Other Australian Gridiron Leagues

[Falcon33]

Your season starts in 16 days??

We don't even start pre-season till June here. Our season goes from October through February.

 

[Buckets007]

Yep Gridiron Victoria play through winter

 

[Big Red Machine]

Yep Gridiron Victoria play through winter

Queensland too right?

 

[Buckets007]

I'm not sure about other states. I thought that GV were the only ones

 

[handy point]

From memory, ACT did when I played in that comp.

 

[Woodson]

Yep Gridiron Victoria play through winter

Smarter move as the heat can really get to everyone during the Spring, let along the Bowl in early December.

I recall officiating those mudfests in the winter months... recall a scoreless game back in the day which was a real CRUNCHFEST on the goal-line for both teams.. so close yet Stuffed on 4th & INCHES on several occassions.

 

[Big Red Machine]

Didn't have a chance to ask Queensland, Was kind of awkward.

Speaking of Goal Line stands...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEFcPmIJ3_A&feature=player_embedded

 

[mcgarnacle]

I just wanted to come back and address this - I have thought about it and I'm still on the fence about weather or not I want to, I think I'm going to see how I pull up after the Juniors season is over and then again It was suggested to me that I take the 2011 season off and come back next year after I've had some time to workout and get physically prepared for it - As soft as that sounds.

the only problem with that is that being away from the game for a year or longer and you might just not come back and be lost to the Mustangs, and the game, forever.

I'm sure the senior coaching staff will ease you in (at least they should). If you do intend on taking the year off, make sure you do the work. Even if you dont want to play, just ask if you can go down to senior practice and take part and continue to develop your game.

I kept meaning to come back to BF and give you guys an update but I've had at least 4 Football related activities a week (and been learning to play a new position) and my net time has been limited because of that.

We shutout the Titans 28-0 in a game that started raining 5mins after I turned up and didn't let up until just after we finished packing up - Was truly one of the greatest few hours of my life but that may because while pass blocking a DE I saw the Linebacker coming on a blitz over his outside shoulder and pancaked the hell out of him (I don't get many moments to brag about while playing on the line, So I'm making the most of this one )

As a consequence to playing our epic rain game our field was closed on us for the following Saturday so we made the trip up to UWS Kingswood for a Friday Night Lights game (And as a major fan of the show I was super excited for) against the Trojans which we lost 26-24 (or maybe 28-26, I'm not sure) I'd like to put it down to a perfect storm of having our practice field closed on Monday during the floods and the unexpected news that we had to go and travel to Sydney in 2 days time and play on turf (Which most of the team had never played on before) and our defence getting burnt on the last play of the first half for 6 and never recovering - But in reality the Trojans were just a better team on the day and we have to learn from that, They are a much better than than they're record suggests.

Tomorrow we take on Bondi, They beat Sydney Uni last week to sit alone at the top at 5-0 and it's easily our toughest game of the year - But I think our wake up call thanks to Trojans is what's going to light a fire under our asses to get us all the way to the Title.

I've been on the lookout for more pictures and videos to share and I'm noticing a fair few cameras out there but damn it if I can only find a few - Although there would be close to 0 if it weren't for facebook.

So a few pics from the Titans game and a video from the Trojans game.

http://a5.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hpho...0141257554393_635494392_6310630_6414274_n.jpg
http://a3.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hpho...0141257674393_635494392_6310631_7078012_n.jpg
http://a1.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hpho...0141257789393_635494392_6310632_3047757_n.jpg
http://a7.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hpho...0141257914393_635494392_6310633_2017676_n.jpg
http://a6.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hpho...0141258019393_635494392_6310634_2421679_n.jpg
http://a2.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hpho...0141258084393_635494392_6310636_3924516_n.jpg
http://a1.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hpho...0141258184393_635494392_6310639_2036963_n.jpg
http://a4.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hpho...0141258274393_635494392_6310640_1718326_n.jpg
http://a3.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hpho...0141260694393_635494392_6310644_1424439_n.jpg
http://a2.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hpho...0141261129393_635494392_6310648_7912616_n.jpg
http://a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hpho...0141261229393_635494392_6310649_1245108_n.jpg
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1650304174259

Hope you guys are enjoying my updates on the season, This stuff has to be more entertaining than the lockout right?

your enthusiasm is great. i can see from the results that you guys have had some close matches. bodes well for the seniors if most of you can continue onto Div 1.

