Doveton penalty works for Dandy

By Gavin Staindl
DIVISION Three side Dandenong will make finals after all – even though they lost the clutch game to Southern Dragons by 14 points.
Heading into this week’s Division Three clash against the Southern Dragons, Dandenong needed the win to reach fifth position but with the disqualification of Doveton, Dandenong has been promoted to fifth and will qualify for finals.
Dandenong coach Brendan Allen admitted it was not the ideal way of making finals but “as long as you’re at the dance anything can happen”.
Dandenong started Saturday’s clash poorly, managing only four scoring shots to 11 on the stroke of half time.
“We were too stagnant and we got chopped up along our half-forward line too easily because we weren’t bringing the ball forward quick enough,” Allen said.
“I said to the guys at half time that we need to take some risks and start playing to win rather than playing not to lose,” Allen said.
After half time Dandenong began to move the ball with speed that gave the forwards a chance to contest one-out with their opponent.
The main beneficiary of the change in style was full-forward Damien Busch who booted six goals for the visitors.
But Dandenong’s momentum was quelled two-minutes before three quarter time when Dave Barrie was sent off for abusing an umpire.
Barrie, who was deliberately manhandled, remonstrated with the umpire’s decision to play on and was sent from the field.
“He is a pretty important player … definitely in our top five so to have him sent off when we were getting on top of things made it difficult,” Allen said.
Sandown has given itself the best chance to avoid the Division Three wooden spoon beating Cerberus by 47-points at Edinburgh Reserve.
The win is Sandown’s second and gives them a one game buffer over Cerberus with four rounds remaining.
Lyndale has been beaten again in Division Two, this time by 160-points to South Yarra at Fritsch Holzer Reserve.
Optimistically, it is an improvement on their 215-point drubbing from last time the pair clashed.
In Division One, Springvale Districts was beaten by 49-points to Mordialloc at Newcomen Road while Dingley lost at home to St Paul’s/ East Bentleigh by four goals.
Dingley was level with the visitors at half time but missed out on an opportunity to cause one of the bigger upsets of the year as St Paul’s ran away with the match in the second half.