Player Profile - Alan Fitzpatrick

Name: Alan Fitzpatrick
Age: 19
Years Playing: 4
College Team: UCD
Club Team: Ranelagh
What are you most looking forward to in the upcoming campaign: Being in the best shape of my life. Watching the team develop and exceeding everyone's expectations of us. Running my legs off while wearing the green jersey.
Anyone you're particularly looking to play alongside: Always good playing with Hogi and Ferguson, they make me look good. Also looking forward to playing with people I've never played with before. We're going to be awesome.
Personal Paragraph: Here is my favorite joke. It's long but well worth reading to the end:

So back when I was growing up on the mean streets of West Philadelphia I ask this really cute girl to go to prom with me, she says yes. The day of the prom, I go to a tailor to get a new suit- there was a long line. Next, I went to a limo service to rent a limo- there was an even longer line there. Next, I went to a flower shop to get the girl a batch of roses before picking her up- there was AN EVEN LONGER LINE there.
I pick her up and we go to the prom, there is a line to the entrance that soon resides. We go to the photo shoot to get a photo together, there is a line there too. We get hungry and decide to get food, there is a line there as well. We get thirsty, there is no punchline.

Player Profile - Emer Staunton

Name: Emer Staunton

Age: 22

Years Playing: 3

College Team: UCD

Club Team: Jabba the Huck

What are you most looking forward to in the upcoming campaign: Looking forward to playing with and against some of the best players in the world in this division. Even though there are a good few players on the team who I've played with before, it's great to get a chance to play on the same team as players I'd normally call opponents. Frenchy's coaching is incredible, and I can't wait to see how much everyone is going to improve during the season. Also, O-LINE. :D

Anyone you're particularly looking to play alongside: I'm excited to be playing with a lot of people... I love the fact that Brian always catches any kind of crappy dump passes I throw at or away from him. :P I also owe Keith a clean jersey or two for some great recovery catches, but that can be said of everybody on the O-line so far. As for D-line, I've only been able to admire the players from the sideline so far, but I've played with a lot of the guys before, and I must say I'm disappointed that I might not get to be on the same line as them this summer, but delighted we'll all be wearing green!

Personal Paragraph: Watch this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGeKSiCQkPw

Player Profile - Conor Hogan

Name: Conor "Hogi" Hogan
Age: 21
Years Playing: 4 (roughly 5 come next July)
College Team: UCD
Club Team: Ranelagh & Derezzed
What are you most looking forward to in the upcoming campaign: Playing in a new division with a team of old and new teammates. And Windmill Windup
Anyone you're particularly looking to play alongside: Fergie and Niall out of the lads
Caoimhe and Leanne out of the lasses.
Personal Paragraph: Although my home college is UCD where I study Commerce and German this year I'm studying at the Katholische Universität Eichstätt-Ingolstadt in Germany. This will be the 7th Irish setup that I've been involved in but it will be my first time as part of a Mixed team. My favorite colour is orange...

Player Profile - Oisín Murphy

Name: Oisín Murphy

Age: 21

Years Playing: 3

College Team: UCC

Club Team: Juice

What are you most looking forward to in the upcoming campaign:  Playing with the people who I've been competing against at the top level for the past three years. A lot of guys and girls on this team who I'd always admired, and wished had been playing with me rather than against!

Anyone you're particularly looking to play alongside: Everyone, really. We're all on this team for a reason; and everyone has great skill and potential. Admittedly, it will be nice not having to battle with the likes of Keith and Liam for once!

Personal Paragraph: "Just a heads-up to anybody on the team that doesn't know already; but I do have the tendency to sleep at pretty much any given opportunity. So don't be surprised if I go missing for a few hours during tournaments; I'm probably just snoozing. But I am great craic, I swear! I tell awesome jokes. Like, what's blue and can't sing? Blue."

Player Profile - Caitlin Looney

Name: Caitlin Looney

Age: 18

Years Playing: 2

College Team: Does Colaiste Choilm count?

Club Team: Rebel Ultimate

What are you most looking forward to in the upcoming campaign: Improving all as a player and getting the opportunity to play with such an extremely talented group of players (on and off the pitch judging by Ross's ability to put this blog and page together in just a few hours!). 

Anyone you're particularly looking to play alongside: "His name is Alan Fitzpatrick'. No, not in particular. Everyone has something different to bring so I'm looking forward to playing with everyone!"

Personal Paragraph: I also play camogie and football. I love listening to Florence and the Machine :)

Player Profile - Keith Mernagh

Name: Keith Mernagh

Age: 21

Years Playing: 3

College Team: ITT

Club Team: Jabba The Huck

What are you most looking forward to in the upcoming campaign: The Intensity and of course.........Beating GB!!!! It's Happening lads.

