By LACHLAN MOORHEAD
THE Dandenong Stingrays threw off their shackles in style over the weekend, stopping a four-game losing streak in its tracks after defeating the Murray Bushrangers by a walloping 95 points.
The Stingrays were desperate to start the match well and did so, kicking five goals to one by quarter time and signalling to the rest of the competition that there was fight in the old dog yet.
Coach Graeme Yeats said it was an impressive four-quarter performance from his side that seemingly benefitted from the road trip to Norm Minns Oval.
“We dominated from start to finish and played 100 minutes of tough, hard footy,” he said.
“We travelled up together on the Friday night and the responsibility was handed back to them.”
The second quarter was more of slog, with Dandenong kicking the only goal of the term before piling on another three in the third. With the fat lady essentially singing by the last change, the Stingrays could have been forgiven for easing the foot off the gas but they wouldn’t have a bar of it. Dandenong slammed home another nine goals in the final quarter but were just as impressive defensively, completely stifling the Bushrangers output and keeping them to three goals for the game.
“I was confident we could bounce back from last week but you can never imagine a win like that,” Yeats said.
“The players really responded well and committed to the benchmarks that we set.”
In stark contrast to the last month it was hard to find a weak link in the Dandenong chain. Jack Lonie played like a man possessed, kicking five goals alongside team-mate Nathan Gardiner, who booted four. Dale Gawley was influential throughout the whole match, and alongside Mitchell White, Angus Scott, James Hammond and Matt Rennie, helped pave the way to a Stingrays’ victory.
In a disappointing day for the Bushrangers, Matthew Brett was the only multiple goal scorer with two majors.
Dandenong will face the Bendigo Pioneers at Shepley Oval this weekend, hoping to turn this week’s win into the beginnings of a streak.
“That’s the coaching challenge, we’ll just focus on getting the boys on the same page and sustaining a high work rate,” Yeats said.
“This week will really start to sort out our position on the ladder.”
MURRAY BUSHRANGERS
1.1 1.3 3.3 3.4 (22)
DANDENONG STINGRAYS
5.3 6.10 9.13 17.15 (117)
MURRAY BUSHRANGERS
GOALS: M. Brett 2, W. Carlile.
BEST: D. Howe, J. Clarke, J. Martyn, N. Mellington, K. Turner, J. Cousins.
DANDENONG STINGRAYS
GOALS: J. Lonie 5, N. Gardiner 4, B. Egan 2, M. Rennie 2, T. Joyce, J. Soroczynski, A. Scott, J. Harmes.
BEST: D. Gawley, J. Lonie, M. White, A. Scott, J. Hammond, M. Rennie.
