Interview #18 - Emer Staunton (Captain)

Hey Emer, how are you? Recovered yet from Windmill?
Shtory, Hogi? Sure, I'm great, thanks. Just taking it easy for my last free weekend before we head to Canada. I have just about recovered from Windmill. Physically I was fine, but I had a serious case of the post-tournament blues this week. I just can't wait to get back out on the pitch with the team!

Tell us briefly about the season so far, from the start way back when you put in your bid for captaincy until now.
Jayney, it was so long ago.. Well, Mixed has always been my favourite division, so when the date was set for Toronto, I was really eager to get an Ireland mixed team entered. Open and Women's is nearly always the preferred division in Ireland, but I think mixed is a huge opportunity for a country like Ireland, who might be slightly behind in terms of development of the sport. I was really eager to get Liam involved as captain. There's absolutely no way I'd have been able to get this far without him. I knew what a great Ireland captain he'd make and it was hugely important that he'd be involved with this team. Luckily, he didn't take any convincing and we decided to put a bid together for the team.

We asked Ian if he'd be interested in coaching us from time-to-time and were so delighted when he said he'd take on the role as head coach. Ian has been absolutely amazing from the start. Before the trial, we sat down together and decided how we were going to put the team together. Having learned everything I know from Ian, it wasn't a surprise that he had the same vision for the team as we had. We agreed that the best players in the country might not necessarily make the best team, so we set about finding the right players for specific roles we'd made for the team. We had to make a few changes along the way, but I couldn't be happier with the way things have worked out.

Last weekend saw the team head to Amsterdam for their final warm up tournament, Windmill Windup. Tell us briefly, for those who don't know, how Windmill's format is different to other tournaments.

Windmill uses a Swiss draw for the first 5 of 8 games, to match teams with the tightest competition. This year, they used power ranking instead of victory points, so it was a bit more difficult to jump very far up or down the rankings than it has been in other years.

How did the team get on results wise?
Luckily for us, we played really well in our first game, and managed to jump 11 seeds to 10th place with our result. Our second game against eventual winners, Good Lord!, was a bigger challenge for us. They punished our mistakes very impressively, but we fought hard until the end, and made sure every point counted. The performance really stood to us, and we seemed to go from strength-to-strength over the course of the weekend. Our best game of the weekend was the last game of Day 2, against Stockholm Syndromes. The team was on fire - we just felt like we couldn't make a mistake. Even turnovers were just seen as another opportunity. The O line was so clinical, and the D line earned every single D and point they scored. I'm most proud of the attitude we had for that game. The sideline was absolutely huge, and kept the whole team running hard and fighting for the whole game. Unfortunately, we might not have had enough in the tank to keep it up for the last day of games, but it was so exciting to see the team edge towards its potential, with 4 weeks of hard work to go before Toronto. FOUR WEEKS. That's all we need: "May the best of your today's be the worst of your tomorrow's".

Hear, hear! What was the biggest contributing factor to the team's performance?

Definitely focus and attitude. The sideline was huge for us all weekend, and made sure we kept focused for all of our games. We also learned that when we played with confidence, there was no stopping us. There's a clip of our Stockholm Syndromes game in the Day 2 wrap up video from Windmill that sums it up for me. Casey walks the disc up to the front of our endzone, where a 3-man cup is waiting for him. As cool and collected as could be, he sends a huge huck to Jen who's ready to take it down ahead of a tall deep-deep, who pops it to Sarah for the score (http://youtu.be/JnNNZNptir4?t=1m27s). Absolutely fearless. And brilliant.

After UK Tour where the O line spent a lot of time watching the D line get a ton of game time how did this weekend pan out for the two lines? Was there a more even spread of game time with the higher competition or did the D line play a dominant role in the weekend again?
Tour was very frustrating for the O line, who learned a hard lesson about the importance of staying focused. Because of our under-seeding, the D line did a lot of the work for the team in Cardiff. They put the O line a comfortable position whenever they had to come on, having put away so many breaks. However, the O line struggled with the lack of game time and it sometimes took a few points before we could string enough passes together for a goal. We were delighted to come away with so many wins at the end of the weekend, but we knew there were a lot of lessons to be learned, particularly for the O line. A huge credit to the D line, though. They came together incredibly well, and have only tightened their game since.

