AOUGC Day 4 Recap
A great day of ultimate for Australian fans. All three of our senior representative teams will be playing in a gold medal match tomorrow. The Dingoes at 10:30 a.m., the Firetails at 12:15 p.m., and the Barramundis at 2:00 p.m. (all times are in PHT, add two hours if you’re on the east coast of Australia).
All games will be live streamed on Ultiworld, and some may also be streamed on YouTube. We’ll let you know!
Mixed
The Mixed Division is a complicated beast.
Despite a sluggish start in pool play, New Zealand’s star studded Manuka found their AOUGC groove at the perfect time—the quarter final. After eliminating the reigning champions (and tournament hosts), the Phillipines, on double game point yesterday (10-9), they faced a strong, zippy Singaporean team in the semi final. This yinging and yanging game was an interesting clash of styles and philosophies, the New Zealanders taking an early lead through brute force and size and fearless throwing. Though Singapore were able to weave their way back into the contest, their run was too little and they left it too late. The ever-prodigious Nicholas Whitlock pulled down a floaty huck on double game point (14-13) to give New Zealand their first shot at gold in the history of this tournament.
On the other side of the bracket, the Mundis played a fresh and athletic Team India. What a game. What an incredible game. A game where too much action was barely enough. Though there was some difficulty pinning down a reliable livestream (for the first few points, fans back home had to make uneducated guesses based on brief and random visual data from the background of the Field 1 steam), India Ultimate’s YouTube channel came through big time. Thanks to the team that shared the game!
The first half had its ups and you better believe it also had its downs. India earned an early break and looked pretty determined to hang onto it, leading 6-5 and looking all together unfazed by the Australian pressure. After a gritty O-line hold for the Mundis, Dennis Tran—a man with some demons to fight in this particular fixture—produced a massive block on some endzone pie, showing the incredible closing speed and seismic vertical leap that once saw him crowned Western Sydney’s Greatest Athlete. After a bit of faff, the Mundis hucked it to a blurry yellow figure who, though taking an excellent grab under pressure, was unfortunately too far away and in too low a resolution to be identified. 7-6. Enter: John McNaughton. In a passable imitation of his world famous “Callahan Creating” pull in 2018, JMac planted the disc in the deep back corner of the field. Smelling blood, Josh Lipari ran, barking (at that’s what it sounded like) up the sideline, leading a charge of screaming Mundis. The noise, the pressure, the baying of the hound, was enough to freak India out and force an execution error in their own endzone. A fuzzy yellow shape threw to another fuzzy yellow shape for the goal, the Mundis took half 8-6.
The conditions in Manila were particularly brutal today. The livestream went down for a while because the phone was too hot to operate. Regular ‘heat breaks’ sucked some of the energy out of the game, and one heat-exhaustion related error had a way of turning into several. The result was some long, arduous, gritty points—a testament to both team’s will to win.
Despite the conditions, our fish thrived out of half. A schmick-as-you-like Copland huck on the first point after the interval gave the Mundis a 9-6 lead and all of the momentum. ‘Benjamin,’ a voice yelled, ‘It’s your favourite number!’ Kaede Yoshida and Simar Dhaliwal worked well in defensive partnership, and the Mundis were able to generate a lot of stifling pressure on the once free-flowing Indian offence. Though India scored two on the trot and threatened to barge back into the game, the Barramundis’ Swing line did a perfect job of steadying the ship. Its fresh, patient point of crisp zone offence seemed to change the energy in the game.
A little later on, the Mundis won a turnover on a scrappy high shot, and within two short passes Michaela Dunmall had unleashed a low hard full-length flick for an insta-break. 11-8. Though falling victim to the odd bout of endzone eyes, the Barramundis O-Line got the disc back every time they turned it for the rest of the game (Chris Stoddard racking up as many as four blocks), holding impressively and crucially to keep Team India at bay. The sound of the hard cap made it a game to 13, the Mundis traded out the rest of the contest to earn a spot in the gold medal match tomorrow.
Mercifully, the fish can hit the ice. They’re playing Manuka (NZ) at 2:00 p.m. PHT tomorrow - this Trans Tasman clash is putting the Oceanic in AOUGC.
Women
Game 1: Australia 15 - Republic of Korea 1
After their first loss of the tournament yesterday to Japan, the Firetails were on a mission to get back to winning ways today. Proving this was the dominant display they put on early in the match, allowing them to streak out into the lead to take half 8-1. Message received, surely.
From a tactical perspective, the Aussies put a big focus defensively on stopping the uplines and inside breaks, traditionally two strengths of Asian ultimate. And with the O line maintaining its composure and staying consistent in their throws, seeing out the game was a fairly routine procedure.
