August 30th & 31st
It was a good couple of days to be a Stingrays fan, with both the boys and girls not only playing finals football, but winning.
The boys kicked us off in Craigieburn on Saturday against the Murray Bushrangers for the wildcard round.
In a wet scrappy game they found themselves down at quarter time with a lone goal for us coming through Andrio Sousa.
But the boys fought back, kicking two goals to zero in the second. Both coming late in the term, another one to Sousa before Tairon Ah-Mu (14 disposals, seven tackles) put one home in the twenty-fourth minute.
A low-scoring affair in the first half with just five goals and us leading by seven points.
We pulled away in the third term, booting the first two majors in the opening ten minutes to open up a handy lead.
Jack Lawrence (16 disposals, seven inside 50s) got on the board from a set shot before Bentley Avenell found himself open in the goal square to kick one. That goal was set up from the back half which started with a Darcy Szerszyn intercept.
The Stingrays found another through Callum Smith who slickly picked up a loose ball in the forward fifty and converted.
Unfortunately, Murray kicked one of their own on the three-quarter-time siren to keep the game alive.
But we would eventually hold on to win by twenty-four points
Smith added another major in the eighth minute while the Bushrangers kicked one more themselves.
In the end, Dandenong 7.9 (51) defeated Murray 4.3 (27).
Noah Hibbins-Hargreaves led us for touches once again with 29, with Smith (22 disposals, ten tackles) not far behind. Toby Sinnema had 21 himself also.
Louis Hodder (16 disposals, seven tackles), Max Lee and Gus Kennedy were other standouts.
Next, the boys will take on the GWV Rebels on Saturday in Ballarat for the quarter-finals.
On Sunday, the girls took the stage for their match at home in the cold suburbs of Dandenong against the Geelong Falcons for the quarter-finals.
Charlotte Gilmore got us off to the perfect start with a goal on the run in the first minute.
We added another soon after through Ruby Geurts who put through a high-floating major.
Bottom-ager Alice Cunnington was one who was influential all over the ground.
Struggling to put the ball through the big sticks was a slight issue, with an array of behinds coming for us in the opening term.
Still, the Stingrays led by eighteen points after one quarter.
As a result of continuing to own the territory, Geurts found another in the seventh minute of the second.
Playing in the forward line, Makhaela Bluhm (17 disposals, seven marks) was lively.
Towards the end of term the Falcons began to fight back.
But a goal on the siren to Nalu Brothwell made it thirty-four points to zero and ensured us of some momentum going into the main break.
The goals started to flow for us in the second half.
Snow got us on the board in the third term after a free kick near goal before another long range goal was scored from Geurts (15 disposals), her third.
Nalu added another as we started to pull away.
Then one to Evelyn Connolly in the eleventh minute to push the lead near ten goals.
More behinds came as we went into the last quarter sixty-three points ahead.
Geelong scored first in the last to break the drought.
With the game in the bag for the Stingrays, the visitors found one more before Snow added her second of the match.
At the final siren, it was Dandenong 9.18 (72) defeating Geelong 2.2 (14).
Argus topped the disposals for us with 27 to go along with seven tackles, Snow had 18, while Cunnington tallied 15.
Molly Reimers (17 disposals) was good in the front half as were Nikita Harris (19 disposals, eleven tackles) and Scarlett Marsh (14 disposals, seven tackles) in their respective lines.
For the girls, they will take on the Oakleigh Chargers on Sunday in the preliminary finals week at Shepley Oval.
Dandenong Southern Stingrays 