Dandy shows right stuff

THERE was an air of genuine surprise in the Dandenong rooms after the match. The Stingrays seemed pleasantly surprised with their own performance, but more surprised with the lack of resistance offered by a respected foe.
Coach Graeme Yeats confirmed as much.
“You never know what you’re going to get (in round one),” he said. “We thought we were pretty flat at training during the week, and I turned up thinking it was going to be a hard game and we’d be happy to walk away with a victory and find out a bit more about our players.”
The Rays were successful on both of those counts, and Yeats was delighted with what he learnt. “Half of our team I’ve only seen play two times (in practice matches), so you see them develop and you know they’re going to be good enough, but how good they’ll be you’re never quite sure,” he said. “We were really impressed with their application to their roles and they were very resilient in the way that they played.”
Yeats was proud of his Rays to a man, and clearly excited with the talent he has at his disposal. And while he will lose South Africa-bound AIS-AFL Academy members Luke Parker, Adam Treloar and Dylan Shiel this week, the coach believes he has a handful of capable replacements.
Dandenong will face its grand final tormentor Calder from 11.30am on Saturday at Shepley Oval, but Yeats says the 2009 decider will not be used as motivation. “For us, it’s more about the pressure of playing for your spot,” he said. “Because we’ve got good depth, you have to perform. If you don’t, someone will come in and take your spot.”