The Dandenong Southern Stingrays Tsunami rolls on with another hard fought win against cross town rivals the Western Jets by 32 points at Burbank Oval, Williamstown last Saturday in the Round 11 TAC Cup contest.
The Jets were having all the momentum early in the last and closing the game to within a goal, before a very commendable, hard fought and gritty finish saw the Stingrays comfortably going away with the result, which also gives them a buffer in eighth spot in front of the Jets.
The Stingrays started with the aid of a strong North-west cross-ground breeze, however both teams managed better results working into the wind as they were prepared to run the Footy as opposed to blazing away at goals, which saw most shots drifting for points and some not impacting the scoring at all. The Jets use of the ball against the wind was outstanding. It resulted in 3 valuable goals against the breeze before the Stingrays settled through Matt Rennie to claim the only goal for the first quarter. The young Stingers seemed to really struggle for the rest of the quarter when the Jets dropped a loose man back and filled the hole well enough to make entries inside 50m hard to hit targets. At the end of the first the Jets were up and about and believing they had a big scalp on the blocks as they held a 8 point lead, but limited the Stingrays to 1 goal who were aided with the tricky 3 goal breeze.
The second term was like the first with the Stingrays limiting the Jets to no goals, only allowing them to add 5 points whilst the the 2nd quarter was one of the better quarters of the year for the Stingrays forward line. Matt Rennie identified where to lead and was rewarded with 5 marks inside 50 and capped the day off with a bag of 4 goals, whilst the young forward line seemed to gel by moving around, losing defender’s and getting space for other forwards that had the Forwards coach very happy at the half time siren. 17 year old Jack Soroczynski (pronounced Sorrow-chin-ski) had a day out in front of the big sticks kicking four by the end of the day, but his composure under pressure is becoming a highlight of his game, after receiving a huge hit he settled and kicked truly. At the siren the Stingrays held a 14 point lead and coach Graeme Yeats was upbeat and had nothing but praise and positives for what he had seen in the first half, especially from the older brigade and the extra sprinkling from the bottom age crop. He used the time to talk about composure under pressure and using the ball a little better when entering inside 50’s.
The third was a scrappy affair but the Stingrays managed to kick another 2 goals with the breeze which was swirling and making hard work of clean forward entries. For the Stingrays the team effort was solid, especially through the experienced back 6 defenders and the every hard working McGenniss, Rolfe and Nick and Josh Newman through the midfield. Forward pressure created goals to Sorrow-chin-skiby using his body to hold front spot and kicking the goal from working hard in his 1 on 1. When the Stingrays had some space through their backs and mids working hard they looked dangerous, but the extra defender and limited space resulted in most of the quarter being played between the arcs. Unlike the first ¼ the Stingrays didn’t allow the Jets to use the ball as flowingly this quarter restricting them to 2 goals 3 points and as the siren sounded the margin would be the same as the half time break, being 14 points in the Stingrays favour.
The start of the last quarter the Jets lifted their run and carry. They worked hard defending and through the midfield and ran the ball in kicked long using the wind and delivered truly to the forwards who converted and kicked the first important goal, reducing the margin to 8 points. From there it become one way traffic after a silly free after a Stingrays goals, resulting in a second goal to be kicked without the ball going into the centre. There were plenty of standouts and Yeats singled out numerous players for their acts of character, Like Matt Rennie whose work rate and ability to change a game was upstanding and one of the best individual games he had seen of a player this year, young Sorro-chin-ski for his braveness to stay underneath knowing he was more than likely going to be crunched, then stayed composed and kick important goals, but restated if the side was to progress deep into finals later in the year they must learn to control and stay in the game for a full four quarters of football.
Coach Graeme Yeats was contented with the result and went on to say ‘I was satisfied with the last quarter and overall effort of the team, in the last quarter after being challenged in the first few minutes i think we showed real character. The upsides were the fact we had 8 players in the National squad with Vic Country and lost a couple on the track on Thursday night, so once again we altered the team from the previous week by adding new personal. We are in a great position as a club as we have played 50 players so far and building for this year and next.
Next weekend the Stingrays play against quality opposition in the Gippsland Power away at Shepley Oval, Dandenong where they will be looking to reverse the round 1 loss. Game starts at 1.00pm. Entry is free.
Last Modified on 03/07/2012 09:45