Northern Beaches Summer Floorball Party – What a day!

The days leading up to the first Northern Beaches Summer Floorball Party had the organising committee sweating and working overtime to design numerous wet weather back-up plans. However when the rain more or less held off the day before, the committee made the bold decision to stick to their plans of running it entirely outside with only little amends to accommodate the 80% chance of rain forecast.

A decision that paid off big time. When the sun tried to break through the clouds during the first game a big sigh of relief was audible or hang on… maybe that was Usher’s ‘OMG’ pumping from the stereo. The party was well and truly underway. 12 teams from Canberra, Wollongong, Newcastle, Central Coast and Sydney all turned up ready to have fun and have a crack at this unique set-up. Not only did we play outdoors, we also came up with a draw that was unique in it’s nature and has never been seen before…. ”So how do we earn ourselves a beach break” and “Thank god we made it to the round of last hope” were fairly common remarks heard on the sidelines. Also the 2 laps biathlon style punishment instead of the standard 2minute penalty provided some entertainment and something the IFF should probably look at. Old school theory is that you let them sit for 2 minutes and hope they calm down, but we felt let them sprint 2 laps around the court made them become angels for the rest of the game due to exhaustion. We would also like to thank all teams at this point that over 25 games throughout the day, we only saw two penalties being given for minor offences (hey we wanted to see the rule in action also) and reflected the great spirit everyone was playing with and atmosphere on the day.

Of course in between floorball games there was also the speed gun everyone could have a go at. While most people just wanted to see where they stand against the pro’s in Europe, some really got into the competitive spirit to try and qualify for the ‘Australia’s fastest shooter competition’. The 5 fastest shooters from the day were lining up in a play-off high-jump style competition to take the trophy. Going into that competition was Ricky Englicky 158km/h, Petr Prazan 153km/h, Thomas Isaakson 149km/h, Miroslav Sindelar 147km/h, Michael Woods 143km/h. Ultimately Petr managed to better his qualifying score to equalise Ricky’s qualifying speed and with the same highest score of 158km/h managed to take out the competition. Congratulations Petr you can officially call yourself the ‘fastest shooter in Australia’.

Back to the floorball action. The teams that earned themselves a beach break returned in their cosies and didn’t look ready to play their quarterfinals, however most teams managed to leverage that break and being refreshed to their advantage and also qualified for the semis. The semis were played between Tuggeranong Taipans vs. Costa Rican Iguanas and Newcastle Cobras & Northern Beaches Stingrays. With a rather convincing 6:2 the Costa Rican Iguanas were the first team to book their spot before the hosts took on the visitors from Newcastle in a 2010 NSWFA Elite Series grand final rematch. For those who remember this was probably one of the best floorball grandfinals in NSWFA’s history. However Saturday’s pairing was played with slightly different stakes, as the straw-hat of the Stingrays captain suggested. The game was equally close though and due to a 1:1 draw the ‘first goal scored’ rule saw the Newcastle Cobras revenge the dramatic loss from 2010 going through to the grand final. Making the most of that opportunity the Newcastle Cobras started the final in furious fashion quickly going 3 goals up. However the Costa Rican Iguanas, who needed to go through a couple of qualifying rounds earlier in the day and had played 2 games more than Newcastle, didn’t want to just hand over the trophy without a fight. They managed to claw back goal by goal. When they equalised 3all with 50 seconds left on the clock the Newcastle Cobras started to have some flashback from that Elite Series Grand Final. However they kept their calm and didn’t concede any more goals to not only win the semi but also the grand final with the help of the ‘first goal scored’ rules and finally secure the first silverware for the club! Congratulations to Newcastle Cobras – you were worthy winners and we look forward for you to defend the title next year.

All in all it was a fantastic floorball party and fun was had by all. We again would like to thank all the participating team for a top day and especially the out of towners for making the trip to Sydney’s Northern Beaches. It was one of the most enjoyable floorball tournament we have played in and exactly what we hoped the day would turn out to be. Needless to say that the 30plus players who went to the player’s after party enjoyed themselves until the early morning hours… We will definitely run this tournament again. In the meantime you can analyse the results from the day. Summary stats, Keeper stats, Team stats and Individual stats can be found here.

We also urge you to register your team for the next NBO – October 6/7 2012. Early Bird special is available and rego forms can be found here.