Will Manny is entering his mentor era

The 2024 Boston Cannons offense had almost all the pieces to the puzzle. Two-time All-Pro attackman Asher Nolting quarterbacked from behind the cage. Marcus Holman — second all-time in career goals — flanked him on the righty side. But the lefty attack spot was a revolving door.

They tried veteran Matt Kavanagh, who had anchored the lefty side of their league-leading offense in 2023. Then undrafted rookie Mike Robinson. Then they asked their first-round pick, Pat Kavanagh — a righty — to play the lefty side. And then they bumped midfielder Chris Aslanian down to attack.

The Cannons’ third attackman shot 22.2% on feeds from Nolting. The rest of the lineup shot 43.3%.

Heading into the offseason, their biggest need was obvious.

Boston brings in two lefties

“That’s the worst-kept secret in all of lacrosse right now,” head coach and general manager Brian Holman laughed in his draft day interview with The Lacrosse Network. “Boston needs a left-handed attackman.”

With the No. 4 overall pick, the Cannons were in position to land either Coulter Mackesy (Princeton) or Owen Hiltz (Syracuse). They selected Mackesy, who graduated as Princeton’s all-time leading goal-scorer. Known for his low-angle shooting, he seemed to be the perfect complement to the attack line opposite Holman. But Boston also had a first-ballot Hall of Famer hungry for another opportunity.

Will Manny was claimed by the Cannons on July 15, 2024. He had been waiting for a chance since being cut by the Maryland Whipsnakes at training camp. The fit seemed poetic. Manny had started his career with Boston in 2013. His name sits atop the club record books — sixth in points (212), fourth in goals (129), fifth in assists (80). Some of his best seasons as a pro had come on a line with Marcus Holman on the Archers. “The Bunk Bed Boys” were reunited.

Manny waited. His name wasn’t called in 2024. He stayed ready. The Cannons clinched a spot in the 2025 Lexus Championship Series — and Manny trained for February. Then an injury delayed his Cannons return again; Manny watched the Cannons win their second straight Championship Series title as JJ Sillstrop took his spot.

Entering training camp, it seemed like Manny and Mackesy were bound to battle against each other for playing time.

To this point, it has been either Manny or Mackesy. We’ve yet to see them together. But that should change soon — and it may unlock the best version of this Cannons offense.

Manny often plays his best lacrosse when paired with another lefty. From Kevin Buchanan to Joe Walters to Ryan Ambler, Manny has learned from some of the savviest left-handed cutters of the past decade. He always has been — and always will be — a student of the game. And he has a lifetime of lessons to pass down to Mackesy.

Kevin Buchanan: “If there’s a short stick on the inside, throw it in there”

When Manny arrived in Boston as a rookie in 2013, Buchanan was entering his sixth MLL season. An offense featuring multiple Hall of Famers was searching for a lefty attackman to complete the unit. Max Quinzani, who had held that role during the 2011 title run, recently retired. Enter the 5-foot-9, second-round pick out of UMass.

“Who’s this frickin’ guy?” Buchanan laughed. “And then I was like, ‘Oh, [expletive]. This kid is fast.’”

Buchanan’s role was clearly defined: Step into time-and-room shots if anyone dared to slide to Paul Rabil’s eyes, flash cut if Ryan Boyle had the ball at X, and dodge from the lefty wing. That role definition made Manny’s role clear: Fill space by being where Buchanan says to be.

“He would go up to you and be like, ‘Hey, if my defender is doing this … I want you to do this,’” Manny recalled.

Between plays. During TV timeouts. At quarter breaks and at halftime. Buchanan told Manny where he was cutting and when to throw it.

“It’s really important for us to occupy our defenseman,” Buchanan said. “That’s largely what a lot of it was about speaking to Willy. You gotta fill this gap. Because if you don’t fill this gap, that guy’s gonna go cheat. He’s gonna cheat to Boyle or he’s gonna cheat to Paul or cheat to me. And then he’s gonna try to recover back to play you if I throw you the ball. We can’t allow them to play in these gray areas.

“You gotta make him pay for it. Whether that’s back cutting, cutting hard cross-crease, or ball goes one-two pass and he’s on the near side pipe and you’re on the back side pipe.”

“What he always talked about was … if there’s a short stick on the inside, throw it in there,” Manny remembers. “More often than not, those guys are open.”

Manny listened. And they connected for dozens of scores over the years — including several when a short stick was covering Buchanan inside.

As the only remaining offensive player from the 2011 championship team, Buchanan helped a young group mature quickly. Manny listened to everything he said.

