Fluent Rays into fifth

By Paul Pickering
IT WAS refreshing to hear Dandenong Stingrays coach Graeme Yeats talk about style and fluency after his side’s 77-point demolition of the Eastern Ranges on Saturday.
So many elite-level coaches are content to “win ugly” these days, but Yeats took pride in the way his charges moved the footy around Box Hill City Oval.
And rightly so. The Stingrays played some brilliant, free-flowing football, all without betraying the Yeats-era values of hard work and team discipline.
They kicked five goals to nil in the first term and increased the margin at every change in an incredibly even performance.
The result saw Dandenong jump into fifth spot on the ladder, but it was the brand of footy that pleased Yeats most.
“The fluency of our ball movement was really the highlight for me,” he said.
“I can recall half a dozen times when we worked the ball from the backline inside 50 without the opposition getting anywhere near it, so our style of play was encouraging.”
The vast majority of those forward thrusts started with either Andrew McInnes (27 disposals), Jarryd Amalfi (22) or Jake Batchelor (23), who must surely rank among the competition’s best half-back lines.
Eastern, admittedly undermanned in the absence of several private school stars, competed well in the middle of the ground, but was outmatched at either end.
The Stingrays had tall forwards Arryn Siposs, Jed Savage and Todd Elton in full flight, plus skipper Mitch Hallahan and highly regarded debutant Piva Wright roaming the attacking zone. And the delivery was sublime.
Siposs, who has barely missed a beat in his first year in the program, kicked a game-high four goals, while Hallahan and Wright booted three apiece.
Prolific ball-winner Nathan Allen (26) continued his rich vein of form and there were some good signs from midfielder Tom Curren in his return from a year-long injury lay-off.
Tom Wilson was the leading possession-getter for the Ranges with 23. He was also among six individual goal-kickers for the home side.
Yeats still believes his side has plenty of “upside”, most notably the return of AIS-AFL Academy guns Luke Parker and Adam Treloar this weekend, but is delighted with how his group is developing.
“We always talk about how our own abilities will shine through as long as we’re thinking about our structure and performing our role – and they did,” he said.
The Stingrays, now 3-1 for the year, will host the Tassie Mariners – playing an invitational game ahead of the national under-18 championships – at Shepley Oval on Saturday morning.