Stingrays “STINGRAYS SLIP UP AT FRANKSTON” ROUND 14 MATCH REPORT The Dandenong Southern Stingrays’ run of wins has come to a grinding halt after a heart-pounding 2-point loss to the Gippsland Power in Frankston on Saturday afternoon, going down 14.8 (92) to 14.10 (94). With the Armageddon of winds forecasted for Saturday, the day at the beach at Frankston was always going to be tricky, with the wind favouring the city end by around four goals as well as favouring the Grandstand side of the ground. Gippsland were the better team for most of the day, however they struggled to capitalise on the scoreboard, keeping the Stingrays close enough in the game to nearly snatch it in the dying minutes. Dandenong’s trademark attack on the football was also severely lacking, with the young Rays looking lethargic and missing for significant parts of the match. This in part may have been the loss of two of their hard-nut players in the first quarter, in Ali Zijai (ankle) and Captain Joshua Bateman (blurred vision from a head knock). Gippsland collected the largest part of possession around the ground, and Dandenong were simply unable to keep up, giving away undisciplined free kicks and making poor decisions. The Stingray defence did perform marvellously, with Mason deWit, Jesse Davies and young gun William Hamill once again stand-outs. Through the middle there was a standout, that being Hunter Clark who accumulated 34 possession’s, 16 handball receives, 7 clearances, 10 inside 50’s, 4 rebounds along with 2 goals to be named best afield on the day. Also, particularly noteworthy was big man Tom Dekoning, putting in his best performance of the year, amassing 42 hit outs, and providing the Stingrays with some muchneeded tall timber in marking contests, especially in the last quarter standing tall. Riley Darcy was again the most dangerous Dandenong forward, supported by Campbell Hustwaite with both bagging 3 goals, but with mediocre support around the ground, the Stingrays never really deserved to win the game. Unlike the previous 6 weeks the entry inside the forward line was shallow or wide, with the midfielders unable to hit up the leading targets. “Gippsland definitely had much more intent around the footy, and were willing to work a bit harder around the contests,” admitted Craig Black after the game. “ “The third quarter they took all their chances in front of goal, but I thought we’d done enough to match them giving ourselves a real chance in the last to run away with it.” “It’s a tough competition, we know that. Today we left our run late and as a group we want except it, we want to have a winning culture as part of our development of players. We let ourselves in a couple of areas, which we will address on Tuesday- then focus on the Pioneers.”
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The first term didn’t start well for the Rays, as Gippsland opened the scoring from a free kick but it was quickly rewarded with back to back goals to Campbell Hustwaite. Unfortunately for the Power, goalkicking let them down, as they could have blown Dandenong away with the aid of the strong first quarter breeze, with the scores at quarter time, 2. 7 (19) to 2.1 (13). The second term continued much as the first did – this time the Stingrays dominating the scoreboard. The midfield pressure from the Stingrays gave first use to the forwards who slammed on six goals, with the defence only allowing 3 goals to see the Stingrays lead by 13 points at the half-time break. The third quarter was genuinely disastrous for the Rays – while they continued to give away stupid free kicks and make poor decisions under pressure, Gippsland regained the lead, booting six goals, seemingly unimpeded this time by the wind as they took all their chances in front of goals. There was a distinct lack of urgency in the way the Stingrays were playing – and despite terrific individual efforts from swinging utilities Mitch Cotter and Hunter Clark, the Stingrays went into the last term on the wrong end of a 10-point deficit. Black challenged the midfield, pleading for better use going inside 50 asking forwards to give more leads, as well as reassuring the group that the game was there for the win for whom ever wanted it the most, with now a slight drop in the wind a 2-goal breeze it should have been an easier task for the Stingrays to make it 7 wins in a row. Again, there were flashes of the Dandenong side that cruised to a 6-0 win record in the past 6 games, but this was after allowing the Power to extend the lead to 19 points in the opening minutes of the first quarter. Gippsland managed two more goals against the breeze whilst the fast finishing Stingrays come home flying until the final siren sounded on the Rays’ devastating loss by two points on a day that could have been. Dandenong do still retain fifth spot on the TAC Cup ladder, but from today’s performance, they still have a lot of work to do if they want to hold on to that mantle and go deep into the finals. This week the Stingrays take on the Bendigo Pioneers at Shepley Oval on Saturday at 2.00pm before the final bye in the TAC Cup the following week. Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Dandenong Stingrays 2.1-13 8.4-52 10.6-66 14.8-92 Gippsland Power 2.7-19 5.9-39 11.10-76 14.10-94 DANDENONG STINGRAYS Goal Kickers: Campbell Hustwaite 3, Riley D’Arcy 3, Hunter Clark 2, Jai Nanscawen 2, Tom Murphy, Fin Bayne, Mitch Cotter, Tom Dekoning Best Players: Hunter Clark, William Hamill, Campbell Hustwaite, Mitch Cotter, Jesse Davies, Mason DeWit
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