Anyone you're particularly looking to play alongside:Brian "Hucking" Henderson

Personal Paragraph: "Been playing ultimate for about 3 years now and I have loved every second of it, even the bad times. Can't think of a better team to play with. We're all sexy bastards and bitches that are going to kill in Canada.........Oh and i love long walks on the beach and a cuddle ;)

Favorite Drink: Heineken ( So don't be afraid to buy me one girls ;) )

Training Weekend 2

Day 1

Our second training weekend took place in St Anne's Park, Dublin. Again the Saturday training started at 12 with the Cork members of the team this time having to make the journey. Hogi was also present for the training having flown in from Germany. As Dave had suggested our players turned up for this training decked out in their greens and whites (at least for the most part) and after a some throwing and conversation we started to warm-up.  Fiona and Buggy were introduced to the team to help Ian with the coaching, Fiona would be helping with the D-line and Buggy with the O. Fiona also brought with her a new type of yoga based muscle activation exercise which I can see myself struggling with for quite some time (although I'm sure I'm not alone on this one). After the warm up we were broken up into O and D lines. The O-line went through our 3-4 offence again to refresh and then entered into a dump and swing drill followed by a dump drill. I'm unsure what exactly the d-line did, but there seemed to be a lot of jumping around and shouting. We then had a quick break before getting back into things.

After lunch we were split into guys and girls, Fiona ran a layout clinic for the ladies while the lads practiced chasing down a big huck on D after a turnover. Finally the day was finished off with a game, O-line versus D-line. The D-line came out real strong in this game and it took the O-line quite a while to adapt to the front defense. The girls new layout skillz didn't take long to make an appearance, with Caoimhe, Sarah and Caitlin all making some great bids for the disc. 

Caoimhe had just celebrated her 21st birthday the week previous and was kind enough to invite the team over for dinner. A tasty meal was enjoyed by all and games of articulate and mafia provided plenty of lolz.

Day 2

A heavy night of rain meant we were greeted by some slightly marshy pitches early Sunday morning, apart from this though it was a pretty good day. Again we started the day with more yoga and a warm up before again being split into O and D lines. O-line worked on end zone offence as well as our stack offence.  D-Line did something else (I'll get someone from D-line to help out on the next report). After that we broke for lunch and said farewell to Hogi who needed to catch his flight back to Germany.

After lunch we got warm again and were then split according to gender. The lads were to jump from standing and try touch the crossbar of the rugby goals and the girls used a GAA crossbar. Then we were allowed a run up. I couldn't do either. I didn't like this drill.

After this we were split into handlers and cutters. The cutters did a deep receive drill demonstrating the difficulty of cutting in the same third of the pitch.

Again the day ended with a match. O-line boosted on the Sunday by Brian came out much calmer than the day before taking the first 4 points. But D-line came back fighting hard getting some great blocks and slotting home their own goals. 

Another hard but enjoyable weekend, the squad is getting stronger and fitter and I'm excited to get back training in the new year.

Training Weekend 1

Day 1

Just two weeks after the announcement of the team, our first training weekend was upon us. The team all made their way down to Cork early Saturday morning for a 12pm start. Our coach Ian French gave us a quick welcome and we wasted no time getting warmed up in straight into practice. We covered quite a lot of end zone plays over the day and spent a good while focusing on improving a specific throw we each were having trouble with. The training ended with a game among ourselves which really did have an excellent standard and the newly formed o-line took little time to blend together.

We had a team meeting that evening in Caitlin's house we drank tea and talked about our goals for the season. We also concluded that it was not athleticism or amazing throws that characterize the best ultimate player. But rather a player's financial stability...

I'm fairly sure everyone had a fairly tame Saturday night, except for Oisín who arrived home the next morning looking far too fresh and rested for a man who stayed out all night.

Day 2

We were greeted by a much calmer day on the Sunday and also a much earlier start. Boots were on at 10:30am and we were ready to go. That morning we practiced some defense drills as well as our 3-4 offence before having a match among ourselves just before lunch.

We had arranged to play UCC mixed that afternoon so we made our way over to the farm where the final of the beginner blitz was just finishing up. We warmed up again and ran through what I considered to be the most successful deep receive drill I had ever taken part in. We started the game on O and Brian opened the scoring with a big huck to Keith for the score. But it was the D-line who were to be the real stars of this show who during the midst of the game bagged us about 7 scores on the trot. We now had a considerable advantage and although O-line were a bit sluggish to close out the game we won by 2 points. All in all a great weekend and really set a good tone for the season ahead.

Team Announcement

The NSB is pleased to announce that the U23 Mixed team has been finalised. The players picked to represent Ireland in Toronto next year are contained in the comments below.

Players:

• Alan Fitzpatrick (UCD, Ranelagh)
• Anne Leahy (TCD, LMS)
• Brian David Henderson (DCU, OCS)
• Caitlin Looney (Rebel)
• Caoimhe Quigley (TCD, LMS)
• Caroline Sexton (UCC, Rebel)
• Conor Hogan (UCD, Ranelagh)
• Conor Casey (UCD, Ranelagh)
• Declan Grogan (DCU, OCS)
• Dave Ferguson (TCD, Ranelagh)
• Emer Staunton (c) (UCD, Jabba) - Captain
• Grainne McCarthy (TCD, LMS)
• Jennifer Cooper (DCU, Jabba)
• Keith Mernagh (ITT, Jabba)
• Leanne O'Neill (Rebel)
• Liam Fletcher (c) (UCD, Jabba) - Captain
• Mags Carey (UCD, Rebel)
• Niall Mac Dermott (NUIG, Snatch)
• Oisín Murphy (UCC, Juice)
• Rob Holland (TCD, Ranelagh)
• Ross Andreucetti (DCU, OCS)
• Sarah Cummins (UCD, Jabba)
• Sarah Melvin (UL, Pelt)
• Siobhán Abrook (DIT, Jabba)

Coachs

• Ian French (Jabba)
• Fiona Mernagh (Jabba)
• Richard Buggy (Jabba)