Postgame Interviews for PCLCvsGA; Final Observations
Photo Credit: Asher Greene/Georgia Swarm
Panther City LC (1-3) battled back early in the second half but couldn’t complete the comeback against the Georgia Swarm (3-1) at Gas South Arena Saturday night. 2020 NLL MVP Shayne Jackson scored half the Swarm’s goals, storming off the short bench in the second and fourth quarters to lead the Swarm to their 12-10 win.
Postgame, I spoke with Panther City Head Coach Tracey Kelusky, veteran forward Callum Crawford, Swarm Head Coach Ed Comeau, and captain Jordan MacIntosh about the game, their respective seasons, and looks ahead.
After all the interviews, I’ve posted my final observations on the contest.
*Questions and responses have been minimally edited for clarity*
Tracey Kelusky
Tough loss, especially with the way you guys battled back for the first 17 minutes of the second half. What's the feeling, the vibe right now?
I don't want to be patting anybody on the back. It's a good punch back in the second half. But the most discouraging thing is that’s our season right now, is the tale of two teams. When we're content and we think we can just show up and go out and play, that's what the first quarter looks like, and that's what our season looks like. When we want to punch back and we want to buy in and we want to play with urgency and we want to compete, again, that's the second half. And that's been really the course of this season for us. There's been spurts of really, really good lacrosse, and there's been spurts of I don't even know who we are.
So again, it's about getting back to our identity and understanding what that is, and that's what we're trying to build with these guys, and talk about is hey, how do we survive as a group? We survive through hard work. We got away from some of that I think this year, obviously the whole year. That's my opinion.
So Nick (Damude), was he just not seeing those bouncers early on?
Defensively, we weren't doing what we needed to do. We were doing some uncharacteristic things, but at the same point, it's like we identified 4 (Lyle Thompson), 42 (Andrew Kew), and 32 (Jackson). 100 (point), 100, 100 guys, 100% of your attention 100% of the time. They're the guys that are, you know, if they're in their spot, they're great players. It's not about stopping those guys; it’s about limiting what they have, and I didn't think we did a good job on them defensively. We didn’t mark out well, and we kind of hung him out to dry. I guess one, another positive is Cam MacLeod comes in and plays really well in the second half.
Yeah, he looked absolutely phenomenal. What does that kind of do for you and the rest of the club?
We know what we have in Cam. He's a great goalie ... That's the least of our problems. Again, if you look at it defensively, yeah, it was a bad first half, but we’ve got to get things going on the offensive side of it, in particular, and having our main guys be our main guys. Our main guys haven’t been our main guys thus far.
One of your main guys, Crawford, another eight-point night, and one thing I really noticed that he was trying to do is thread skip pass over towards that low Island and everything. Seemed like he was just a second ahead of the younger guys. Is that just still building chemistry with them?
Yeah, I think a little bit, and Callum, he’s been the one bright spot on our offense. We brought him in to be a point guy and a guy that can manufacture his own and put numbers up. He's doing that. Sometimes it’s like a less-is-more scenario sometimes with him, I think. We’ve just got him moving it and making the easier pass. But at the same point, he’s the least of our worries.
Look ahead for you guys, you guys just came off a bye week, you don't have as much time to kind of sit and stew on the loss.
I think that’s a good thing for us. You lose, and then you have a week off, and you know guys are fired up. They want to get back and play, and then you have a week off, and maybe they forget that feeling of losing. We're 1-3; our backs are against the wall. Like I said to that group after the game, I like our group, I like what we have here, I like the character in this room, but ultimately, you got to show up. I don't know if we're preparing as well as we should be through the course of the week. This loss stings in particular because of the way we fought back. It's very indicative of how we've been doing all year. It's two different teams are showing up at different points in different games.
Last one for me and this is something I think has really been noticeable in the last few losses. The run game for you guys hasn't quite been there like it has last season, season before. Is there a reason for that, or just kind of teams are adjusting to you?
No, I think we’re scouted well, but I also think that maybe some of our guys think they've arrived, too, and they haven’t maybe been putting in the work that they should be putting into it to get to that get to where they were getting to and contribute where they have. We made a couple of adjustments today and this weekend for our run game to help us out a little bit better, and I think we manufactured a couple in transition, but still not at the pace of play that I want to be playing at.
Photo Credit: Asher Greene/Georgia Swarm
Callum Crawford
Tough start to the season. You guys aren't where you want to be. What's the mood in the locker room right now?
