The Dandenong Southern Stingrays were never in the hunt against the North Ballarat Rebels going down by 44 points, which was played at Eureka Stadium on Sunday in slippery and windy conditions.
With cool conditions and light drizzle forecasted for the day it was always going to be about who had the better start, with honours once again going to the opposition, but lucky all 3 scoring attempts were points in the first 3 minutes.
Taylor Joyce kicked the opening goal for the day (1 of his 5) but disappointingly that would be last score the Stingrays would add for the remainder of the quarter trailing the Rebels by 16 at the first break.
The Stingrays wasted numerous opportunities when they got their hands on the ball and it took Stingrays Coach Craig Black to address the group asking for commitment over the football and stop overusing the slippery pill at the quarter time break. The ground was very slippery and loose on the surface with many players losing their feet for most of the day. He wanted cleaner and more direct movement instead of hugging the wide wings.
The start of the 2nd quarter looked like the players had worked it out moving forward within a minute but another wasteful entry in side 50, which was going to be the flavour of the day for the young Stingrays, cost them dearly. Ballarat time after time rebounded and controlled the ball in cleaner movement from the back half to punish them on the scoreboard slightly extended their lead to 25 points at the half time break.
The second half was going to be a huge challenge for the group with Black demanding senior players to step up and take control. The wind had picked up with the Stingrays kicking with the advantage in the third.
The premiership quarter was the best for the day with both sides going goal for goal, before Ballarat scrapped a few in a row opening up a comfortable lead. The Stingrays had plenty of the ball and won the clearances and contested marks for the day, but poor entry into the forward half resulting in points or no scores at all and silly free kicks cost them greatly. A late roving goal to Lachlan Williams closed the margin to 26 points as the siren sounded giving the Stingrays a slight sniff going into the last.
The last quarter was all one way traffic, unfortunately it was the Rebels doing all of the attacking kicking the first two goals and putting the game beyond doubt.
It was lucky Daylan Kempster stood tall for the day denying many marks and setting up plenty of rebound, with Alex Harnett and Sam Geurts grunt work
moving the ball, but lack of support up the ground denied the Stingrays any opportunity to close the gap.
A positive for the Stingrays is the performance of key forward Taylor Joyce who once again kicked a bag of 5 goals from his 11 possessions.
Stingrays Region Talent Manager Mark Wheeler summed up the day by saying “We had a very good opportunity to secure a position in the top four, but too many players didn’t turn up to play today….The Rebels showed us how to play the game we wanted to play, for that they reap the rewards and take our position on the ladder and we slide to the middle of the pack.”
He went on to say, “There are no excuses, we were beaten on the day by the better side. We now get the opportunity to test the character of the group on how they are going to back up from this. With all Regions having the ability to bring in their Private school players in the next few weeks there could be up to 8-10 changes for the game against the Cannons…those in today’s team had the ability to control their own destiny, which they didn’t, now the coaching staff have the challenge to reset the team and take on a team that is touted top 2 in the TAC Cup.”
Next week the Stingrays take on the Calder Cannons. The game is to be played on Saturday 28th June at Highgate Arena, Craigeburn.
The game start at 1.00pm.Entry is free.
Last Modified on 24/06/2014 20:30