 

[Big Red Machine]

the only problem with that is that being away from the game for a year or longer and you might just not come back and be lost to the Mustangs, and the game, forever.

I'm sure the senior coaching staff will ease you in (at least they should). If you do intend on taking the year off, make sure you do the work. Even if you dont want to play, just ask if you can go down to senior practice and take part and continue to develop your game.

I get what your saying here, I do - But it's just not viable for me to be playing Seniors this year from a physical or a studies standpoint and when it comes to Sports there is nothing more that I'd rather do than to be involved with the Wollongong organisation in some shape or form.

But I'm taking that second paragraph under advisement, You can count on that.

Got to finish this season first, One game at a time.

your enthusiasm is great. i can see from the results that you guys have had some close matches. bodes well for the seniors if most of you can continue onto Div 1.

Thank you, We are still a pretty young team so I think that we will have a steady stream of Brumbies going on to become Mustangs year after year.

So going back to the Bondi game I eluded to in one of my previous posts...

We got blown out on the scoreboard but it was much closer than the 44-20 score line shows, We scored first and it was a one touchdown game at half time and then we let in a Special Teams return TD and a few big plays by them later and it was looking pretty bad for us but considering that Bondi is currently 8-0 and beaten everyone in their path it's not that bad.

I don't have a game report from the Central Coast game in Sydney (The annual "Meet Halfway" game between us and the Sharks) because I got struck down with the flu on the Thursday and wasn't really right until later the next week due to the nasty fatigue that comes with that.

But from what I hear we got 30 yards out down 32-28 and one of the corners for Central Coast made an awesome play to get the pick and ice the game.

The week after that we played Predators at home in a must win to stay in Playoff contention and we did just that winning 38-24 in a game that was played on a fairly greasy field with some players on both sides of the ball having trouble with their footing, I know I had some problems slipping while trying to get past the Preds O-Line.

Day after that game I took off with 3 other Brumbies players (There was another one of us that got selected but he had to have emergency Appendix surgery sometime on Saturday night I believe) to Narrabeen to take part in the Junior Nationals Tournament as part of the NSW team (Would have mentioned this before but I didn't want to make a big deal out of it) Was one of the most brutal weeks of my life but was also one of the best weeks of my life.

Played a fair amount of game time against South Australia in our 42-12 win, No stats to speak of but I put some bigtime pressure on their QB and the way I saw it I forced him to throw an INT as I chased him out of the pocket.

Lost 21-20 to Queensland (I know, I know) and I really don't want to talk about this game much, It was for sure a wake up call for us.

Then we get into the National Championship game against a WA team that put on a combined 72-24 for and against Record against Queensland and Victoria and the team that absolutely everyone thought was going to destroy us.

That quickly changed on the opening kick-off when our Kicker Returner took it all the way for 6; running through a Mack truck sized seem created by our kick return blockers (Full disclosure, I was one of those blockers )

And the game took off from there with the score being 26-6 at half time in favour of the Wolverines.

But full credit to the Raiders, They fought back something fierce and with both teams putting on something like 50+ combined points in the 4th Quarter we find the score 50-42 in favour of New South Wales after a score inside the two minute warning with the scores locked at 42.

With a good kick return by them and less than 30 ticks left on the clock, WA drive to the 1 yard line or so with 2 seconds left in the game and you would believe it was a movie because they score on that play and need to score the two point conversion to force overtime.

If you've seen the video I posted above then you know what happens, We stuff the run for 2 points and the field floods with Players and Coaches and everyone just goes nuts.

It was by far the most exciting game of football I've ever seen never mind playing in it. It was a movie style finish with a video game score line.

But enough of that, Tomorrow Wollongong takes on Sydney Uni and a win for us get's us an spot in the play-offs which I don't think a team from Wollongong has ever done in Seniors or Juniors.

But we could be in even before we play the game depending on the results from tonight's games in Sydney.

