Final chance for finals

By Ben Hope
THE Dandenong Panthers will need a win in their final game of the season to have a chance to make it to the finals after a disappointing loss to Hawthorn-Monash University last weekend.
The Panthers will meet Fitzroy-Doncaster this weekend as both teams fight for a win that could see either edge their way into the final eight.
Panthers Captain Darren Dempsey said if Melbourne also beat Prahran there was a chance the Panthers could go on, provided they could also win their game.
“As funny as it may seem after we seem to have lost more games than we have won this year, but if we can win this weekend we will be relying on one or two results to go our way,” Dempsey said.
“We are reliant on some results, but we will do our best and try and get the win and see what happens.”
Dempsey described his team’s loss to Hawthorn-Melbourne University last weekend as “disappointing” after setting a target of 255 for the Hawks.
“We just didn’t create enough chances as a group,” he said.
“We weren’t putting them under enough pressure for long enough periods and it just became easy for them unfortunately.”
Dempsey was forced to watch his team from the sidelines as he served a suspension for dissent.
“The wicket was pretty flat and it was hard work. We created five chances on the day and took four wickets, and dropped a pretty difficult catch, but by that stage the game was away from us,” he said.
“It was just one of those days when things didn’t go our way.”
The Hawks opened on the second day with 2/10 but soon made their target in 89 overs thanks to an impressive 147 from Dale Tormey.
“I don’t want to take too much away from what the Hawks did, Dale Tormey did a great job, it was one of the better innings I have ever seen,” Dempsey said.
“Particularly for a young guy, he’s had a good season. I have played against him for a couple of years and I knew he was an up-and-coming player but didn’t realise he was capable of something that good.”
At lunch the Panthers had managed to take three wickets but after lunch the wickets didn’t fall any faster. Some of the best bowling for Dandenong came from Brent Fairbanks (3/49) after he took the first two wickets of the game in the first day. Paul Boraston also did his best to put some pressure on the Hawks taking 2/74.
“I was thinking if we could get them four of five down at lunch we would be OK,” Dempsey said.
“However, at lunch we had them three down. On a normal day that’s OK but we hardly took a wicket in the second session and that was the killer.”
The Panthers will play Fitzroy Doncaster this week and both teams will need a win if they are going to make it to the finals.
“We will be playing pretty hard this weekend,” Dempsey said.