Not good, yeah, nor should it be. It's tough. It's one thing to lose, and it's like we had no business in that game, and it's another to lose games that you genuinely feel you should be winning, not just could but should be. Earning wins is the key, and obviously we haven't done enough to earn wins. We had a great second half, but you can't play a first half like we did and expect to win a game. So yeah, it's not a good feeling there right now. Obviously, we're a family. We’re all together and everything, but it just sucks.
Talking about that second half. From your vantage point what really differentiated it from that first half?
Competed on everything. Literally everything, we competed from the first whistle. It was a different approach. It wasn't hey, I want to win a lacrosse game. It was hey, I want to win everything that I do, and not individually winning. It was a group of guys that were trying to just be better than the person they were competing against. It changed at what they were competing against and everything, and I think that was genuinely the difference.
Looking at Nick, didn't have his best game of the night, obviously, and it kind of hurt a little bit not have (Matt) Hossack out there. But then you have Cam come in, young kid. Did the defense clean up some stuff from your vantage point, just kind of help him out a little bit?
It had nothing to do with Nick; it had nothing to do with goals that were on Cloudy. We gave them transition looks with one of the best, if not the best player to come off the bench the league has now and may have ever had in Shayne Jackson. I need to see the film and how, you know, what we were doing to allow that to happen, and it's out of the front door, so I don't have an answer. But it's not even that Nick was playing poorly. Obviously, Cloudy made some incredible saves and had a great second half. He was awesome.
The defense, again, they just competed differently. They were more prideful about themselves. I think there's too much at times in team sports that it's all about the team team team, and sometimes you’ve just got to individually want to be better yourself than whoever the hell you're competing against, and ultimately, that's going to be for your team. And I think that was a little bit of a difference, because each individual person gave a shit about their individual compete level. We saw a better product.
So, still a relatively young offense around you and everything, and you’re still playing at a very high level. How do you use all of your experience, all your tenure and everything to help get those guys to be better and develop?
I fall in line. I be an extension of what our coaches are saying. I need to practice what they preach, and if I'm doing it, the rest usually will follow. I'm a lead-by-example person more than a vocal (leader), try to be at least anyways. I need to see the film, but you know, I wasn't my best and haven't been my best this season, and I think there were so many great opportunities our offense had. I think their goaltending played fantastic. It's just a combination of things that didn't add up for us today.
Photo Credit: Asher Greene/Georgia Swarm
Jordan MacIntosh
This is your best start since 2017. The last couple of years have been a little bit slower and everything. You guys have obviously done some stuff to help ensure that you get off to hot start and everything. But again, 4-1 is nothing to sneeze at. Just as the captain of this team, what's working for you guys? What are you seeing that's helping to be successful early?
Yeah, it's kind of been a different story every game, I think. We've had the couple wins against Colorado where the offense put on a show, and then we've had a couple of tighter games the last two where we really, really leaned on Dobber (Brett Dobson) in net. He's been playing great. I think, you know, every win in this league is gonna look a little different. Tonight's a good example of like, you know, feeling really good in the first half, and credit to Panther City, they played their butts off in the second. I don't know what it is. I think we're a little bit more, a little older now, a little bit more mature. We've added some great pieces in the offseason, and then Dobber’s has been playing lights out for us.
You've already touched on that second half. They rattled off five straight end up tying the game. Were they just coming out and outworking you guys in that second half early on?
I kind of said it in the room like, I've been fortunate enough to play with TK, their coach, and I knew what was probably happening in that room at halftime. They were going to come out, and they did, and offensively, you know, they were really setting hard picks. I think there was a couple goals where our D guys were laying on the ground while they were putting the ball in the net. Quite frankly, the last couple of games, we’ve been getting ourselves into some penalty trouble. I think we had seven or eight penalties tonight. You're given teams that many opportunities in this league, they're going to score, and they have a very good power play. So, I think we got a little unsettled. We lost our heads a bit because of some of the penalties, and then you know, finally kind of settled in with a couple of transition goals and got the win.
Is there anything that you can say about Dobson that can properly put into words how good he's being for how young he is in his career?
Honestly, it's not really surprising. He is an absolute student of the game. We'll play, and then the next night, he's sending clips to our D guys and notes to our D guys about the next team we're playing. So, he loves it, and he holds himself to a really high standard. I think he's matured a lot from year one to year two in terms of just like preparation and how he's getting ready for games. Yeah, it makes it a lot easier to play defense when you know that some of the outside stuff he's going to mop up, and then he makes some of those saves that he shouldn't really make.
