WASTEFUL SCORPIONS by Brendan from Ballarat

The wasteful Casey Scorpions took on North Ballarat at Eastern Oval, Ballarat on Sunday and despite a strong finish they were let down by poor kicking for goal in what was a scrappy affair for most of the day. As a result, they were left 16 points in arrears after giving the reigning premiers a major scare and despite dominating the final term with 3.7 to 0.2.

The Roosters started strongly using the advantage of the breeze well to open up a 31 point lead at quarter time. This was to prove the difference between the sides because when the Scorpions had their turn with breeze, they were shockingly inefficient.

In the second term, Casey entered the fifty metre arc 22 times during the second quarter for an inaccurate return of 4.8 while the home side made the most of their limited opportunities scoring four straight goals from eight entries (50%). As a result, the Roosters took a 23 point lead into the main break.

The Scorpions applied great pressure on North Ballarat but the home side made the most of their opportunities with the wind and, although they seemed to be tiring, they took a comfortable 39-point lead with them into the huddle at the final break.

Casey finished full of running and had all the play in the final term but their poor conversion in front of goal was to

prove costly again. This time the Scorpions went inside fifty metres 23 times in the last quarter for just 3.7 proving once again and it’s simply impossible to win games of football if you can't kick straight.

Mark Jamar was in good form in the ruck and around the ground and gave small men Matthews (21 kicks, 6 handballs) and Valenti (14 kicks, 9 handballs) plenty of the ball but not enough to set up sufficient major scores. Matthews is a little beauty and reminds me of a Jack Russell chasing a rabbit.

Alex Silvagni (12 kicks, 1 handball, 9 marks) was solid again down back and James Wall (13 kicks, 8 handball, 6 marks) was solid for the whole four quarters. Together they continued to lead the way for the Scorpions as they have been doing for much of the season to date. Lynden Dunn was strong at the clearances and Daniel Bell was hard at the ball in the middle.

The Scorpions may well live to rue the loss of two games in consecutive weeks brought about by poor kicking in front of the sticks. They need to apply more scoreboard pressure if they are to start winning and keep their finals hopes alive.

HOW THE DEMONS FARED

Rohan Bail – did a few nice things: broke the lines from half back on a few occasions and his disposal was very good. (8 kicks, 4 handballs, 2 marks)

Daniel Bell – showed out with strength and hardness at the contested ball. Had a lot of the football and tackled well but also committed a few clangers. (11 kicks, 12 handballs, 3 marks)

Kyle Cheney - great in defence and even kicked a goal in the last in a very good game. (8 kicks, 13 handballs, 5 marks)

Lynden Dunn – worked hard and got a lot of the football around the ground. One of his team’s best on the day. (15 kicks, 9 handballs, 3 marks)

Daniel Hughes – a dangerous forward who drifted in and out of the game. Finished with two goals. (8 kicks, 8 handballs, 6 marks)

Mark Jamar – rucked well, took some really good grabs but again his kicking in front of goal let him down. Ready to make a return to the AFL. (13 kicks, 12 handballs, 12 marks)

Neville Jetta – chased and tried hard all day kicked a nice goal in the second but wasn’t a standout and had a quiet game by his standards. (6 kicks, 4 handballs, 2 marks)

Tom McNamara – quietly went his way. Worked hard and played a steady game. (8 kicks, 9 handballs, 7 marks)

Michael Newton – frustrating. He kicked one goal and five behinds and could have won this game off his own boot if he was on target. He missed a gettable shot from within fifty metres with the wind at his back. (11 kicks, 4 handballs, 6 marks)

Shane Valenti – worked hard and was his in and under self. (14 kicks, 9 handballs, 2 marks)

Jack Watts – a real emerging talent and a pleasure to watch. It was a highlight of the game for me to witness his freakish skills. On a number of occasions, he was cornered and managed to get out. In a game where Casey’s foot skills were lamentable Watts stood out like a beacon and one 55 metre pass to Newton was sublime. He was clearly the most superior player on the ground in terms of his disposal and ability to place the ball to a team mate’s advantage. (15 kicks, 8 handballs, 7 marks)

