Grand final week

It's grand final week in the Brisbane Premier League and its time to get excited.

Winning the BPL is a solid achievement and given how competitive the Spring 2012 season has been we can hope that the final game of the year lives up to our expectations.

Part of the reason that winning the competition is significant is that the BPL has a storied history and the winning team, most valuable player and the spirit champion earn their place amongst 10 years of Brisbane frisbee heroes. While the records are not totally complete there is plenty of information that some may find interesting on the eve of another BPL final.

The first league was held during the winter of 2002, there have been 24 seasons run and won since. A team called Dog Squad won the first league and were the first of 11 different teams to win a BPL season. A different team won each of the first eight seasons. The league then stabilised and when the Slamtown Flatball Club broke through and won a year ago they were the first new team to win the championship since UQ won their first in the beginning of 2007.

There have been a range of results in finals games over the years. The average winning margin is 4 points. The biggest blow out was in winter 2008 when the score line was 18 to 9. There have been 3 single point margins; winter 2007- Bugs Vs Lovers, spring 2009 - Bugs Vs Dojo and autumn 2010 - UQ Passion Vs Cobras all came down to a single goal difference.

15 different men have won the Most Valuable Player award and 7 players have won it twice. In both season 10 and 11 the top spot was a dead heat and the award was shared. The $50 dinner gift voucher award for the season 10 winner had to be shared, BPL romance. The Dojo Mojo club claim the most MVPs over the years with 8 wins from the 22 total awards.

The spirit award has been fairly poorly recorded with only 11 seasons' winners recorded in the League Director documents.* Of those 11 the UQ club has won 5, including 4 in a row during 2005 and 2006. On 2 recorded occasions the spirit winners have also been the league champions. Team Delta in season 6 (summer 2004), and the Dojo in season 22 (autumn 2011). Additionally these 2 teams had the season's MVP, Chris Burwell for Delta and Leon McIntyre for the Dojo, an impressive trifecta.

The next page in the Brisbane Premier League's history is going to be written this week and for the players, ex players and fans of the league the achievement is worth the effort.




*In the interest of completing the records if any players have information about spirit winners during 2007, 08, 09 and season 1 of 2010 then let us know in the comment section below.

With the extra spirit award information provided by John and Liam below it is worth highlighting a couple of extra achievements. Of the 19 spirit award winners on record teams representing the University of Queensland have won 10, including a stranglehold of 5 straight seasons in 2005/06. The BPL champions have been the spirit winners on 4 occasions, the two listed above as well as UQ teams in season 12 (autumn 2007) and season 17 (spring 2008). This is an excellent achievement and should be a highlight of the league's history.

Finally of the 7 current clubs in the competition all but 2 have been the spirit champions. The Dojo, Heroes and Slamtown have each won once while the Blitz team is the two time reigning champions. The Bugs and the Cobras will be crossing their fingers at this year's announcement.



Also if anyone has a record or memory of the winter 2008 (season 2) spirit champions it would be good to complete the list. The 6 teams that played that season were - Messy Buggers, UQ Passion, UQ Lovers, Rawhide, Slippery Buggers, Dojo Mojo. The Messy Buggers defeated UQ Passion in the final and the MVP was Dan Walls from the Dojo, Jon Good was in his last season as the League Director.