Grand final bound: Dragons get past Stingrays to book their spot in the big dance
By Lenny ROBERTS
A dominant three-quarter display has set up Sandringham for a chance at a three-peat after beating Dandenong by fifty-one points.
The top two ranked teams left in the Coates Talent League headlined the first game of a preliminary final doubleheader at RSEA Park. With the Sandringham Dragons battling against the Dandenong Stingrays for a spot in the big dance.
Levi Ashcroft, Murphy Reid, and Sam Marshall, like usual, were the midfield trio in the engine room to open the match.
The first clearance, like last week, went to Ashcroft, although the Stingrays got the first score and goal of the match.
Zach Travers going back with the flight and marking was a highlight of the term.
Dandenong were on top early, particularly in the middle, and found their second in the tenth-minute.
Harry Armstrong laced-out Bailey McKenzie inside-fifty, who went back and slotted it for the Dragons first.
Ashcroft then drew a free kick from the next clearance and capitalised from a set shot to even the scores.
Marshall was among the best in the first term. He amassed nine disposals and kicked an impressive goal for the boundary in the twentieth minute. He unveiled his elite aerobic capacity by spreading all over the ground to continually find the ball.
After kicking one just a couple minutes before, Ashcroft followed that up by goaling on the run to give his side a handy lead nearing quarter-time.
And he was pumped up as the game had been completely flipped with the Dragons having the momentum.
It was a fourteen-point lead for the reigning champions at the first break.
Luke Kennedy’s left boot found Brodie Findlay in the goal square to give Sandringham their fifth just a couple of minutes into the second.
Kennedy was elite in the quarter, his handballing and craftwork in the midfield was on show. And had accumulated 15 disposals by halftime.
Lennox Hofmann also started well, intercepting behind the play.
He finished the game with 14 disposals.
Some good buildup from the close wing saw McKenzie lineup from the pocket. However, failed to convert. He then made a brilliant contested mark just moments later inside-fifty but again missed, but was threatening to tear apart the game.
Dandenong hit back in the fourteenth-minute.
Brute defender Owen Bater was exceptional, often matched up on bigger defenders, he was rarely beaten on the day.
There was an intense feel about the game, with both teams putting everything on the line as there was no next week for the loser.
Armstrong goaled to push the margin back out to twenty-one nearing halftime.
It was a 6.6 (42) to 3.3 (21) lead to Sandringham after two quarters of play.
Twenty-three inside-50’s to twenty-one in favour of the Dragons, along with a plus-forty disposal advantage, and plus-six scoring shot buffer were some of the key statistics in the first half.
The Dragons owned the third, kicking five goals to zero.
A Harrison Oliver (17 disposals) long range goal on the run was the first of the lot.
Before Jack Dalton (22 disposals, five marks) found McKenzie for an amazing one-handed mark inside the forward fifty to give him his second of the match.
The game was starting to break open.
McKenzie added his third and balloon the margin out to forty-one.
The first score for Dandenong was in the twenty-second minute.
Oliver Green got on the scoreboard by kicking a major on his own, who was lively in the front half of the ground.
While sixteen-year-old Jack Surkitt was important too.
It was the McKenzie show in the third term, who slotted his fourth shortly after right before the three-quarter-time siren.
A healthy fifty-three-point lead for the Dragons.
Dandenong owned the territory to open the last.
Some Mitch Kirkwood-Scott dash from the kick-in set up McKenzie’s fifth. Before the Stingrays finally broke the drought in the eighth minute for a major.
In a free-flowing last twenty minutes, both teams alternated goals back-and-forth as the game had pretty much died out.
McKenzie added his sixth, to go along with 20 disposals, and eleven marks in what was a dominant forward exhibit.
Dandenong found their fifth.
Green goaled for his second before Dandenong put through one more.
The Dragons’ back line held up strong all game. Which consisted of the likes of Owen Bater, Sam Linder, Lennox Hofmann, Adrian Cole, Harrison Oliver.
Nathaniel Sulzberger (23 disposals) got involved in some handball chains in the last term, while Reid continued to impose himself into games by gathering a heap of touches, 25 to be exact.
Sandringham’s midfield quadro of Ashcroft, Marshall, Reid, and Kennedy were the four leading disposal getters in the game.
The Dragons eventually ran out convincing 14.10 (94) to 6.7 (43) winners to advance on into the last game of the season.
They will take on the GWV Rebels in the Grand Final next Saturday at IKON Park.
On the hunt for a third straight flag.
GOALS: McKenzie 6, Green, Ashcroft 2, Armstrong, Findlay, Marshall, Oliver
BEST: McKenzie, Ashcroft, Kennedy, Sulzberger, Cole, Hofmann