Admirals vs Titans Film Review
Author: Ben Mertens
Wow. Coming in as underdogs, according to most analysts, the New York Titans opened the 2022 season with a statement win over the Washington Admirals, gutting out a narrow win in game 1 and blowing out Washington in game 2 before dropping game 3 in a next goal wins situation. How did they do it? In a word, defense. Their ability to turn Washington over fueled the Titan’s transition attack on a day when New York’s own half court offense had plenty of struggles, and their tenacity and creativity on defense stifled Washington's potentially explosive offense. To get a better sense of how New York pulled this off, let's dive into the film.
New York played a mark defense for the series, but they flashed multiple different looks within the broad concept of mark. The classic mark defense is a point defender guarding the other team’s ballhandler, two defensive chasers tightly guarding two opposing wing chasers, and the defensive keeper covering the hoops, leaving one offensive chaser unmarked.
Washington struggled even against the classic mark defense, which was disappointing to see - New York also ran mark defense last season. But New York deserves a ton of credit for utilizing several variations of mark defense throughout the series, which confused the Admirals and stopped them from ever becoming comfortable.
The first variation was leaving the ballhandler, rather than a wing chaser, unmarked.
Here, the New York beaters are functionally the point defenders, playing high so that the ballhandler is not able to drive, while the defensive chasers mark all the passing options. The University of Maryland ran a similar defense all the way back in 2014, but New York adds an additional twist to the concept: rather than waiting at the hoops, the defensive keeper steps way up to the keeper zone line, ready to meet Washington’s ballhandler if they drive.
This defense has its risks. In the clip above, once the initial beater exchange happens between Washington’s Katryna Hicks (#2) and New York’s Kellan Cupid (#25), New York’s Tessa Mullins (#19) throws at Washington’s (offscreen) free beater, playing for bludger control over stopping the quaffle. That gives Trudeau (#19) a huge runway to get all the way to the keeper zone line. New York’s Leo Fried (#3) has stepped up to meet him at the line, which gives Trudeau multiple open hoops to shoot on. If New York tries this against Boston, for instance, Ian Scura is going to be thrilled about the opportunity to take the shot. But Trudeau much prefers to drive all the way to the hoop or pass the ball off, and so goes for the contested pass to Justin Cole (#66), leading to a stop for NY (credit to Mike Li, who was fantastic on both sides of the ball all series, for making this as hard on Cole as possible). New York also only used this concept on certain possessions, which made it difficult for Washignton to adapt or even recognize what New York was doing - in a classic mark defense, if Trudeau had a lane like that, his unmarked chaser would be cutting right to the hoops for an easy dump off. But here Trudeau himself is the unmarked chaser, a position he rarely finds himself in, and so his normal go-to read in this situation isn’t there.
One of the classic ways to break mark defense is to use the unmarked chaser as a facilitator. This is especially useful when the offense has bludger control - now the one beater on defense is forced to focus on the unmarked chaser with the ball, threatening the score, freeing up the offensive beaters to knock out defensive chasers, freeing up the offensive chasers to make scoring cuts.
Washington is especially well equipped for this strategy because they have Rachel Heald (#15), one of the best facilitators in the game, who is nonetheless left as the unmarked chaser because she’s surrounded on her line by deadly scoring wing players in Cole, David Littleton (8), and Bryan Mulcahy (#10). New York adapted to this by only leaving Heald unmarked when she was offball - when the ball went to her, their keeper left the hoops to mark her and avoid giving her room to operate. Watch how far Jon Jackson (#66) comes off the hoops both times the ball goes to Heald on this possession:
What you’ll also notice in the clip above is that Devin Lee (#7) is a huge problem for Washington’s beaters. Despite starting the possession with only 1 bludger, Lee wins an exchange with Washington’s Melissa Smith (#28), catches a beat attempt from Zain Bhalia (#4), and then beats Heald. In the span of about 5 seconds, Lee single handedly reagins bludger control for his team and creates a turnover.
