The Dandenong Southern Stingrays headed to Chirnside Park, Werribee to tackle runaway league leader, the Geelong Falcons with hope and ambition to take on the best in the competition and stake their claim to be a genuine TAC Cup contender only to learn that they have a bit of work to do to be regarded as a real threat this season.
With both teams close to full strength the game opened with the usual free flowing and open style most often seen in the TAC Cup. Kicking into the wind, the Stingrays backs were resolute defending the repeated forward thrusts of the Falcons. Rebounding on the counter attack the Stingrays regularly went wide and as a result could not put any scoreboard pressure on. Jarryd Amalfi continued with his good recent form and set a high standard for his fellow defenders to attain but too often as the game wore on he was the only shining light down back.
The second term should have been where the Stingrays closed the 17 point ΒΌ time gap but wasted opportunities and some really poor skill decisions meant that the Stingrays only kicked 1 goal from 18 inside 50m entries. The Falcons used their hard working mid field to assist the backs rebound from the Stingrays forward line to kick 2 valuable goals against the flow of play. The half time lead of the Falcons of 23 points was a fair indication difference between the two teams as the Stingrays were struggling to find an avenue to goal.
At half time the Stingrays Coach Graeme Yeats reshuffled his team to try to get some consistent effort across the board only to see his charges continue to not man up, zone off and turn the ball over on the rebound. The Stingrays were quickly learning that they could not rely on turnovers to gain possession and had to close down the ball carrier and cover off first receiver to pressure the Falcons into making skill errors.
The third term was where the Falcons closed the game out with their forwards posting 5 goals to the Stingrays 2 to take a 40 point lead into the last change. There was not as lot of good news for the Stingrays as they were consistently cleaned out at stoppages, outworked through the mid field and struggled to find a way to goal. Lacking a spark from their more experienced players, it was youngsters Nathan Allen, Luke Parker, 16 year old Adam Treloar and Matt Shaw who kept it simple and did the basics well. Madison Andrews was a shining light for the top age mid fielders with a fine job on All Australian Ben Cunnington, matching him in the 1 on 1 contests. The final quarter had the Stingrays finally winning a term with a 4 goals to 3 effort which reduced the gap to 34 points.
Next Saturday, August 1st the Stingrays head to Deakin Reserve, Shepparton in a 2008 grand final rematch against the Murray Bushrangers. The game starts at 1.00pm and entry is free.
Last Modified on 26/07/2009 20:52