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It’s kinda tough to win when, in your first seven National Lacrosse League games, you have games where your defense gives up 19, 18 and 17 goals.

That’s a big reason the Chicago Shamrox got off to a 1-6 start in the 2008 season but just as the Shammies were being written off, something happened. Something clicked, and “it” started to come together. Matt Roik gave Chicago a solid presence in goal. Brad Self sparked the transition game, and Cody Jacobs lit it up on offense. That’s the combination that helped the Shammies score a surprising win over the defending champion Rochester Knighthawks and the confidence that fueled a 4-game win streak put the Shamrox in playoff contention with a 5-7 record.

But then, something else happened.

Chicago lost three of its final four games and fell just short of a playoff berth. “We were 1 or 2 games from having a chance at the playoffs,” said coach and general manager Jamie Batley. “We should have had an 8-8 season, but our guys didn’t have the confidence they should have had.”

So no, the Shamrox weren’t a playoff team last season, but there are signs that 2009 can be a different story. The biggest sign? Confidence. In that 1-6 start, Chicago was losing games by 5, 6, 7 and even 10 goals. In that late-season funk, one loss was by a single goal and another by just four.

Batley is careful to not pin the 2008 struggles on a single player, or even a single aspect of the game. Chicago needed a spark in each third of the floor and Roik, Self and Jacobs provided that.

“We made that trade and it gave Matt Roik some new life to his career,” said Batley. “And in Brad Self, we got a player who is always in shape and steps right in. Offense, defense, transition, he does everything. If he played a full season, I think he’d score 40 goals.”

Speaking of goals, Jacobs answered the call for that in Chicago. He didn’t play in the first six games, but in the 10 games he did play, he finished with 19 goals and 18 assists for 37 points, which included a six-goal game against Minnesota. He was the perfect complement for the trio of Jason Clark, Mat Giles and Jonas Derks.

“He can shoot,” Batley said of Jacobs. “He started slowly but once he got going, he showed he can play.”

After some offseason moves, Roik won’t be around to foster Chicago’s newfound confidence. But the trade that sent Roik away brought Anthony Cosmo to Chicago, so it’s not like the Shammies are gonna be lacking between the pipes. Throw in a draft that Batley says filled some holes and the return of a healthy and fired up Chris Panos, and the Shamrox are eager for 2009.

Bately says the team’s first pick, Jamie Kirk out of Hobart College, can play NLL ball right away. He should have few problems with the comfort zone thing, especially with older brother Mike Kirk already on the Chicago roster. Steve McKinlay brings some defensive skill and Pat Saunders was a loose ball monster in Junior B. In Steven Brooks and Josh Funk, the Shamrox have some talented American players ready to learn the game and Brooks, who played his high school ball in the Chicago suburbs, already feels right at home.

Of course, it’s a matter of putting all of this together and Batley has no reason to think it won’t happen.

“My style is transition,” he said. “We’ve gotta play great defense and make other teams wary about shooting on our net. And when we get the ball to our offense, we need all our guys to score. We’ve got to move the ball and give everyone a chance. We’re not the greatest offense, but we’re a capable offense. We’ve got to share the wealth because we’re not gonna have someone scoring 5 or 6 goals every game. We need all our guys to score 1 or 2 a game.”

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