Flinders Fury

History Of Flinders Univeristy Ultimate Frisbee Club

2007-2008

Considered the 4th Age, or Modern Age of Flinders Ultimate, the Golden Years, The Maturing of FUUFC, the Rise of Social League, etc.
2007 saw some big things happening in Flinders Ultimate. After seeing success in other unis, most notably Uni of Queensland and Uni of Sydney, Alec Deslandes stole the idea of running our own Social League, which he proceeded to set up unassisted. It was an instant success, giving our new recruits a way to start playing utimate straight away with no pressure and a very friendly environment. Alec ran both FUSL I and FUSL II in 2007, both with 4 full teams.
We continued our good form in local leagues, winning the Open League in Autumn (Model Inc vs Adelaide Uni)and following it up with a win in the Mixed League in the Spring (FURY vs Adelaide Uni). These leagues were memorable not only because of our wins but also because of the quality of the opposition we had to defeat to get them. SA Ultimate was getting stronger but we were working hard to stay on top.

Our recruiting, combined with our new social league, generated tons of new players, many of whom are still playing today. We also developed a relationship with the Australian Science and Maths School, a high school for talented students down near sturt campus. Matt Jamieson was running his own league there and many of the players started to play in our social league. Dale Grixti, Jony 'Dreds' Warren-White, Emma Kiel, Sean Lace and Tessa Bilney among many others were all recruited in this year.

With VSU affecting uni games participation we didn't attend a SUG but sent a team to AUG in September. This team was notable because of the absence of many key players and was definitely a lot more social and 'all about the fun' than teams we had sent in the past. Led by Alec Deslandes, this new vibe seemed to be very successful, with the team not only getting very little sleep, but also great results, beating Adelaide Uni and others to finish 12 out of 20 teams.

At the end of 2007 Flinders was once again represented well in the SAFDA Awards, with Alec winning SAFDA MVP amongst other things.

In 2008 the club continued to grow. Joel Pillar took over running the social league for FUSL III and expanded it to 8 teams, including two non-flinders teams and two ASMS teams. The league was once again a success with many good reviews from the players.

Recuitment was strong with more people out. It remains to be seen whether we have picked up another club legend among the pack, but everything seems to be pointing towards another bumper year. Dale Grixti was elected the new president of an 11 member FUUFC Board. With 2008 being a World Championships year, Flinders has more than it's fair share of athletes on Australian Teams, including Joel Pillar on the Open Team, Brett Middleton on the Mixed Team and Sean Lace, Dale Grixti and Robbie Andrew all selected for the Australian Junior Boys team.

2008 also saw the first loss in an Open or Mixed league for Flinders in more than 5 years, but not without positive results. The Open Team, Model Inc, decided to split in half and put two teams into a 6 team premier league, with all the other clubs only submitting one team each. With injuries to several key players, one half sunk to the bottom of the league and finished 5th, while the other team made the final and took Flycatchers to universe point before key player Alec Deslandes had to go off with a broken eye socket and the Flycatchers subsequently scored the winning goal.

2004-2006

Considered to be the 3rd Age of Flinders Ultimate, The Growing Pains, The Rise and Rise of Alec Deslandes, etc.
At the start of 2004 pickup games at Flinders training was still the highest quality frisbee in the state, with the best players in SA attending. 2004 was a break-through year for the club, as we started to assert Flinders Fury’s dominance in the local Adelaide League with a small core of experienced players (often playing savage or 6 vs. 7). The club also upped its development off-field, with the board becoming more active in running the club.

Alec Deslandes was recruited in 2004 and soon became an instrumental figure for the club, working tirelessly behind the scenes to promote and build the club, first as Treasurer / Secretary for 2005/2006 then President for 2006/2007. Joel Pillar was still very active, winning grants worth $9000 for the club and running teams as Club Captain.

