The Dandenong Southern Stingrays had a hard fought and controlling win over Northern Knights by 49 points, which was played at Shepley Oval Dandenong on Sunday in wet and slippery conditions.
Both sides started slowly with light drizzle falling making it once again slippery conditions at Shepley. The hairy cat “Taylor Joyce” (3 goals) and Aaron Wilson (3 goals) gelled well for day hitting up and taking turns to finish off, with Joyce adding the first goal to the game. A quick goal to the Knights from the middle had them on the scoreboard. The Stingrays wasted numerous opportunities when they went inside 50 but were finally rewarded when Joyce kicked is second after a very good lead and contested mark by Wilson. This was followed up minutes later by a major through Alex Harnett.
Stingrays Coach Craig Black focused on being quicker out of the stoppages and converting inside 50 entries at the quarter time break with the Stingrays holding a nervous 7 point lead.
As soon as the siren sounded the Knights took clean possession from the stoppage and kicked and marked deep inside but failed to convert.
Keegan Downie got on the end of some very good inside mid work to hit the first of his 2 goals. Aaron Wilson chimed in moment s later for another. The ball then bounced between the arcs with both sides failing to take the chances.
The defensive team of the Stingrays lifted giving another goal to Wilson followed by a set shot on goal to the speedy Jack Wheeler to close off the quarter.
As the half time siren sounded the Dandenong Stingrays had slightly increased their lead to 23 points, but the Knights were looking a dangerous team just wasting their chances.
The game was Stingrays to lose with a slight lead they started the third quarter with a bang, Lachlan Williams kicked the first after a strong demanding lead was honored by the class of Harnett’s courage and grunt work out of the stoppage.
A very good inside 50 stoppage roving goal to Williams was quickly answered from the Knights who were just hanging in. As the siren sounded the Stingrays looked in control as the stronger bodies and cleaner skills were taking its toll on the younger Knights. The Stingrays went into the final quarter with a handy 37 point lead.
The last quarter was all one way traffic with the Knights attacking for the majority of the first half of the quarter but were denied many goals mainly due to the work of the back six especially White, Kempster and Kyle Gray that were killing all the
high balls whilst, the smalls were terrific when the ball hit the deck to set up numerous options down field and allowing the scoreboard to turnover.
Batten slotted one from a set shot that seemed to spark the team back into gear with a good goal going to Williams and a little bit of fancy world cup soccer action to Dan Moloney before the siren with the Stingrays achieving something they haven’t been able to do all year in making it two wins in row.
Stingrays Coach Black was happy with the game “Our first half wasn’t that flash, Knights really challenged us and wanted it more....but the strength of this group was the willingness to refocus share the workload, which pleased me more than the win.”
He went on to say “We had five players with Vic Country duties today...it gave these guys an opportunity and I couldn’t be prouder of their output... As a coaching group we were very happy with the back 6 and having 8 individual goal kickers with every forward making a contribution proves we are starting to get the balance right.”
The next game for the Dandenong’ Southern Stingrays is in two weeks time (Saturday 14th June) against the Gippsland Power at Shepley Oval Dandenong
The game starts at 1.00pm.Entry are free.
Last Modified on 03/06/2014 22:06