Isolation end zone offence: scoring from a stack on the goal line
Near the end zone the field shrinks and the defence packs in. Five steps that empty a standard end zone stack and leave one cutter alone in the middle for the score.
Everything gets harder near the end zone. The field is short, so there is no deep threat to keep defenders honest. Seven defenders pack into a space the size of a tennis court, and every cut has a body in the way. Teams that move the disc easily for seventy metres stall on the last ten.
This play, Isolation Endzone, is one answer. It starts as a standard end zone stack, runs the cuts the defence expects, and then clears the stack out to leave one cutter alone in the middle of the end zone. It is built for teams whose handlers can throw to space against any mark, because the final throw is often a floaty one to a spot rather than a pass to a person.
The end zone stack
Close to the goal line the offence usually forms a short vertical stack on or just inside the end zone, with the handlers spread across the field behind it. Cutters peel off the back of the stack at 45 degrees toward the front corners, and the thrower hits whichever one comes free.
A good defence handles those cuts. It has seen them a thousand times. What it handles less well is a stack that empties: when the cutters who peeled off stay wide, and the last cutter goes deep, one player is left in the middle with the whole end zone to work in.
Step by step
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Step 1
Setup in a standard endzone stack. Horizontal Positioning. Cutters 06 and 07 initiate with 45 degree cuts.
The setup. O3 has the disc a few metres out from the goal line, with O2 and O4 wide as the other handlers. O1 is at the front of the stack on the goal line, and O5, O6 and O7 are stacked behind into the end zone. The two back cutters, O6 and O7, are about to peel off.
O6 and O7 make the standard 45 degree cuts forward, one to each front corner of the end zone. Any good defensive team covers these, and that is fine: they are not the play. What matters is that O6 and O7 stay wide afterwards, each holding a defender in a corner. Meanwhile O5 is starting to move deep.
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Step 2
Last cutter in the stack (5) cuts deep for a potential deep hammer or non-floaty pass.
O5, the last cutter in the stack, goes deep to the back of the end zone. This is a real option: a hammer or a firm, flat throw to the back corner if the defender loses it. If not, the cut has taken one more defender out of the middle. O1 is now alone on the goal line and starts to move.
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Step 3
Player 1 makes a cut
The isolation. O1 cuts one way, hard enough that the defender commits, then plants. O3 is watching the space, not the cutter. With O6 and O7 holding the corners and O5 holding the back line, the middle of the end zone is empty.
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Step 4
Player 1 cuts back for a score.
O1 cuts back into the middle and O3 throws to the space. A good handler puts a bit of float on it so O1 can run onto the disc, or leads O1 with a flat throw if the defender is trailing. Either way, O1 is one-on-one in open space with the goal line already behind them. Score.
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Step 5
Tips
- Run the ordinary cuts properly. The 45 degree cuts from O6 and O7 have to look like the play, or their defenders will not follow them into the corners.
- Stay wide after you clear. The corners are where O6 and O7 keep their defenders. A cutter who drifts back to the middle brings a defender into the isolation.
- Throw to space. The final throw goes where O1 is going to be, not where O1 is. This play is for handlers who trust that throw.
- Have a second option. If O1's cut is covered, O5 at the back of the end zone is still there, and a swing to O2 or O4 resets the stall count.
Practise it from the goal line with no defence first, so the clear-outs and the timing of O1's cut are automatic. Then add defenders. If your handlers can throw to space, this turns the hardest ten metres of the field into the easiest.