Looking forward to putting the hurt on Uni (Sorry, mcgarnacle)

I'll try and check in after the game and hope you read through all of this.

Photo Dump: http://snapshot.com.au/lightbox/index.php?category=gallery/gridiron/jrnat11&start=0

 

[Wizard]

For those interested i have an Australian representative that comes into my work everyday and plays MLB for the Bay City Buccaneers.
He has informed me this Saturday at 10.30am Ben Graham will be down at Corio to toss the coin for their season opener. HS and Geelong Addy will be there to capture the occasion.

Anyone else going let me know and i'll catch ya for a beer before heading to the MCG for the Dockers big game.

 

[camsmith]

Gee thats tempting if it wasn't so far away.

 

[Buckets007]

I'll be there but I'll be playing as corner for the Buccs

It's set up for a great day!

 

[camsmith]

I'll be there but I'll be playing as corner for the Buccs

It's set up for a great day!

Sweet I usually get to a few games so will look out for you

I used to play WR and corner in juniors.. much preferred corner because you had to be focused every play, WR would have been good in a team that didn't run so damn much (maybe because the receivers were lousy!).

Looking forward to the season. If anyone here gets along to games at Croydon or Berwick let me know, have a beer or three.

 

[Buckets007]

Sweet I usually get to a few games so will look out for you

I used to play WR and corner in juniors.. much preferred corner because you had to be focused every play, WR would have been good in a team that didn't run so damn much (maybe because the receivers were lousy!).

Looking forward to the season. If anyone here gets along to games at Croydon or Berwick let me know, have a beer or three.

Yeah I was WR last year, I was on the bench a lot as a rookie and the first string was 'less 'lousy' haha definitely better if they didn't run so much lol

I remember our 1st WR missed a game so I actually played along with another rookie and the corner by the end of game was lining up basically on the LOS and blitzing the QB cos it wasn't being thrown

 

[Big Red Machine]

Alright so I'm back and things have really gone well for the team since my last update before our final regular season game against Sydney Uni.

We won that one 38-30 in a game that I thought wasn't as close as the score suggested but it just shows that if you give Uni an inch they will make you pay for it.

This win moved us into the 4th seed going into the 6 team playoffs and we played Penrith City (Whom we previously defeated 28-16) and while I couldn't make the trip to Sydney with an injury, I heard the game was a defencive showdown with Wollongong shutting out the Chiefs offence with the only points for Penrith coming from Wollongong fumbling on a kick return and Penrith taking it to the house, Final score ended up being 20-6.

In the other game Sydney Uni beat UTS Spartans 36-6

This set up the following Semi final match ups: Sydney Uni vs Central Coast and Wollongong vs Bondi

the Wollongong/Bondi took place on Friday and Wollongong struck first almost taking the opening kickoff to the house with Bondi's last man in defence being able to make a fantastic ankle tap style tackle to deny the Brumbies, However this led to a quick Wollongong TD to start the scoring off at 8-0 but that high powered Bondi offence (Averaging almost 37 points a game this year) responded to level the scores at 8 and after the Brumbies scored once again they responded to have the scores locked again at 14 - This is were the game changed, Wollongong scored again but missed the 2pt Conversion to have the score sit at 22-14 but with less than a minute left in the half Bondi drives down to the goal-line only to be stopped cold by the ferocious Brumbies defence (Including a play were the Bondi QB got picked up and driven by a Brumbies linebacker on a QB sneak play) and a few plays later and the half was over.

But after a speech about complacency at half time and our defence came out and played amazingly shutting down the Bondi offence and unfortunately injured the Bondi Quarterback's ankle in a tackle that some say looked like LT's tackle on Joe Theismann (Thankfully it wasn't as bad) - Bondi still played up to their undefeated reputation. Letting in zero points for the rest of the game and giving Wollongong one hell of a scare but they fell short by 8 points in a scoreless second half as Wollongong progressed to the final 22-14.

In the other game that was played Yesterday, Sydney Uni and Central Coast both scored 4 touchdowns but it was the conversions that made all the difference as the Sharks converted 4 out of 4 - 2pt Conversions to the Cubs' 1 out of 4 to progress them to an all regional final.

