The Dandenong Southern Stingrays had a disappointing game on the weekend when they went down to the Northern Knights by 18 points in front of a good crowd and the annual sponsors, supporters and spouses luncheon at Shepley Oval, Dandenong in the Round 13 TAC Cup clash last Sunday.
With the Stingrays were still without Tom Scully, Ryan Bastinac, Matt Shaw and James Hallahan on the back of Nationals duties and the Knights at full strength, it was always going to be a tough day in the office against the Dennis Pagan coached Knights. The Knights tactic of employing a full ground press with no players forward of the centre for the majority of the game troubled the Stingrays who struggled to find space or spare players forward of the ball.
The Stingrays could not control the ball around the stoppages or apply enough pressure on the ball carriers early in the game and as a result the Knights key forwards led the Stingrays defenders a merry dance. The Knights won the game with their rebounding from the backline and scoring on the counter-attack. The Stingrays defenders could not contain the Knights keys as Tom Hill and Josh Caddy kicked 7 goals between them. The Knights had also done their homework on the Stingrays key play makers shutting down Will Petropolous and Luke Parker’s influence on the game.
The second half saw the Stingrays restructure their forward entries and Levi Casboult and Myles Pitt got going, both ending up with 4 goals each but they were just too far behind to make up the difference through a Stingrays forwardline that contained a lot of players. Dylan Roberton and Jarryd Amalfi continued their good form in the back half, Riley Heddles, Mitch Hallahan were very good around the stoppages and 2nd gamer Daniel Harrison showed some pleasing signs in the Ruck.
Next Sunday, July 12th is an away game in the TAC Cup for the Stingrays against the Sandringham Dragons at 11.10am at Trevor Barker Oval, Sandringham. The game is a VFL curtain raiser to the Sandringham vs Collingwood game. At a National Under 18, Tom Scully was named in the All Australian team for the second year in a row. Ryan Bastinac was a bit stiff to miss All Australian having been in the best for Vic Country in 4 out of the 5 games he played.
Last Modified on 13/07/2009 10:45