Jason Pongracic held his own in the forward line ruck battles after Jake Calvert went down with an ankle injury against Eastern Ranges. 84891 Pictures: JARROD POTTER
By JARROD POTTER
ON face value this looked like a comfortable win to the Stingrays.
Dandenong built their margin on the ladder-languishing Eastern Ranges at every turn, before kicking away in the last quarter to record a 48-point victory.
But it wasn’t a win they savoured.
A tall man drought has wrecked the Dandenong squad – first choice ruck Lewis Pierce and emerging talent Agape Patolo were unavailable and the situation got worse when Jake Calvert was iced up at quarter time following an ankle injury which will sideline him for at least a week.
It forced Dandenong coach Graeme Yeats to rearrange his side and get creative – Ryan Morrison moved into the forward line and to keep James Hammond fresh in the middle, the around the grounds work went to an unlikely ruck choice, Jason Pongracic, who held his own despite giving away double-digit centimetres on Eastern’s rucks.
Once the ball got to ground level the match belonged to the Stingrays – the midfield trio of Pongracic, Billy Rolfe and Nick Tuddenham gave first opportunity to the forwards, but too many opportunities went begging. Some 65 inside-50s for the match converted to only a wayward 14.18, which will leave the Stingrays taking many shots at training this week.
When Dandenong put them through the biggest uprights, it was impossible for Eastern to keep up – Clay McCartney (three goals), Matt Rennie (two) and Morrison (two) made life difficult for the Ranges once stuck inside the Stingrays’ forward 50.
While the win gets the Stingrays into fifth on the TAC Cup ladder, Yeats believes if they play that way against some of the better ranked teams, the result will be a stark contrast.
“We weren’t great on the weekend,” Yeats said. “Thought Eastern was good, but we should’ve converted better and the shots we missed were ones that players at this level should be able to kick.
“Thought we were reasonably inefficient with our ball use – 65 inside-50s for 14 goals, so that won’t win us many games if we come up against ruthless opposition.”
Yeats praised the effort of Morrison – forced forward after Calvert’s injury and performing well despite rarely featuring in the forward set-up this season.
“Morrison played his best game for a while playing at centre-half back and then centre-half forward as we lost Calvert in the first quarter,” Yeats said. “We were really happy with his game and working really hard on him to get that performance.”
Dandenong’s inconsistencies are what trouble Yeats the most, putting together patches of strong form mixed in among mediocre football.
“We’re happy with our season with the amount of wins and exposure of players, but not particularly comfortable with how we’ve been playing,” Yeats said.
“We get some good and bad – this year has been a bit frustrating as we’ve been inconsistent with our play.
“Putting together blocks of good play – a good quarter or solid 10-15 minute period here and there but not creating four quarters of football.”
The injury list grew a person longer this week with news All-Australian and Vic Country revelation Taylor Garner would miss the rest of the year after shoulder surgery.
“It was going to be an opportunity to get it done so he (Garner) could be up and running in October and get some kind of pre-season,” Yeats said.
While we selfishly wanted him playing, for his development he needed to get it fixed.”
In a clear match of the round, Dandenong squares off against ladder-leader North Ballarat on Saturday at home, with the winner set to cement their top-four claims.
Dandenong Stingrays
4.5 9.7 11.13 14.18(102)
Eastern Ranges
2.2 5.2 8.2 8.6(54)
Dandenong goals: C. McCartney 3, M. Rennie 2, J. Pongracic 2, N. Newman 2, R. Morrison 2, W. Hartung 2, J. Newman. Best: J. Pongracic, R. Morrison, N. Wright, R. Marks-Logan, M. Rennie, J. Newman
Eastern goals: R. Voges 2, T. Boyd 2, M. Honeychurch 2, B. Wood, M. Philp. Best: D. Depace, D. McStay, B. Wood, S. Gibson, J. Williams, M. Honeychurch.
