Cork Open 2008!

Only a week to go to the recently voted 'Best Tournament of the Year 2007' and I am excited.

Here's Darrons video to get the memories going!



And an UltiVillage highlight reel for a bit of compare and contrast ;)



Thanks to Darron! See you all in LangerVille...
Marko

Welcome!

After the last two trials Broccoli have taken on 6 new players. We are delighted to add the following to our squad:

Jim Elliott

Steve Kehoe

Sinead O'Shiel Flemming

Jan Schmoldt

Ben Sweeney

Stephen Wyse

Looking forward to playing with you all! :)

Marko

Second Friendly Loss

Sunday last saw two large squads turn out for the second Broccoli vs Chimpo friendly of the season. We trained beforehand, working on a zone given the ridiculpus wind. 6 new trial players came out too and coupled with a decent showing from the current squad we had around 16 present - enough for two lines a few extras.

The game began wih a time out, much to our surprise, but then burst into lif with the first point throwing up a few turns and lots of hard running. the Chimps scored it and then came out in a zone. This was to be a feature of both teams D (or a poachy number) given the windy weather on the day. We traded until 2s maybe then a few unforced errors let JC get away a little. There were tunrs in every point, both from the weather and decent Ds but only one team was converting them. Chimpo took half 9-4.

The second half continued in the same vein with Broccoli unable to get out of a rut of drops and throwing errors. With the Chimps growing in confidence and our heads dropping the scoreboard kept ticking over until it was 17-6.

A disappointing day to say the least but, as friendlies are meant to, it proved we have a lot to work on and with the numbers continuing to be high it showed we have the player pool to do so.

Next stop: Cork Open.
Marko

Bologna 2008

Last weekend saw 14 Broccoli players travel to compete against some of Europe's biggest clubs in the return of the once annual tournament in Bologna. 7 players flew out first thing Friday for a days acclimatisation which involved drinking by 1pm, bottles of Jagermeister for €10, picking up and scaring off Danish and Aussies alike and even a friendly brush with the law. The second 7 players arrived at 3am on Saturday morning following a later flight to Pisa and a 2 and a half hour drive in a Ford Galaxy, hitting 185km/hr en route.

The Bologna TD (Matteo) made the decision to divide the tournaments 14 teams into three peer pools. We were seeded 4th and found ourselves in the daunting 'Gold Pool' with Cota Rica, CUS Bologna and the Swiss team, Freespeed. After a lie-in we faced Bologna on a pitch best described as a thin and long dust bowl. The sun was up and the ground was sandy and hard with little or no space to warm up but we began the game in high spirits. The game started with both teams running hard, finding space and getting Ds. There were turnovers in each point and from bothe sides, but it seemed that Bologna were the team converting them. Despite all our hard running we were making too many small mistakes and soon found ourselves 4 points down, a defeicit we couldn't recover from even though the second half was a much tighter affair. Final score 12-7.

Next up were Freespeed. This time we were playing on a full size pitch, with grass, but at 1pm. It was ridiculously hot. Freespeed are physical, fast and well drilled and made pretty short work of us. While we fought them for every point they had a very strong D, using physical marks and clever poaches and their O was slick with throws going either side of the mark and breaks being converted at speed. Final score 15-7. Our third and final game of the 'Gold pool' was against Cota Rica. Again we started slowly but there was more room on the pitch than in the first two games. We fought back and the game became a proper dogfight. This was the game that got away on Saturday - the scalp we wanted but didn't take. 15-10 to the old lads.

The final game of the Saturday saw a bizarre situation - a recovery gam that saw 4v5 - the exact same game to be played in the quarterfinal the following morning. Flying Bisch were the opponents and we played out a fast, tough game and snuck it 12-11. We had asked if we could play the quarter there and then but Max has politely declined: 'we have more players arriving tomorrow and we know how you Irish will be on a Sunday morning'. Day one over, we collapsed into the gy, for volleyball, a type of wall ball (not the wall ball the WUGC players assured us), and other stuff before getting on the booze. As we got changed etc. Luan noticed he'd been robbed - passport, phone and wallet all gone. The strange thing - it was all taken from his jeans and there were at least 5 other pairs of equally valuable-filled pockets in the same area. Off to the police station with him while the rest of us tucked into pizzas and Morettis :)

Dinner came and went, and music kicked off. Luan came back and in fariness wasnt moany! Then a Beer Race was announced by Davide and 8 teams took part. Team Broccoli was Marko, Super, Luan and Ciaran. The race was simple...in no way whatsoever! It went like this - run 10 metres jumping a small hurdle in the middle, down a beer while cycling on an exercise bike, spin 10 times, run back to the start (dizzy-jumping hurdle en route), pick up hockey stick and dribble/belt a tenis ball through the hurdle to the bike, put on hocky goalie glove and down a beer in it, 10 spins again and dribble the ball back. Tag in your 2nd player and so on until all 4 have gone. We won our heat and then won the final, during which we laid out, commando rolled and cartwheeled the hirdle, by an entire go - Ciaran came in as their 4th man began :) cue a team rendition of Put 'Em Under Pressure. The night calmed from there with most of us asleep by 1am, no really...