What were the highlights of the weekend for you (both personal and team highlights)?
I enjoyed Windmill a lot more than Cardiff because our games were so much tighter which meant the O line got to play a lot more. Personally, getting a hand block in the last point of our last game at Windmill was a highlight for me. Being predominantly an O line player, I rarely get the pleasure. For the team, again, the Stockholm Syndromes game was a huge highlight. We just felt unbeatable, and that's why we won.

With just under 5 weeks to go until the first games of Worlds, what should the team be focusing on in preparation for Toronto?

I think the biggest challenge at Windmill was three days of games. The team may have struggled a bit to keep coming out with the big performances we needed. We always started strong, but sometimes there was a bit of a lull in the middle that we can't let seep into our games in Toronto. I think focused training and fitness sessions will really stand to us in Toronto. If we can practice staying focused when we're tired and under pressure, we won't have any trouble come July. Windmill came pretty soon after a bit of a break in the team's training due to exams and such, so I'm very excited to see how capable the team will be after these last few weeks of focused, hard work. We've come so far, but these last few weeks are crucial to our preparation.

You, personally, have a great deal of mixed experience, winning two All-Ireland championships in the last two years as well as being a member of the successful Irish Mixed team which came 6th at EUC in 2011. How does being a part of this team compare with being a part of the other teams you've played with in the past?
The biggest difference is Frenchi, Fiona and Buggy being on the sideline and not on the pitch! Honestly, I remember asking myself at the beginning of this season if Mixed was really my favourite division or did I just really like playing with Frenchi!! As it turns out, I still love Mixed. There are a lot of similarities between the Mixed team from 2011 and this one. Jabba, of course, has a very similar style of play, given we share a coach, so I can't say it's too different playing on this team than it is playing for Jabba. I also have a lot of experience playing with Liam, Casey and Hogi from playing in UCD so I feel like I've fit into the team pretty seamlessly.

What will the determining factor be for the team's success/failure in Toronto?
Mental strength will be a huge obstacle for the team come Toronto. Any lapse in concentration will cost us in our big games. We showed that whenever we took our eye off the game for a second in Amsterdam, our opposition took the opportunity to punish us. I think if we work really hard on fitness and focus between now and Toronto, there will be nothing to distract us from the ultimate goal.
 

What are the team's goals heading into Toronto? And, dare I ask, where do you think the team will place come July 28th?

The goal for this team is to be the best of the European teams. To make the semis would be a dream, but we learned at Windmill that the job isn't over after making the semi finals. The ultimate goal will be to play our own game, no matter who the opposition is.

What team are you looking forward to playing most in Toronto?
I'm most looking forward to playing Columbia. Unfortunately, I was working a lot while the World Junior Championships took place in Dublin last summer, but I got to see the finals on the Saturday morning, and I was absolutely blown away by the Columbia teams. Their passion and skill was so impressive, and I would love to get the chance to put it up to them.

Lastly, make us laugh!
I don't have any videos of Dave playing hacky sack, so this will have to do: A woman gets on a bus with her baby. The bus driver says: "That's the ugliest baby that I've ever seen. Ugh!" The woman goes to the rear of the bus and sits down, fuming. She says to a man next to her: "The driver just insulted me!" The man says: "You go right up there and tell him off – go ahead, I'll hold your monkey for you."

Thanks for your time, best of luck in Toronto!
Good lad, Hogi. You're a great bitta stuff.

