It is here ladies and gentlemen! The fifth PLL season begins in Albany right now! Real talk, I'm beyond excited for the season to start. Looks like teams are healthy to start the season, the coaches are here and have their gameplans, and the people are ready to watch and enjoy. Hopefully, each week I will give a breakdown of the gameday rosters and boy do I have A LOT to talk about for the week 1 rosters. Week 1 has some regular starters missing and a few rookies out from the tournament play, so that effects the rosters this week.
No Mark McNeill to start the season, the four-year starting Archers SSDM has been unseated by the two rookies Maher and Bond.
Reece Eddy makes the roster and is listed as defenseman, instead of LSM, no Warren Jeffrey due to NLL finals.
Starting attack will probably be Ament, O'Keefe, and...? Fields, Desimone, I'm interested if the new look Archers offense stays hot like it has for the last few seasons.
Mike Sisselberger is the FO for the first week beating out the Canadian Inacio.
First thing first, not happy about the choice of poles for the Atlas! No Koby Smith or Cade van Raaphorst, neither one of them are even on the 21-man reserve roster. Koby was clearly a Rubeor guy and was coached by Rubes in high school at Loyola Blakefield in MD, now after two top three draftees Koby has to earn his spot again. Koby put up 5 points, 3 CTs, and 11 GBs as a rookie, decent stats and he played some good defense.
Also, Koby is a natural LSM who played some close defense in college, but Adler, Rexrode, and Makar are all-natural defenseman who will have to bumped up to LSM this week. I cannot stress how not excited I am about this roster move... seriously not happy bring back 0.
Also, Justin Guterding has had a rough decent as the PLL has progressed he went from an important part of the Chrome roster in 2019 and his role had decreased with the Chrome, to the Whipsnakes, and now on the reserve roster to start the season with the Atlas. Hopefully Gutty bounces back and gets a chance to make some plays this summer.
Three SSDMs and three O Mids with five attackmen, one of which is rookie Xander Dickson. Mark O'Rouke makes the gameday roster under his former college coach. Danny Logan is healthy to start the season.
New number for Chris Gray, he went from 24 to 4, his college number.
The three SSDMs seems like a smart idea since the Atlas has very little two-way ability from their O mids. They also have to deal with the massive Redwoods midfield, and they will take a beating and do their best to give one out in this game.
Captains of the Atlas: Trevor Baptiste, Eric Law, Jake Richard, and Tucker Durkin
The new look Cannons, look brand new, like really new. Coach Holman has broken down this roster and rebuilt it in his image, it will be interesting to see how the Cannons operate this season and in week 1 at Albany. Three new poles, and many more players, plus the coaching staff.
Only two SSDMs on the gameday roster, but Bubba Fairman, Jeff Trainor and Chris Aslanian can drop in for a shift on the defensive end.
Stephen Rehfuss is on the reserve roster, after a great rookie season, he hit the sophomore slump and it will be interesting to see how he's used this season on the Cannons' roster.
Rookie draft pick Matt Campbell will make his PLL debut Saturday, but Max Wayne, DIII standout from Christopher Newport University will have to wait another week to make his first game appearance under his former college coach Mikey Thompson. Lacrosse twitter speaks highly on Wayne, I'm interested to see what he can do on the field, hopefully we see that skill on display sometime this season.
Who starts in cage for the Cannons in game 1, does Brain split playing time for the first game between his two keepers?
And the theme all summer long for the Cannons. No Lyle Thompson.
Captains for the Cannons: Jack Keilty, Marcus Holman, Adam Ghitelman, and Zach Goodrich
Double the Rowlett, double the madness. Rookie faceoff man Nick Rowlett makes the roster and has a horrendous number in the process... 73 yikes. Joe Thomas left tackle number.
The Chaos have a stable of high-level poles and I was interested to see who made this gameday roster. Will Bowen bumps Brett Kennedy and Johnny Surdick from the fifth pole position and he gets to suit up alongside his former college coach Jack Rowlett, to form a physical and fierce rotation of poles for Andy Towers. I imagine as Johnny Surdick gets back into lacrosse shape coach Towers will have a choice to make.
The Chaos offense is a patch work of guys some who have been on PLL rosters in the past with Voight and Perry, plus some younger players like Zinn, Minicus, and Patterson who are making their PLL debut. I'm pumped to see Jakob Patterson on a gameday roster, the former UAlbany attackman will get to play at his alma mater and with former teammate Troy Reh.
The SSDM room is full again for the Chaos, as Zach Geddes gets more game action alongside veterans Glicini and Resch with the absence of Ian MacKay.
Last season the Chaos almost pulled an upset against the Whips in week 1 without their Bandit Brothers. Can they actually get the win against the defending champs this time around?
Captains for the Chaos: Blaze Riorden, Mark Glicini, and Jarrod Neumann
The Chrome are rolling up to Albany with FOUR SSDMs and as part of the SSDM Army I'm all for it. Coach Soudan has shown he's not afraid to mix it up at the helm for the Chrome and brining four SSDMs and only seven offensive players certainly isn't the norm in the PLL. My thinking here is Soudan knows how tough those first few games back can be before everyone is in peak shape and using four SSDMs keeps his guys fresh and doesn't allow them to wear down.
Huge line up of midfielders for the Chrome as they go 6'0 Anderson, 6'2 MacIntosh, 6'3 Heacock, and 6'5 Handley. They aren't exactly small attack either with 6'1 Morrill, 6'2 Ferrara, and 6'3 Wisnauskas. Their biggest man however Dylan Molloy is only on the reserve roster after putting up 25 points for the Chrome last season. This omission is surprising, and I cannot wait to see what Soudan does with this offense.
