By JARROD POTTER
TAC CUP – ROUND 14 REVIEW
DANDENONG has never loved travelling to Northern’s Preston fortress.
Neither the scoreboard nor the seething disdain the sides mutually share has ever made it a happy hunting ground, but after five previous attempts the slate was finally wiped clean.
The Stingrays shone in the final term to run out 18-point winners as the Knights failed to capitalise on their run-on approaching three-quarter time.
It was a match that had it all. The high-fliers marching back into contention after the rank-outsiders fought their way to the front. New faces showing their potential. Biff and barge through a fairly heated three-quarter time skirmish.
But above all, the cream rose to the top with the Stingrays’ finest influencing the outcome in another sensational result for the second-ranked side.
Neither side could gain much advantage through the first half – as Dandenong took a 21-point lead, but without really showing its capabilities.
The third quarter was one of Dandenong’s toughest battles of the season – as the 13th-placed Knights played well above their station on the ladder. Dandenong was pushed to the brink by the run-and-carry of Northern’s fleet-footed centremen who kicked the home side back within a point nearing the final change.
But a mark from Tommy Glen inside-50 on the siren changed that dynamic. From the hunted to the hunters, Glen slotted the goal after the siren and the club celebrated … which rankled the Knights.
A few choice words were exchanged, leading to a heated free-for-all. After losing their cool at the break, the Knights tried to charge once more, but Dandenong had all the answers and kicked away in the final term off the boot of Shannon Gladman (two goals), with Jimmy Freeman and Travis Young (three goals each) also proving too elusive for the Knights to handle.
The elder statesmen in the Stingrays’ attack shone – Gach Nyuon, Kurt Mutimer and Jake Lovett had it on a string while Daniel Capiron was stoic in his return to TAC Cup football.
Stand-in coach Wayne Siekman – getting his first chance to coach at the TAC Cup level – thought the fight-back in the fourth showed what the Stingrays could achieve.
“We got challenged – and I knew that they would challenge us at some stage as they’ve been a really competitive football side,” Siekman said. “They got on top of us early, second quarter we bounced back, third quarter they got on top of us again and then our boys responded well.
“Little bit of biff at three-quarter time, which was a super goal for Tommy Glen to kick that and gave us some momentum into the huddle.
“They lost the momentum and that was nearly the pivotal result of the game.”
Siekman praised the forward-line professionalism of skipper Lachlan Williams, returning from appendix surgery only a month later, and ruckman Nyuon, who continues to soar as he hones his craft ahead of the draft.
Siekman will hand the reins back to Craig Black for Dandenong’s Sunday morning curtain-raiser against Sandringham at Frankston’s VFL home ground.
TAC CUP
DANDENONG STINGRAYS 2.2 6.5 8.7 11.9 (75)
NORTHERN KNIGHTS 0.1 3.2 7.4 8.9 (57)
DANDENONG
Goals: J. Freeman 3, T. Young 3, S. Gladman 2, L. Williams, J. Lovett, T. Glen. Best: J. Lovett, K. Mutimer, G. Nyuon, L. Williams, D. Capiron, J. Freeman.
NORTHERN
Goals: S. Fitzgerald 2, M. Tilmouth-Turner 2, B. Fiorini, M. Perry, S. Peet, M. Ercolano. Best: M. Ercolano, J. Gresham, T. Leonardis, K. Malone, M. Perry, M. Blakey.