Interview #17 - Conor Hogan

For this interview, Alan Fitzpatrick will be talking with the usual interviewer, Conor Hogan

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Hey Hogi, wie gehts?
Es geht mir gut. Aber es ist so heiss! 30+ Grad und ich bin nicht bequem in diesen Wetterlagen

You're just back from a very successful weekend at Windmill Windup. Now that the dust has settled, tell us about the experience, the highs and the lows.
Windmill Windup is awesome! It's almost like a Frisbee festival instead of a tournament. There are always different events going on apart from the matches themselves - the charity pull competition, mingle, etc. - so you can't get bored. As far as the games go, we had some really good performances and 2 poor performances (at least on the scoreline). We had big wins against Thundering Herd and Stockholm Syndromes which were great to come out on top in. But unfortunately we missed out on a medal after losing to Good Lord! for the second time in the semis and then losing to Mubidisk in our 3/4 playoff. The Mubidisk game was probably the only game we started slowly in and it showed as we couldn't claw back from 5-1 down. My favourite game was perhaps our 5th game vs Prague Devils. Despite losing by 2 we played awesome.

This is your first time playing mixed for Ireland, how have you found the transition from open? Any interesting differences?
It was a bit strange to start alright. I had only played 4 mixed tournaments before now but all except one were taken pretty lightly and I hadn't trained much prior to the tournaments themselves so I'm almost completely new to this division. I think I've handled the transition well enough though. On defence especially I like to look to poach now and again and I've found great joy doing this in our last two tournaments. On offence the main difference is learning to throw, specifically hucks, to girls. It's not something I was used to at the beginning but I think I've got the hang of it. The last difference is that I can't flip out too often when things aren't going well. Ya look more like a dick doing it on a mixed team than an open team. Thankfully I've only had one moment like that so far... I should like to think it will be the last!!

Just 4 weeks until you fly out to Toronto now, how're the final preparations coming along? Run us through an average day in Germany.

All Ireland Open Nationals 2009 - First Round

As I'm off on my own here, it had been tougher to motivate myself to get out and do fitness and throwing but I've got into a bit of a routine so I guess I'll just be focusing on getting out running twice per week and getting to training twice per week too.
Your average day here isn't too exciting! I've got classes Tuesday-Thursday, training on Tuesday and Sunday, and I schedule in conditioning on Thursdays and Fridays. I do the rest of our fitness plan throughout the week without too much of a routine I guess. Some Wednesdays I get to go to training in Munich but I guess no two days are the same and they change in schedule each week.

How does this U23 campaign compare to Florence in 2010? How do you think both Irish teams will fare in Toronto this time round?
I think this campaign isn't comparable really. In 2010 the Mixed team was without much experience on the international scene and struggled to get numbers initially, whereas the Open team had more experience but just didn't really click and the weather didn't help.
I think this time around the Mixed team are going to do really well. They'll get that first international win for sure and hopefully push for a top 4 spot. The Open team, which have a ton of experience in the Junior division, will be pushing the top 8 at the very least. I haven't got to see the whole squad to play together yet (other than the show game at Tour) but I really look forward to seeing them do their thing and with Leo there calling the shots, they're in a great position to cause some upsets.

Whats the club and college scene like over in Germany? Have you been able to play with any top players?
Unfortunately I haven't had any exposure to the college scene over here and have only limited experience in the club scene. I played one tournament in November, but it wasn't too serious. Still good craic all the same. I have managed to train with M.U.C. and Die 7 Schwaben while I've been here though. M.U.C. are from Munich and last year were a top 8 team at EUCF. They have such players like Rue Veitl, who is pretty well known on the beach ultimate circuit. Die 7 Schwaben train are from Stuttgart and also have some big names, namely Philip Haas. I've looked up to Philip since I first saw him play so it was pretty cool to train with him.
My local team doesn't really seem to have a name as such but is pretty small. I think if we all turned up to training on a given night we'd have 14 players mayhaps? It's enough to keep me with disc in hand each week but it's not quite the standard of training I'd get at home or if I could get to Munich weekly. Daniel Nolte, another Schwaben player, is the coach there.

