20/11/2025
Last weekend we took ourselves down to Geelong for the 2025 Australian Flyball Nationals. Over 3000km of driving - many of us have never driven this far before.
Airborne Growlers comprised of Wednesday, Clancy, Jem, Koda, Billy and Opal were seeded in division two. We have raced well this year and felt like we had a chance to do that at Nats but nats being nats and dogs being dogs we dealt with pretty much everything in the lead up and on the day. Dog injuries, dogs doing strange things we had it all. Actually, the fact that we made it through the weekend, fielding a team every race and supporting each other through the highs and lows to come 4th in our division feels like a miracle. I’m very proud of how we all worked through the challenges thrown at us.
We had 3 club dogs listed in our open team - Just Plane Fast - Lincoln, Marley and Izzy. We were joined by Sadie sans owner and she was run by Courtney from Unleashed. Thank you Kath for letting us take your dog on an epic flyball adventure! We had two late withdrawals from this team due to illness which left us scrambling to put a team together. Izzy from Coastal High Flyers loaned us Raven for the weekend. Sadly Izzy couldn’t join us so Connie had the pleasure of handling him for the weekend. It was love at first sight for these two and they performed amazingly all weekend, considering Raven had never raced with any of the team dogs before. Thanks Izzy for the loaner! Bolstering the numbers was Jem - cross listed between the two teams. He coped with the pressure well and was happy to race wherever he was asked - a true utility player. A stellar effort to get a team on the ground every heat of every race and we came fifth in that division.
We wouldn’t have made it into the lanes without our support crew - Dale for stepping in last minute to box load. It’s been a while between jerseys for Dale but he was awesome as always. Ollie our favourite ball sh***er - his legs are longer every year! It’s not nats without Ollie so we are so pleased he was there. Thanks also to Nic for box loading for JPF and Jo for pass calling. Cam had us entertained in camp and stepped in wherever we needed him. Everyone who stepped in to change heights, lift the box in and out, pick up balls, helping with dog wrangling, set up, pack down. We appreciate you all. It may not have been the result we wanted but to show up and display the resilience we did despite all the odds - that was the massive achievement for the weekend.
So…. When’s the next one??