Ouch!

In round 2 of season 2 we played the number 2 team. It was a bit rough really.

The energetic Cobra team went on 2 separate 5 to 1 goal runs during the game, it was too much to handle. From the start of the game to 5 to 1 up we made mistakes at our end and the Cobras capitalised. As our extra players arrived and the team began to readjust to the speed of the BPL in our first game of the season we brought the match right back.

When we had the frisbee to score at 8 to 10 down the game had returned to being a contest however it was not to be and a second 5 to 1 run was too strong for us as the 15 to 9 final score clearly shows.

The Cobra team looked fairly good. They are a team that applies pressure on defense and then take risks on offense with fast and long disc movement. They will continue to be a handful this season.

As for us we know where we are at. Its exactly the same place we found ourselves in during the early stages of last season. We know what we have to do on the field to be successful, however we are still adjusting to the different style of play that is now necessary for us to be competitive.

Encouraging signs this week from two 5th season Bugger work horses with both Manuel and Simon executing blocks and grabs at their athletic peaks. Spectacular fellas, well done. It's also excellent to see that everyone on the team is enthusiastic about evaluating their own performance and setting goals to improve. I'm confident we will quickly return to our potential.

After 2 disrupted first weeks through attendance we are looking forward to another opportunity to grow as a team in this weeks clash with the UQ team.

Up the Bugs

The long wait is over

After what feels to me like the longest mid year break between seasons in BPL/MAL/DOG CUP history it is time to get back on the field.

I get the feeling that missing out on the final makes the mid season break feel even longer. All those goals left unachieved, the sense of a missed opportunity. We have been keen to get back on the field and erase some memories for quite a few weeks now.

That being said I love the long break and 2 season format. Its only the second year that we have done it and I think it is another great development in our competition. It increases the significance of each league, and each league title. This coupled with the ever increasing competitiveness and overall playing standard of the league makes for a more exciting and meaningful experience.


Our team made some significant progress during season one after a large turnover of personnel from 2009 to 2010. We had to redesign the way we play, and how we use our players. The exciting thing is that we found a system that can work really well for us and we are pumped to continue to refine our team play.

Some exciting aspects of season 2 for the Moreton Bay Buggers are:
Welcoming 2 new players to our team for this season, Buzz and Oscar.
Welcoming back Chaddy for his 11th Bug season after some time out.
Continuing to build on a solid group of blokes, in what looks like one of the most experienced Bug teams for quite a while.
Playing with Ferg and Trevor who will both be riding high after playing at World events in the last month.
Facing the improved competition in what looks to be another very competitive field.
Some cheeky new uniform action (in the mail as I write).

Finally and primarily the rhythm, the drama, the controversy and intrigue, the passion and enthusiasm, the tension, and the enjoyment of the countries best Open division league.

The Brisbane Premier League. The Moreton Bay Buggers have missed you, and we are back this week.

Flying Ferg

Moreton Bay Bugger hero from way back and second season BPL MBB Tim Ferguson has just won himself a Bronze medal at the World Ultimate Club Championships in Prague, Czech Republic. Check it out at www.wucc2010.com or http://scores.wucc2010.com/?view=teamcard&Team=1164

Tim played for the Masters team Eastern Greys and it sounds like he had a great week. It is great for us to have Tim on the team and i'm sure the enthusiasm and ideas that Tim will bring back from the tournament will be great. Well done Ferg.

There are heaps of great photos from worlds over at http://www.flickr.com/photos/wucc2010/

The Season 2 Moreton Bay Buggers

Season 2 of the BPL is still a month and a draft league away from beginning. Despite this fact and due to my high levels of excitement for the coming competition and for the top blokes I get to play with I'm proud to present the 2010, season 2 Moreton Bay Buggers.

