Tasmanian Representative Teams

Tasmanian Representative Ultimate Teams

Last Millennium

The Tasmanian Flying Disc Association hosted the Australian Flying Disc Championships on two occasions last millennium, initially in Burnie in 1986 and then three years later in Wynyard, in 1989. There was a Tasmanian Ultimate team which played in the 1989 National Championships at least, with Leigh Bird and Peter Cinquini playing in the team. Little is known about the 1986 National Championships, although it seems likely that there was a Tasmanian team there and that Leigh Bird was involved somehow. However 1989 was probably a watershed year in that it marked a shift in focus with disc golf and individual events on the decline and ultimate on the rise - possibly as a result of the first Australian team which travelled to the World Championships in Leuven, Belgium in 1988. 1989 is thought to have been the last year that a disc golf disc appeared in the player's pack at an Australian National Championships for example, with an ultimate disc being standard issue thereafter.

Peter Cinquini's version of what happened at Nationals in 1989 is now available through the pre-1990 Nationals history link.

Dieter Jones' response to Peter's history (also available at the pre-1990 Nationals history link) suggests that there may have been a Tasmanian team at Nationals in Perth in 1987 and almost certainly in Sydney in 1988.

As documented in the Tasmanian University Ultimate Club: First Year Report for 1992 Malcolm McFarlane and Peter Cinquini went to Nationals in Melbourne in 1993, playing ultimate for the Barely Reefers, a Queensland based team which came 7th out of 9 teams.

This Millennium

The first Tasmanian representative team to travel north of Bass Strait (well at least the first one this millennium and certainly the first since 1988 - see pre-1990 Nationals history for more information) - began training in mid 2001 and attended the 25th National Championships in Melbourne in 2002. Choice Cuts played in the Open division and 4 Tasmanian women formed a joint Tasmanian/Victorian team which played in the Women's division. Since then Tasmanian teams have made regular appearances at Nationals and Mixed Nationals and more recently, since 2005, at Southern Regional Championships as a qualifying tournament for Nationals. More details on particular teams, including photos, can be found by following the links in the following tables. In 2006, the first team from the University of Tasmania travelled to Australian University Championships, qualifying for the Australian University Games at their first attempt.

Results

Nationals

Women's Division

2002 saw the first Tasmanian women travel to the Australian Ultimate Championships. Until 2007, there were not enough women to form a full Tasmanian team, but Tasmanian women either formed joint teams or joined other interstate teams prior to this. In 2009 there was a combined Tasmanian/NSW/WA? women's team at Nationals. Details of this team are somewhat vague!

The first full Tasmanian Women's team to qualify for and attend the Australian Ultimate Championships was formed in 2007.

Open Division

In addition to these Tasmanian Open teams, at Nationals in Perth in 2009 Felix Kennedy, Reed Burgette and Alex de Moor played for a Western Australian based open team Fear which finished 13th out of 14 teams and Felix won the Most Valuable Male Player award at this tournament. At the same tournament, Michael Dunne played for Victorian team Sweet Chilly which finished in 11th place. In 2010, Steve Wright and Tim Stoneman played Nationals for Thunder, the Australian under 19 squad preparing for the World Championships later in the year. Steve and Tim would have been very welcome additions to the Tasmanian Open team Bad Apples but understandably, their loyalty to the Australian team came first.

Mixed Nationals

Southern Australian Ultimate Championships

In 2005, a regional based qualifying tournament was introduced to determine which teams qualified for the open division of the Australian Ultimate Championships. In 2007 a similar qualifying tournament was introduced for the Women's division.

Women's Division

Open Division

University Championships

The first team from the University of Tasmania to attempt to qualify for Australian University Games was formed in 2006. This team needed to finish in the top 6 out of 12 teams to guarantee a place at the Australian University Games.

Southern University Games

The 2006 Southern University Games were held in Ballarat from July 4-6, 2006. In 2007, Southern University Games were not held, and no qualifying tournament was held for Australian University Games in this year.