Lee is a force to be reckoned with, but Washington’s beaters played right into his hands on this possession. Washington’s concept here seems to be for Smith and Bhalia to attack Lee, trying to create a no bludger situation. But why? Lee is great at winning these exchanges, and he’s sitting on his hoops so, even if he does get beat, he can quickly tag in and pick up a loose bludger on the ground. Meanwhile, New York’s chasers are running a very effective mark on DC’s chasers, so even if Lee is taken out for a couple seconds, there’s no guarantee Washington’s chasers can get into the lane.
Watch the clip again. Notice on the far side of the play that New York’s Molly Potter (#6) backs way off of Washington's Littleton because Smith is there with her bludger. But Littleton never takes the created space, and Smith never finishes the play by tapping Potter out, instead choosing to attack Lee. Meanwhile, Bhalia manages to take out New York’s free beater, Jason Ng (#8), but by the time he regains his bludger, Lee has taken out Smith, and so Bhalia throws at Lee, who comes up with the big catch.
But if Smith had taken out Potter, and Lee is still holding central, Bhalia can take out New York’s chaser Li (#11), who’s guarding Justin Cole. Now, Heald has two uncovered passing options, and because Jackson has stepped to her, they’re both cutting to wide open hoops, and have each other as passing options if Lee goes for a long beat on them. Washington can create a good look at a goal all without ever having to engage Lee in the first place.
This is close to perfect from Washington - David Littleton (#8) passes to the open Rachel Heald (#15) at the exact same moment that Melissa Smith (#28) takes out Michael Li (#11), freeing Justin Cole (#66) up for the cut. Heald sees it, and with Devin Lee (#7), Jon Jackson (#66), and Michael Johnston (#4) all looking at her, threads a dime right to Cole. I don’t think this was any sort of designed play from Washington - Smith saw a chance to get a free beat on a chaser, Littleton saw he didn’t have great space to work with and swung the ball to the open Heald, and Heald saw the defense scrambling and found Cole on a great cut. This is all Washington needs - if their beaters knock out an opposing chaser or two, Washington’s savvy passers and cutters can find the hole this opens up in the defense.
The problem is, Washington only seemed to stumble into these plays occasionally, rather than actively working to create them. Chasers and beaters often were not on the same page, leading to missed opportunities:
Early on in this clip, Tyler Trudeau (#19) swings the ball down to Riley Starrs (#23). Once that happens, Washington’s Bernie Berges (#6) taps out Trudeau’s defender just as Starrs passes the ball back to him. Now Trudeau has a lane to drive and New York is down a defender, which should be money for Washington. Dale Farnan (#30), at the center of the field, is unmarked for Washignton, and if Trudeau hits home with a bullet pass right as Titans Keeper Jon Jackson (#66) steps to cover Trudeau, Farnan will have time to shoot on an open hoop before New York’s beater sitting on the hoops can beat him. Trudeau instead goes for the drive, which for so many years would’ve been a goal, but Jon Jackson, one of the MVP’s of New York’s weekend, steps up and keeps Trudeau out of the lane.
Trudeau doesn’t get brought down, however, and eventually the play resets. Washington’s Katryna Hicks beats out New York’s point chaser Eric Pagoada, and New York’s CJ Junior steps up and attacks Hicks - leaving no point defender and no bludgers on defense for New York. That should be a goal, but here we see another excellent New York adjustment within the mark set - the New York chasers will abandon their mark if the offensive chaser isn’t in a threatening position and instead slide to cover the hoops.
At the end of the play, Trudeau has hit the lane and Berges has Junior pinned to the ground - but Trudeau has no passing options. Starrs and Farnan are flat footed and behind Trudeau. Only Julia Baer (#53), on the far side, is making an incisive cut, but because the chasers marking Farnan and Starrs have fallen to the hoops, there’s no window for Trudeau to get the ball to her. Trudeau has no option but to try and go through all the New York chasers, and when they bring him down he has only a desperation pass to Baer, which New York breaks up.
