In sunny and slight windy conditions, the Stingrays welcomed cross border rivals the Eastern Ranges at Shepley Oval for the Round 8 TAC Cup clash. In the end the new look Stingrays came home with the chocolates by 2 points, but it wasn’t a pretty game to watch as skill sets from both teams were far from expected for the TAC Cup.
The first quarter saw the Stingrays start with good intensity in the middle with Matt Rennie and Jake Calvert playing as undersized Ruckman who tapped well to give the mids first use. The tackling pressure inside the Stingrays 50 was a highlight in the first which resulted in a great goal to Ryan ‘Rhino‟ Morrison. A few minutes later after good work to keep the ball inside 50 by Rhino again Brett O’Hanlon kicked truly, but from there the young Stingrays were overusing the ball and making too many mistakes, in the mean time Eastern had grown in confidence and lifted their intent, which eventually allowed Eastern to score against the moderate wind. The quarter ended with a nice goal to Corey Buchan, but the Stingrays would be a player down for the remainder of the day with a Hamstring injury to Corie Intveen midway through the first.
The second quarter was a reversal of the first with Eastern scoring the first goal and the ball was in their half for most of the quarter. It took the Stingrays nearly 17 minutes to score there one and only goal, but pleasing they only allowed Eastern to score 2 goals into the 3-4 goal wind. The first half would be remembered as a low light for both teams as skills were below par. Stingrays Coach Graeme Yeats just asked for the boys to keep it simple and stop trying to create something that wasn’t there. Eastern had got themselves back into the game by quick ball movement and creating one-on-one in the forwardline and Yeats was asking for a similar outcome.
The third quarter was similar to the first half with both sides have 10 minutes patches but both weren’t troubling the scoreboard too much. A great crumbing goal to Lachie Wallace and another goal 45 seconds later to Nathan Wright in the third looked like the Stingrays we going to run away with it, but silly mistakes and continually overusing the pill kept the game open for both teams to take. Both sides kicked 3 for the term which was great effort from the Ranges seeming they were kicking into a strong breeze.
The start of the last quarter was perfect for the Stingrays with a great snap from the „Hairyman‟, Jim Jennings from an inside 50 stoppage, and another goal a minute later to Aaron Lees had the Stingrays out to a comfortable margin, but the tide quickly turned and Eastern answered with two of their own within minutes and the score was back to a 9 point lead to the Stingrays. The next 10 minutes saw the ball go from arc to arc and lots of pressure from both teams, but little was happening on the scoreboard. A few silly frees to the Ranges saw them score another major but that would be it for the day with siren sounding in favour of the Stingrays.
There was another new debutant player rolled out for the Stingrays in Joshua Westerman which was one of the highlights for the day, but for most of it the coaching staff was continually pressured to make personal changes on the field to try to find the right balance. Nathan Wright continued his fine form with another best on ground display, which is surely to catch the eye of Vic Country selectors. Statistically, the same as last week, the game was very even but it was evident both teams were over-possessing the football in the back half. The Stingrays had 58 Inside 50’s for 11 scoring opportunities, which again had Stingrays Coach Graeme Yeats incensed. Yeats said “Unlike last week we actually did very well at the stoppages and our mids got hold of the ball a lot, but must convert our chances. Eastern were efficient when they went inside (Inside 50 27 times for 8 scoring shots) and with the extra numbers they had behind the ball they were able to rebound far too easily. We need to continue to work on our execution as it is below the required standard to compete in this competition.”
He went on to say “Even though we were restricted with a bench of 3 from quarter time the effort overall was OK. It was very pleasing to see how hard we worked against the breeze in the last to kick 2 goals and only allow two goals to be scored, one was from an undisciplined 50 metre penalty. A lot of our best players were bottom-agers, which probably says a lot about our performance. We will continue to expose and keep developing the next crop of players until we find the right balance.”
Next weekend is a TAC CUP bye for the NAB AFL U18 National Championships. Vic Country will take on Northern Territory at Visy Park, Carlton on Saturday 11th June starting at 12.00pm. Entry is Free. Dandenong Stingrays have 9 players in the Vic Country squad.
Last Modified on 06/06/2011 12:35