The Dandenong Southern Stingrays bounced back from a disappointing Round 1 loss with a hard fought and controlling win over Eastern Ranges by 48 points, which was played at Bayswater Oval, Bayswater on Saturday afternoon.
The game had a better start to last week with the Stingrays kicking with more purpose as they rebounded inside 50 numerous times capitalizing on the scoreboard. Single Goals to key forward Nathan Gardiner and running players Blake Pearson, Jack Soroczynski, whilst the hardworking small forward Clayton McCartney kicked two. The Stingrays had a couple of good chances to post more majors but failed, but the positive was they were controlling most of the play and taking advantage of the wide open space. At the quarter time break it allowed Stingrays Coach Graeme Yeats to slightly tweak the team and to reassure them that what they had done so far was on track and to continue with hard running, hitting the leading targets and the backs concentrate on locking down and winning the 50/50 contests, the scoreboard will take care of itself. At the end of the first scoring was locked at 5.3.34 a piece in what was a thrilling display for the huge crowd.
The second term was a tighter contest with Eastern neers gaining a little bit of momentum through the midfield and kicking truly in the first part of the quarter as they took advantage of unforced errors and silly frees kicks. The Stingrays continued with drive from the defensive back six and the midfield group continued with some fantastic gut running to win the football with some strong defensive pressure to feed the Forwards, but entry into the forward line was shallow and unproductive that allowed the Ranges to build and drive forward but the backs were doing a great job denying goals. The Ranges wasted many opportunities and could have opened up a lead on the scoreboard. The Stingrays finally settled after 15 odd minutes of play through a nice goal through Jack Soroczynski, which opened up the scoring with goals coming through Ryan Marks-Logan, Blake Pearson and Nathan Gardiner. At the major break the Stingrays held a 22 point lead. Stingrays coach Graeme Yeats asked from his young team to settle when driving forward instead of kicking it to a contest, pleaded for better starting positions for the backs and the Mids must get back to the basic’s and win the 50/50 contest like they had in the first. Blake Pearson and Angus Scott were working very hard with some very good gut running, whilst Clayton McCartney had 3 goals.
The third mirrored the end of the second with a goal in the first few minutes through some magical Ruck work by Agape Patolo to hit midfielder James Harmes who slotted a nice snap shot goal. A costly free kick followed by a 50 metre penalty allowed Eastern to peg one back but a few minutes later by some forward pressure young Alex Harnett kicked another which looked like the Stingrays may run away with it, which they did with a great roving goal to key forward Nathan Gardiner followed up by a very classy team goal that worked the ball into the hands of Trae Tohiariki who converted truly. A minute later speedster Angus Scott pounced a loose ball and finished off a nice running goal. A highlight of the quarter was a coast to coast goal with young ALF AIS player Tom Lamb having a hand in it on the back pocket and taking the mark in the goal square a few minutes later. Eastern bucked the trend and converted a much needed goal but as the siren was about to sound Josh Pickess snapped an around the body shot making it 7 majors for the premiership quarter whilst restricting Eastern to 2 and holding a 40 point lead going into the last.
At the bounce of the last quarter Eastern lifted the intensity with hard gut running, with strong hard work around the contest that saw them peg back 2 goals. They were completely dominating the play and the Stingrays seemed to stop working in the 50/50 contest allowing Eastern to make the play. Clayton McCartney was awarded a free kick a slotted a nice needed settling goal at the 19 minute mark of the quarter which halted Eastern’s mini fight back. The next few minutes both sides wasted opportunities before James Harmes kicked another followed by a strong mark and goal to Jack Soroczynski.
With 11 individual goal kickers with a spread of forwards and midfielders was a positive along with Agape Patolo and Luke Rowe giving the mids first use. Jordan Bastinac is continue to grow with his first use inside outstanding and now linking up on the outside, whilst the blend of pace and brut strength in the midfield making it a hard group to contain.
Yeats was wrapped with his players’ efforts and the way they rebounded from a disappointing effort the boys showed in round 1 to out-work and outclass the Ranges that easily could have went to other way. Yeats said “We were challenged early and the character of the group united and we started taking control on the one on one’s. To get a win away from home is always hard work, which the group needs to do if we are going to go deep into finals. The other thing about today’s win is we had 11 goal kickers and didn’t rely on just our key forwards. We have a lot of improving to still do but today we bloodied another player with his first game, and I think we have started to believe in ourselves a little more. Eastern are a very good team and in the first quarter that was the best display of football at this level I have seen for a long time. Next week is another challenge for us with our third away game in a row- this time in Bendigo against the highly rated Geelong Falcons.”
Next Saturday April 13th the Dandenong Southern Stingrays take on the Geelong Falcons at QEO Oval Bendigo at 3.00pm which is part of the Country round triple header.
Last Modified on 08/04/2013 11:47