By JARROD POTTER
TAC CUP – ROUND 8
SHOOTING the Jets out of the sky, Dandenong Stingrays had the game on their terms in a 78-point blitzkrieg.
Outside of a 10-minute burst in the second term where Western rallied to bag three goals in quick succession, it was a match played solely on Dandenong’s terms as Craig Black’s charges bagged 23 goals.
Even with a number of major outs for school football and through injury, the Stingrays showed they are one of the sides-to-beat this year with a scintillating effort at Shepley Oval.
Heading into the main break with 12 goals against their name, Dandenong was able to rest some of their Vic Country contenders and pushed the likes of Jake Di Pasquale, Brad Kiely and Mitch Cox more through the centre.
At no stage did the Stingrays consider cantering home – with lightning fast defender Jordan Rouse creating the play of the day with a run-down tackle in the goal square to prevent a goal on the three-quarter-time siren.
The Saturday sun shined lovingly down on James Freeman (six goals), who continued his rampaging start to his first full TAC Cup season. The lively forward – already up to 14 goals in 2015 – has showed no signs of slowing down, despite returning from a serious knee injury last season.
Working in unison with Freeman, Myles Poholke (three goals) has started pushing his name up the rankings in the TAC Cup while Lachie Williams, Kurt Mutimer and Bailey Rice all floated forward at different stages to add hardness to the contest.
Wearing the Dandenong jumpers for the first time, Phillip Raso (from Devon Meadows) and Jordan Stewart (Beaconsfield) showed they are capable at this level. Raso’s intensity at the contest and ability to jump under pressure will have definitely kept him in the coach’s mind for next round.
Black was thrilled to see his charges continue the form from last week that earned them one of the biggest scalps of the year.
“We were really pleased, any day you can walk away with a 13-goal win you’re pretty happy,” Black said.
“Just the way that we started the game was our focus this week.
Sometimes when you have a really good win – like we did against Eastern last week – sometimes you can start a little poor, but… we had five goals at quarter time and really set it up there well.”
Part of a four-team logjam from second to fifth on the TAC Cup ladder, the Stingrays sit comfortably in fourth with a 5-2 record heading into the bye.
Dandenong hosts Northern Knights on Saturday 30 May from 11.30am after a Development Weekend bye.
In other Stingrays news, a number of players are set to be announced in the final Vic Country squad, which takes on Vic Metro in a blockbuster at Simonds Stadium from 11am on Sunday.
