In a classical winter day and in windy conditions the Stingrays welcomed cross border rivals the Sandringham Dragons at Shepley Oval for the Round 13 TAC Cup clash, with both teams rolling out the red carpet for the Vic Country and Metro players returning to the line ups. In the end the Stingrays took control in the last quarter and won by 15 points in what was a thrilling contest that saw the lead change numerous times throughout the day.
The first quarter saw the Stingrays start with good intensity in the middle with Lewis Pierce and James Hammond tapping well to give the mids first use, before Pierce was rushed to hospital at the ten minute mark in what looked like a severe finger injury. The tackling pressure inside the Stingrays 50 was a highlight and after some good work to keep the ball inside 50 Jake Calvert kicked truly, then another goal followed shortly after by Matt Rennie after he took a strong contested mark. All the play in the first, up until the ten minute mark, was within the Stingrays half of the ground with many opportunities lost on the scoreboard. After losing Pierce Sandringham started getting their hands on the ball at the stoppages a little more and grew in confidence, as well as lifting their workrate and intent that eventually allowed them to score against the swirly wind, which was slightly favoring the Northern end of the ground that the Stingrays were kicking to. The quarter ended with 14 inside 50’s for the Stingrays whilst the backs had kept the Sandringham forwards goalless. The Stingrays had focused heavily on 1%ers and getting first use of the ball in the middle with 5 to 2 clearances in their favor by the end of the first quarter. When the siren sounded the Stingrays held a 14 point lead.
The second quarter started terrible for the Stingrays with the first two goals going to Sandringham. They had a lot of the play and peppered the goals but poor kicking on goal kept the Stingrays ahead on the scoreboard at half time due to two late goals to Jason Pongracic, both with score assists from Clayton McCartney’s after some brilliant defensive pressure. Sandringham had got themselves back into the game by quick ball movement and creating one-on-one in the forwardline in the dying minutes to close the margin to four points. It could have been a lot more if it wasn’t for Tyle Williams, Robbie Hill and Ryan Morisson who were rebounding the ball from poor inside 50 entries from Sandringham. At the long break Stingrays Coach Graeme Yeats was asking for players to step up, with the backs to play more accountable football and have quicker ball movement, the mids to apply the same 1 on 1 pressure as Sandringham was bringing in the contested contests and the forwards to offer more productive leads and contests when the ball comes in.
The third quarter was similar to the first half with both sides have 10 minutes patches with both adding goals. The Stingrays kicked better with the breeze the second time around and the accuracy in front of goal was the key giving them handy lead going into the final quarter. They kicked 5 straight goals from 11 entries inside 50, with 2 very good marks and goals once again from Jack Soroczynski and a few very courageous acts from Ryan Marks Logan to stand under the ball knowing he was going to be crunched. Nathan Wright showed his class and running ability when he was moved into the midfield, whilst the polish of Lachie Whitfield and Billy Hartung had the Dragons looking for answers on how to control them on the spread. At the end of the third the Stingrays had a 12 point lead and plenty of work to do to hold in against the 3 plus goal breeze that Sandringham would take into the last.
The final quarter kicking against the breeze was the most efficient the Stingrays forward line had produced working into a breeze for the whole year, which was a timely thing to come as it got them the result for the game. Their ability to push up and present to the ball carrier and give the back line players options to kick too was impressive. They went in 8 times for 5 scores and again it was the Forwards ability to find space and the midfield’s polish to hit targets that got them over the line. A highlight of the quarter was after zoning up after a Sandringham kickin Tim McGenniss incepted the short option and kicked truly, shortly followed up with some very smart play from Lachie Whitfield to assist Jason Pongracic and Clayton McCartney with goals. Sandringham had many chances with 7 shots on goals, with five points a result from poor conversion mostly caused by the havoc the wind caused with set shots. As the siren sounded the Stingrays took a hard fought 15 point win against a side that will be featuring deep into the finals series.
Tyle Williams led the charge for the backs, but it was a solid effort from the entire back 6 with most of the Stingrays scoring coming from the run and carry from the back half. New debuting player Joel O’Sullivan showed a little with his limited time on the ground, but looks a handy prospect for the next 18 months. Stingrays Coach Graeme Yeats said “Unlike last week we actually did very well at the stoppages and our mids got hold of the ball a lot. Sandringham had their chances on the scoreboard, which if you look at the inside 50’s for both sides it was fairly even, we just converted better. It was great that we could finally field nearly our strongest side on today, the first time this year.”
He went on to say “Even though we were restricted with a bench by 1 after losing Lewy Pierce 10 minutes into the game the effort overall from the collective group was very good. It was pleasing to see how hard we worked against the breeze, especially in the last where we kicked 3 goals and held Sandringham to 2 goals.”
Next weekend is a Bye for the TAC Cup, but 12 Stingrays players will line up for Hallam Secondary College on Saturday 21st July at 10.30am to play on the MCG where they will play against Essendon Keilor College for the Grand Final in the AFL Victoria SSV Premier League Grand Final.
Last Modified on 16/07/2012 19:17