The Blue Tongues looked good at times over the weekend, but unfortunately there were simply not enough of the good times, and quite a few of the not so good ones.

Dropping a 2-1 game on Saturday the home boys were pumped on Sunday and were doing incredibly good thanks to the netminding of Anthony Kimlin, who has been a monster in net.  But due to an injury he got pulled and Giauque replaced him.  4 soft goals and an incredible goal scoreres goal later and the Blue Tongues walked away with a painful, and slightly embarrassing 8-4 loss.

Mike “Macca” McRae was solid during both games, and his goal from the red line will be forever remembered as one of the best.

Next weekend the boys are on the road to Melbourne where the face the Ice and Mustangs, games they really must win.

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So had this interesting situation at the Blue Tongues game today. A woman sitting down from us apparently took offense when one of us questioned the referee, Mark O’Brian (yes, HIM). Apparently doing so made us “one sided fans”. Well, whatever, it’s called questioning a call and has nothing to do with being one sided.  And anyway, when you’re supporting a team aren’t you supposed to be a little biased?  It’s not like you want the other team to win now, does it?  What a seriously idiotic comment to make!

That aside, anybody who knows us would know that I am anything but one sided, and often am critical of my own team.  I’m like that with every team i follow, not just the Blue Tongues.  The Dallas Stars, Newcastle United, Canberra Raiders and All Blacks all get exactly the same “you screw up, i’ll call you out” attitude.

Anyway, to add a bit of hypocrisy, I get allegedly called out for dissing my own team.

WTF???

I’m one-sided one minute, and too unbiased the next?

Lady, if you don’t like the fans where you’re sitting, go sit somewhere else!  Don’t sit there and get all bitchy at us.

I will call a spade a spade and if my team plays like crap, I will call them on it! One sided my ass!

Related posts:

1. Refs, Rule Books and Fans
2. Message To Visiting Fans, Players & Coaches
3. Fans Express Dismay: Pull The ***** Goalie!

The Blue Tongues hosted the Newcastle North Stars in todays home opener at the Lizard Pit.  The 2 teams battled hard in the opening period both vying for the advantage, but it was the North Stars who struck first.  Bad passes and lackadaisical plays saw the Tongues down 2-0 heading into the third with a seemingly big hill to climb.  The Tongues though would not be outdone and Andreas Camerinzind put the home boys on the board and then Jack Conner tapped in a mid-air rebound just moments later to bring the game even at 2 a piece.  Mike McRae sealed the win when he added a third for the Blue Tongues less than a few minutes later.  The North Stars, a goal down with just 3 minutes to play could not muster enough to tie the game, and the home team picked up all 3 points and the win.

The Tongues are now 2-1 in their first 3 games, and face the Adelaide Adrenaline in back-to-back games next weekend on the Gold Coast.

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The Blue Tongues have completed their series of back-to-back games for the weekend with a solid 7-2 victory over the Sydney Bears this evening.  Goal scorers and game data is currently unknown, but by all accounts the Tongues played a complete game and routed the Bears, who did their best to stay in the game.

The Blue Tongues open their home games next Saturday when they host the Newcastle North Stars.

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You would think that with all the latest technology it would be pretty straight forward for someone to post regular updates on Twitter during AIHL matches.  Between wireless internet and smartphones Twitter is pretty much available to almost every single person, so finding at least someone to post updates should be expected of every team!  A goal is scored, post an update.  Period starts or ends, post an update.  It’s not rocket science!

And while i’m on the note of updates.  The AIHL list hashtags to use for games, yet nobody ever bothers to use them.  In fact, some teams use their own hashtags instead, which shows they either don’t care or are too arrogant to bother supporting the league.

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It looked like lack of training and low chemistry were going to be an issue in the opening period of todays 2012 AIHL opener for the Blue Tongues.  Down 3-0 to the Newcastle North Stars at the end of the first period the Tongues looked to be outplayed in all aspects of the game.  A solid second period however saw a refreshed Blue Tongues begin to find their stride and, as the North Stars took numerous trips to the penalty box the Blue Tongues bought the game back even 3-3.  A sold out home crowd inspired the North Stars however and a goal late in the third proved to be enough to hold off the Blue Tongues.  The game ended with the North Stars winning 4-3.