All Ireland Open Nationals 2010 - Final - Broc vs Chimpo

You've played on and coached many Irish teams in the past, quite the feat at 21 years old. Who's the best player you've played with, and who was most enjoyable to coach? (apart from me obviously!)
Ah... I can't answer this without naming a few heads. Although I didn't get much pitch time with him in 2011, playing with Cian O'Morain is pretty sweet. He makes it all look pretty easy. Playing with Enda is great too. I can throw a ton of crap and Enda will take it down almost every time. Perhaps not the best all round player I've ever played with, but anyone who knows me knows I love playing alongside Cathal Tuffy. Similar to Enda he just takes down whatever I throw, he makes me look good. Lastly, playing with Alan Doyle, albeit at the end of his career, will certainly always be a memory I'll hang on to. I think we had 3 tourneys together and I've never found it easier to play O than when he was distributing the disc.
In 2011 it was great to coach the Irish Juniors for the first time with D-man. I think two lads who stand out from that year and Feely and Ben Noonan. Both joined the team with the basic skills but without having a complete understanding of the game having only played for a few months each. By the time we got to Poland Feely had transformed into one of the tidiest throwers in the Junior division in Ireland and Ben had become pretty undefendable; when he wanted to get free he just did it. In 2012, it was incredible to get to the trials and see Podge play. He was only playing for 2-3 months I'd say and I've never been more certain that someone was on the team after a few minutes of watching them play. He was savage at WJUC and I hope we get to play on the same team in the future.


It's your final year in UCD next year, how do you think the team's chances are of taking open varsities?
I said coming into college, young, arrogant and oblivious as I was, that we'd win IVs in 2014. My reasoning being that it was going to be the final year for myself and Tuffy so why not? Since then the dynamic of the college scene has changed a lot and UCC are really setting a high standard for everyone to meet them at. However, I think that if we do the right things this year, recruit well and start the year focused, all buying into the idea that we can win it if we work at it, then I think we have the team to do it. Rumours are that we're getting a few postgrad students too where UCC and TCD are losing some, so that might help!

What else, apart from winning loads of matches, are you looking forward to most about Toronto?
Getting to see a new country is always cool and after the tournament we'll be checking Niagara Falls and the like. But as far as the tournament goes I think there is always a buzz around International tournaments. The atmosphere is always full of excitement and anticipation for the rest of the week. I think getting to see some incredible players do what they do is another plus. I hope to see a good bit of USA Open play, Dylan Freechild and the likes who we played against in 2010. Generally having the craic with mates from other countries as well as the Irish crowd is also to be looked forward to. It's going to be an awesome week all round really.

Who do you want to play most in Toronto?
Ideally, I'd love to have a bash at everyone. But I do look forward to potentially playing the Aussies and Brits most. The Australian teams I've seen in the past and played against play a really nice brand of aggressive, fast paced, ultimate. They're savage craic off the pitch too so I reckon it will make for a good game. A lot of people are saying that they want to play GB. It'd be good to give them a good run. Irish teams have traditionally lost the match up in most divisions but in the last 2-3 years we've started to work out ways of beating "the old enemy", so after the Irish U23 Open team beat their GB counterparts at UK Tour 2, I'm hoping that we can follow suit!

Finally, tell us a joke. 
My parents came up to visit last week. 
I keep them in the basement.
Ha, I joke! 
I don't know who they are...


Thanks Herr Hogan!
Vielen Dank, Herr Alan

Interview #16 - Sarah Cummins

Hey Sarah, how are you?
I’m not too bad Hogi. Just enjoying a rare weekend with no Frisbee. Unfortunately the tea I’m drinking has gone cold, so that’s getting my mood down a little. Other than that I’m really excited to get back to training with this team next weekend, it’s been a while due to exams and the likes! And of course Windmill is hardly more than a week away, I’m very excited about that.

First off, congrats on making the squad way back when, the season has been flying by! How have you found the process so far?

