By JARROD POTTER
WITH 2015 in the rear-view mirror, the New Year is well and truly under way for the Dandenong Stingrays.
The highs and lows of last season – with seven drafted into the AFL contrasting against a preliminary final loss – hope to be exceeded by the next batch of up-and-coming Stingrays.
Pre-season training was taken up a gear this week as Dandenong traded Shepley Oval for an indoor run-around at ICON Arena, Doveton, as coach Craig Black and his staff start to whittle down the list.
With 83 footballers currently doing a pre-season, there’s a lot to do before the first match on 26 March, but Black believes the list will be strong heading into the new campaign.
“I think we’ve got a really even group,” Black said.
“We keep setting the standards and the old saying ‘if you do the same thing, you’ll get the same result’ – so as a coaching group we’re challenging each other – and the players who were on our list last year, who are now our 18 year olds, are trying to lift the standards too.”
AFL Academy tandem Josh Battle and Myles Poholke have barely stopped since the end of the TAC Cup season, going into pre-season training at the AFL level before heading across to America.
“We’ve been pretty lucky with the academy kids,” Black said.
“Josh Battle got to spend a couple of weeks at St Kilda and Myles Poholke spent a couple of weeks at Essendon pre-Christmas then the two of them went on the academy trip across to Florida.
“They’re all back now and I think we’ve got a few kids who haven’t been involved in our program before that are setting really good standards.”
Battle, Reece Piper and Jordan Stewart lead the names from the south eastern area, but Black said there was plenty of time left for a few more names to bob up – especially with intra-club matches starting next weekend.
“First intra-club practice game is next Sunday 7 February, so it’s a really good opportunity for the boys – especially the guys we haven’t seen play a lot,” Black said.