Based upon the audio stream alone, it sounds like Ben Spillane had a great game and both Mike McRae and Adam Geric were impressive up front.

Hopefully the boys will rest up tonight and prepare for their game against the Bears tomorrow afternoon.

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As posted by Daniel Eade on Twitter the other day, next seasons AIHL season will have a new twist; conferences.  Eade’s broke the news by tweeting “The @AIHL will have two conferences next season, Eastern & Western”.

The move comes after the inclusion of the Perth Thunder in next seasons schedule.

Eade also gave an indication of the scheduling in his tweet, “Teams will play Teams from ‘other’ conference twice (H&A). East will play each other 4 times. West will play each other 4+ times for balance”.

The conferences will be comprised of:

East: Sydney bears, Sydney Ice Dogs, Newcastle North Stars, Caberra Knights and Gold Coast Blue Tongues

West: Melbourne Ice, Melbourne Mustangs, Adelaide Adrenaline and newcomers, Perth Thunder.

For more details, be sure to read the full post on The Other Hewitt.

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The Melbourne Ice have “broken the curse” and are the first team to be both minor premiers and AIHL Champions, taking home the Goodall Cup on Sunday afternoon after defeating the Newcastle North Stars.

Image courtesy of The Age

Congratulations Melbourne Ice, 2011 AIHL Champions.

Related posts:

1. Congratulations Melbourne Ice: 2010 AIHL Champions
2. Congratulations Dave Upton, Hockey Roo in 2011
3. Staring Down The Barrel At The 2011 AIHL Finals

Of course, we all know that Matt Amado is in fact NOT Dave Upton, but apparently the Australian Ice Hockey League (AIHL) don’t.

Today during the online stream of the AIHL semi-finals when the AIHL announced the league MVP runner ups, they showed an image of Dave Upton when announcing Matt Amado.  There is quite simply no excuse for such a simple mistake to be made.

This error was not the only problem today though, as the entire live stream itself was unusable for the entire first period of semi-final 1 between the Melbourne Ice and Adelaide Adrenaline.  To their credit the stream was fixed as soon as possible and provided great quality video and audio of the games.

Hopefully they will have corrected the Matt Amado image by tomorrows stream of the AIHL Final game between the Newcastle North Stars and Melbourne Ice.

Related posts:

1. Make Or Break Weekend and Matt Amado Interview
2. Matt Amado interview
3. Dave Upton: A Farewell Tribute to #96

The 2011 AIHL regular season has wrapped up this last weekend, with the Melbourne Ice taking out the H Newman Reid Trophy for the top team after the regular season.  They finished the season with an impressive 21 wins and 7 losses, giving them 65 points, 6 ahead of the second placed Newcastle North Stars.  So a big congratulations to the Ice for their victory.

Finals Seeding

The Finals will consist of 2 semi-finals on the Saturday and the Final on Sunday.  The 2 semi’s will see the Melbourne Ice face the Adelaide Adrenaline and the Newcastle North Stars take on the Sydney Ice Dogs.  The final will be played between the victors of these contests.  The Finals are always fast-paced exciting hockey, so be sure to be there or catch the games streamed live online.

The Blue Tongues Season

Another Tongues season has come and gone and it’s been full of highs and lows.

Standout Players

Without a doubt the most standout player on the Tongues this season was Tobias Falk.  Falk exemplified the true team-first playmaker.  His passing was exceptional, his skating smooth and as it turned out in the latter half of the season, his shot was deadly accurate.  Playing alongside Matt Amado most the season, Falk went from setup guy to being the #1 fan favorite import on the team.

As far as rookies go, Alex Hall had a fantastic season.  His 11 points were (i believe) the highest of all rookies in the league this season, and saw a lot of quality ice time.  Hall has amazing potential and will continue to grow and be a force on the Blue Tongues in future years.

