NO MATCH by KC from Casey

[Demonland 64,392]

The Casey Scorpions were no match for Geelong in Friday night's qualifying final played in front of a 6,000 spectators at Simonds Stadium. The Cats who won by 49 points in the end not only had the advantage of the home crowd but also the edge in experience and size with a bevy of AFL listed players against the Scorpions who could only muster together seven Melbourne-listed players of who two have yet to debut and two others played no senior AFL football this year.

Given the circumstances, Casey did well to stay with Geelong for a little over half a game and was well served by its VFL listed youngsters, many of who have spent much of the season in the development league team.

Proceedings opened in slippery conditions which suited the smaller visitors who tasted first blood through a goal from the nippy Nathan Page. The Cats countered with two goals but the Scorps were up to the challenge with goals to the Toms, Gillies and Couch before a late goal to the home side put them 5 points up at the first break.

With All Australian ruckman Mark Jamar dominating the ruck duels, Casey went out to the biggest lead (7 points) of the night early in the second term with goals from youngster Tom Corry and a second from Gillies who was a member of Geelong's VFL premiership team last year.

This merely stung the Cats into action. They proceeded to produce the game's best patches of play with some fast, free flowing football to score four unanswered goals before Cam Pedersen, who was playing a strong game, drifted forward to kick a much needed goal before the half time siren.

The rain came down heavily during the main break and persisted in patches for most of the rest of the night. The small contingent of Scorpion fans were given some early hope of a team revival when Will Petropoulos goalled to peg the margin back to single figures but the size and strength of the opposition was about to prevail.

The Cats scored the next five goals to stretch their lead to 40 points by the final break and coasted to an easy victory in the end. The win was a triumph for Geelong coach Matthew Knights, ironically coming days after his successor became the first AFL coach to be banned from competition.

Casey was best served by Pedersen (29 possessions) who unfortunately missed qualification for the finals by one game. Vice-captain Luke Tynan (26 touches) and Mitch Gent (25) were solid throughout.

The Scorpions will be hoping for relief from the recent spate of injuries that has beset their team as they are due to welcome back several Melbourne listed players whose AFL duties finish at the weekend.

HOW THE DEMONS FARED

Dom Barry 8 kicks 7 handballs 15 disposals 4 marks 4 tackles

Tom Couch 11 kicks 10 handballs 21 disposals 9 tackles 1 goal 1

Tom Gillies 6 kicks 3 handballs 9 disposals 4 marks 1 tackle 2 goals 1 behind

Mark Jamar 4 kicks 2 handballs 6 disposals 1 mark 7 tackles 48 hit outs

Cam Pedersen 18 kicks 10 handballs 28 disposals 7 marks 3 tackles 14 hitouts 1 goal

Rory Taggert 6 kicks 3 handballs 9 disposals 4 marks 1 tackle

Josh Tynan 8 kicks 6 handballs 14 disposals 1 mark 5 tackles

Casey Scorpions 3.1.19 6.2.38 7.3.45 8.3.51

Geelong 3.6.24 7.11.53 12.13.85 14.16.100

Goals

Casey Scorpions Gillies 2 Corry Couch Page Pedersen Petropoulos Plummer

Geelong Kersten 4 Bathie Barham Walker Stringer 2 Horlin-Smith Hunt

Best

Casey Scorpions Gent Pedersen Petropoulos Plummer L Tynan Riseley

Geelong Sheringham Brown Horlin-Smith Corrigan Hunt Banjanin

The undermanned development league team was outclassed and have bowed out of the finals.

2013 AFL Victoria Development League

Casey Scorpions 1.0.6 2.2.14 4.2.26 5.2.32

Northern Blues 3.5.23 7.9.51 13.13.91 21.19.145

Goals

Casey Scorpions Corrigan Jackson McInnes Meadows Neville

Northern Blues Cattapan Soncin 3 Clark Dorman Dufficy Visser 2 Ballard Bonaddio Gleeson Lincoln

Best

Casey Scorpions Neville Godfrey McInnes Rutherford Hill Irwin

Northern Blues Jenkins Cattapan Meese Ballard Dufficy Soncin