You play defense, but you and Bryan Cole also play offense more than a lot of transition guys do, like you guys are actual two-way players, and it gives your offense a lot of different looks. How is that affecting the floor, being able to do as much as you are, generating towards the success?
Well, I think I wouldn't put myself in the same breath as Colsey. He's much better offensively than me, but I think it allows us to mix with the roster a little bit, so like, some games will play 11 D guys and six O guys, and then that means Nickels and I will play a little bit more up. Some games, we'll play seven O and 10, and we'll be more defensively responsible. And then I think it helps in a game like today where Bomber (Brendan Bomberry) got dinged up early in the game, and we need some spells on offense to give them some lungs. It's great to have someone, especially like Bryan, who can do it all out there.
Last one for me. Is there anyone that you can think of that loves that short run from the bench like Shayne does?
No, I mean, I've probably passed him 30 of those in my career, and I think now on our team, two-on-one, he's pretty automatic there. He's just been — I think today he was six and four. You know, he’s the reason we won. He's been awesome to start the year in scoring big clutch goals like he did today. So yeah, he's still doing it. He's a pretty special player.
Photo Credit: Asher Greene/Georgia Swarm
Ed Comeau
You guys are 4-1. This is the best record that you've had since the 2017 championship winning season. What's the vibe around the team? What do you think is leading to this early success?
Brett Dobson has been a big factor. He's been really good for a number of games. When you have a goalie that you have confidence in that's going to make big saves, that certainly gives a lot of the team confidence.
Guys have really played hard but played together, and that's a big thing. We always talk about doing the little things and guys running hard. We had I forgot how many transition goals; it was probably four. Those goals, other than Coles’s goal, the Jacko transition goals were from guys running hard to the bench. So guys are doing that, sacrificing for each other, blocking shots, making plays.
Zach Miller had a great loose ball late in the game, behind the net battling, and those are the little things. The guys are just dialed in on that, and everyone's committed. Four and one’s great, but we know 4-1 in January doesn't guarantee anything. So a lot of work to do and a lot of teams at this point in the year are still getting through training camp injuries, battling some things, so, we know it's just going to get harder down the stretch.
Speaking of injuries, Bomberry, looked like he took a hit early on in the game and then didn't come back out. Any update on what's going on there?
He got a bump, and we're going to evaluate it. Hopefully, it's something that he can get himself cleared on and get back to playing, but we'll have to assess that during the week. And oftentimes after games, adrenaline's pumping, and the next day or the next couple days usually tell you a little bit more of a story about whether a guy is going to be able to go, so we hope he is. Bomber’s played great for us this year. Another guy doing the little things that I mentioned, clearing space and great rebounds, great shots, so hopefully he's good to go.
First half, you guys ended up chasing Damude early in the second. Then second half comes around, get bageled in third quarter, and it takes some short bench work from Jackson to kind of make up the difference. What was going on in the 17 minutes that started the second half?
We said at halftime, their coaching staff is very intense. We knew they were going to come out hard. They weren't happy with their performance. So, we were expecting them to come out hard. I think the big thing for us was our offense just really bogged down. We didn't move our feet as much. We didn’t generate inside opportunities. We settled for outside shots, which got blocked, didn't even get through. So for us, when a team goes on a run like that, the only way to stop that run is really to score a goal, and we just couldn't get it done. So, that’s something that we talked about in the coaches’ office, something we’ve got to look at and see.
I don't know if it was necessarily anything they did that changed other than just us — you know, they played hard for sure. They definitely played much harder. But I think a big part of it was just us just really settling for what they're giving us instead of working hard to get the opportunities that we got in the first first half.
Ahead for you guys is Albany, 5-0. They’re the surprise of the season. I don't think anyone's going to say anything otherwise, and whenever (FireWolves General Manager and Head Coach Glenn) Clark brings that company over here, they always play tough. What's the plan besides watching film, seeing what they did against Halifax?
Well, first we kind of wrap this one up and look at this and kind of try to learn from what we did well or what we need to do better. Then we'll focus on Albany, but I agree. No one expected them to be 5-0, but Clarkie’s done a great job. He's got a young team. One of our former players, Ethan Walker, we love, and great players, playing great for them with some rookies. That's just an example of young guys just going out there and and playing unselfishly, and they're getting good goaltending from Doug (Jamieson). So, that's a recipe for success is balanced scoring and really good goaltending, and they're getting that.