Luke Fiveash may not have started the season with the Blue Tongues, but he finished it with an almost zealous cult following.  His acrobatic style and spectacular saves helped the team win vital games and carried them into a true race for the Finals.

Dave Upton needs to introduction to fans.  Since 2005 when Dave played for the team as a fresh faced 15 year old, Dave has always been a core member of the team.  Sadly, all things must end and Dave’s time with the Blue Tongues has ended as he heads to Sydney for work.  We wish Dave the very best of luck and hope that one day we’ll see him back in the Blue Jersey!

The Good

Defeating the Melbourne Ice has to be one of the standout moments for the fans.  The history between the clubs and the intensity of the games made that series a true one for the books.  Another game to remember is the second last of the season where the Tongues defeated the Newcastle North Stars in Newcastle; something that has only happened twice in their club history.

Seeing the Mustangs IHC enter the AIHL is a highlight, not for the Blue Tongues but for hockey in general.  The growth of the league is fantastic and the Mustangs did well in their first season.

The Bad

Walker-Gate, a name coined after the Ice Dogs were given a reprieve for playing an unsanctioned Nathan Walker early in the season has gone on too far.  People need to get over it.

Chemistry issues early in the season caused early Tongues games to end in less than desirable scorelines.  Add that to the coaches desire to play Kane “can’t stop a puck” Easterbrook for 6 games more than he should have all but put the Blue Tongues in a very tough position.  CJ Anderson was forced to sit on the bench and watch Kane fumble his way through games, when in reality he should have been playing.

Team disruption issues caused by non-passing star imports caused alleged rifts among the team, and also in the Stands.  Fans were heard commenting about how scoring chances were lost because people would not pass.  Then there were the rumours that some players would not play on a line with some others, causing what appeared to be major chemistry issues on the ice.

The Ugly

The Mustangs game on the Saturday will be remembered for one thing; a coach so out of control he lost the game for his team.  I have heard people talk about how the Stangs were goons that game, and i want to point out that the team simply followed the example led by their coach at the time.  As soon as he was ejected from the game the Mustangs settled down and played much better hockey.  Don’t hate the Mustangs for that game, as it takes 2 to tango.

A forfeiture is hard to take, especially when it could be argued that it cost a spot in the finals.  The Sunday game against the Ice Dogs was cancelled due to a malfunction at the Gold Coast Rink.  Both teams agreed it was unplayable and the league ruled the match a forfeit.  This was not the first time this had happened, and the Melbourne Ice were forced to forfeit a game a few seasons back for the same reason.  People need to stop hating the Ice Dogs for that situation, as the Ice Dogs and Tongues BOTH agreed that the ice was unplayable.  As i understand it (having read the full report) the Dogs did not petition for the forfeit, that was the leagues decision.  As i said in an earlier blog post, don’t hate the league for the decision, hate the Gold Coast rink for being so crap and if you must, hate the team for choosing to play out of that rink.

Looking Forward…

It’s the long off-season we go through now.  6 months of no AIHL hockey for us Blue Tongues fans, gives us plenty of time to speculate on what could happen.  How will the team look without Dave Upton?  Who will the new imports be? Will the Blue Tongues play at the Gold Coast? Will this be the last season captain Ross Howell laces up the skates?  We sure hope not!

The AIHL are rumoured to be bringing in rink standards as of next season and the Gold Coast rink is well below this standard.  Contrary to popular belief, the league CAN rule the rink below standard and force the Blue Tongues to find a new rink.   As a fan of this team i hope those in charge are taking this possibility very seriously.  The good news is, there are always rinks up in Brisbane which are well above standard.

The Blue Tongues season may be over, but don’t forget that the 2011 AIHL Finals are this weekend, the 3rd and 4th September, 2011.  Full details can be found here.

Related posts:

1. Staring Down The Barrel At The 2011 AIHL Finals
2. AIHL To Determine Blue Tongues Season
3. 2010 AIHL Finals