This is another example of New York stopping Washington from getting comfortable. New York shifts from a mark defense into a makeshift zone, which means Trudeau has to get through multiple people instead of 1, and the cut Baer tries is now covered. New York throwing multiple looks at Washington was the key to their win this weekend.
With New York shifting the looks, Washington ballhandlers would’ve loved to take the first couple of seconds of each possession trying to figure out what New York was doing. New York decided not to give them that opportunity:
On both of these plays, Tyler Trudeau (#19) thinks he’s protected - he has an armed beater covering him. Normally in this situation, you would expect New York’s beaters to attack Washington’s beaters. New York flips the script by having their beaters fire at Trudeau, and New York’s chasers are able to quickly scoop up the loose ball and get good transition looks.
That was the ultimate deciding factor of the weekend. New York’s own half court offense had its own problems breaking down Washington’s half court defense, and Washington caught the snitch in two of the three games. But New York’s aggressive defense and varied looks completely stifled Washington’s offense, and New York’s newfound willingness to run fast breaks off of those turnovers, even when Washington had defenders back, paid huge dividends. Look no further than the decisive play of game 1:
This play is a microcosm of the whole series. Rachel Heald (#15) gets the ball and New York’s Jon Jackson (#66) steps out aggressively to take away her lane. Once the ball swings back to Justin Cole (#66) , Washington’s Cody Nardone (#51) has the chance to tap out New York’s point defender but instead goes for a beat on Devin Lee (#7), which gets blocked. On the far side, Washington’s Heather Farnan (#11) never beats out the chaser guarding David Littleton (#8), and Littleton retreats back towards half court. Lee, after blocking Nardone’s beat, takes out Cole, who manages to get a pass off to Heald. Heald threads a laser to Bryan Mulcachy (#10), but Jackson and Lindsay Marella (#34) come up with a huge gang tackle to save a goal.
Right as Heald releases the pass, Heather Farnan beats out a New York chaser, freeing up Littleton - but the pass has already been made to Mulcahy. With a little more coordination between the beating and chasing games, Washington probably gets the goal here. Instead, Farnan gets her bludger taken by Tessa Mullins (another great performer for New York all weekend) and Nardone throws at and misses Lee, flipping bludger control back to New York. Nardone manages to rush back into the play, and Cole is set-up to play defense. Last season, New York probably slows it down and settles into a half court set in this situation. But Marella smells blood in the water, pushes the pace, and, assisted by a great screen from Janko Gvozdenovic, buries the game winner.
Defense into offense carried the day for New York, and the 2-1 series win gives them the inside track for the division title. But they can’t rest on their laurels - New York’s half court offense still needs work, and Boston and Charlotte now have 3 games of film to study, enabling them to be better prepared than Washington. Frank Minson and his staff will need to come up with more surprises in order to take the division. They also need to get healthy - New York needs Rachel Ayella-Silver back to win the title, even with how impressive Mullins and Kerri Donnelly were in her absence.Winning game 2 and taking Washington the distance in game 3 without her was a hugely impressive performance.
Washington, meanwhile, has work to do. Heading into a matchup with Boston in three weeks that suddenly looks much more daunting, Washington needs to come up with a more coherent game plan rather than just relying on their talent to carry the day, and needs much better coordination between the chasers and the beaters. Boston is also capable of playing a tough mark defense, and Boston’s beaters will be just as aggressive and in your face as New York’s. Washington still has the talent to make a championship run, but their on-field execution needs to live up to the level of their talent.
Washington would also be well served by taking a page out of New York’s book and dipping more fully into their depth - New York utilized every single rostered player, while Washington chasers Ben Phillips and Juli Nuetzel didn’t see a second of playing time, and the young beater pair of Colin Bourn and Diana Howard were used only for snitch on pitch. Washington’s coaching staff needs to get out of their comfort zone a bit, both in terms of what players they trust and in what strategies they’re willing to employ.
With neither team coming out unscathed this weekend, Charlotte and Boston will both be looking to deliver a statement win in their series next weekend. If that series is anything like this one, we’re headed for the most chaotic season in division history. Buckle up.
