Shooters…..meet Shooter
It’s going to be an interesting friday night practice for the Riggers. It’s not every day you meet the guy who’s going to completely change the look of your attack, but that’s the case here as deadline pickup Josh Sanderson gets his first look at his new teammates, and they at him.
The A.L. (After Lewis) era offically began on trade deadline day, but given the fact the blockbuster deal was followed by a week off, it’s been a case of waiting and wondering how this whole thing’s going to play out.
As I said at the time, I like the trade. It’s a bold move that became sadly neccessary when the Roughnecks offense collapsed this year, a case not of placing blame but of examining a core group of players who had become too dependent on the outside shooting of one player destined to go down as one of the all greats in the game. Now, in comes one of the all time greats in a playmaking capacity, the idea being to get some of the abundant scoring talent on this team kick-started.
‘Shooter’ may be an odd nickname for a guy known for dishing the ball off, but then again, ‘Passer’ would be lame. The question here is how quickly the Malawskys….the Toths….the Rangers the Shattlers and the Keluskys can get used to the new way things are going to work. And making it work immediately is the only way to salvage this season.
Looking at the schedule at the start of the year, The Roughnecks had to be salivating at the prospect of playing three of their last four against their sad sack provincial rivals, problem is, Rush managmenet decided not to play ball. Midway through the season the team was blow up…. the coaching staff ousted and NLL legend Bob Hamley brought in. The roster was overhauled for packages of players and picks for the future, and the wins started coming.
With last weeks; 12-5 stunner against San Jose, The Rush have climbed to within a win fo the Roughnecks with two games in hand. Suddenly, three games against these guys doesn’t excactly fill you with the warm fuzzies.
It’s not an easy spot for Sanderson. Replacing a fan and team favourite like Ratcliff in a season gone wrong isn’t something you’d wish on anyone, but there’s the way it otta be, and there’s the way it is. The rest of the offense has to get to know the new guy in about an hour, or it’s going to be a long April.
NOTE: Both Steve Deitrich and Tracey Kelusky are expected back in the lineup. I get the feeling Deitrich is going to start to shake things up, not as a reflection of the way Pat campbell’s been playing. Hope Shawn Cable gets another shot, he was one of the best Roughnecks in the San Jose gme two weeks ago.
AND FURTHERMORE! Shaw’s televising the game….but seeing as they’re also doing the Hitmen game, the live broadcast will be on channel 94 at 7:30, or catch it on 10 after the Hitmen.