Yeah, we’ll have our hands full next week, but looking forward to playing that battle. I don't think anyone expected us to be where we are either. So, a couple teams that are, you know, early, really early exceeding expectations. But we know awards aren’t handed out in December, January, so we both have a long, long way to go.
You've coached a lot of players in this league and have been around for a minute. Is there a player you can think of that loves that short run from the bench to the goal more than Shayne?
The only other player I think in our league in recent history is Dane Dobbie that did it when he was in Calgary, had so many goals coming off the bench. Shayne's great at it. He mixes his shots up, he finishes. He's the first one to say that that doesn't happen if someone isn’t busting their tail to the bench. But he certainly executes on those, and it's not by accident either. He does a bunch of those in warm-ups and practices, he simulates those shots. Yeah, we're happy. I have no issue about him being the first guy out the door in the second and fourth in Georgia, no issue at all.
Photo Credit: Asher Greene/Georgia Swarm
Final Observations
Some final thoughts on last night’s contest:
I’ve watched Jackson score coming off the home bench in the second and fourth quarters more times than I can count plus four more times last night — it’s why I wrote “Textbook” in my notes after I saw the first one. His final four goals were all scored the same way, first guy off the bench in transition, taking advantage of a great feed from a teammate and an even better run off the floor from a defender. Cole had the assist on two of Jackson’s transition goals, Liam Byrnes and Mike Manley the other helpers.
Crawford had this insane vision going during settled sets where he was on the high wing right side and saw the opening to the low man on the left side. He made the skip feed beautifully when he saw it, and if Dobson didn’t save the ensuing open lefty shot, then the intended recipient didn’t snag it. Ironically, Crawford found success on a similar play where his teammates didn’t, receiving the feed from Tony Malcom and burying it from the wrong side of the floor.
It’s early, my counts will get more correct and official after I score this game, but I had the Swarm with five transition goals and PCLC with one, T. Malcom with the jab step towards midrange center floor to hammer it home. Georgia’s lone non-Jackson tranny goal came via Cole’s deke and dip on Damude.
The reason I bring up transition is because Panther City plays a high-risk, high-reward style. They try and match the 5-on-5 game (which defensively they’re really great at) and overwhelm the opponents in transition and on the power play. Match the opponent settled? They did that against the Swarm. Win the power play game? Kind of. While they scored a pair of PPG, the Swarm had a PPG of their own and a pair or shorthanded tallies, balancing out PCLC’s shorthanded marker there — 3 and 3, call special teams a wash. Transition just wasn’t there for the visiting club.
Jeff Henrick had my favorite defensive play of the game. PCLC transitioned back to their offensive end, with Will Malcom ending up with the ball. As he ran past the Swarm bench, Henrick came streaking off it. W. Malcom turned to plant his feet and pass the ball to get the settled game going; Henrick didn’t stop streaking. He knocked the younger Malcom off his feet, which caught the board signage during his recovery roll. The ball dislodged up the floor when Will recovered his footing, and Mathieu Gautier scooped the loosie. Tracking the ball, Henrick immediately switched his coverage, didn’t let a W. Malcom pick bother him, reversed course to continue following Gautier, and harassed him along the boards, forcing Gautier to lose his footing in front of the ref. The ball dislodged up into the air, W. Malcom snags the rebound as TJ Comizio checks his stick for the turnover. Pretty sure Comizio got credited with the CTO, but unreal aggression from the eighth overall pick in the 2020 NLL Entry Draft led to it.
Ryan Sheridan has been so much fun to watch this season. Not many rookies play with the audacity he does. While he’s not filling up the stats sheet early on in his NLL career, it’s not from lack of effort, and his successes stand out all the more when he does damage. His lone goal of the game came in the final minute of the third quarter. The fifth overall pick in the 2023 NLL Entry Draft deftly dodged a perpendicular slide from Manley across his numbers and roped the ball perfectly into the far corner, knowing a hard slide from Kason Tarbell was coming his way and soaking it anyways.
Refs need to start calling chinstrap violations again. Too many helmets flew off Saturday night. Not enough zebra hands went up in the air. Some rules are stupid, like flagging a player for wearing non-league sponsored gear. Some rules are for player safety, much as they may not like it. Keeping protective gear on the most important body part falls in the latter category.