HEAD SCRATCHERS by Ice Station

[Demonland 71,629]

The cold biting north wind coming in directly from the snowfields bode ill for the Casey Scorpions who fell to their second loss in a row and had fans scratching their heads about the team's dramatic fall from grace since their bye.

Before the break, the Scorpions won five games on end in dominating fashion handing out a succession of beltings including a 15 goal win over next week's opponent Collingwood. Earlier on, they beat the Bombers at Windy Hill by 14 goals but, for the second week in a row, things were amiss at Scorpionland.

As happened in the loss to Werribee, Casey was quick out of the blocks and scored the first three goals of the game. The first to Neville Jetta took less than a minute. The Scorps also kept the Bombers goalless for the opening term but, in reality, they hadn't done enough with first use of the wind.

Essendon did all the attacking in the second quarter but it wasn't until the 26 minute mark until the lead was wrested away with a goal to former Territorian and Gippsland Power player Anthony Tipungwuti who trained with Casey early in the pre season. After another Bomber goal, the Scorpions managed their only score for the term, a goal to Luke Tapscott, his second, after an exciting run down the wing from Dom Barry. The deficit was just 3 points at the main break.

Like the last goal of the first half, the next was scored against the breeze to give the Bombers a 9 point lead. Rory Taggert produced a magic goal evading tackles, then Jake Best put Casey in front with his second before skipper Evan Panozza, playing his 100th game, down for a goal. The game was lost in the next 15 minutes when the Scorps' surge stalled. They added just one goal to go into orange time with a lead of only 13 points which was never going to be enough.

The Bombers took the lead 8 minutes into the final term and, despite a couple of attempts to surge back into the game, it was the opposition who showed the greater composure and discipline to hold on for an 11 point win.

Casey was well served by Panozza in defence (26 possessions), James Magner as always was tough in the midfield and picked up 25 touches and James Sellar and Troy Davis put their hands up for AFL selection. Dan Nicholson picked up 21 disposals while Jake Spencer, returning from suspension, had 30 hit outs.

The team wore pink guernseys in support of the National Breast Cancer Foundation and should be commended for its support of some great causes for the general community.

HOW THE DEMONS FARED

Dom Barry 5 kicks 11 handballs 16 disposals 1 mark 5 tackles

Troy Davis 7 kicks 12 handballs 19 disposals 5 marks 1 behind

Tom Gillies 5 kicks 7 handballs 12 disposals 3 marks

Jesse Hogan 3 kicks 5 handballs 8 disposals 1 mark 1 tackle 1 hit out 1 goal

Neville Jetta 6 kicks 4 handballs 10 disposals 3 marks 3 tackles 1 goal

Joel Macdonald did not play

Jordie McKenzie 5 kicks 12 handballs 17 disposals 1 mark 6 tackles

James Magner 14 kicks 11 handballs 25 disposals 1 mark 10 tackles 1 hit out

Daniel Nicholson 8 kicks 13 handballs 21 disposals 2 marks 3 tackles

James Sellar 13 kicks 8 handballs 21 disposals 3 marks 2 tackles 2 hitouts

Jake Spencer 2 kicks 7 handballs 9 disposals 2 marks 3 tackles 30 hitouts

James Strauss 9 kicks 13 handballs 22 disposals 2 marks 3 tackles

Rory Taggert 10 kicks 11 handballs 21 disposals 5 marks 4 tackles 1 goal

Luke Tapscott 7 kicks 6 handballs 13 disposals 3 marks 6 tackles 2 goals

Josh Tynan 12 kicks 2 handballs 14 disposals 2 marks 6 tackles

Casey Scorpions 3.3.21 4.3.27 8.3.51 9.4.58

Essendon0.1.1 4.6.30 5.9.39 9.15.69

Goals

Casey Scorpions Best Tapscott 2 Hogan Hughes Jetta Panozza Taggert

Essendon Davey Hille 2 Brown Daniher Duscher Firman Tipungwuti

Best

Casey Scorpions Panozza Nicholson Sellar Davis Magner Tapscott

Essendon Firman Hille Steinberg Kavanagh O'Brien Coghlan

The Casey Scorpions Development League team posted a famous victory and secured their place in the top six after holding Sandringham scoreless in the first half and goalless until the final term

Casey Scorpions 4.1.25 7.5.47 11.11.77 12.13.85

Sandringham0.0.0 0.0.0 0.1.1 2.4.16

Goals

Casey Scorpions Fowler Page Riseley 3 Anderson Lang Rosier Sandringham McKay Rist

Best

Casey Scorpions Pollard Boland Riseley Rosier Roberts Page

Sandringham Maley Weikhardt Williams Beech Hodges McKay

[ignition. 1,463]

Some very poor stats there from some of those senior listed players.

I expect to see Gillies, Tynan, Jetta, and Davis (also MacDonald) at the top of the order for de-listing.