Nemesis's Ho Stack: Point #1 v. Viva

This post is dedicated to Sur because she said I should write it.  This post has a lot of potential to be awkward and lacking concreteness because I haven’t read Nemesis’s playbook.  I don’t know what their ho-stack is trying to do nor do I know what they’ve been taught to do.  Given that I can’t do anything about these limitations I will just write about what I would do.

Here is the lovely Christina Sur, wide open.  If she takes the green line she’s open right away, instead she takes the red line behind the thrower’s mark and doesn’t tempt Sam Cain to throw to her. It is possible that Sur is trying to execute a diamond cut where she will sweep out of the way allowing JJ tons of space.  Diagram below:

If this is what Nemesis is going for they get it, but Sam doesn’t seem to be privy to the game plan as she stares at Carol and misses a wide open JJ in the below screen shot.

At this point Nemesis has lost two opportunities to hit an open cutter downfield.  Their central cutters have cycled and they end up in the screenshot below.

My first issue is their width.  The red lines shown are the distance from sideline to the widest cutters.  The next two cutters are cut in half by the camera, but they can be seen downfield of the clearing cutters.  Compare Nemesis’s width to Riot’s width in the below:

This frame is from the moment after Riot’s middle cutters have made their moves, a similar time as the screen shot for Nemesis.  Riot is creating a wider field than Nemesis.

Sara Miller comes from the forceside, catches a dump behind Sam, and throws a continue to Allie Fish.

JJ is open.  If she goes on the green line Allie can hit her, but she takes the red line and isn’t an option.  I hate the width that Dobby (Is #21 Dobby?) is creating.  I would want her at the blue dot, giving JJ a 30 yard box in the middle of the field to beat her defender in.  I think there are guys on BMU that couldn’t cover JJ in a 30 yard box and I think Nemesis needs to take advantage of her motor more.

Dobby gets the cut that JJ gets.  Why did we have to wait for Dobby to make this cut when JJ could have made it 3 stall counts ago?

Dobby hits a pass to the sideline and proceeds to jog on the red line.  She takes herself to the middle of the field and camps out right where everyone is trying to attack their cuts to.  In this frame you can see that Sur has not only a better angle than her defender, but her body and is lined up as well.  If Dobby had swept along the green line and created width, the throw from JJ to Sur would be more tempting.  Dobby eventually gets this disc.

Allie is downfield for a strong continue pass, but Dobby catches facing the sideline and never pulls her eyes off of the sideline.  Her first move is to JJ.  I think a ho-stack should be middle oriented.  Keeping the disc centered creates space that makes it easier to get downfield isolations, like Allie in this screen shot.  I am bothered that Dobby doesn’t even look at Allie.

Dobby sends it to JJ, some kind of call is made, and the disc goes back to Dobby.  Now that she has time to look around she realizes that Allie, after all of this time, is still open in the middle of the field.  What’s great about this play is Sur attacking behind Allie, if Nemesis gets Allie the disc it feels like Sur will be in a great continue spot.  What’s bad about this play is the width, or lack-there-of, that Sam Cain is creating downfield.

Mostly I am just thinking, “get out of Sur’s way!”  Carol and Sam even run into each other in the below frame.

Sur is in the best attack spot.  If we remove Carol and Sam from where they are, then it is Sur 1v1 in a gigantic 30 yard box.  This white girl has no chance 1v1 with Sur in this kind of space.  Unfortunately the antics of the handlers clogs a valuable attack space for Sur and distracts Allie.

In the above screenshot Sur finally gets the space and gets open.  Allie made her catch at 1:03 she releases it at 1:09, the stall was probably around 8.  Fine, the disc eventually got to where I wanted it to go, but why did it take 8 stalls?  With better spacing couldn’t we have gotten here in < 3?

What if Sam wasn’t in the above screen shot?  What if sometime during the mess with Carol Sam realized she needed to stop being in the way and clear?  What if she had hustled to the blue dot and created width? JJ would have a massive amount of space to roast this girl.  This girl is not going to guard JJ in this space.  Instead we have Sam jogging straight downfield of Sur while looking back at Sur.  If Sam puts her head down and runs hard maybe Sur hits this fade, but that doesn’t happen either.

Sam goes for an undercut, against a defender that was playing underneath her the whole time, and then she clears straight deep! (Shown in the frame below)

Sam has spent an inordinate amount of time in the best place to get open.  JJ and Dobby, two far better athletes, are just idly waiting for Sam to move so they can get open.

Sur hits Miller on an upline.  Sam is still in the prime attacking space.  I don’t actually have a problem with this stand-a-lone moment, but I do have a problem with how long Sam has been directly downfield of the disc.  Sam has been hogging the space so long that JJ has actually cycled out of her spot and let Dobby into the continue cutter position.  The last issue I have with this is that Sam never touches the disc.  During this entire sequence she manages to create no separation at all.  Meanwhile some very athletic cutters are just waiting to get open.

She’s gassed and clears, not well but she clears enough where Dobby is at long last able to put her girl on the pain train.  This completion brings Nemesis into their endzone set and outside of the scope of this  post.

If I were coaching this Nemesis ho stack I would be harping on creating width, keeping the disc centered, and clearing out sooner.