By Jonty Ralphsmith
The flavour of Cranbourne coach Steve O’Brien’s quarter-time address was inside-50 entries.
Jarryd Barker had led a strong midfield effort in the opening quarter that the Eagles dominated, plus-nine on inside 50s, but their service to key targets Marc Holt and Kirk Dickson meant neither had much impact and they led by only seven points.
The pair were well held by Alex Windhager and Kristen Feehan respectively, with Tom McKinley also playing a big part when Cranbourne went forward.
It remained a theme for the remainder of the day, with Holt and Dickson kicking a solitary goal each – for the third and second time this season, respectively.
Ryan Jones was also goalless and none of the attacking entourage was given the supply to expose the time that the Dingoes put in to clamping down the two pillars.
Dickson’s one goal in the third quarter seemed to elicit a sense of relief and deep exhale, the hard working centre-half-forward drier on opportunities than usual.
“They had good key backs who did outstanding jobs, but we killed our forwards with our inside 50 entries which were horrible,” O’Brien said post-game.
“That’s an area of improvement and we have been focusing on that a little bit, but there were a couple of times where we changed the way we were bringing it in a little bit in the third quarter, and we got some results because of it.
“We just have to keep working at it because it was really poor today, and didn’t give our forwards a chance at all.”
Alex Windhager didn’t allow Holt space to mark on the lead, spoiling repeated opportunities Holt has always grabbed throughout his career.
He also read the defensive cues well, coming off his direct opponent late in the game when Dingley was offensively pressing, leading a strong backline.
“I reckon there was about 30 times where it went into those two together and he competed really well,” Dingoes coach Zach Horsley said of Windhager.
“He didn’t let ‘Holty’ manhandle him; he stays away and makes late contact so he was fantastic and it’s the way ‘Windy’ has been all year.
“The whole defensive group worked really well today.
“Cranny had more inside 50s but we zoned off well, did well in the air, probably could have been better with the ground ball but overall, I’m really happy.
“Tom McKinley won a lot of his own footy and he’s so composed with ball in hand.”
As well as a goal each to Holt and Dickson, small forward Tyson Barry and Zak Roscoe both kicked two, while Nick Darbyshire, Jarryd Barker and Matt Alister also hit the scoreboard.
