The Dandenong Southern Stingrays have a total of nineteen players selected to play in representative trial matches for Vic Country this Saturday at Visy Park, Carlton.
The day of trial matches commences at 10.00am with a Vic Metro U18 intra squad game to start the refining process for the Victoria Metro team to play in the AFL Under 18 National carnival. This is followed by an Under 17 futures game at 12.15pm between Vic Metro coached by Collingwood midfielder Shane O’Bree and key forward Leigh Brown and Vic Country which will be coached by Stingrays development manager Mark Wheeler. Eight Stingrays players are selected to play in this futures game for Vic Country. Piva Wright and Tom Curren have recovered from injury play their first competitive game for the year. Stingrays 2010 TAC Cup regulars Matthew Buntine, Todd Elton, Alex Benbow and Adam Giobbi have had their early season form recognized with selection in the game. Adam Jaber and Jordan Kelly have also been selected to play on the back of some fine performances in Stingrays pre-season games and although they are yet to play a TAC Cup game, training form indicates that they will play well.
The third game for the day is a Vic Country U18 intra squad game starting at 2.30pm which features 11 Stingrays players. Mitch Hallahan, Matt Lee, Mitch Gent, Nathan Allen and Riley Heddles will all go through the midfield rotations. Andrew McInnes, Jake Batchelor and Jarryd Amalfi will transfer their dominance as the Stingrays half backline into the game whilst Arryn Sippos, Tom Lynch and Daniel Harrison will all play as key forwards. For the first time in Division 1 of the Under 18 AFL National carnival, overage or Under 19 players can play. Each Division 1 team can play 2 overage players so Amalfi and Heddles will be competing against seven other overage players for the precious 2 spots.
The three AIS AFL Academy scholarship holders, Luke Parker, Adam Treloar and Dylan Shiel return from their trip to Sydney, South Africa and Perth on Saturday but will not be playing in the representative games but will be added to the Vic Country squads to take the total of Stingrays participants to a record 22. The Vic Country program plays again in 3 weeks before a camp weekend then enters the AFL Under 18 National carnival with a squad of around 40 players. The Vic Country Under 18 squad plays Vic Metro at the MCG, NSW/ACT in Blacktown, Sydney, WA at Subiaco Oval in Perth, Queensland at Casey Fields, Cranbourne the finishes with SA at Etihad Stadium over the next 11 weeks.
The Under 16 games held last weekend saw the initial squad for the Vic Country Under 16 team which plays in Blacktown, Sydney in late July and will be coached by former Melbourne star Garry Lyon. A total of 13 Stingrays players were named in the squad of 45 which is again a record number.
Next Saturday, April 24th the Stingrays take on the Eastern Ranges at Box Hill City Oval at 11.00am in TAC Cup Round 4 and entry is free. The Stingrays face a selection dilemma with the team reduced from 24 to 22 and the likely availability of Parker, Treloar, Lynch, Wright, Curren, and Ben Wells, the Stingrays may have to make 8 changes to fit all these players into a side that had a very meritorious win last week.
Last Modified on 18/04/2010 14:17