The rest of the roster looks as you would expect the same poles from last season, with the same goalies and star faceoff man Connor Farrell at the faceoff spot.
I think the Chrome should be an excellent team this season, but only time will tell.
Captains for the Chrome: Michael Manley, Jordan MacIntosh, and Jesse Bernhardt
First things first, Roll 'Woods!
The 'Woods go with just three designated attackmen in Bergy, Ryder, and RP3, but Jules could shift down to his natural position at attack if he's needed. Berg around the crease gives the Redwoods something they missed last season without Ryan Lee, someone who can catch anything inside and pick up some garbage goals as well. Berg helped the 'Woods reach the 2019 finals.
The midfield is big, dominated by Jones and Bertrand with some shiftiness from Jules, Nakeie, and Demaio. And who could forget the 2-point threat of Perkovic. The addition of John Grant Jr. as coach will hopefully unlock this Redwoods offense and allow it to find a nice steady state as opposed to their up and down nature over the last couple seasons.
The SSDMs is looking lite, Jack Near and Patrick Harbeson's retirements mean the Redwoods return only IDA as the only SSDM with the new addition of Chris Merle from UVA and Nakeie will get some runs at the position this season, as he did last summer.
None of the rookies make the 19-man roster drafted or undrafted, but both Zach Cole and BJ Farrare fill the two-reserve spot to make the full 21-man roster. I was surprised to see BJ not included on the 19-man roster especially since the 'Woods needed depth at that position and BJ has the ability to play LSM or SSDM.
Brian Tevlin is not in the US as he's in Germany with Notre Dame after winning their national championship, and ironically Owen Grant isn't playing this weekend for a similar reason. Grant is on the Unavailable to travel list and it sounds like he has to acquire some type of work visa. In his place Ryan Kennedy gets the fifth pole spot and from multiple reports Kennedy had a heck of a training camp. JGR said so himself on the mic'd up clip on the PLL YouTube.
Eddy Glazner is back! The voice of the Redwoods defense is back after a late season lower leg injury, which left him out the Redwoods playoff game, and boy could they have used him... John Sexton and Arden Cohen both appear to be healthy heading into the season after Sexton missed the first few weeks with a knock and Cohen played all season with a heavily taped right ankle.
Lastly, who starts in goal for the Redwoods? I've seen very little discussion about this during training camp. You feel that if the Woods can get Troutner back to playing like he did his rookie season in 2019, or if they can get Jack Kelly back to his All-World status, pre- injuries the 'Woods might make a deep playoff run this season.
Captains for the Redwoods: Eddy Glazner, Isaiah Davis-Allen, and Rob Pannell.
"And the Dawgs are out! The Dawgs are out!" - RIP DMX
The Waterdogs look similar to start this season as they did to end last season... as Champs. Retired Ryan Brown and Steve DeNapoli are gone while the Dawgs start the season missing Chris Sabia, Dillon Ward, Jake Withers and Mikie Scholsser.
They add the dynamic attackman Jake Carraway from free agency and rookie Alex Mazzone comes in to play one of the LSM positions. Jake Higgins saw some time last season but will have an increased role with the absence of DeNap.
I tweeted in response to Greg Gurenlian's question who is winning the championship saying I hope it's the Redwoods, but I think the Waterdogs repeat. I'm not picking them to win this game though, I didn't realize how many contributors from last season aren't available for this championship rematch with the Chaos. The most important absence goalie Dillon Ward, we would have had the best two goalie standing in cage, but instead we have Blaze versus Matt DeLuca.
The midfield for the Waterdogs is versatile and athletic with two-way middies Conrad and Currier and shooters Hannah and Kelly.
At the faceoff spot it will be two young players battling each other. Tucci had action in four games last season, and he will be playing against rookie Nick Rowlett.
Captains for the Waterdogs: Liam Byrnes and Kieran McArdle
A few new faces for the Whipsnakes this season will need to contribute early in the season. Roman Puglise, Tucker Dordevic, Sean Lulley, Garrett Leadmon, Petey Lasalla and Will Manny are all making their regular season debuts for the Whipsnakes. Will Manny is the lone expectation on that list who has any significant pro lacrosse experience. Puglise finally put on a PLL jersey earlier in 2023 during the PLL Sixes Championship after being drafted in 2022 and missing the whole season due to injury. Dordevic will have a significant role on offense especially with Zed Williams playing in the NLL finals this weekend. Mike Chanenchuk, Matt Rambo, and Brad Smith, will be the other heavy hitters for the Whips O.
Jake Bernhardt picked up an injury at some point during training camp and is part of the reserve roster, which means Garrett Leadmon and Connor Kirst will take their share of SSDMs shifts in game 1, something both guys are capable of doing for the Whips.
Joe Nardella Lite aka Petey LaSalla will start at the faceoff spot against Connor Farrell. A matchup that is certainly set to be a "welcome to the league" moment for LaSalla, but I wouldn't count the rookie out, he's got skill and grit.
The Whipsnakes defense is "steady eddy" all five poles who played major minutes last season return and they are set up to be dominate once again. Elijah Gash will join that group at some point this season and add some youth into an ultra-experienced crew.
Captains for the Whipsnakes: Jake Bernhardt and Mike Ehrhardt
Once again, we are thankful for the opportunity to watch these athletes and coaches do what they love. Cheers to the opening faceoff and every one till September!
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