The Dandenong Southern Stingrays have finished the home and away season in second position after a convincing 34 point victory over the North Ballarat Rebels in the Round 19 TAC Cup clash at Shepley Oval Dandenong last Saturday. The Stingrays finished with 13 wins, 6 losses and a percentage of 118.96 to wrap up second spot on the TAC Cup ladder. After starting the season slowly winning only 1 game from the first 4, the Stingrays go into the TAC cup finals in good form with 12 wins from the last 15 games and two of those losses by less than 10 points.
The Stingrays were well strengthened with the addition of Shane Savage, Paul Rogasch, Tom Scully, Andrew Hunter and Corey Millard which meant some well performed players missed out which speaks highly of the depth of the Stingrays at the business end of the season. Playing for second spot, the Stingrays were in control for just about the entire match and pulled clear in the last term to take to win by 34 points.
In fantastic spring weather and Shepley Oval in pristine condition, the Stingrays controlled the game and jumped out to a handy lead only to give up a couple of late goals to the visiting Rebels. The 15 point lead could have been more to the Stingrays but the Rebels were hanging tough and making the home team work hard for its scores. The second term was a direct opposite of the first with the rebels controlling the game at the start of the term before the Stingrays wrestled control back and pulled away to lead by 29 points at the long break. The Stingrays had 16 scoring shots in the first half to the Rebels 8 and probably should have been further in front.
The third term was a make or break for the Rebels as they threw everything they had at the Stingrays and outscored the home team four goals to two but the Stingrays were still in control leading by 16 points at the last break. A last term blitz by the Stingrays of 7 goals in 14 minutes completely shot the game to pieces and it was only a couple of late majors to the Rebels that added some respectability to their scoreline. Better players for the Stingrays were defenders Tom Gillies, Michael Hibberd and Steven Gaertner who completely outplayed their Rebels opponents. Tom Scully was brilliant all day through the midfield and Levi Casboult was once again dominant in the Ruck with his tireless efforts. Forwards Chris Doria and Aaron Purves were lively and creative, kicking multiple majors as well as setting up team mates. Overall it was a fine team performance with contributions right across the board but still with improvement in time for the upcoming finals series.
Next weekend is the start of the TAC Cup final series with the Stingrays to take on the 7th placed finisher which will be one of Gippsland Power, Eastern Ranges or Western Jets depending on results from Sundays games. Overall it has been a fantastic home and away series for the Stingrays with some impressive wins against quality opposition in very high standard games of football.
Last Modified on 07/09/2008 10:34