Falcons set to fight

By Jarrod Potter
DANDENONG STINGRAYS will look to continue the good form which saw them beat the Rebels, but the Geelong Falcons are raring for a good scrap when the two sides meet on Saturday.
The teams clash at Highgate Recreation Reserve at 11am, as part of a TAC Cup triple-header.
The Stingrays, third, have a 1-1 record, posting an impressive 62-point win over the Rebels in Ballarat and just missing out against the Gippsland Power in the 61 to 60 point loss to open the season.
Stingrays region manager Mark Wheeler thinks the Stingrays have improved dramatically and eliminated the simple goalkicking errors which plagued their match against Gippsland.
“It (the goalkicking issue) has taken care of itself. It was very windy at Eureka Stadium, with a big left to right breeze making things difficult,” Wheeler said.
“There were a couple of easy misses, but nothing like the Gippsland game. We’ve had more goalkicking practice to get rid of those mistakes.”
The Stingrays lose four players to the Australian Institute of Sport football tour; Matt Buntine, Todd Elton, Lachie Whitfield and recent AIS inclusion Jason Pongracic, who was invited after a spot became available.
Wheeler says the Dandenong forwards are coming along nicely and the tall timber filling in for Elton is ready to go.
“Nick Haynes is finally showing a bit, kicking four goals on the weekend. Brett O’Hanlon is doing good work after being hampered by a four to six-week setback in the pre-season,” Wheeler said.
“Stewart Damon will take more time in the ruck with Elton on AIS duty, which means Lewis Pierce comes in for his first run out of the development team.”
Meanwhile, the sixth-placed Falcons also come into the match with a 1-1 record, from an 82 to 48 round one win over the Murray Bushrangers and last weekend losing to the Western Jets, 94 to 58.
Geelong Falcons region manager Michael Turner says the team has started the season in good form and learned from their two matches.
“We were happy with our first game against Murray Bushrangers and I thought the boys played well,” Turner said.
“Saturday night at Highgate Reserve was difficult. The Western Jets played better footy than us and the conditions didn’t suit our kids. The windy and wet conditions didn’t help our lighter built players.
“We were within two or three goals at certain stages against the Jets, so we just need a bit of consistency from our players to see improvement.”
Turner thinks the Falcons have the bodies necessary to match up on Stingrays forwards O’Hanlon and Haynes.
“We’ve got talls who can cover Dandenong’s talls,” Turner said.
“Andrew Boseley is our full back and we’ve also got George Curnow at centre half back, whose brother Ed is playing for Carlton this year.”
Turner thinks the Falcons go into the game matching up well against the Stingrays.
“Dandenong is a very good region and they’ve always been great rivals of ours. It should be a very interesting game.”
The Falcons will be without Devon Smith, who is away on the AIS tour, and Taylor Adams.