By finishing in 7th place at the Southern University Games, the University of Tasmania ultimate team were the first reserve team from the southern region for the Australian University Games and with the withdrawal of Swinburne University of Technology, the team qualified for their first Australian University Games at the first attempt.

Australian University Games

World Championships

2006

In 2006, Ashley Button became the first Tasmanian player to represent Australia at a World Championships, being selected to play for the Australian junior open team. This team will represented Australia at the World Junior Ultimate Championships in Boston in, August 2006. As far as we can tell, Ashley is the first Tasmanian resident to be selected to represent Australia at any World Ultimate Championships - although expatriate Tasmanians have been selected to play for Australia in the past.

Ashley Button at the World Junior Ultimate Championships 2006

Ashley Button's report on World Championships 2006

In August 2006 I was on a plane heading to the USA, on track for the World Ultimate Championship. Once arriving we set about getting over the jet lag by going for a run and a throw. Our first matches as a team were against Andover and Amherst. These games were great contest but the team still had more to give, we won against Andover but were just unable to defeat the Amherst boys.

We arrived at world feeling pretty good about how the team was playing. Our first game was against Canada, this game was a hard fought contest with Canada coming out on top. We also came out with one less deep receiver after he had a heavy fall and breaking an ankle. Our next big game was against Great Britain, where a few boys that played last worlds had a contest to win back. This game was hard fought game with great ultimate played by both teams. Australia came out on top and the score settled from last worlds for the returning boys, who had been waiting for the moment for 2 years. The other round robin games were played against Israel, Columbia, Finland, Sweden and USA, were we won all our games apart from the opening game against Canada and the final game against USA.

This set us up for the rematch against Canada for a spot in the final; everyone was pumped up and excited for this game. We came for gold and this was our moment to show the rest of the world what Aussie ultimate is about. This game was a great contest with both teams playing great under the pressure and both teams earning themselves mini breaks but was always won back. In the end the Canadians came out on top in a very hard fought game. Everyone played a great game but were just unlucky to come out on top of this one. After this game we had a warm down and stretch in complete silence. Everyone was feeling down, this was a game that we wanted to win to take us to the big game. Piers and Abra spoke up and gave one of the team a huge boost in confidence to the team but we were still down, but prepared for the 3rd-4th playoff against Colombia.

Ashley Button and Aussie Thunder at the World Junior Ultimate Championships 2006

We arrived next day ready to play for a medal. This was a game against a team that we beat convincingly in the round robin. We came out a bit flat to start the game but picked up as the game when on. We were fighting for every point that we won. The game was sloppy at times with a few silly turnovers near the endzone where players panicked. In the end the Colombians had the legs and ran out winners at double game point. 12 all and a game to 13 this point was long with both teams stumbling at the endzone. The final crushing blow was a down the line half field huck to a running Colombian who took the catch close to the sideling to take 3rd place from Aussie Thunder. This was a very hard fought game that all players involved will never forget.

Aussi Thunder 4th World Junior Ultimate Championships

Ashley Button

Ashley Button at the World Junior Ultimate Championships 2006

2008

In 2008, 5 Tasmanians were selected to play ultimate for Australia at the WFDF World Ultimate and Guts Championships in Vancouver Canada. Ash Martens and Tania King were selected to play for the Firetails, the Australian Women's team who finished 4th overall (OK, so Tania moved back to the mainland before she played at worlds, but she lived in Tasmania when the selection process started!). Eliza Burke-Polden was selected to play for Southern Terra, the Australian Under 19 Women's team, who won spirit and finished second overall. Ashley Button and Michael Dunne were selected to play for Aussie Thunder who finished 6th overall. Congratulations to all these players.

2009

In January 2009, Ash Martens was selected to play for the Crocs, the Australian team going to Kaohsiung, Taiwan for the World Games in July 2009. This team consists of 7 men and 6 women and the tournament only allows the top six ultimate playing countries in the world to participate, so selection to this team is a fantastic achievement. We wish Ash and the team every success come July.