Casey Scorpions 2.3.15 6.11.47 8.13.61 11.20.86

North Ballarat 7.4.46 11.4.70 15.10.100 15.12.102

Goals

Casey Scorpions Bell Hughes 2 Cheney Jamar Jetta McGough Matthews Newton Wall

North Ballarat Smith 3 Driscoll Jones Richardson 2 Cartledge Clifton Goodes Sewell White Wundke

Best

Casey Scorpions Jamar Bell Wall Silvagni Valenti Dunn

North Ballarat Smith Moloney Garlett Stephenson Clifton Jones

The Casey Reserves opened the day with a flourish to take a comfortable 26 point lead at the first break and held onto it till half time. They then dominated the second half and eventually ran out 50 point winners. Ben Waite continued his run of good form providing a good target up forward and booting three goals.

HOW THE DEMONS FARED

Rhys Healey – started well early but I didn’t see much of him after half time. May have been injured. (3 kicks, 6 handballs, 2 marks)

Liam Jurrah - threw a scare into the sparse early crowd when carried off with a leg injury but came back to kick a couple of nice goals. Took some nice contested marks and generally looked the goods. (7 kicks, 6 handballs, 6 marks)

Jake Spencer - the best ruckman on the ground, Spencer was excellent in the rucking contests but his kicking leaves a bit to be desired. (7 kicks, 11 handballs, 5 marks)

James Strauss – a class above this standard as his statistics indicate. Excellent across half back, reads the play so well and set up a lot of plays with his accurate delivery of the football. (16 kicks, 20 handballs, 9 marks)

Paul Wheatley - an excellent return after a long period out with injury. Although used sparingly, he was prolific ball winner who backed up his play with good disposal. (13 kicks, 9 handballs, 5 marks)

Trent Zomer – in and out of the game and kicked a goal when he went forward. (10 kicks, 2 handballs, 5 marks)

Casey Scorpions 5.4.34 7.6.48 10.11.71 15.14.104

North Ballarat 1.2.8 3.4.22 3.10.28 7.12.54

Goals

Casey Scorpions Waite 3 Creed Jurrah Oldmeadow Scanlon 2 Blaser McLeod Sykes Zomer

North Ballarat McMahon Radley 2 Bell Linke Raworth

Best

Casey Scorpions Creed Lees Scanlon Blaser Spencer Waite

North Ballarat McMahon Beardsell Peters Hall Limb Niblett

Great job Brendan from Ballarat. Sorry I couldn't make it but really ... I would have been pretty mad watching them waste so many opportunities for goals - especially when the Roosters were slotting their shots through the big sticks.

Great report thanks for your efforts. Brendan, did Watts play as a CHF??

25 disposals for Jamar - impressive

It sounds like Newton's kicking for goal was diabolical, which is a shame - six shots is an acceptable return, but you need to make the most of them.

So we have a wannabe full-forward in Newton who can't kick goals at any level?

Next?

How can Watts not be in the best if his performance was so sublime?

Rapt about Struass, he will be in the casey seniors this week

Refer to my match summary guys. My summary is not biased to our high draft picks. Watts had no influence on the game despite his 23 touches.

Strauss also got many cheap stats which is why his 36 touches didnt manage to get him into the firsts. he will get promoted though

Dunn, Bell were good, Jamar great. Newtons pressure and tackling was the best I've seen from a big man in 10 years, at any level. 50 metre chase downs, ground thumping tackles. I'd put him in our best melbourne listed players too, despite kicking the 1 goal 4.

Refer to my match summary guys. My summary is not biased to our high draft picks. Watts had no influence on the game despite his 23 touches.

Strauss also got many cheap stats which is why his 36 touches didnt manage to get him into the firsts. he will get promoted though

Dunn, Bell were good, Jamar great. Newtons pressure and tackling was the best I've seen from a big man in 10 years, at any level. 50 metre chase downs, ground thumping tackles. I'd put him in our best melbourne listed players too, despite kicking the 1 goal 4.

The article didn't say that Watts was the most influential player in the game; rather that he displayed excellent skills.

Newton does from time to time run, chase and tackle hard. Other times and especially when he goes up to the AFL, he disappoints in the same area. That's why he's playing at Casey and not in the AFL.

