SCORPIONS OVER THE BLUES by KC from Casey

The two week break between games had no effect on the Casey Scorpions who had little trouble in dealing with the Northern Blues at Visy Park to run out clear winners by 55 points on Saturday.

A highlight of the game was the leadership of Evan Panozza who added to his repertoire by going forward and kicking a couple of goals, the continuing improvement of 2011 reserves best and fairest Luke Tynan in defence and a bright showing from Demon-listed youngsters in rooki Jai Sheahan, Troy Davis and tall forward Lucas Cook who was in strong marking form early, booting three goals in the first half.

Casey dominated the early play and scored the game's first three goals. The Blues came back but the Scorps steadied to lead by 14 points at the first break. 

Kelvin Lawrence opened the second term with a brilliant goal and Casey dominated much of the proceedings scoring four unanswered goals until a late Northern Blues goal left the deficit at six goals by half time. During this period,  Panozza was supreme and Davis, Sheahan and a much improved Luke Tynan were impassable. Up forward and around the ground Casey had Cook, Matthew Bate, Ricky Petterd and a seemingly rejuvenated Aaron Davey causing their opponents lots of worries. It was good to see Davey finish the game with two goals and playing with an air of confidence.

The Blues lifted their game in the second half but the visitors continued to have all of the answers and by the final break the lead had stretched out to 53 points. Casey continued to make the play early in the final term before the game fizzled out to a dull finish. 

Coach Brett Lovett who have to be pleased with the performance of his team given the number of withdrawals through injury and to replace players needed to play AFL that evening.

The senior team has now taken back second place on the ladder and returns home for the first time since beating North Ballarat by one point on 29 April in round five. The game against Collingwood is the club's annual Pink Ribbon Day Match in aid of the National Breast Cancer Foundation and it is hoped that a figure in excess of last year's number of just under $15,000 can be surpassed.

HOW THE DEMONS FARED

Matthew Bate - was always in the game and put in a strong performance.

Lucas Cook - in strong marking form and delivered three goals in the first half. 

Tom Couch - another hardworking performance but not as prolific a possession gatherer as in previous weeks.

Aaron Davey - played well in what was a good confidence builder for the veteran player.

Troy Davis - another very strong game in defence.

Jack Fitzpatrick - great pace for a big man but his kicking for goal was awkward and off target.

Kelvin Lawrence - kicked a couple of goals but otherwise not prominent.

Ricky Petterd - moved well around the forward line and contributed a goal.

Jai Sheahan - another classy performance for the youngster who set up attacking moves with great run out of defence. Top possession winner in the game and once again underlined his potential.

Jake Spencer - an improved performance in the ruck where he was a clear winner on the day.

Casey Scorpions 4.3.27 8.8.56 12.10.82 14.15.99

Northern Blues 2.1.13 3.2.20 4.5.29 6.8.44

Goals 

Casey Scorpions Cook 3 Bate Lawrence Panozza 2 Davey Fieldsend Fitzpatrick McGough Petterd

Northern Blues Mitchell 2  Burgess  Jenkins Marcon Visser

Best

Casey Scorpions Sheahan Panozza Davis J Tynan Davey Cook

Northern Blues Marcon Lambert O'Keeffe Bell Visser McInnes

Major stats Sheahan 29 Davey 23 Panozza 22 L Tynan 21 Bate 21

AFL Development League

Casey Scorpions 3.3.21 7.5.47 10.5.65 14.6.90

Northern Blues 2.2.14 5.3.33 10.5.65 11.7.83

Goals 

Casey Scorpions Galvin 6 Rosier 2 Bull Clay  Johnson  McFarlane  J Roberts Salton

Northern Blues Clark 5 Peterson 2 Coran Coulson  Dowse Toman  

Best

Casey Scorpions Rosier Galvin Clay Petropoulos Troutman Hill

Northern Blues Toman Clark McCann Valladares Black Lodge

Thanks for the report, good to see Sheahan, Davis, Davey and Cook in the best. The list may be a bit better than some think?

Tynan a chance of being rookied this year? He is not much older than Josh is he?

Obviously haven't seen Davis or Sheahan at AFL level yet, but with those two and McDonald, it looks like we're getting some pretty good value from late-pick and rookie talls.

Having watched Sheahan a couple of times this year, he's got the most upside. Really good size, great mover and judges the ball overhead really well. Played in defence most of the year, but I think he looks like a tall marking forward, he kicked bags as a junior.

It's interesting that Casey did so well with only 11 AFL listed players. After last year's clean out that saw a number of VFL regulars like Fevola, Mohr, Wall and Stockdale leave the club and with yet another injury to co-skipper Matthews, I expected Casey to really struggle because it really didn't go out and recruit replacements.

The following MFC listed players were missing at the weekend because of injury - Rohan Bail, Clint Bartram, Michael Evans, James Frawley, Max Gawn, Jordan Gysberts, Neville Jetta, Liam Jurrah, Stef Martin, James Strauss, Rory Taggert and Leigh Williams. Jamie Bennell was the emergency on Saturday night and also missed out.