The Dandenong Southern Stingrays once again started slowly and it once again proved to be the undoing of the Stingrays as they went down to the Northern Knights by 17 points in Round 19 of the TAC Cup, and dropped to 3rd spot on the ladder the same time the Knights jumped into the eight.
The Stingrays made another 3 changes to their side bringing in Jake Batchelor, James Cottrell and Luke Sheppard as the Stingrays try to settle their best possible line up leading into the finals. With a blustery Northerly swirling around Visy Park, Carlton, the Stingrays kicked the first goal at the five minute mark through some good work finished by Luke Parker. The next 50 minutes would make a coach go grey with some of the most disappointing efforts across the ground that the Stingrays have produced this season. Blitzed at the stoppages, out crumbed, out run, out tackled and out played by the Knights who worked at a far higher rate than the Stingrays. Only Ryan Bastinac and Luke Parker were on top of their direct opponents and the half time score-line of Stingrays 2-2 to the Knights 8-8 was unfortunately a true indication of the state of the game.
The second half was much better as the Stingrays started to run harder, work for each other and play with a bit of care and passion. The Stingrays still let themselves down with a lot of unpressured skill errors and poor coverage around congested situations and the quick and nimble Knights certainly made the Stingrays pay. The move of Levi Casboult into the Ruck to assist Daniel Harrison and the quickening of the Stingrays forward line seemed to work with the Stingrays outscoring the Knights 4 goals to 2 in both the third and last quarters. Tom Scully and Will Petropolous both found it hard to loosen the grips of the Knights players assigned to reduce their impact on the game.
Stingrays coach Graeme Yeats was at a loss to explain the slow start as Thursday’s training was of a very high standard. The Stingrays seemingly lack of purpose when defending and desire to run hard both ways is frustrating the match committee and a bit of soul searching and refocusing on the job at hand would go a long way to rectify the things that are letting the side down. Next weekend is the last home and away game for the season as the Stingrays head to Warrawee Park Oakleigh to take on the Oakleigh Chargers at 11.00am on Saturday.
Last Modified on 31/08/2009 12:08