Although Flinders Fury did not attend SUG in 2004, we did manage to scramble together a team for AUG. This was definitely the highlight of the year, as half the AUG team drove across the Nullabor for 3 days to get to Perth (and 3 days back again), where we finished 8th but won the Spirit trophy.

Joel Pillar was also selected for the Australian Mixed Team this year, the first South Australian to ever make an Australian Team, and attended the World Championships in Turku, Finland in August 2004.

At the start of 2005, the club lost many of its core players through people finishing studies, going overseas etc. However, an intense recruiting effort at the start of 2005 saw the club profile rise around the uni and a number of new players come out to training. With a large inexperienced squad, Fury won the first league of the year undefeated (a huge effort), and continued with this momentum in the build-up to SUG. With two vans full of Furytes, we made the road trip to Traralgon, and dominated all week to win SUG Gold.

Key players recruited in this early 2005 recruiting drive include club legends Erin Wallis, Alison Clarke, Greg SChrader, Brett Middleton, Natalia Diaz, Alisa Selimovic, Emma White and others. The club also began to use the acronym FUUFC (Flinders University Ultimate Frisbee Club) as the official title with FURY reserved for the name of our premier mixed team.

The second half of 2005 saw a big successful recruitment drive to attract more ladies to the club. Preparations for AUG were fairly intense, as we worked hard to bring a very inexperienced squad (16 players and a water girl, Devon) up to competitive standard. The final AUG result (13th) can be attributed to tactical errors in not paying attention to the draw, but we did win 6 games and lose 4. The squad made a lot progress as Ultimate players, in particular breaking free of the tyrannical rule of Joel and hence making it out to party every night.

Fury capped off 2005 with an undefeated victory for (newly formed institution) Model Inc. in the Open Division of the Spring Chicken League, while Hey Ladies Ltd. came second in the Women’s competition (losing a nail biting final by 1 point). The club took out Club of the Year at the SAFDA awards, and a number of Fury players/volunteers were recognised with individual awards and nominations as well.

In 2006 the club continued to grow and with our 2005 recruits getting stronger and stronger we were getting good results on the field. However this year was not to be marked by our victories so much as the difficulties and losses at major tournaments. We were still winning all the state leagues, including a clean sweep of the Nightclubbers and Socialites league, but were having troubles at interstate tourneys. We attended SUG as number 1 seed but ended up losing the 3rd/4th matchup to Ballarat. The tourney was freezing cold (it was in Ballarat) and tempers were flaring all tourney. Despite our onfield dramas we were really enjoying the tourney and we achieved some great things as can been seen in the now infamous sug_highlights_reel.wmv.

Our recruitment from this year picked up some more Flinders legends, including Sarah Pillar, Robbie Andrew, Sam Ogden and Spencer Harrison.

We spent this year training very intensely, with our sights firmly focused on AUG in September. In early September we played the Australian Mixed Nationals (again in ballarat) and performed well, finishing 8th in the country (our second team finished 19th of 20) and beating the other SA team, the Restless Flycatchers along the way (who went on to play the World Club Championships in November). However the results were marred by an emotional last game where the team imploded.

We continued on towards the Australian University Games, this time in Adelaide, where we had our hearts set on big things on home turf. Things started to go wrong when key player Brett Middleton returned from the World Youth Ultimate Championships (Sarah Pillar also attended) with a broken wrist and couldn't play at all. Alec Deslandes also broke his foot in the weeks leading up to the tourney. From there things only got worse with a loss to longtime rival Adelaide Uni in a key game. We had a club first when we beat Sydney Uni on universe point to keep our finals hopes alive, just needing to get past ANU to progress to the quarters. It wasn't to be, however, with the team again imploding and going down without a fight something like 15-4. We eventually finished the tourney in 10th place. This tournament also saw the first time any university had entered a 'B' into the championships, with our club sending FEISTY, captained by Spencer Harrison.