From our sources in the field, we are told that standout moments in this game came from Lyra Meehan who got two huge layout Ds, along with Dani Alexander who got horizontal for her own block, too. Caitlin Grange was also delivering dimes on a silver platter (white plastic disc), unleashing beautiful backhand hucks to make her teammates look good.
Some final comments on this game, the Firetails played against the first Korean women's team. Ever. What a fantastic privilege for the Aussies who have put a big emphasis on, and been celebrating so wonderfully, women’s ultimate here: it seems like a very fitting opportunity for both teams. We are also told that the Korean captain is getting married next week (congrats!!), so there are lots of moments to celebrate here! Well done as well to Angela Pidgeon who was voted MVP and to Ali Lim who was awarded SVP.
Game 2: Australia 15 - Philippines 7
In a lovely showcase of Team Australia comradery, the Firetails were able to start their warm up with an element of added excitement, witnessing the Mundis beat India to qualify for the final on the next field over. “Lots of cheers from the sideline and sweaty hugs all round,” was the comment. But take a second to ponder this: if you were wearing a nice dry kit, how willing would you be to embrace someone who had just played 90 minutes in the dense humidity of Manila?
Maybe because of this adrenaline boost, or more likely because they are a team of unbelievably talented ultimate athletes, the Firetails got out of the blocks quick with multiple breaks to take control of the game. A big outside-in pull, followed by a layout D, and then a score by MVP Kat Smith was cause for great joy on the Aussie sideline. Bookends doesn’t seem like the right term to use to describe this series of events as it was more of a slamming-the-book-shut-in-your-face type of encounter. Maybe instead, this is how people should use the phrase, ‘Living the dream’. Either way, what a point by Kat.
With more of the Manila special being served, heat stoppages did their best to stagnate the Australians’ flow, but the Aussies were not deterred and comfortably took half. With the Filipino women stepping it up after the break to produce a series of clean offensive holds, it looked like a resurgence was coming. But as the Firetails have done so well in this tournament, they remained resolute and walked the game home to defeat the home nation.
The two sides ended their time together with a very friendly spirit circle followed by some dancing at the end. Nice to hear that the girls are finding the play in and amongst the action!
Also, in a wild turn of events, IOU can exclusively report that Firetails physio Eli Waddrop was seen competing in a vertical jump competition - the Australians have been dominating all aspects of this tournament.
OPENS
Game 1: Australia 15 - China 5
Game 2: Australia 13 - Japan 11
We have very little information to forward regarding the Dingoes first game of the day against China. But we don’t think it would be too speculative to say that the O-line likely remained unbroken, and that the D-line were once more on the hunt, prowling for blocks where even the faintest sniff was detected. The end result speaks for itself. The pack is a fierce foe and together they are getting the work done.
*Enter the Japan opens team*
A brief history lesson, the Japan opens team has won the gold medal at every AOUGC since 2007 (which is all of them). Australia started sending representative teams in 2019 where they lost to Japan in the gold medal match. Going into this game, then, many people were calling it the final before the final.
Thanks to an incredibly janky bootleg stream from Rizza that could not be flipped to full screen - meaning you had to watch the game sideways if you were on a laptop or wanted to cast it - that also didn’t have any sound (onya mate, this was actually amazing and the Australian ultimate community who swarmed to watch in droves are very grateful for you setting this up!) we were able to see that it was a tight game the whole time. And realistically, this was everything we expected from two of the world’s best ultimate nations.
The Dingoes broke early in the game after starting on defense, which was a great relief to many of us spectators. The first break in a game like this can break the tension, and be the boost a team needs to reach that next level of play. However, the Japanese side showed no such sign of weakness, and continued to play with bravery and determination. Both teams continued to trade and half was taken 8-7 by the Aussies after some very spicy defensive points.
The Japanese broke Australia out of half to bring it back to 8-8. At 10-10, an uncharacteristic O-line turnover saw the Dingoes desperately defending their endzone to stave off a critical Japanese goal. After forcing a bunch of high pressure unders, Crocs star Sam McGuckin got up big to swat the disc out of the sky. Both teams rode the immense pressure and humidity, fighting for each and every swing of the disc.
Up 12-11, now a game to 13, an elite Dingo D-line stormed down the field to try and force a turn. The Japanese swung and broke inside and swung and broke around with their trademark diligence, working it to about halfway up the field.
But then, from Rizza’s… unique angle, the trained eye could spot a blurry yellow figure in the shape of Kyal Oh lurking predatorily at the back of the stack. He stalked, lunged and hungrily took flight at a fairly innocuous open under, exploding from over the shoulder of an unsuspecting cutter to get a monster block. We are reliably informed by sources on the ground that ‘It’s his bloody pill, mate,’ and you can watch it for yourself on the Philippine Ultiverse instagram story. Oh yeah, and then Alex Ladomatos ripped a hammer to the break side, which Scott Perry had to get low and entirely horizontal to real in. 13-11 Dinoges. An electric way to end.