Postgame Interviews for COLvsGA; Final Observations
Photo Credit: Kyle Hess/Georgia Swarm
The Georgia Swarm (1-0) had three quarters with five goals scored, beating the Colorado Mammoth (0-1) 16-10 for the first time since 2017. The game was highlighted by a trio of fights in the final minute of play.
Postgame, I spoke with Mammoth Captain Robert Hope and Head Coach Pat Coyle about their team’s efforts that night and look ahead. I also spoke with Swarm Head Coach Ed Comeau about the Swarm’s defense and look ahead at their three-game road trip.
After all the interviews, I’ve posted my final observations on the contest.
*Questions and responses have been minimally edited for clarity*
Robert Hope
Obviously not the way that you guys wanted to start the season. What from your viewpoint was just kind of what the story of the game tonight?
Hope: Yeah, I think we had a game plan. We had some goals to start the season defensively and offensively. I thought that at times we got away from them. And again, they capitalized on their opportunities when they got them. I thought, again, we settled in, but by that time, it was a little bit too late. We had some good push back at times, and we strung together a couple, couple good sets defensively. But then again, we had too many lapses just with our team principles. And I mean, the ball ended up in the back of our net. I mean, they got a lot of rebounds, resets. I don't know what the shots were, but it felt like they were, they got a couple or a lot of second chance opportunities in the first half, and again, when you're playing a lot of D, it makes it just difficult on us. But again, at times, we're right back at it with them. So, it's one of those things — nutrition, gym, watch the film and get right back at it, and we'll be a lot more.
It seemed like you guys got more physical in the third quarter and not talking about like the rough stuff at the very end. But like defensively you guys were a lot more aggressive. Was that actually something that you guys were talking to them after halftime?
Hope: Yeah, I think just that was just a part of our team principle in general. It's a tough league, and when you're tough on offensive players, it just makes it hard for them to go the middle to attack and so on and so forth. So, I thought we did a better job later with that and with with moving the ball up the floor that led to maybe not some transition, but led to opportunities for offense at times, which is a little bit easier for the breakout. So again, like I said, we’ll watch the film, we’ll get back at it. There were some shoddy things in the first period, I think, that led to them having a good lead. And then the second and then I think we cleared some of those things up, but again, too many mistakes, myself included.
What was it that you were saying to the ref after you got up off the floor in third?
Hope: Well, I was, first of all, I was wondering who it was. And then second of all, I was wondering why there wasn't a penalty called on it. I just — I’ll have to watch the film. But just from how I felt, I didn't obviously feel great. So, I guess watch the film. I thought it was a penalty, but again, I haven't seen the film, and so I just assumed that it would have been and it wasn't so.
So, you guys have a weird start, and I don't think it's really one that anyone envies where you're off the first week, play the Swarm, and now you're off again. You're going to play the Swarm again, at least at home. What's kind of the look ahead for you guys, like how do you adjust or how do you guys plan for that?
Hope: Yeah, I think that's just the part of the league. I know other teams have had that. I know we've had that in previous years. Maybe not the same team. But we've been through this before. So, we'll have a good week, hopefully, just making sure that we work out, do the proper things, proper nutrition, get a good practice in, and then we'll be right back at it. Again, let's learn from the film, so again, we just got to constantly get better. I mean, these games are so important, especially with the way that they've changed obviously the conferences and seeing new teams and making adjustments. And so these are, every game is just so important. So again, given that one off stuff, but again, we'll learn from and get back after it.
Pat Coyle
Obviously not the way that you guys wanted to start the season and everything, just what's kind of the immediate message?
Coyle: Well, we have to look at the film, and I thought we had moments where we looked really good, and then a whole bunch of moments where we didn't, so we've got to clean up the ones where we didn't look good, and I don't know. It's, you know, I think it would be easy to say that we don't have our full roster. We're missing Dillon Ward in net, but I thought Tyler Carlson played well. I don't know. Just maybe some urgency. We need to play a little with more.