Sunday mornings...even without a hangover getting up at 7am to play frisbee is ridiculous. The sun was hardly up, the picthes were wet with dew and there wasnt a team in sight when we got to our pitch 45mins before our quarter final. By the time 8.30 arrived we were warmed up and ready to play, but unfotunately we didnt turn up. Bisch had picked up a fast Skogs player with big throws and clever d. He made a big difference to their offence and on d he was tough to get anywhere against. That said, we got turns, we had a few runs on the scoreboard and we felt 'in the game' right until the finish. Whatever happened we tunred over too easily during the vital middle of the game and a 4 point run for them all but sealed the game. Deflated and frustrated we went down 15-10, even with the support of Cliodhna on the sideline! Next up were Torring, a Danish team of 10 players. We started well and at 4s felt like we'd kick on and run them into the ground. We didnt though and heads dropped, mistakes crept in and the Danes ran amok. 15-5 in the mst abject performance of the weekend. That result meant back to back 7th/8th place playoff against a team in white full of Italians. They weren't as good as us and despite us commanding the opening half 5-1 we crashed to a 9-8 defeat. Gutted, enough said.

7 of us then legged it to Pisa in the best car ever. Ford Galaxys are AMAZING. 7 other stayed on and drank. I heard they had a sing song in a restaurant and nearly missed their flight. Luan had to trek to Milan and had a nightmare, but we'll leave that one for him to tell, or not! Cota Rica beat FreeSpeed in a tight final, MisscoDisco (with Anna from UCD) lost their final and Freespeed beat us into second place to win Spirit. A fun weekend, and definitely a tournament we'll play again.

MVP -Darragh & Oisin
MSP - Padraig

The squad:
Marko, Oisin, Paul, Dave, Tim, Langer, Luan, Pete, JD, Ciaran, Super, Darragh, Darron and Padraig.

Marko

IFDA Weekend a big success!

Last weekend saw the annual IFDA Weekender made up of the AGM, the Slab O' Beer and the Awards Ball. The AGM went well, from what I remember, with the following group being voted in:

President: Dominick Smyth
Secretary: David Perry
Treasurer: Seamus Kinsella

Members at Large:
Heather Barry
Roger Beatty
Matt Di Franco
Pete Forde
Sam Mehigan
Sinead O'Shiel-Flemming

Good luck to them in the coming year! The next day people went to the Slab of Beer in St. Annes Park in Raheny and a great day was had by all (except Keith who's knee imploded). The winning team was Team Green, captained by Sinead and featuring quite a few familiar faces!

Team Green:
Heather Barry, Alan Breathnach, Darron Costello, Fintan Darcy, Mark Canning, Daragh Gleeson, Cormac Glynn, Rory Kavanagh (MVP), Stephen Mahon, Sinéad O'Shiel Flemming (c)

Finally, last but not least was the Awards Ball. Organised by our own Paul Cronin, this years ball was an absolute riot. The venue, the food, even Pete's music - it was a great night that will be well remembered (in parts), mainly for Nialls shoes, Super getting lucky and the free wine!

Broccoli's players took home two awards. A massive congrats to:

David Misstear: Most Spirited Player of the Year (Male)
Niall Harbourne: Player of the Year (Male)

For more: http://www.irishultimate.com/players/hall_of_fame.php

Well done lads!
Marko

Photos are courtesy of Paul and more can be found here: http://picasaweb.google.com/paulcronin86

Who could refuse??

Brocs in Black Tie!

First friendly ends in defeat

Two weeks ago Broccoli took on Johnny Chimpo in our first full length friendly of the year. It was a sunny, crisp morning and the turnbout was impressive with 12 Greens facing off against 16 Oranges. We agreed on a game to 17, with timeouts, and even a scorekeeper! Chimpo won the flip, came out on D and converted the fist turn of the game. They repeated this feat in the second point taking advantage of a lacklustre start by Broccoli. Slowly our offence began to work and we notched a few scores, while on D we tried to mix it up a little. Our intensity lifted and soon there was only a point between the teams but with Chimpo up a break we needed to crack their smooth offence. We couldnt and they took the point before half to lead by 2, 9-7.

The second half saw us tire, handing over possession through a variety of poor choices, unlucky mistakes and some good pressure from the opposition. Concentration fell and soon we found ourselves with a mountain to climb. We fought until the last point but couldn't prevent Chinpo winning 17-9. The score was one-sided in the end and I'm not sure if it reflcts the performance of some of the greens. Darragh was excellent on his debut and Super had a hand in most of the scores, be it as a thrower or receiver. We tried a lot of new things, that with practice will become second nature. Also, it told that we havent played much together but with training, fitness and Bologna all close on the horizon this rustiness is short-term.

Next Chimpo friendly: October 19th, 1pm (Venue TBC)
Marko

Two of the new lads battling it out

Blonde and Super

Broccoli is Recruiting

As the new season gets under way with friendlies, the Uni season and with Cork Open under a month away there has been the usual flurry of squad building and player recruitment. Broccoli is one of a number of Dublin clubs always on the look out for new/old, experienced/inexperienced talent.

We have a young, strong and spirited squad of players looking to build on last season. The club has a number of goals for the season ahead including competing at both domestic and foreign tournaments, building towards the summer (with EUCC and WUCC on the distant horizon) and has organised a schedule of training, fitness, competitive matches and more to achieve said goals. We are looking for players who are enthusiastic, committed, and can play as part of a team.

Anybody who is interested please email by Saturday with the following details:

Name:
Current Club/Team:
Experience:
Prefered playing position:
Email:
Phone Number:

We will be training on Sunday (Oct 5th) and those who get back to me are more than welcome to attend. The squad for the season will be finalised within the next month.

Thanks for reading, see you all soon.
Marko