WESTERN Jets’ inexperienced side learned some important football lessons in their visit to Shepley Oval in Dandenong on Saturday.
The Jets fielded two first-gamers and had five players making their first start of the season and their inexperience showed as Dandenong Stingrays recorded a 54-point victory.
The Stingrays took a four-goal lead in that opening term and made the most of errors or turnovers from the Jets extending their lead to six goals at the main break.
Despite a drop in intensity the Stingrays continued to stop the Jets attacks inside their forward 50-metre line with Morrison, Calvert and Matt Rennie all taking marks and forcing the ball back away from goal, eventually leading to several Stingrays goals as the lead extended in the third term.
The Jets were able to find a few goals in the final term but were still no match for the home side who had contributors over the ground with Stingrays’ Taylor Garner and Billy Rolfe (three goals each) proving difficult to handle in the air and others like Jordan Bastinac, Josh Newman, Tim McGenniss and Ryan Marks-Logan (two goals each) all finding ways to score.
Jets high performance coach Scott Korczynski said his side had plenty to learn but would improve with more exposure to TAC Cup football.
“With so many inexperienced players you have problems because you have players coming from local football in TAC Cup level and the difference in standard is massive,” he said.
Dandenong Stingrays 17.9 (111) d Western Jets 8.9 (57)
GOALS – Dandenong: B. Rolfe, T. Garner 3, R. Marks-Logan, J. Newman, T. McGenniss, J. Bastinac 2, J. Calvert, T. Drummond, N. Newman. Western: H. King, H. Inglis, L. Hickey 2, A. Brown, S. White.
BEST – Dandenong: T. Garner, T. Williams, N. Foote, J. Bastinac, A. Patolo, M. Rennie. Western: J. Greiser, A. Elkasovic, A. Brown, S. Critchley, S. Blake, L. Hickey.
