2008 Labor Day Championships
PoNY
PoNY's top ten players can compete with anyone in the country. Adding Aaron Bell on offense shores up their receiving core, and allows Alex Masulis, Ben van Heuvalen, and Bailey Russell to take a clear-cut or two and know that another consistent cutter will keep the disc moving. This makes a huge difference for their offense, and you can see it as the cutters move back into the stack without the stress of July...they get crucial resting seconds which allow them not only a breath or two, but also a chance to look around the field and find open spaces.
PoNY has a characteristic look when they are playing well; players outside their top ten are moving very aggressively on offense. When they do, as they did against Ironside, they attack the weaker defenders of their opponents. This helps both to create goals and keeps those defenders from helping out against the players more typically called in set plays. Watch them during an important game; if a 'supporting' player is at the back of the stack and standing, I am willing to bet they are losing. When those players are at the back of the stack, on their toes and have that wild, itching-to-attack look...well, whenever I saw them looking like that they were ahead. There is a lot of talent on the PoNY bench, but that talent needs to play confidently and make their mistakes aggressively to be successful over an entire game.