#13 Stuart Austin
#88 Buzz Burwell
#23 Alex Chadwick
#24 Tim Ferguson
#69 Oscar Hernandez
#13 Tim Johnson
#4 Nathan Lindsay
#12 Trevor Lovering
#1 Michael Neild (C)
#20 Graham Prickett (VC)
#77 Manuel Ramirez
#71 Anthony Ross
#15 Simon Statham
#8 Benjamin Worby


There are a few comments I'd like to make about this team.

Firstly a big thank you and best wishes to Spinner, Didems and Fluxy who are departing from the team after the first season this year. These guys have been excellent contributors to our team and we'll miss them.

Spinner and Dids are both off on overseas missions. Spinner to have a holiday adventure and Dids to make a difference in East Timor with some army work - classic hey?
Spinner played 6 seasons with the Bugs and won 3 championships.
Didems played 3 seasons with the Bugs and won 2 championships.
Fluxy is taking a season off and firing up the continued DIV2 dominance of Mellow Yellow.
Fluxy played 2 seasons with the Bugs and won a championship.
Thanks for your efforts boys.

There are 4 additions to the team for next season.

After 2 season away from the BPL Alex 'Chady' Chadwick is back on board for his 11th season in Buggers colours.
As is customary we have at least 1 BPL rookie on the list. Nathan will hopefully be fired up for the big time after a season out at the UQ social league, and a quick crash course in open ultimate in the draft league. I'm sure he'll be a great addition as he treads the well worn path of a first season BPL player on our team. He is roughly the 33rd BPL rookie to start their top level fris with the Buggers.
New to the country but not the art of Frisbee Oscar Hernandez joins the Buggers and brings our Colombian content to 2. Oscar seems to be a fast moving handler - a new concept for Moreton Bay Buggers teams. It will be interesting to see how he fits in to the team.
After years in the wilderness generously bringing his frisbee wisdom to the savages of the BPL Chris 'Buzz' Burwell returns to civilisation on the Buggers team.

The new team looks nicely balanced with a mix of old and young, cutting and throwing, new to the group and well worn bugs. I'm confident that this Moreton Bay Buggers team will be a force to be reconed with in season 2 of the BPL.

I'm eagerly anticipating the announcements of the other teams in the competition as there is often room to move in the off season and 2010 should be no different.

Season 1 2010 - Bugger!

Season 1 2010 has been a great season for many reasons.

I've spoken about some of them here on this blog, and the high level of activity within the BPL blogosphere tells the rest of the story.

Although it pains me to say it one of the exciting aspects of this season is that it does see two 'new' teams in the grand final game. I say 'new' with the with recognition that UQ has been in many finals before just not recently with this team. The historical pattern of Moreton Bay Bugger teams, and to a lesser extent Dojo teams being present in the final game of the season has ended.

After 11 grand final appearances in a row the Buggers are on the side line during the last big week. It means I have to take my boastful, arrogant and completely accurate slogan of "Every season - Every final" off this blog, and much more importantly two exciting teams are going to fight out a final in a fresh new way.

A healthy competition is one which has multiple teams competing for the top spots, and this season there are a lot of different ways the finals series could have shaped up. In the BPL of 2010 it is an achievement to even qualified for the finals series.

The 2010 MBB team has been a great team to be on and the season has been a very enjoyable experience. The season was disrupted with 5 of our players spending some weeks overseas at different times. In the face of personnel changes and the diversity of opposition, we have battled with attempting to redesign the way that we play offense and defense. In a season of league wide close games we have been involved in 3 draws and maybe 2 or 3 other games with 1 point finishes. Hard to credit really.

In the wake of some of our central players - Jason, Jangles, Nick, Nandor and George - leaving the team new players have grown as players. One of Queensland's proud Aussie Thunder representatives Trevor Lovering has had an excellent season for a young man. Andrew 'Diddums' Ogilvie has moved from a rookie type player into a proper BPL weapon who spend the season bailing us out on long and high throws on both O and D. Our newest editions Ryan Flux and Tim Johnson have made great strides in utilizing their natural talents to become important aspects of our team.

