By Mark Murray
THE Western Jets suffered a heart-breaking one-point loss to the Dandenong Stingrays at Shepley Oval on Saturday.
The Jets surrendered an 18-point three-quarter time lead to go down by the barest of margins only a week after being on the other side of the coin.
The Jets rolled Bendigo by a point the previous round but tasted their pain on Saturday with the Stingrays storming home with a 5.4 to 2.3 final term.
“We were on the right side last week but the wrong side this week, and that’s footy,” Jets regional manager Shane Sexton said.
“It’s been pretty tight for a couple of weeks now with us.
“It was pretty much tight all game on Saturday and I don’t think either side got more than three goals in front.
“They were three goals in front at half-time and we pegged them back and got three up at three-quarter time but we couldn’t hold on.”
After trailing by 19 points at half-time the Jets booted 6.6 to 0.5 in the third term to open up an 18-point lead.
Rhys Prismall was brilliant while Ashley Jones, Jordan Robbins Travis Lunardi and Callan Ward were exceptional performers.
“There were a couple of times during the game when one side had control and the other one didn’t,” Sexton said.
“We were terribly inaccurate early, which was costly, but they did the same thing during the second quarter.
“We came out flying after half-time and got ourselves a good lead and probably had chances to make it a bit more than 18 points.
“Unfortunately they just got over us in the finish.”
The Jets tackle Gippsland Power this week in what Sexton described as one of many crucial matches in the second half of the year.
“We’re really well placed at 7-2 (win-loss),” he said.
“The season is half over and we’ve got ourselves into a really good position, which we’re quite happy about.
“There all going to be important games from now on and every game is going to be a challenge from here on in.
“And they will start to go pretty quickly as well.”