Thanks Hogi, and congratulations to yourself too!  Ever since taking up Ultimate last year, I have been trained by Ian French and Fiona Mernagh (both in UCD and in Jabba), and captained by Emer Staunton and Liam Fletcher (in UCD), so I found the transition onto the team quite easy. Being familiar with a lot of the strategies, coaching structures, and general attitude of the team made beginning my time with a national team a lot easier than it should have been, especially given my limited experience. Other than that the process has been great, I’d have expected nothing less from the team in charge (and Emer in particular) but the whole thing has been so well organised. From the get go we knew when we were training, what tournaments we were going to, what our goals for the year would be, what fitness we should be doing when (so on and so forth) and all of that has made it really easy to stay focused and stay motivated, even after the last 7 or so months of preparations. On another note, it’s been really great to get used to playing with players from other clubs and colleges, who have very different ways of playing, and trying to mould different playing styles together.

How did you get into Ultimate?

Not willingly… My friend Roisin and I had decided to get involved in one of the clubs in college coming into 2nd year (I think this was largely to compensate for the excess of nothingness I did in 1st year). She had gotten into her head that we should start Ultimate (and I have no idea why), but I wanted to join Mountaineering. We were having this argument while ‘hiding’ in the stock room in work and had come to a bit of an impasse, when one of the other girls (Lorraine) came down and we managed to rope her into our plans. Now, unfortunately Lorraine is scared of heights, which ruled out Mountaineering, so I lost the argument and Ultimate came out as the winner. As it happens, Lorraine never so much as signed up in Fresher’s week, and Roisin only lasted a couple of weeks, but I haven’t looked back since. At this stage, I’m just describing it as a happy accident.

We're happy to have such accidents have now and then... Last year you were the Ladies Captain of the club, right? How did the season pan out for you?

We had lost all of our experienced players the year before, with only 2 returning players (myself included), so we really began the year with an uphill battle in front of us. Luckily Fiona Mernagh had (thankfully) agreed to coach us again, and Emer was still hanging around, so we did have a lot of help and a lot of back-up available to us. Recruitment was always going to be our biggest battle and our most important goal, and luckily we hit the jackpot on that front. We got some really enthusiastic girls involved in the 1^st semester, girls that were athletic and eager, and we managed to do the same in semester 2. We were also blessed with a few experienced girls coming to UCD. We even finished the year with some pretty good results behind us! My goal for the club for the year had always been to rebuild the team, to put us in a good stead for next year, and I think we’ve done that. I’m actually quite excited to get back and wreak havoc in the IV scene, it’s definitely going to be our year ;)
From a personal standpoint, playing with UCD this year has been hugely different from any other team I’ve played with. I’m a cutter through and through, but I had to spend the year as one of our main handlers. This was frustrating at times, but in hindsight I learned a huge amount from the year, probably more than any of the beginners did. I’m a lot more confident with the disc, and my throws have improved monumentally (they used to be seriously embarrassing).

You've been heavily involved in Dublin based Jabba the Huck since you started and recently won All-Ireland mixed nationals with them. How was it to win the championship? And what were you personal highlights from the weekend?

Winning Mixed Nats for the second year was great, there’s nothing better than working really hard towards a certain goal and then having all of that hard work pay off. I’ve had a really successful Mixed season with Jabba, so hopefully that will continue with this team!
To be honest, I find it incredibly difficult to remember anything that’s happened after I’ve finished playing… I watched Pitch Perfect on the Friday night, that’s an excellent movie and definitely a personal highlight from the weekend. And I didn’t get sunburnt, which is both a success and a rarity :D  On a more serious note, when I played Mixed Nats last year, I was still in my first year of playing and hadn’t been training with Jabba for too long, so when I was put on the 1^st team I was genuinely terrified of being the dead weight on the team. So my personal highlight from this year was seeing how far I’d come in the last year. I had so much more confidence in myself this year, and felt like I could make a real contribution to the team.

Well, from what I heard you did just that! The week before you went to Mixed Tour 3 in Cheltenham and came back undefeated, an ideal weekend ahead of nationals in Maynooth! How did this weekend compare to attending Tour 1 with the Irish team (other than the obvious win to take 13th)? Did you take home different personal lessons to be banked from those you might have learned in Cardiff?