This season also had us dusting off some champion Buggers from the past with former MBB nationals team captain Tim Ferguson and long time Bugger servant Tony Ross joining the team. We love have a couple of handlers from the old school on Bug teams and these two blokes fill that label in their own distinct ways.

The rest of us ran around and got the job done with a special mention for Graham 'Special G' Prickett who admirably took the captaincy job for the whole business end of the season.

Season 1 of 2010 has been very enjoyable and very memorable for the Bugs. We are already building for season 2 and feel like this will be another excellent year for the Moreton Bay Buggers

Best of luck to the Cobra and Passion teams for next weeks final. I hope it is high quality, feisty, respectful and a top representation of what has been one of the best BPL seasons so far.

Mike

New kids on the block

As I've been away for the last couple of BPL rounds I don't have much to write about the games. I was however over at the Gold Coast blog and there were some interesting comments which got me ready to write. I was going to write about some aspects of the league at the end of the season however now seems like a good time.

This season has been great for many reasons. I think we are looking at the most competitive and open finals series in a few years, which comes on the back a very competitive season. There have been new blogs, plenty of off field comment and discussion. Crazy tipping, wild swinging results from draws to blow outs to golden point games. Most exciting of all there have been two new teams in the competition.

The Heroes have had a rough season with their results, they have also had some good patches of play and improved as a team. I think they have been a good addition to the competition. Their season would have been a fair bit different with the addition of one more experienced BPL player. They had enough close games that they could have won if an Al type handler had of been playing for them.

The Slamtown team has had more success with results during the season and are hopeful of flying into the semi finals on the back of some wild results and prayers this week. They are a template for BPL teams of the future - specific team association (in their case regional), a large recruiting pool all to themselves, uniforms, history and a team list that is all used and involved when they are playing well. Time in the BPL, increased experience of their rookie players and continued recruiting will continue to improve this team.


In the BPL we have had enough good players for 6 or 7 teams for a few seasons. What we haven't had is 6 or 7 distinct leadership groups.

The Slamtown Flatball and the Heroes clubs have added these required leadership groups to our competition. Prior to the rise of these two leadership groups it was difficult to see a clear path for our competition to grow. If results this season eventuate that these teams finish their rookie seasons in 6th and 7th place I think it is very possible to argue that they have been a success

Given that there are now 6 or 7 distinct leadership groups in the competition I'm hopeful that we can look forward to more highly competitive and exciting seasons in the future. I'd like to think that during the transition between leagues in 2010 there are a few brave individuals (George, Jangles, James and Nandor style) who migrate between teams with the goal of building up these new and exciting teams.

I'm looking forward to watching the business end of this season from afar, and I hope that team leaders and open minded players have a productive off season 'trading period' prior to season 2.

Good luck teams.

Frisbee Flux

Continuing the theme of MBB match reports from
players on the team this week we will hear
from the man in the headband, reigning BPL
champion and second season Bugger Ryan
'Fluxie' Flux.

This weeks game saw the Buggers victorious in a
tight game against the UQ Lovers. The game saw
the team gel a bit more and lift that intensity -
certainly a good sign coming into the back end
of the season.

Prior to the game the importance of controlled
and patient offense had been talked about and
the team certainly listened. The first two points
in particular were great examples of this
combining plenty of smooth safe passes with nice
short cuts to see the disc move steadily up the
field and into the end zone (Ed - Ryan may have
the rose coloured memory cap on for this point
as we turned it over enough for him to get 2
blocks in the endzone). This conservative
offense was a feature for most of the game.
The D too was good - there was a great deal of
variety in the strategy and everyone worked with
great intensity.

The Buggers kept pushing through the first half
to take the lead 8-7 at break. Unfortunately
the second half saw the momentum swing the other
way with the Buggers conceding two quick points.
Regathering from this glitch the team regrouped
and clawed its way back into the game.

The end of the game was a close, nail biting
affair and having the final point called at 13
all was pretty fitting. A nice take in the end
zone saw the Buggers take the game 14-13 -
excellent stuff boys.

fluxie