By Tyler Lewis
It was an AFL talent scout’s paradise at Shepley Oval on Saturday as the prospects came to play.
The Vic Country and Combine squads in 2019 have been riddled with Gippsland Power and Dandenong Stingrays players.
When the fixture arose for the sides to meet this late in the season, it threatened to be a draft-shaping contest.
And it didn’t disappoint.
The day started horrifically for the Stingrays with Sam De Koning a late exclusion pre-match and Bailey Schmidt going down with a match ending injury inside the opening minutes of the first term.
Losing Schmidt early meant that Bigoa Nyuon had to spend more time in the ruck than usual and the dynamic tall thrived on the opportunity to get around the ball more.
But the Gippsland engine room lead by Sam Flanders went to work on the inside and when tested the respective stars stood out.
Josh Smith proved to be a handful with the exclusion of De Koning as he was ominous every time the long ball entered his forward 50, snapping a marvellous goal to extend the margin to two goals at the first break.
After a sluggish opening term where players were losing their feet at almost every turn, the Stingrays converted the opening major of the second quarter from a threading drop punt by Will Bravo from deep in the pocket.
Bravo who was tight on the boundary went with the drop punt and kept the umpire stationary as he snuck the ball through the smallest of gaps to get his side within a kick.
Despite Hayden Young’s ridiculous second term – where the elegant left-footer brought his own football – Gippsland converted five majors late in the quarter and opened the game up at half-time to what ended up being a match winning margin.
Trailing by 33-points at the main break, Dandenong wasn’t going to roll over.
The Stingrays lifted immensely through Ned Cahill adding a spark in the midfield and Young improving the entries inside 50 across half-forward.
Dandenong was in control of the match and was threating to get back into the contest, but through terrible efficiency the Rays kept themselves out of it.
After four behinds in a row, Young strolled in and converted a stylish running goal, but it was his side’s only major for the term as they kicked 1.9 while the Power only registered three points.
With the Power holding a handy 21-point buffer at the final interval it was all to play for in the last term.
But when Mason McGarrity snatched the ball from the pack and tumbled the ball towards goal, it pushed the lead to 27 points and made it extremely hard for Dandenong to snap its losing streak.
Bravo hit back with an amazingly similar goal from his first goal in the second but the margin was too much.
Josh Smith then climbed the pack to bring down an impressive grab and kick his second before Keith Robinson also converted his set shot to cement the Power as one of the serious contenders come September.
Sam Flanders is touted to be selected in the top ten of November’s national draft and his game impressed Gippsland coach Rhett McLennan, along with the rest of his side.
“I thought Sam Flanders’ game was really good again,” he said.
“Some explosive stuff, he got caught a bit but some moments there he looked to do some sensational things.
“He had a consistent output so I was really pleased for Sam.
“We are really happy with the performance; all in all I thought we had winners across the board so it was really pleasing to put in a performance like that.
“We have two weeks off and then prepare the guys for our final game and then finals.”
Dandenong went into the game with a wounded line-up, losing two players before the bounce and another two with season-ending injuries within the match, which made Stingrays coach Nick Cox make some changes on the spot.
“We lost Jai Nancaswen before the game as well, we had to change some things around and some players came in really late – calling kids at 9 in the morning saying ‘you’re in’ was not great for us,” Cox said.
“Sam had a virus, Jai had a shoulder from the game against Box Hill, Bailey dislocated his shoulder and Max Gregory in the third quarter broke his collarbone in two places as well.
“At the same time it gave some opportunity.
“Credit to the boys, they put up a pretty good fight against quality opposition for most of the day.
“The scoreboard didn’t really indicate how I thought we went.”
The Stingrays were controlling the term in the third quarter, a passage of play that Cox wasn’t impressed with.
“The amount of time we had the ball inside 50, the most important thing is scoreboard pressure and we just didn’t put it on them,” he said
“We had some really easy shots and that’s something we spoke about.
“At the end of the day, good players don’t miss from 30 out directly in front.”
Young was named best afield for Dandenong in another stand out performance, and Cox knows all too well how good he is becoming.
“There is no doubt that over the last couple of weeks that Hayden Young has enhanced his reputation as being a top five draft pick,” he said.
“He played midfield and forward and was exceptional for us, he controlled the game at times.
“It would have been easy when we were under siege to throw him back to sure us up – to his credit he was doing his bit through the middle.”
Dandenong will host the ladder leaders Eastern Ranges this Saturday at Shepley Oval, whereas Gippsland will have the next two weeks off heading into a final round football bonanza at Queen Elizabeth Oval.
DANDENONG STINGRAYS 1.3 3.4 4.13 6.15 (51)
GIPPSLAND POWER 3.2 8.7 8.10 12.13 (85)
DANDENONG
GOALS: W. Bravo 2, L. Williams 2, H. Young, B. Milford
BEST: H. Young, B. Nyuon, H. Berenger, W. Bravo, N. Heath, E. Cahill
GIPPSLAND
GOALS: H. Neocleous 3, K. Robinson 2, F. Phillips 2, M. McGarrity 2, J. Smith 2, S. Berry
BEST: S. Flanders, R. Sparkes, B. Smith, H. Neocleous, Z. Reid, R. Angwin