So one of the things that you talked about when you were doing the Coaches Calls with Brad (Challoner) was talking about the right side trying to form that identity and everything, and that was the last seaso,n but for this season, it looks like you're in a similar situation, and they actually did manage to find it in that second half. What were you seeing from them?
Coyle: Yeah, I thought our second half offensively, which was much better, even defensively, it was much better in the second half. I still think we can be better, and we need to finish our opportunities. We had some really good opportunities, and you know, their goalie played well. But I think if we bury a few more, it changes the game.
Yeah, you guys had a lot of two-man chances where guys were all alone on the doorstep —
Coyle: Yeah, he (Brett Dobson) made some good saves.
Yeah. One of the things I noticed this game out of your 10 goals, nine of them were settled, and then you had one on the power play. So no transition at all. What do you attribute that to?
Coyle: Probably our roster. Just, we're missing five D guys. Like literally five of our starters from last year aren't in the lineup, and a lot of them are faster guys. So, just some of the younger guys maybe don't feel as comfortable or the flow of the game yet. So, probably just not as fast on the back end right now.
End of the game, all the fights and everything. Did you like the aggression that you received from you guys late?
Coyle: For sure. Yeah, there was a moment in the second quarter there where our captain sort of got a cheap shot at behind the play and didn't feel like the refs were protecting our guys, so I like how our guys stood up for each other there.
Photo Credit: Kyle Hess/Georgia Swarm
Final one for me looking ahead for you guys. Weird start to the season, obviously bye week last week, play the Swarm, bye week again, play the Swarm again, albeit in your barn. Is this too early — you touched on being banged up and everything. Is it too early to start really focusing on other teams? Or is it more just focus on your own team and like what you guys can do to clean up?
Coyle: Well, the one good thing about the way the season starting is that we're playing them again. So, we're gonna have a whole bunch of material to go into in two weeks. That part's good and a lot of motivation, I think. And then we'll deal with the game after that. After that, I know it's sort of trite saying that, but we're just worried about them and us right now.
Are you hoping that you'll be able to get a lot of guys that are injured back in lineup?
Coyle: In two weeks? Yeah, we know there's, it's just guys are going to trickle in. We expect a couple will be in in a couple of weeks. I think Dillon Ward will be ready to go in two weeks. So that's, I don't know, that just gives us a lot of confidence, you know, just having him back there.
Ed Comeau
So early result and everything, but it seems like the plan that you guys did regarding training camp, delaying it and everything so you guys can start off hot seems to be working out early on.
Comeau: Yeah, you know I thought our camp was good. We've had a lot of years where we've kind of stubbed our toe off the start, so having a good start was something we talked a lot about. We know from last year having the start we had that you don’t get some wins early, you’re fighting, you’re swimming upstream the whole season, and we did that last year. So, it was important, and you know, we battled hard. Colorado not having Dillon Ward, kind of an all-world goalie in there, that certainly played to our favor tonight, but I thought that Carlson played well, made some good saves. Yeah, I was happy with the effort and obviously very happy with the outcome.
So putting up 16, but you guys did a lot of what you were successful at last year when you were winning those eight games where you control the even strength game. I think you outscored them 12 to 9 in that category. Really diverse output from your forwards. What were you seeing from them that was working?
Comeau: Well, I think Andy Secore talked a lot about just getting topside, swinging the ball. The great thing with our offense is no one is worried about getting their shots. Everyone on our offense had shots tonight, including, you know, Brady Kearnan, rookie, again his first goal. There was a lot of guys contributing, and that's what we need from our offense. Lyle’s obviously a special player, but we're not asking Lyle to go out there and make everything happen, you know. We got also guys like Brendan Bomberry and Zach Miller that do tons of things that don't always end up on the scoresheet but make plays for guys. So, yeah, it was a great effort by our offense, and hopefully we can continue playing that type of lacrosse.
