Report by Mitch Brown
On Sunday March 15, the Dandenong Stingrays U18 team faced off in a practice match against the Gippsland Power, a precursor to their TAC Cup Round 1 clash in two weeks.
Both teams had their opportunities in the opening stages of the first quarter, but the Stingrays were able to capitalise a bit better, claiming the first two majors of the match before a clever dummy-sell and neat finish from Josh Battle handed Dandenong a 19 point lead after just ten minutes of play.
The Stingrays dominance continued into the remainder of the quarter, with the likes of Bailey Rice, Thomas Jok and Kurt Murtimer keeping the Power from having any real impact until the last three minutes of the quarter, with two quick goals undermining an excellent start for Dandenong.
The second quarter began with Gippsland drawing first blood, however Cory Machaya and Travis Young struck back with two crucial goals to keep the Stingrays ahead.
Gippsland continued to push the Stingrays defence, but we were able to hold strong and not give up another goal for the entirety of the quarter, while Darcy Warke looked particularly dangerous at the other end, setting up several chances for Dandenong to increase their lead.
Leading by 19 at the long break, the Stingrays were determined not to let their opposition back into contest at the commencement of the third, and thus began an intense, scrappy and low-scoring slog, characterised by plenty of hard tackling and forced turnovers.
The breakthrough finally came through another Josh Battle goal, which opened the floodgates for two more quick Stingrays goals to push the lead to 31 at three quarter time.
The final quarter belonged to our boys from the get-go. Kieran Collins’ snap from the goalsquare and Darcy Warke’s setshot from the left pocket ended any hopes of a Power comeback early.
Two more goals from Lachlan Williams and Gach Nyuon extended Dandenong’s lead. We did allow Gippsland to finish with an easy goal to end the match, but this was merely a minor blemish on an otherwise successful day for the Stingrays.
Last Modified on 17/03/2015 08:52