THE LOWEST EBB by KC from Casey

[Demonland 5,041]

The Casey Scorpions ended their most disappointing season in recent years with a 17-point home ground loss to Coburg on Sunday.

The Scorpions, who have been VFL finalists in every season since the inception of the alignment with the Melbourne Football Club but the loss at the hands of stand-alone Coburg left them 15th on the ladder, ahead only of Bendigo which has disbanded now that the season has come to an end. To that extent, the club has reached its lowest ebb.

The opening of the game was scrappy and not conducive to scoring. Indeed, it was not until the opening quarter had passed its halfway mark that the Scorpions scored the first goal of the match through Jake Best. However, the momentum shifted late in the term with Coburg booting three goals in time on (including one on the siren) to take a two goal lead into the first break.

The Lions looked to be in control early in the term but a change came over the game with another momentum shift brought about by some strong play from midfielders Aidan Riley who was a prolific ball winner and Demon rookie James Harmes. The Scorpions played inspired football kicking five goals on end including two to second gamer 194cm Joe Fisscher from Old Haileybury who finished with three on the day and, when skipper Evan Panozza drifted forward for a goal, Casey suddenly held a 13 point lead.

However, Coburg managed to regroup with two goals in the moments before the main break including another goal on the siren which leveled the scores.

The third quarter was an arm-wrestle with neither side being able to assert itself. When the siren sounded at three quarter time, the Scorpions had their noses in front by two points. That scenario continued for the first ten minutes of the final term until the visitors broke through with three consecutive goals to hold a 17-point lead late in the term. Fisscher's third goal provided a faint glimmer of hope before a Coburg reply put the result beyond doubt.

In the aftermath of the game comes the news that Melbourne and Casey are having talks this week over the future of senior coach Rohan Welsh whose two-year contract has expired.

Welsh has had a frustrating year with injury woes affecting the make up of his VFL list and also limiting the availability of AFL listed rucks and key position players. The silver lining is that a number of young locals in Ed Morris, Bryce Rutherford, Angus Scott, Jake Thomas and Fisscher have been given the opportunity to show their wares at senior level.

However, the fact that the Scorpions plummeted from finalists to the lowest placed of the ongoing VFL teams in 2015 suggests that there is a lot of work to do in its preparation for the future.

2014 Peter Jackson VFL

Casey Scorpions 1.2.8 7.4.46 9.7.61 10.9.69

Coburg 3.2.20 7.4.46 9.4.58 13.8.86

Goals

Casey Scorpions Fisscher 3 Best 2 Blease Harmes McKenzie Panozza Petropoulos

Coburg Hill 3 Cooper Uysal 2 Carnell Clark Featherstone Saad Thomas Younan

Best

Casey Scorpions Riley Harmes Petropoulos Kennedy-Harris Fisscher Georgiou

Coburg Venditti Thomas Uysal Saad Featherstone Hartley

Statistics

Dom Barry 1 behind 11 disposals 4 kicks 7 handballs 3 marks 2 tackles 44 Dream Team Points

Sam Blease 1 goal 22 disposals 18 kicks 4 handballs 2 marks 1 tackle 77 Dream Team Points

Mitch Clisby 1 behind 18 disposals 8 kicks 10 handballs 6 marks 2 tackles 72 Dream Team Points

Michael Evans 15 disposals 7 kicks 8 handballs 4 marks 4 tackles 59 Dream Team Points

James Harmes 1 goal 1 behind 17 disposals 10 kicks 7 handballs 4 marks 7 tackles 77 Dream Team Points

Alexis Georgiou 12 disposals 8 kicks 4 handballs 6 marks 1 tackles 54 Dream Team Points

Jay Kennedy-Harris 1 behind 25 disposals 15 kicks 10 handballs 3 marks 4 tackles 87 Dream Team Points

Max King 8 disposals 3 kicks 5 handballs 4 marks 1 tackles 15 hit outs 50 Dream Team Points

Jordie McKenzie 1 goal 1 behind 27 disposals 12 kicks 15 handballs 3 marks 3 tackles 91 Dream Team Points

Dan Nicholson 15 disposals 10 kicks 5 handballs 4 marks 2 tackles 62 Dream Team Points

Aidan Riley 39 disposals 16 kicks 23 handballs 3 marks 10 tackles 142 Dream Team Points

James Strauss 17 disposals 11 kicks 6 handballs 6 marks 3 tackles 75 Dream Team Points

Luke Tapscott 1 behind 1 disposal 1 kick 1 mark 2 tackles 15 Dream Team Points (injured in first quarter)

Dean Terlich 23 disposals 15 kicks 8 handballs 4 marks 5 tackles 1 hit out Dream 92 Team Points

Jimmy Toumpas 20 disposals 13 kicks 7 handballs 2 marks 2 tackles 82 Dream Team Points

After a slow start the Scorpions' development team recorded a runaway five goal victory to avoid the wooden spoon.

2014 AFL Victoria Development League

Casey Scorpions 1.1.7 6.4.40 10.6.66 13.10.88

Coburg 3.2.20 6.5.41 7.8.50 8.10.58

Goals

Casey Scorpions Lang 4 Rennie 3 Anderson Del Papa Murray Russell West Wyatt

Coburg Cleary 3 Anderson Bzenic Lindon Ryan Saad

Best

Casey Scorpions Lang Waters Shiels Jackson Corrigan Drew

Coburg Totino Ellard Cleary Robinson Saad Thomas

[3183 Dee 390]

Thanks for your reports over the season - great work.