My Wollongong Brumbies will face the Central Coast Sharks this Friday 20th May taking place at Kyeemagh Reserve, Mutch Ave Kyeemagh @ 8:30pm for the Gridiron New South Wales Junior State Championship.

In the only other match between the two teams this year Central Coast won 32-28 but as seen in the Wollongong/Bondi game the regular season means sqat at this point and it should be one hell of a game.

Tomorrow kicks off the most nerve racking 5 days of my life, I hope I have all of BigFooty's NFL forum behind me.

It's been a blast updating you guys on the league as it's progressed this year and I hope that I can cap this story off with a State Championship, Thanks for reading and replying guys.

 

[Exe Gesis]

Get someone to video it, then upload highlights to youtube, please?

 

[Big Red Machine]

I'm fairly sure I can get my hands on some highlights from the semi final game.

And yeah, There should be a camera or two there, I'll get my hands on what I can.

 

[Exe Gesis]

Thanks, because I and im sure many are very interested, but might not be able or cannot attend.

Plus, good to increase exposure on here.

 

[trueblue_91]

Hey guys,

i am a bit ignorant when it comes to gridiron in Australia.

I was wondering if anyone knew where i could find flag football leagues in Melbourne?

Cheers

 

[Exe Gesis]

www.gridironvictoria.com.au/

there should be some contacts, email, phone, links to a team close to you and they should offer flag as well as contact gridiron.

 

[trueblue_91]

thanks mate

 

[neddy36]

Good luck Slogger. I am actually good mates with the SA Junior Head Coaches, so it was good to hear that game from the enemy perspective. haha

 

[Big Red Machine]

Good luck Slogger. I am actually good mates with the SA Junior Head Coaches, so it was good to hear that game from the enemy perspective. haha

Your guys have a good team it's just still in the infancy stages compared to teams like NSW and WA, It was unfortunate that you guys lost to ACT but SA had played 2 games during the week.

so onto last nights State Championship final.

Wollongong stuck first to go up 8-0, Central Coast responded but missed the 2 pointer to make the score 8-6 in a defensive slugfest.

After the half the scores stayed the same until late into the Second half when Central Coast scored and added what can only be a miracle broken play 2 point conversion, to have the score at 14-8.

After some more great defence by both teams the Brumbies drive up the field with a QB run out of bounds and then finally with about 14 seconds to go this happened - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0X2pXPbUjtc

and the 2pt Conversion failed to lock the scores at 14 and to send the Final into Overtime and using NCAA OT Rules both teams failed to score on their first possession which resulted in this on the Brumbies second possession - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rEBN92Tql_c

Then the 2pt conversion failed which meant that of course if Central Coast could score and get the 2pt would result in a win for them where a miss would result in a third OT period.

Thankfully that wasn't the case as an incomplete/interception (I don't think we ever found out what happened on the last play in all the confusion) on 4th down resulted in the Brumbies winning 20-14 in Double Overtime.

So Wollongong wins their first ever State Championship!

and for me I do the double of winning both the State and National championships in the same season

I really have no other words to say anymore, I'm just going to let the following videos and photo's say it for me, Thanks for following this story for the last however many months Big Footy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CCQo0IWQ18
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_627YqS3Q90
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9XYo53Xo_0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jsHizwjgTw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lud9SfZLaos

http://a2.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hpho...90190369243_1075993815_31956059_2341444_n.jpg
http://a3.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hpho...90191009259_1075993815_31956062_1030205_n.jpg
http://a2.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hpho...90193609324_1075993815_31956071_4589525_n.jpg
http://a7.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hpho...90195009359_1075993815_31956081_1139309_n.jpg
http://a5.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/249550_1890195369368_1075993815_31956082_120987_n.jpg

 

[Exe Gesis]

I loved "Ryan's massive play".
It was very Ray Lewis-like (see last post of youtube thread).
He read it, tippy-toed the snap, and busted the play.

 

[Big Red Machine]

Yup, Dude is a run stopping machine.

This was a fairly important play for us. We needed to stop them, then and there or it was game over man, game over.

It swung the momentum our way and it snowballed on from there,