So looking at the defensive side of things, Colorado, especially in that second half, their two-man game was really effective, but Dobson was making a lot of high danger saves. What do you make of his performance, and do you see it as him still continuing to develop as a goalie?
Comeau: I mean, yeah, I mean, he's gonna continue to develop. That's his 14, that's his 15th game as a starter in this league. So yeah, he's going to continue to get better. And, you know, that's what good goalies have done in this league for a lot of years, whether it was, you know, Watson, Patty O'Toole, Matt Vinc, Dillon Ward, Christian Del Bianco, Mike Poulin. They bail their defense out when there's a miscue, and he did that, and you know, certainly some things we got to clean up defensively. Yeah, he bailed us on those, and again, that's that's kind of his job, make the saves you should make, bail us out on a couple of those, and then make a couple of great saves, and he did that tonight for sure.
So looking ahead for you guys, three-game road trip and everything. You go into Vancouver for the first time since actually pre-pandemic. I think that's a team that a lot of people project to be really good, but they kind of had a rough start. They're coming out a bye week, too. What's kind of the look ahead you guys with them?
Comeau: Well, you know, new coach there, like new attitude, lots of new players. The one thing to know about Curt Malawsky coached teams, they’re well-coached and well-prepared, and they're not going to quit. Yeah, and you know, they're playing at home. Everyone wants to, you know, kind of defend home court. So, for them, you know, having a home game, and that's important for you know, not just their team, but for their business. So, you know, we know they're watching tonight, and we know they'll have a game plan for us. We're not looking back and saying, you know, we're playing whatever they were, 4-14 team, whatever they were last year. We're looking at it saying we're playing a team that's started 0-1 that's going to be really hungry playing at home. So, I think for us, you know, we've got to do more of the same, got to clean up a few of the D stuff, D things, and continue to do the things we did on offense.
Photo Credit: Kyle Hess/Georgia Swarm
Final Observations
Some quick final thoughts on last night’s contest:
Colorado’s two-man game, especially in the second half, was really good. Swarm weren’t making the adjustments they needed, and Brett Dobson was cleaning up so many missed assignments one-on-none.
Dobson also had Zed Williams’ number, which was insane. Holding him to an apple is incredible; dude couldn’t buy a goal, but certainly not from lack of effort. Dobson just read his shots perfectly, and when he didn’t, the uprights bailed him out.
Warren Jeffrey had a slide on the power play that just stunned me with how perfect it was. A skip feed was coming from Lyle Thompson from the point to Shayne Jackson down low on the pentagon, and Jeffrey, ball-watching, immediately slid towards Jackson once Lyle’s stick head started the motion to pass and got on Jackson’s hands, disrupting the pass and getting the loose ball to kill clock. Just a heads up play from an unreal defender that seems small but was huge.
No transition from the Mammoth, which Coyle was candid on. Until guys get healthy and reinforce the lineup, the Mammoth are a bit one dimensional. That said, 9 ESG usually wins you a game.
The skip feeds for the Swarm were so good. There was a connection from Brendan Bomberry to Jackson that was dealing damage all game long, a new element to an already dangerous Swarm O.
Dylan Kinnear and Connor Robinson combined for a pair of goals in the second half, complementing the trio of right-handed goals in the second half for the Mammoth. It was 4-1 the lefties’ way in the first thirty minutes. Part of that was the Swarm making adjustments on Chris Wardle and Eli McLaughlin, who each had a potted pair, but part of it was Connor Kelly and Tyson Gibson getting comfortable with each other as the game went on and cashing in.
These two meeting so soon is an interesting scenario, particularly because the Mammoth go on a bye week and will watch the Swarm play the Warriors in Week 3. The Swarm hadn’t beaten the Mammoth since their 2017 season, going 0-6 against them since 2018. The Swarm haven’t beaten the Mammoth at Ball Arena since 2012, when they were still the Minnesota Swarm. On the bench for the Mammoth in that loss? Swarm Head Coach Ed Comeau.