News

A terrific weekend of weather for week one of the TAC Cup Under 18 final series. Dandenong Stingrays played the Western Jets in the first elimination final on Saturday with the Stingrays winning by 39 points.

The Stingrays had too much class up forward for the Jets with smallman Ricky Morris kicking 6 goals and wiry youngster Anthony Raso kicking 5. The Jets were best served by the strong marking Wayde Twomey and lithe ruckman Andrew Lorimer.

Game 2 was a terrific game between the Oakleigh Chargers and Gippsland Power in a qualifying final. Gippsland led all day only to be overun by the Chargers in the final quarter and lose by 16 points.

The Chargers were best served by James Barton, who kept Gippsland gun Dean Polo quiet and Adrian Bonaddio who had a huge last quarter taking a number of strong marks and coverting them into goals. Gippsland's Andrew McQualter won a heap of the footy in the midfield due to the excellent ruckwork of team-mate Stephen Foster.

Sunday's first clash was a qualifying final between the powerful Calder Cannons combination against the always improving Eastern Ranges.

Calder proved to be too strong winning by 42 points and are now strong premiership favourites. Better players for the Cannons were Jackson Barling, who kept Collingwood draftee Travis Cloke quiet after Cloke had a great start to the game and classy small defender Richard Douglas whose disposal out of the backline was outstanding.

Eastern were best served by tall younster Fabian De Luca and hard working winger Evan Johnson. Sandringham Dragons proved too strong for the Geelong Falcons winning by 43 points in the 2nd elimination final. Dragons' defender Daniel Corp played an excellent game across half back and chunky midfielder Steve Jones won an abundance of the ball through the middle of the ground. Big Falcons' ruckman John Meesen tried hard all day and was helped out by Tim Sheringham but had little help from the rest of their team-mates.