On another note, I noticed there were a few absentees from the Casey team whose absence might have made a difference between winning and losing - Clint Bartram, Simon Buckley and Jordie McKenzie who has been playing well for the Scorpions. I assume Bartram was emergency for the twilight game but does anyone know why the other two didn't play?

Newton has problems that are currently stopping him playing AFL footy, but this season his defensive pressure is definitely not one of those problems. He's been very good with that this year even at AFL level.

He does need to work on his conversion because it has hurt his chances at playing more AFL footy this year.

How can Watts not be in the best if his performance was so sublime?

Rapt about Struass, he will be in the casey seniors this week

Well said, I watched Watts play against Box Hill a couple of weeks ago, where he did absolutely nothing and his possesion was ordinary. However, some quoted his game as , "showing glimpses of freakishness" or "having passages of brilliance" when in reality he did little. I'm alittle inclined to believe all the colourful reviews about this kid.

Refer to my match summary guys. My summary is not biased to our high draft picks. Watts had no influence on the game despite his 23 touches.

I've seen Watts play live halfdozen times so already I pretty much know what you get - and I love his class. Now I wasn't there and you were, but I don't understand how 23 of Jack Watts' sublime touches, and it's been stated by the OP that he didn't miss his targets, didn't have any influence on the game. It doesn't make sense. There's just no conceivable logic to that comment. There are degrees of everything, but to say he had no influence is a patently stupid comment.

Thanks for disseminating your information though as I still like interpreting differing critiques.

I've seen Watts play live halfdozen times so already I pretty much know what you get - and I love his class. Now I wasn't there and you were, but I don't understand how 23 of Jack Watts' sublime touches, and it's been stated by the OP that he didn't miss his targets, didn't have any influence on the game. It doesn't make sense. There's just no conceivable logic to that comment. There are degrees of everything, but to say he had no influence is a patently stupid comment.

Thanks for disseminating your information though as I still like interpreting differing critiques.

It's an interesting discussion and highlights again that it's possible for people to interpret the performances of players and teams differently. That's fair enough. Often, what matters is in the eye of the beholder.

Having not been to Ballarat I can't really say definitively whether or not Watts had an influence on the game but I wonder, given that he had 23 disposals, how the claim can be made that he had no influence. It's possible that sometimes a player does pick up a lot of possessions unobtrusively and in the end has had little influence but such occassions are rare.

I hope Peter German files his usual report for the Melbournefc.com.au site because that should throw some important light on the games of Watts, Newton and a few of the others. I look forward to his verdict because the coach is usually in the best position to determine the role of his players and whether they had an influence on a game.

well i dont believe his disposals were high class. he hardly stood out. i was doing the stats with binoculars and i was watching pretty closely. a lot of his handballs were under pressure and put his man under a lot of pressure. he had some good kicks and some not so good kicks. The most promising thing has been his ability to find the footy.

Well, PG's report is up on melbournefc.com.au so you can judge for yourselves what the coach thought of the performances of the various players.'

It's an interesting discussion and highlights again that it's possible for people to interpret the performances of players and teams differently. That's fair enough. Often, what matters is in the eye of the beholder.

Having not been to Ballarat I can't really say definitively whether or not Watts had an influence on the game but I wonder, given that he had 23 disposals, how the claim can be made that he had no influence. It's possible that sometimes a player does pick up a lot of possessions unobtrusively and in the end has had little influence but such occassions are rare.

I hope Peter German files his usual report for the Melbournefc.com.au site because that should throw some important light on the games of Watts, Newton and a few of the others. I look forward to his verdict because the coach is usually in the best position to determine the role of his players and whether they had an influence on a game.

Mr Germans critique of young Jacks game

Jack Watts – Although his preparation has been a little bit behind the rest of the group, he was very good. We pushed him up into the midfield and he showed poise, steadiness and composure in tight situations. He's still developing and the next phase for him is to take marks and kick some goals up forward. Other than that, he's coming along very well.

Kicks 15, Handballs 7, Marks 7, Tackles 2, Assists 5

So Watts has played

2 VFL reserves game

1 APS school football match

2 VFL Seniors games

So Watts has played

2 VFL reserves game

1 APS school football match

2 VFL Seniors games

3