The Dandenong Southern Stingrays scored back to back 100+ point wins when they easily accounted for the Western Jets in a second half rout by 116 points in the Round 6 TAC Cup match at Shepley Oval, Dandenong last Saturday.
The Stingrays made four changes to the team losing Matt Buntine, Mitch Gent, Andy McInnes and Arryn Siposs to injury, but got Jarryd Amalfi back and recalled Jimmy Jennings and Jake Greeley and had Cory Buchan make his TAC Cup debut. The ground was very wet underfoot from the overnight rain and the Stingrays had to work very hard in the first term kicking with the Jets playing hard contested football. A couple of late goals had the Stingrays skip out to a 16 point quarter time lead highlighted by Buchan’s 3 first term goals with his first three kicks.
The second term was the best quarter of the game with the Jets rolling back to close up the play and the Stingrays had to be smart to make usable space to work in. Eventually the Stingrays were able to escape the grip of the Jets and with hard running and overlapping managed to kick 4 goals and held the Jets to two. Stingrays coach Graeme Yeats was not completely wrapped with his team and urged a number of his players to lift their work rate and play more selfless football. The half time score of 10-6-66 to the Jets 6-1-37 looked comfortable but the game was clser than the scoreboard indicated.
The half time urgings of Yeats were quickly rewarded with and open forwardline and complete domination of the stoppages. Five straight unanswered goals in six minutes to start the term had the result worked out and it was only a matter of how far the Stingrays. The Stingrays kicked 9-5 for the term to the Jets 3 points to stretch the lead to 85 point at the last change. Todd Elton and Daniel Harrison were once again excellent in the Ruck and supplied on ballers Mitch Hallahan, Lachie Wallace, Jake Greeley and Luke Parker with ample supply of the football. Corey Buchan was the standout forward with his seven goals on debut in a wonderful display in finding space and time in a very congested forward line.
The final term was more complete domination by the Stingrays and it could have been a bigger win but for some wayward kicking. Four goals seven to the Stingrays whilst the jets could not trouble the scorer kicked the lead to 116 percentage boosting points. Once again the Stingrays had multiple goal scorers and good players all over the ground in what ended up a very one-sided game.
Next weekend is a week off for the TAC Cup with the next round of Under 18 Nationals trials at Visy Park on Sunday. The Stingrays are well represented with 15 players to suit up for Vic Country. Parker, Hallahan, Harrison, Elton, Buntine, McInnes, Sippos are joined by Nathan Allen, Tom Lynch, Piva Wright, Jake Batchelor, Alex Benbow, Adam Treloar, Riley Heddles and Tom Curren are all vying for spots in the five game series over the next 7 weeks. Vic Country play Vic Metro, NSW/ACT, WA, Qld and SA in the carnival.
Last Modified on 10/05/2010 09:38