By JARROD POTTER
DANDENONG Stingrays’ first quarter waywardness and a second quarter deceleration were the deciding factors in their 23-point loss to the Gippsland Power.
In their TAC Cup season-opener, Dandenong had two left boots on early – shanking six straight points from the first bounce as Gippsland hit the scoreboard more accurately to go in three points up at quarter time.
The woe continued in the second as Dandenong fell away – always last to the ball on the ground or in the air, with the Power jagging five unanswered goals before the half.
A fierce third quarter brought the Dandenong charges back into the match – piling on four goals to one through Clay McCartney and Tom Lamb.
Stingray spirit held strong in the fourth quarter, before Gippsland’s Lukas Webb iced the match from a straight-forward shot.
Stingrays captain Nathan Foote played deep in the back line and held his own – chopping out as third-man up in marking contests and also delivering bullet-like passes from the kick-ins to go with 20 possessions and two marks.
Dandenong lacked enough avenues to goal – relying heavily on McCartney, three goals, and Lamb, two, to slot the majors – with on-goal efforts from Blake Pearson and Josh Pickess also useful as the pair streamed up the ground regularly.
Agape Patolo was impressive as the starting ruck, knocking down 16 taps, with good support from Luke Rowe, getting seven despite standing in as an under-sized secondary ruck.
Despite the loss, Stingrays coach Graeme Yeats is happy with the performance but admits that work still remains for Dandenong to beat the stronger teams.
“We think we got a decent result,” Yeats said.
“We certainly weren’t pleased with aspects of the way we played.
“Our consistency over the course of 100 minutes waned a little bit, but it was a really good lesson as they’re a physical team that will come at you constantly and we were happy with the way we gutsed it out.”
It contrasts the Stingrays’ severe beating at Gippsland hands two weeks ago at Toomuc Reserve, a reversal of form that was pleasing for Yeats.
“We identified that we needed to get better in the competitive effort department and today we were much better,” Yeats said.
“Two weeks ago we played Gippy in a practise game and they were much better than us and we didn’t measure up the key work rate areas, but we’ve addressed that.”
Heading out to new pastures at Bayswater Oval, Dandenong Stingrays will face the Eastern Ranges on Saturday at 4pm.
TAC CUP
GIPPSLAND POWER 3.3 8.6 9.10 12.13 (85)
DANDENONG STINGRAYS 2.6 2.10 6.12 8.14 (62)
GIPPSLAND Best: L. Nash, C. Buykx-Smith, T. Muir, J. Scott, J. Thomas, E. Morris. Goals: L. Webb 3, N. Paredes 2, J. Scott 2, D. Keilty 2, J. Thomas 2, N. Dennison.
DANDENONG STINGRAYS Best: N. Foote, J. Pickess, C. McCartney, B. Pearson, N. Gardiner, Z. Jones. Goals: C. McCartney 3, T. Lamb 2, N. Gardiner, B. Pearson, A. Harnett.