MT1 was not only the first time I’d played a tournament with a national team, but also the first time I’d been to Tour, or any foreign tournament for that matter, so I wasn’t really sure what to expect. I found that the lessons I learned from MT1 were much more mental than anything I took from MT3 with Jabba. We had a huge squad so I really had to learn how to stay focused when not being on the pitch for prolonged periods of time, to stay involved from the sideline, and to always be ready to go on and play clinical offence after having being off for several points in a row. This was especially hard to get used to, as I had been accustomed to not taking any points off, ever, when playing with UCD.

At MT3 I was playing with a team I’m quite used to, and I was playing D-line instead of O-line, so it was a very different experience. I got to concentrate a lot more on just playing. 

What are the goals for Jabba for the rest this year? Is the club travelling abroad again?

Now that the Mixed Season is over the club will be concentrating on Open and Women’s. Unfortunately I’ll be missing quite a bit of the Women’s season, as I’m not coming home right after Toronto. The Huckers are going to a tournament in Germany, but I’ll have to miss out on that. I’ll get to play Munster Munch though, and I still have every intention of coming home right on time to smash it up at Women’s All Irelands in September.

What are you most looking forward to over the rest of the international season?

I just like playing Frisbee… so that’s really what I’m looking forward to! I can’t wait to play against some really high quality teams that are gonna push me and the rest of this team to be better than we thought we could be. I’m just looking forward to putting on a green jersey and playing like I deserve to wear it. I also can’t wait to layout D some Columbians :D

Pity you're not on the D line so, or you'd have a ton of time for that! Outside of Ultimate, you played gaelic football and/or camogie, do you still play? Or has Ultimate taken over?

I played both, since I was knee high to a pigs eye, alongside a handful of other sports as well. I had stopped playing both by the time I got to the Leaving Cert, and by the time I started college all I was doing was some Athletics. When I started Ultimate I was ready to commit to a sport again and start training regularly (at anything at all), but didn’t really feel like going back to Camogie or Football. At this stage I think it’s fair to say that Ultimate has taken over! It’s the only sport I’m playing at the moment, so it gets all of my attention!

When you first started playing ultimate was the transition from one sport to the next difficult? As in did you need to learn a completely new skill set or are they similar enough?

Having played sports before there are certain skills that will always translate, no matter what sport your background is in. Having good hand-eye-coordination and having a basis of athleticism and fitness will always be super helpful. I know that I relied on those sorts of skills a lot in my first year, when I really didn’t have a notion what was going on.

Other than that however, I found that Ultimate is a really unique sport, and there are a lot of aspects to it that were completely alien to me. I’ve played a lot of different sports before and the transition to Ultimate was definitely the most difficult.  Most of what I remember about my first year of playing is just being really confused, all of the time. So there was only so much GAA helped me once I started Ultimate, and I know if I go back to Camogie now I’ll spend a good while making a complete fool of myself making Up calls and stall counting.

Back to ultimate, Windmill is 2 weeks from today! What can you expect from this legendary tournament, both on and off the pitch? What are you most excited about?

I’ve never been to Windmill before, and honestly I haven’t a notion what I should expect! Although feel free to fill me in… I’m just looking forward to playing with this team again. I think it’s really important to have these warm up tournaments just to have an incentive to keep working hard and stay focused. I find it’s a lot easier to get myself pumped up for Windmill in less than two weeks, than to keep trying to motivate myself for a tournament that’s months away. I’m looking forward to playing teams that are a lot more evenly matched to us than the teams we played at MT1. I’m hoping the O-line will get to play a whole lot more than we did in Cardiff. Like I’ve already said, I just like playing Frisbee, so that’s what I’m really looking forward to!

Sorry, us D line heads are selfish so I'd suggest to bring a good jacket for standing around in. As per usual I'll ask - Who do you want to play most in Toronto?

Like most people, I’m pretty excited about playing GB! I got to play against them at MT3 with Jabba, and I can’t wait to play them and beat them again in Toronto where it really matters!
I’m most excited about playing against Columbia. I got to watch them a lot at WJUC in Dublin last summer, and they play the sexiest brand of ultimate, so I’m pretty excited to play against that.

Tell us a joke.