The end of 2006 saw Flinders once again represented strongly at the SAFDA AWards Night, with many members winning Volunteer Awards, and Joel Pillar winning the very prestigous 'Mike Palmer' award for service to SA Ultimate. We also had our own end of year dinner at the Snake Charmer where we handed out numerous and humerous awards. It was a great night to bring the club together after a difficult year.

2000-2003

Considered the 2nd Age of Flinders Ultimate, or the Time of Almost Silence, the Rise and Rise of Joel Pillar (and the subsequent fall of Mike Palmer), or the Birth of FURY in Orange Shirts.
In the Year of our Lord 2000ad the Club Flinders Ultimate had virtually ceased to exist. Some non-students, led by Mike Palmer and sometimes the only student at the time, Amber Manual had managed to hold onto a lease of the Flinders Playing fields on Monday nights, and ran a pickup session there from 7 till 12 or 1 or whenever it was decided to finish. There was often only 6 players out and most didn't wear shoes. A team was submitted into the 2000 uni games in adelaide that included only 1 student but many other notable non-students, including Rachel and Rebekah Pillar, Robbee and Mike Palmer and others. I have no idea of the results but the fields turned into a mud bowl and the team had heaps of fun, leading to the afore mentioned 4 to encourage Joel Pillar to start playing, which he did in July of 2000.

For the next two years, 2000-2002, not much of note occured and the 'club continued to languish in virtual non-existance. Flinders remained the only place in South Australia where ultimate was played. Some notable players were recruited in this time, including Mike 'Wabbs' Abbott, Mike Leung, Tets Kimura, Roger Cranswick (who had actually played before in India), Bri O'Reilley, Anna Milne, Adam 'Scrumpy' Dannatt and others.

In 2003 Tets Kimura had the idea of starting a new club and sending a team to 2003 Australian Uni Games. He established communication with the Sports association and started the process of forming a new club. In 2003 we attended SUG in Adelaide, finishing 4th after forfeiting the last game to Adelaide through only having 3 players on the field. Joel and Tets, along with the other senior players around Adelaide who were on the current SAFDA board (which Tets also started) decided to start the first State League in many years, calling it the Spring Chicken League. It was held every two weeks on a Sunday. Flinders moved through the rounds undefeated, before facing a strong team called Discheads (now Ultimate Evolution) from the DSTO north of the city. The team went down on universe point. The final is on video on this website. It would be a long time before the Flinders guys lost another league.

At the end of 2003 we went to the Australian University Games in Newcastle, the first time Flinders had attended. The team included newly recruited Michael 'Pebs' Peberdy, all the usual crowd, and american pickup Vanessa Tomlin. Anna Milne also accompanied us as team organiser and photo taker. Prior to the tourney Mike Leung came up with the idea of calling outselves FURY, with various acronyms thats didn't stick and have been long forgotten. Tets also got us the legendary orange FURY tops, courtesy of Chapel Gesture, with the funny asian girl on the front. We inscribed FURY underneath in black texture. The tournament was great fun, with huge losses to the good teams, but also great victories over a lot of other decent teams. The team only had 8 players but we were tightnit and actually quite good. We managed to finish 8th out of 14.

By the end of 2003 and into 2004 Joel Pillar had taken over the sole running of the club and worked very hard to recruit and maintain the club until a board was elected in mid 2004.

1997-2000

Considered the 1st Age, or birth of Flinders Ultimate, the Times of Justin Hardy, Mike Palmer, and Jemery Day, The Dark Ages, The Forgotten Years.
Not much is remembered about this time except vague rumours. Jemery Day had only just brought ultimate to South Australia and Justin Hardy had picked it up and started a club at Flinders University. Together they organised some games between Adelaide Uni and Flinders Uni which could be considered the first league. I have no idea about results or players, but somewhere in the mix Mike Palmer and Amber Manual started playing. By the end of 1999 Justin had moved to Mildura and Jemery had moved to Tasmania and the club was left to its own devices.