Report by Mitch Brown
The Dandenong Southern Stingrays have registered a very important victory, knocking off the top-placed Eastern Ranges in a great display on Saturday in Box Hill.
The Stingrays slid to seventh place after last week’s nail-biting loss to the NSW/ACT Rams, and were faced with a fight to stay in the top eight.
However Dandenong’s confident brand of football prevailed, handing the ladder leaders defeat to the tune of 21 points.
The Stingrays were led by brilliant performances from defenders Jordan Rouse and Kieran Collins - between them they took 16 marks and managed to keep the dangerous Eastern forward line to just nine goals. Thomas Glen led all comers with 22 disposals, while key forwards Zak Roscoe and James Freeman both booted two goals.
The Stingrays had the benefit of a strong breeze in the first term, but it was the Eastern Ranges who drew first blood, claiming the match’s first goal within the first 25 seconds of the game. Their running handball game had the Stingrays on the back foot from the start, but they didn’t remain shell-shocked for long, with forwards Travis Young and Zak Roscoe both registering close-range goals soon after.
The Ranges squad’s run-and-carry was halted by the Stingrays, who began to claim a lot more of the possession, but were unable to truly make the most of it.
Aggressive run through the corridor handed Dandenong first-gamer Shannon Gladman his first ever TAC Cup goal, but the Ranges responded with two quick goals at the end of the quarter to bring the margin back to three points at the first break.
It was obvious that the Stingrays’ disposal, particularly over-using the ball under pressure, cost them a more comfortable lead at quarter time, but this saw significant improvement in the second term, which kicked off with Zak Roscoe’s second major.
Several momentary lapses in concentration were damaging to the Stingrays, as Eastern were able to score some very easy goals as a result. The Stingrays defence continued to be pushed by an excellent Eastern attack, but poor decision-making was the real problem for Dandenong going into half-time, allowing their opponents two goals within as many minutes as the siren sounded. The margin was 11 points in favour of the Ranges.
Such efforts did not impress the Stingrays’ coaching staff, who implored their men to put more pressure on and think through their decisions a bit more.
This advice clearly got through to Dandenong, who came out firing in the third, blasting apart the Ranges defence with two quick goals to reclaim the lead. Eastern struggled to keep the dangerous Stingrays attack at bay, with James Freeman taking a great pack mark and goal from 40 metres, and Darcy Warke laying a terrific holding-the-ball tackle deep in the pocket and also converted.
Jake DiPasquale also showed off his soccer skills with a clever goal to stretch the Stingrays’ lead to 21, while the impact of key Ranges forwards Sam Weidemen and Blake Hardwick was minimised by Thomas Stoffels and second-gamer Sam Pickess.
The Ranges were made to look hapless, as Josh Battle slammed on a sixth unanswered goal to take his team to a 27-point buffer at the final change.
Senior coach Craig Black asked his men to dig deep for the final quarter, tighten up around stoppages and minimise the amount of uncontested possessions claimed by Eastern.
The desperation from both teams was evident in the opening minutes of the last term, with the Stingrays holding strong in the face of a determined Ranges, who were looking to capitalise on the persistent breeze.
The first goal did come from Eastern, and they managed to follow it up with another 30 seconds later to bring the lead back to 15 points, striking fear into the hearts of Stingrays fans.
Careless errors kept creeping into the Stingrays’ game, and it became apparent that the Ranges were certainly not beyond claiming the win, 15 points down with 7 minutes left to play.
The nail in the Eastern coffin, however, came with 5 minutes remaining, with James Freeman converting a tough set-shot from deep in the left pocket to make a Stingrays victory a certainty, with the final score 83-62.
Senior coach Craig Black was full of praise for his men, declaring the win a marked improvement over the heartbreaker against the NSW/ACT Rams.
“After last week’s loss, the character from the boys was great to see. We really worked hard at training during the week, and were able to implement some of those things in today’s game - things like keeping sustained efforts going for longer.”
Black also admitted that he was very impressed with the Stingrays’ third quarter, in which they kicked six unanswered goals and laid eight tackles inside 50 alone. “It means that our boys are working really hard at putting that pressure on, which is what we really love to see.”
Dandenong’s focus will turn to next week’s match, against the Western Jets this Saturday at Shepley Oval starting at 11.30am..
Last Modified on 15/05/2015 12:38