The Sapphire Coast Stingrays enjoyed their most dominant representative display yet in Nowra over the weekend.
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The league came away with definitive wins in one-off women's and senior clashes, while also fielding four junior rosters and seeing two of them contend finals footy over three days as part of a Shoalhaven carnival.
"It couldn't have gone any better for the league, honestly," senior coach Luke Taylor said. "It was a dominant performance the whole weekend."
The seniors defeated the Central West 15-13-103 to 5-3-33 where the Stingrays were unstoppable across the ground.
Vice-captain Dylan Jordan bagged a haul kicking four majors in the forwards, while Adam Blacka provided a handy pair, but Taylor said it was a dominance through the middle and the flanks that set the Stingrays loose.
"It all went to play, we felt we had done the work to warrant a good performance and the communication and preparation from all the boys was great," he said.
"The midfield absolutely killed it, Jacko [Jason Ainsworth] was named best on ground by the umpires and Lachie Small from Pambula was the Paul Noack players' player mug winner - they were really dominant.
"The young fellas from Narooma Taj Hopgood and Harry Bromwich their speed broke the game wide open on the wings."
Taylor said big occasions like rep footy can see some putting the blinders on and getting a bit selfish, but everyone across the park communicated well, played to their role and took charge of the match.
Meanwhile, women's coach Adam Blacka said men's players always want to run at full forward, but the ladies Stingrays outfit took charge through the middle and took dominance in play to win 6-7-43 to 3-2-20.
"Everyone wanted to be in the midfield or a back and that allowed us to rotate through regularly and it was a big thing in the end, it kept us a lot fitter," Blacka said.
Tyjana Blacka and Eden's Mel Mitchell combined well on the defensive side of the middle, while Cymmon Parker and Caitlin Scott took charge offensively.
Critically, the fresh legs through the middle meant the Stingrays didn't need to rely on any standout performances up front with a number of individual scorers finding options out of the middle on the day.
Ash Braden of the Merimbula Diggers was commended for her efforts with the boot, bagging two goals.
Blacka also commended Bermagui's Jorja Moore out of the ruck who was named best on ground by the umpires.
Sam Crowley was named players' player.
"It would have been the hardest players' player to pick - it was that close and everyone had votes," Blacka said.
"I'm just very proud of their pressure and tackling and communication - they brought it for all four quarters."
The under 13s boys squad had a mixed bag, suffering two losses before a strong bounce back to defeat Western 87-nil.
The under 15s boys defeated Illawarra and the Shoalhaven as well as outlasting the West for a strong run.
The under 17s and youth women's sides both made the finals after good displays across the weekend.
"I didn't realise Sapphire Coast AFL was as strong as it is," Blacka said. "But it showed on the results with some strong junior results putting them through to finals play."
Blacka also commended the efforts of SCAFL coordinator Mitch Wallis.
"We couldn't play last year so Mitch has done so much work in the background to get this happening and he's done a great job to get it going again - to get that many teams on the park and have the strongest showing we have in years was impressive."
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