Dandenong’s disappointment

By Paul Pickering
DANDENONG’S season ended on Saturday, much as it had started five months ago – in disappointment.
The Panthers, who dropped their first four matches of the summer, finished the season at their lowest ebb, losing to wooden-spooner Casey-South Melbourne at Shepley Oval.
The visitors resumed at 4/118, needing just 13 runs to record their first victory of the season.
For any side other than the fragile Swans, it would have seemed a formality.
So the tension was palpable at Pultney Street after five maiden overs from Dave Newman and Brent Fairbanks to start the day.
But the cautious Swans eventually broke the shackles in the sixth, when number three Jake Best parried a Fairbanks delivery away from a single.
With that the Swans were away, and former Dandenong gloveman Tom Hussey took the opportunity to blast his new side past their target – simultaneously snuffing out any chance his old side had of playing in the finals.
Hussey was run out for 18 soon after, but the Swans progressed to 240 on the back of Best’s 42 and a rapid half-century from Brett Watkins.
The Panthers knew there was no hope of securing the reverse outright result they needed from there, so skippers Darren Dempsey and Craig Entwistle agreed to pull up stumps at around 2pm.
Fairbanks finished with 4/59, while 16-year-old quick James Wilcock (3/47) recorded his best figures in three first XI appearances.
Dandenong coach Warren Ayres thought his charges were in with a sneaky chance on Saturday and was understandably flat after the match.
“The plan was to get them out quickly, get in and set them a target, but it didn’t work out,” he lamented.
“It didn’t really matter in the end, because the bottom line is that we lost the first four games of the season, and from that time on we were always chasing the pack.”
The Panthers finished in 11th spot on the ladder, eight points outside the finals bracket. It is the first time in six seasons that Dandenong has not made the top eight.
**Read the Star next week for a full season review.