers team there is another MBB name engraved on this unique perpetual trophy.
It was a good effort by both teams this season, the Fresh Buggers had some great moments and looked to be a real powerhouse of the competition after the first few weeks. The Crusty team also started with a bang in round one when we pitted our brand new line up against the Rawhide team and come out on top.
Both teams had challenging patches through the middle section of the competition with player numbers being as issue for the Fresh squad especially. Through the final weeks of the competition i think both teams played some good frisbee and it was great to have 2 teams in the Semi final stage.
The Crusty team performed very well in our last 3 games. I think this is a lot to do with the ability of the team to play well across a whole game. We spoke a lot about focus and effort being aspects of our game the can be directly controlled. There are many components and happenings in a game of frisbee that players have limited or no control over, so its very important to make sure you do well is the aspects that you can control.
The grand final on Thursday night was a example of this. Both teams were evenly matched through the beginning stages of the game, the Crusty team just managed to stay focussed, intense and committed to our systems for longer. I think this is the major reason why we pulled away in the late stage of the second half. Steve and I did break 2 of their players in the second half of the game, however i think we were out and looking like taking it by that stage.
Highlights for me of the game were a couple of Jason's full field backhands, the impressive under cutting of Micka Kanowski (Crusty Bug Roookie of the League), that 1 massive block that Steve got in the front corner of the endzone, the consistency of our effort across the game and some of the post game talk and celebration. "How old are you Spinner?" - "I'm 30" "Jason?" - "Oh over 40 now" "What about you Kanowski?" - "Yeah i'm 19." - "woah" "Hey Steve, your still 17 aren't you?" - Looks down at the drink in his hand - "Yeah" The boys break up laughing.
That was a funny moment.
So well done teams, i hope everyone had positive experiences during the league and are looking forward to taking a little break before firing it up again in 2008.
So another season of the BPL is drawing to a close. The Moreton Bay Buggers club has had some highlights and some disappointments during the league. It has been great for us to enter 2 strong playing teams into the comp, and i hope to see the buggers continue to represent in future leagues.
We have 2 teams in the semi finals next week, and due to a few interesting developments the Crusty Buggers will play the Fresh Buggers in a semi final. So we are assured of having 1 of our teams in the grand final in 2 weeks time, excellent.
On Friday night, thanks to the social committee (Ben and Wet Nose), we had our end of season social night. It was a pretty good night with Buggers from both team in attendance and in pretty good form. We hit the Embassy Hotel with cheap drink deals organised and a dance floor that took a while to get going but once it did - baby, good times!
A key feature of the night was the boat race to see who would get to wear their Blue buggers strips for the semi final. A worthy award and very well contested. Racing for the crusty team were Mike, Spinner, Manuel and Nandor at anchor. The Fresh line up was Ben Worby, Beej, Carlos and Jangles at anchor. The weapon of choice was schooners of Tooweys, the stage was set.
With Notty starting the race off like a cute girlfriend in one of those 60's type aqueduct hot rod drag races the Worby monster and I were off. Using his years of experience and commitment to the discipline Ben got a lead for the freshies by 2 or 3 fingers, Spinner then put the Crusty effort into gear and made good in roads into the fresh lead. During the Columbian leg Carlos "the dark horse" pulled away again and going into the final pair of drinkers Jangles might have had 2/3 seconds and 3/4 fingers head start. Enter the Locher!
Nandor smashed down that long glass of beer like he was hucking a forehand out of a zone - quickly and accurately. That drink disappeared in impressive style and the Crusty team was victorious. Blue shirts on Thursday Crusty boys! It was all very fun and I think we all enjoyed it (after our heads stopped hurting that is).
Plenty of frisbee was talked, lots of tidy dance moves were executed and as far as i'm concerned good times were had by all. Thanks Ben and Wet Nose for getting the night sorted - it is great to get all the Buggers together for a bit of raucous action from time to time.
Thanks for a good season teams, play well in the semi this week and starting thinking about what you want to achieve with your Bugger team mates next year.