“Everyone could have the ball if they wanted to,” Buchanan said. “Understanding [that] I’m not the only guy that needs the ball. Everyone needs the ball. How do we collectively achieve success together? A lot of times in college, they lean heavily on one or two guys to really be the engine. Where everyone is a gear in the pros.”

Whether it was Manny picking for Buchanan or vice versa, the two were able to read and react to what the defense showed them. The lefty two-man game became their go-to action in crunch time. Need a bucket in the fourth quarter? Run it back.

“The best pickers are the guys who can set ‘em at the last second … and feel out what their defender is doing on their back and read the body language of the on-ball defender, to make the decision of, ‘Am I slipping this early? Or can I stay here for an extra second or set a swing pick?’” Manny said.

Buchanan’s swing picks were deadly. If he heard his defender communicating, “PICK RIGHT!”, then he’d swing around to set a pick on Manny’s defender’s left, springing Manny free for an underneath dodge.

Joe Walters: “Get them to be indecisive for a split second”

Halfway through the 2017 season, Manny was unexpectedly traded to New York. It was his first time being traded. And it couldn’t have been a better situation. Back home on Long Island, Manny was reunited with Rabil and paired with 2025 Pro Lacrosse Hall of Fame inductee Walters for the first time.

Lacrosse seemed to slow down for Walters. He was dominantly left-handed. Every defender knew it. And it didn’t matter that they did. He almost always found a way to free up his left hand — and when he didn’t, he still managed to make an accurate pass under pressure.

“You have to let it develop,” Walters said. “A lot of times it’s not the first pick that works.”

“So much of it is just trying to get the defenders — it doesn’t matter who’s short, who’s a pole, short-short, doesn’t really matter — it’s just getting them to be indecisive for a split second.”

By now, Manny was a veteran in his own right. He listened to Walters, and he shared his own point of view.

“Joe, if you’re dodging a shorty, and I have the pole, and I’m mirroring you, go one way,” Manny remembers telling him. “If my guy goes, I’ll obviously be open, but if you go underneath to your right hand, I’m going to pop behind you. And when you roll back, I am immediately backdooring my guy.”

Backdoor cuts became Manny’s trademark – to the degree that you can copyright a core skill of the game. He was always moving off-ball, putting himself in defenders’ blind spots and forcing one defender to cover two.

Manny found ways for those two-man games on the lefty wing to open up shots for the rest of the offense. He understood the stress that two-man games put on the defender at X. Setting a ball screen pulls a defender out of the slide package. The off-ball math tilts – from five-on-five to four-on-four – in a way that benefits the offense. The defender at X is forced to sink inside, shifting his focus away from his assignment intermittently. Manny told Rob Pannell to recognize that and to cut when his defender looked away.

“Instead of him standing on the end line taking his golf swings, he started sneaking pipes more, and that helped our offense,” Manny joked.

Ryan Ambler: Do everything at full speed

While less experienced than Manny when they joined the Archers together, Ambler had plenty of wisdom to impart. Instead of pulling Manny aside during timeouts, Ambler decided to show it on every shift of every game.

“He did everything at full speed,” Manny said.

The 2024 Jimmy Regan Teammate of the Year is one of the few players who moves as much as Manny. Neither stops doing stuff. V-cuts. Flash cuts. Give-and-gos. Ball screens. Re-screens. Beesting picks. Keeping up with one of them can exhaust a defense; covering both of them at once is like attempting to do multiple stages of an Ironman simultaneously.

“We loved doing jump cuts together,” Manny said. “He would throw it down to me and he’d have his guy on his back looking like he’s setting a down pick for me, and he’d just slip it to space.”

Manny’s movement is constant, yet intentional. He doesn’t cut for the sake of cutting. He cuts to put stress on a defense. He learned how and when and where and why to cut from some of the game’s greatest scorers. Now, he’s entering his mentor era, ready to take Mackesy under his wing and give the Cannons a left-handed presence they lacked in 2024.

Manny waited 635 days between games for another opportunity. When he takes the field, he does anything but wait.

“If they’re not going to slide, you need to pop to space when your defenseman is sleeping,” Manny said. “You need to set a screen for somebody if the defense is bookending the crease.

“You need to create the offense instead of waiting for it.”

Neither Manny nor Mackesy has run out of the box this season. One of them will need to if they dress together. That presents challenges — and opportunities.

Matt Campbell is almost guaranteed to draw the pole; the other midfielders will almost certainly see a short stick. That means Manny and Mackesy can play the big-little picks that worked so well with Buchanan, Walters and Ambler. Mackesy’s range and low-angle shooting can stretch the defense both vertically and horizontally in those scenarios.

If he can be where Manny wants him to be — when he wants him to be there — then the two can create offense as well as any lefty pair in the league.