I wanted to believe that my dad wasn't stealing from his job as a road worker, but when I got home all the signs were there!

Thanks for your time, best of luck over the next 2 months!

Cheers Hogi, best of luck to you too! 

Interview #15 - Fiona Mernagh (Coach)

Hey Fiona, how are things? 

Things are very well, thanks Hogi. I'm loving the sunshine we're getting these days, it has me in a great mood!

Tell us a bit about you and your playing career to date. Any highlights that stick out more than others?

I joined Ultimate in my first year of college, I knew I wanted to straight away because my older sister Emer played. I was one of those flaky beginners that didn't show up to much and was a bit too involved with GAA. However, I really wanted to play a tournament in the summer so my sister signed me up to Dub Tourney. I played iron woman and absolutely loved it. So in 2nd year I made a proper effort to play everything I could and haven't looked back since.

Highlights for me (in no particular order) include Vancouver in 2008 (WUGC) (as a whole tournament but also catching the winning score from Liz in our last game against France), making it to the final of Windmill Windup women's division with the Irish women's team in '08, winning UK Indoor Women's Nationals with DCU, winning Mixed Nationals last year, winning Munster Munch, co-captaining U23s in Florence and coming 6th at EUC '11. Playing Ultimate impressions in the tent at xEUCF '09 and accidentally skipping 200 people in the dinner queue is also up there.

In recent years you've been heavily involved with the coaching of teams both in Jabba and in UCD. How did your approach differ from one team to the next? 

Coaching the two teams is quite different. With Jabba, the struggle is trying to find a balance between bringing the beginners up to a high enough standard and not making the sessions too slow or dull for the experienced players. That can be done by arranging one on one drills so you can match up appropriately and segregating into smaller drills every so often with the more experienced in one half and the rest in the other. It also helps that we train mixed as well and there tends to be a stronger depth at those sessions.

With UCD, 90% of the team has always started off as beginners so it's been obvious that teaching the team at a low level is necessary. Unfortunately, you can lose some experienced players who don't like training at that slow pace but when it's a choice between keeping the experienced player that might only be there for that season or one more, or keeping on 5 beginners that are in first year, it's a no-brainer for me. As a coach, you should always think long term as well as short term! 

And did your approach change again for this team? 

I actually have no say in the coaching of this team! Ian makes all the plans and just tells me what to do, which is cool because it can be stressful to plan things. When I coach this team though, I expect a higher standard than from Jabba or UCD and am surprised when I need to snap a bit to get people more focused or to try harder in drills. I guess I have to remind myself that you are all still a bunch of kids. :P

Having a ton of experience in the mixed division, what do you think makes a good mixed team player? Do the skills you needed change for guys and girls?

Yes you need to be a bit more copped on, whatever gender you are. Poaches are more significant. If a guy is poaching deep for example, the disc shouldn't be thrown to a girl going deep (though it comes off occasionally, it is not recommended!) but if a girl is poaching deep and someone like Oisín or Liam is going long and their marks are behind them, you can throw that disc - as long as you put it over the girl's head. ;) 

Sometimes mismatches occur, e.g. a guy is being marked by a girl after a zone transition, so it can be a big advantage to spot that mismatch quickly and make use of it.

It's not all about the male athlete having all the genetic advantages over female athletes however! If your girls are better than their girls, make use of that and make sure the disc is going through your girls, i.e. boys clear out and stay out!

There aren't many other big differences between Mixed and Open/Women's that I can think of, besides learning to throw to different genders. Girls are generally smaller and slower so high fast discs are not recommended. And guys, learn to cut from quite shallow for the girls because they can throw big but usually the discs are slower to get there. Girls, throw early to guys, you'll be surprised sometimes the ground they can make up, especially on this team, especially since they all layout. ;)

What has impressed you the most so far about this team (if anything :P)?

Haha the team is great. Your results at Tour were impressive. You've got a very positive attitude when you get together. Mostly I've been impressed by individuals though, I think the effort from certain people is exactly what Ian was hoping for and I'm delighted that some people care as much as we do about making this team the best it can be.

