*italian plumber's voice* Here we goooooooooooooo

DCU Eagles vs. Penguins - 19 Feb

Final Score: 5 - 11

MVP: Will Benfold

Spirit Score: 4

Fiiiiiiiiiiinally a nice day arrives on the same day we have a match, I for one was keen as Kaustuv to get underway against Penguins today and, with everyone from Eagles extra punctual (thank you Tejas?), we even had time for a quick box drill after the warm up. This is why it's important we get some sort of structured throwing drill in before the game as it irons out any creases you may have picked up since the last training session (for about half the team that was an hour ago: yayyyy SB Sundays...) and ensures we go out firing on all cylinders.

We did not manage this however as, despite starting on offence, we conceded the first point. Mebbes we were half asleep on this one, mebbes those of us from SB were a bit knackered, but I remember this point being embarrassingly short guys and so for our next game we need to take the fight to our opposition from the get go, but we also need to be switched on enough to recognise turns, who we're marking etc.

A quick time out later and we finally played the way I knew we could play, with some slick, sexy ultimate earning us one back against a stunned Penguins side. After this we traded back and forth for a while, the Penguins' zone largely negating our extra man (or woman as the case may have been) and their combination of the guns of marahrens and very dangerous deep players meaning that we were soon in a bit of trouble. In hindsight I think it would have benefited our D more if we had changed our poach to Chris or SD who could then have poached out in the deep space and pressured those huge hucks Dan was throwing all day long. Hindsight is a beautiful thing though, and I take full responsibility for not thinking of that earlier, I feel I let you guys down a bit there especially the poach we had in that open lane. A one man wall is all well and good but when you're facing a competent handler you're really not that intimidating when you're on your own like that. The hucks we saw today were raking up the pitch in an OI direction anyway so it was always going to be bending around this poach and making their life hard.

One thing I loved about our play today however was our Clam Zone D. We've gone over it numerous times on the ol' workhorse DCU whiteboard and finally got the numbers on Thursday to actually drill it. And you could tell. Certainly the first couple of points we threw it up it completely shut down Penguins. Our chases were running hard and always taking that most threatening dump like we drilled - Penguins were a good case in point here, as their most dangerous dump was often not the nearest: far more often it was the guy way over on the other wing which they would swing to and punish us with. I'm not sure what the best policy for the dump chase was here to be totally honest? I for one tended to stand off the closest dump but positioned so that I at least had a bid on that crossfield dump. The downside of this was that I wasn't really totally covering either and so it would often go to the nearer dump then swung wide anyway, or bullet straight past me to the opposite wing before I could react. Any one got any thoughts on this? Hit me up on le email if so. Our Roamy wall was also looking good, with people seeming to get that being in the wall in Clam is very different to Junk in that you're really on part time man D more than anything. We followed crashes in well and also got a few sweet Ds to boot. Props must also go to CBarnes here who took on the unenviable task of Deep 'we must go derper' Deep. Try as we might Dan Marahrens was still getting a few decent hucks off but Chris looked pretty comfortable in bringing them down most of the time.

Overall, I was also pleased with our switches on to man D from offence. I don't remember any howlingly cheap points this week (save the first one) which is a plus. We lost it a couple of times in the endzone but in all honesty it's chaotic in there anyway and even good teams struggle to keep em out when it gets to that stage.

There are a few things we need to try and work on however - as ever with a loss of that magnitude. Our 3-4 was our go to play today, given that they pretty much zoned all day long to negate their having to go sixes. 3-4 is our only real option against a zone and I think it's important to get your head around the difference it has to playing it against a man defence. In a man D situation, the middle cutters are your key pair and are looking to make the yards up field from the central handler's throw. This usually involves diamond cutting of some description (one cutter mirroring the other's cut to create space for one another and give the handler various options). Against a zone however, it becomes much more handler oriented and the chances to move up the pitch, not just laterally, are few and far between. Remember that there are four main ways to break a zone:

over: hammers, scubas, the sort of stuff that CBarnes loves to throw and is rather good at. These are useful when the wall is tight on the handler and has left gaps behind. As a mid you should always be wary of these, as they're fast and usually difficult to catch and there may be very little warning as to when it's gonna come over the wall. So heads up and if you catch one, look for a handler sprinting through that wall towards you, they're the ones who are gonna be able to use your yards on the pitch to best advantage by boosting it.

around: swing to win is often screamed when we do this - the general principle is to swing the disc from one side of the pitch to the other, moving from the initial handler to his opposite wing via the central handler. If this is done quick enough the wall and chase should be a few seconds behind (especially if they're tired) and the handler who receives the disc on the far side should have a pretty free shot up field. The ideal person for this handler to hit will be his opposite wing (so the wing on the side where the disc started before it swung). As wings you should always have heads up and be aware if that swing is beginning to form. As the disc hits the middle handler on its way to the far one, you should be thinking of running deep. Chances are any mids in your vicinity will have looked you off as not much of a threat given your distance from the disc and the deep will hopefully be half asleep. Now you're in a great position to receive a massive raking huck from that far handler which can travel across the pitch towards you and you should have loads of time to read it and take it down.

through: As the middle pair in a zone offence, it's important that you keep track of what stall your handler is on. A useful reset for them can be created by you sprinting straight through their wall and receiving a pop pass from the handler. If this comes off then look to give it straight back to the handler, who may well be able to pivot through the wall and break it. If not, we're back to stall zero and have more time to work something through which is fine by me.

in: this can be a really useful option if their zone is quite loose and more like a clam than a junk. This involves a handler crashing in from behind and receiving the disc inside the wall but in front of the guy with the disc. This can be sooooo dangerous if it comes off as their wall now has a very dangerous handler in their midst while they are backpedalling to reset the wall. In the midst of this confusion the huck may well be on so wings should be thinking about running deep after a handler crash, while the mids should look to give the handler some under options.

Remember these are ways to break the zone, but it's unlikely that having achieved one of them you'll be looking at a one pass score (save for mebbes the swing to win one). It's so important that once we break the zone we keep the disc moving and keep that numerical advantage in their end of the pitch. It's not the end of the world if they catch up, but it means we have to try and break their zone once more which is no mean feat. At the same time, if you do receive it on the edge of the endzone don't panic as you've got time before your stall count gets anywhere near something to be worried about (often the first guy to catch up to you will drop onto any deep cuts we have coming on so REMEMBER, if you ain't being stalled you ain't being pressured and can take your time - nothing worse then working it all the way up into their deep space and then turfing it in their endzone).

So yeah zone offence recap over, against penguins today we did manage to swing it a couple of times but those deep cuts weren't there and after a while I think our handlers got annoyed and tried to send bullets through their wall. They came off occasionally, but that's a low percentage throw and one that smacks of frustration more than anything. Lesson to be learned: wings and mids, give your handlers those deep options when we manage to outrun their wall with a swing (SRSLY, we've got the calves on our cutters and the guns on our handlers to make that one come off so let's use it!); handlers chill the fuck out and keep working it back and forth until something opens up. If in doubt create something for yourself with a handler crash from behind or try a hammer/scuba/thumber if you're CBarnes :P.

So yeah, another loss but against an above average Penguins squad (the addition of Adam Morgan made a difference and I think Kris said that was the strongest line they've had out for a while) so don't take it too much to heart. Lets pick ourselves back up again for next week's fixture guys and I'll see you at training on Monday =D or bleary eyed tomorrow at KFT if you're Kaustuv. I'd appreciate it if no one could disc me in the face tomorrow as the lump on my forehead's only just going down...

Draves 'I started writing this match report with the intention of doing a 'quick' one, oh past Draves why do you lie to yourself' Avery