There were many highlights throughout the week but my most memorable was the UWA game against Monash on the second day.  Now I know I’m biased as I play for UWA but it was probably one of the best advertisements for ultimate you would ever see.  I have tried over and over to write my own version of the game but through a week of drinking there are many holes in my memory so I’ll set the scene then I’ll steal a quote from Owen Shephard of AFDA.com.

It was day two of the games and after having two pretty pathetic games on Monday the UWA freshers were excited to get a taste of what Unigames is really about.  So there we were 8.30am game against the hot favourites University of Sydney, after a promising start the UWA team was overcome by the immense depth USyd possessed and lost in a disappointing  fashion.  We had another lopsided game after that and went into the game against Monash just saying it doesn’t matter if we win or lose we can still make quarter finals if we win tomorrow.  We came out on defence first and got the first break of the game (which became the norm for the team throughout the week), we proceeded to dominate the game and here is where I hand over to silver tongued Owen.

“UWA jumped to a 4-1 lead with a very cohesive zone, particularly with Twiggy roaming at the back, and pressuring Monash into mistakes. Monash clawed back to trail 8-6 at half with some hard fought D. UWA pushed on with the zone, coming out strong in the second half to lead 13-8. Their offensive spacing was excellent, a trademark of most WA teams (well, it is a large and spacious state out west). This allowed easy isolations, and space to run long on to hucks.

Monash settled their offence a bit, turning occassionally, but able to get the disc back on D with a forehand force. Monash scored. And again. And again. Time cap at 13-11. Both teams had run low on timeouts. Game to 14. Hard fought points ensued. Yet another goal to Monash. And another. 13 all, next point wins. Crikey! UWA turn it, but Monash turf the following pass into the ground, outside their endzone. UWA set up a play, stall count rises, and a turn! Monash move up the field, Andrew Moroney takes off from the weak side for a Seb Barr huck, and catches the disc centimetres above a female UWA defender. Game to Monash, and emotional collapse from all involved.”

As devastating as it was to be on the losing end of a game like that, it reminds me why I love to play this game, and it brought the team together as many of the inexperienced players on our team realised that we could take it to any team at the tournament.
After the reclassification pool we came out on the wrong end of a three way tie and had to play Sydney again in our quarter final.  Which after a valiant effort we ended up going down in.

Unfortunately due to the very hectic game schedule I was unable to watch any ECU and Murdoch games but judging by the results can assume they both performed extremely well, especially ECU who demolished their seeding (18th) to finish 12th.  Murdoch also handed in their best performance ever with an 11th place finish.

The final placing saw Flinders University finish first defeating Usyd in the final.  La trobe University took out the spirit with an impressive average spirit of 9.47.

WA also cleaned up in the individual awards with Jason Carr winning the inaugural Martin Laird award which is voted on by the captains of each team and recognises an up and coming player who has shown great potential on field and helped in the administration of the club.  Jason is an extremely worthy recipient of this award as he has worked tirelessly behind the scenes in getting the UWA team to the games.  James Eley and Kendall Thorn were also selected in the Green and Gold team for the games.  Green and Gold selection is based on a player’s performance over the entire week and is judged as being the team that would be selected if there was an Australian University team.

Overall it was a very successful AUG’s for WA which is in no small way thanks to everyone in the ultimate community for helping us all.  If it was by coming to our fundraisers, playing us in league or at phoenix we thank you all for the opportunity to hone our skills and show what we have on the big stage.

Kendall 'Twig' Thorn