Last weekend you won All-Ireland Mixed Nationals for the second year in a row. Having just come back from injury did that make it a bit sweeter after an annoying pre-season being sidelined for the most part? Or would the victory have meant the same had you been fit throughout the months leading up to it?

If anything, I feel like I deserved the glory less. Although I didn't miss a training session, I couldn't take part in about 80% of them and only could play at the weekend because my friend strapped my knee up really tightly (man, was that sore to get off) and that helped loads in making my knee stable and I rarely felt a bit of pain. I would have been a happier player had I been able to play at my best but I'm still ecstatic we took the trophy home again this year.

What is next for you personally this season?

I'm trying to see a knee specialist to fix my knee once and for all! I'm also focusing on women's with Jabba. We'll be heading to Munster Munch, Germany and All-Irelands so I've got a lot to work hard for.

Windmill Windup is in 2 weeks and Worlds in Toronto is only 5 weeks after that, what are the biggest challenges will the team be faced with in their last warm up tournament and at the big one?

Fitness. People are falling off on this and it's showing.

The team needs to not rely on certain players to do all the hard work for them. Everyone is going to have to step up, on offence and defence. Everybody should be going in with goals in their mind.

For Windmill, the O-line boys need to learn get out of the way of the girls. With Jen and Sarah both as tall as they are, the handlers/male cutters need to build a connection with them for when they go deep as they'll be massive assets. Oisín and Keith are obviously great receivers but they got enough practice at Tour from the sounds of things. :P 

I think the D-line's defence is absolutely huge. Once you get your match-ups right, you are an impossible force to get by so I think offence should be a big part of the focus at Windmill. Being efficient, so that once you get your turnover you score nice and quickly (whether with 1 huck or 10 short passes) and don't waste energy, you'll always have lots in the tank at the end of games. I also think the girls are going to be a bit shocked as the standard of girls will be higher at Windmill than they were at Tour so be ready to chase hard.

I'd also worry that some people take to heart their mistakes more than others but I hope that Windmill will teach them that their team needs them to drop those out of their minds and always think of the next thing. Usually they're the best players and if they're worried about the mistakes they've made before, they're not going to be playing their best anymore, i.e. feeling apologetic is not actually helping anyone so don't waste your mental energy on it! ;)

At the big tournament, the challenges will be to play better than you've ever played before and come together as a really tight unit that won't bicker or let your heads drop over anything. At that point, you've had your time to do everything you can so you should have no regrets going into it.

And with these challenges in mind, what do you think needs to be the focus of the team's workouts in the next 6/7 weeks?

The O-line should strive to be perfect. I'm not saying when a mistake is made, that's the end of it and you should all walk off with your heads down, but it is possible to score all your O-points - so aim to do it! And if you lose that disc - you get it back again. There's no question of that. You just get it back.

For the D-line, you need to be “dick in pocket” every point (excluding zones of course) and when you're on O - MOVE! Don't be static. Run that team into the ground on O and your next point will be even easier.

Getting everyone on the same page. Without passion, it's very hard to motivate yourself. I feel like a lot of players have lost their passion for this team's goals but if their teammates were to rally them and drag them out to fitness with them, text them encouragement every so often or to see how they're getting on and/or push them hard at club trainings, the team would gain a lot both in terms of skill and strength of heart.

Finish off by making us laugh.

Well looking up the top 50 jokes got me some of the worst jokes I've ever read. I kept looking and the first joke I laughed out loud at was too dirty, I couldn't sully my reputation with it. So I've settled for this traditional one:

An Irishman, Englishman and Scotsman go into a pub and each order a pint of Guinness. Just as the bartender hands them over, three flies buzz down and one lands in each of the pints. The Englishman looks disgusted, pushes his pint away and demands another pint. The Scotsman picks out the fly, shrugs, and takes a long swallow. The Irishman reaches in to the glass, pinches the fly between his fingers and shakes him while yelling, "Spit it out, ya bastard! Spit it out!"

Thanks for your time Fiona!