OUTBOXED by KC from Casey

[Demonland 73,106]

The Casey Scorpions' 2014 woes continued at home against reigning premiers, the Box Hill Hawks who dominated their round 11 encounter at Casey Fields for all but one quarter before crushing their lifeless hosts in the last to record an 85-point thrashing on the public stage in the VFL's televised match of the day.

The match was in stark contrast to the previous encounter between these sides in the final home and away round of last season when they were battling for high stakes at the top of the ladder and an errant shot for goal by Dom Barry in the dying moments saw the Scorpions go down by 2 points at Box Hill City Oval, a result which consigned them to an opening finals game at the Cattery.

This time, a far superior Box Hill took a stranglehold on the game early in the piece when it outscored Casey in the opening term despite kicking into the face of a strongish breeze. The home side lined up with fourteen Melbourne listed players but the Casey contingent was relatively inexperienced and missing Troy Davis, Mitch Gent, Will Petropoulos and promising youngster Ed Morris who returned from injury this week through the development league team.

B: Welsh Georgiou Strauss

HB: Nicholson Panozza Toumpas

C: Byrnes Tapscott Barry

HF: Blease Smith Harmes

F: Best Fitzpatrick Kennedy-Harris

FOLL: Gawn Michie Evans

IC: Drew Page Rennie* Saunders Shiels

* 23rd player

Casey was on the back foot early and it was a bad sign that it could only penetrate the Box Hill defence twice in the opening term for goals to Smith and Fitzpatrick at the 17 and 19 minute mark respectively. The Hawks let them off the hook with their poor finishing in front of goal but such was their dominance that the game was virtually over at half time when they led by 38 points and the Scorps had managed to add another two measly points to their score.

With Smith and Byrnes injured, it took quite an effort for Casey to fight its way back into the game but it did so in the third term on the back of strong work in the midfield from Michie and some hard efforts from Gawn in the ruck. At one stage the gap had been narrowed to 23 points before the visitors steadied with a late goal. In any event, the Scorpions of 2014 are not known for stirring final quarter comebacks, least of all against the wind and it was almost inevitable that they would finish again without a whimper. The Hawks simply ran away with a nine goal to nil final quarter to complete the humiliation and substantially boost their own percentage.

It was hard to find any positives from the game other than the form of Michie (30 disposals) and the valiant defence of Georgiou and skipper Panozza and some running efforts from Blease who finished with 28 touches.

In truth however, they were simply an inexperienced line up that was fighting an opponent in a different weight division. They face Williamstown next week at the same venue with very little about which to be enthused.

2014 Peter Jackson VFL

Casey Scorpions 2.0.12 2.2.14 6.6.42 6.8.44

Box Hill Hawks 3.4.22 7.10.52 10.11.71 19.15.129

Goals

Casey Scorpions Fitzpatrick 2 Smith Evans Page Smith Toumpas

Box Hill Hawks McEvoy 5 Cust 4 Kelly Willsmore 2 Grimley Hallahan Iles Langford O'Donnell Simpkin

Best

Casey Scorpions Michie Georgiou Barry Nicholson Blease Panozza

Box Hill Hawks B McEvoy Lock Woodward Simpkin Cust Kelly

Match Statistics

The match stats:-

* Dom Barry 9 disposals 3 kicks 6 handballs 1 marks 2 tackles 30 Dream Team Points

* Sam Blease 27 disposals 18 kicks 9 handballs 3 marks 83 Dream Team Points

* Shannon Byrnes 2 disposals 2 handballs 4 Dream Team Points (injured)

* Michael Evans 1 goal 1 behind 24 disposals 15 kicks 9 handballs 4 marks 3 tackles 90 Dream Team Points

* Jack Fitzpatrick 2 goals 10 disposals 7 kicks 3 handballs 5 marks 2 tackles 12 hit outs Dream Team Points

* Max Gawn 23 disposals 9 kicks 14 handballs 8 marks 3 tackles 52 hit outs 137 Dream Team Points

* Alexis Georgiou 17 disposals 11 kicks 6 handballs 10 marks 1 tackles 78 Dream Team Points

* James Harmes 1 behind 14 disposals 8 kicks 6 handballs 4 marks 2 tackles 58 Dream Team Points

* Jay Kennedy-Harris 1 behind 17 disposals 10 kicks 7 handballs 4 marks 3 tackles 64 Dream Team Points

* Viv Michie 1 behind 32 disposals 23 kicks 9 handballs 7 marks 5 tackles 128 Dream Team Points

* Dan Nicholson 25 disposals 15 kicks 10 handballs 9 marks 3 tackles 98 Dream Team Points

* James Strauss 20 disposals 16 kicks 4 handballs 4 marks 1 tackles 73 Dream Team Points

* Luke Tapscott 22 disposals 12 kicks 10 handballs 3 marks 6 tackles 91 Dream Team Points

* Jimmy Toumpas 1 goal 21 disposals 15 kicks 6 handballs 5 marks 6 tackles 100 Dream Team Points

The development league team fought hard against a team which thrashed it by a three figure margin a fortnight ago.

2014 AFL Victoria Development League

Casey Scorpions 2.4.16 3.6.24 5.7.37 5.9.39

Box Hill Hawks 1.1.7 6.6.42 10.11.71 13.16.94

Goals

Casey Scorpions Davidson Gawley Lang Rutherford Symons

Box Hill Hawks McEvoy Papadopoulos Thompson 2 Bond Franetic Goodwin Murphy Northe Soccio Tobin

Best

Casey Scorpions Scott Rutherford Jackson West Waters Corrigan

Box Hill Hawks Tobin Murphy Soccio Miles Andrews Thompson

[junk 342]

I watch some of this match on the abc today,the scorpions were pathetic,it was like watching the Demon senior side play last year.Gawn doesn't seem to tap the ball to his rovers,too many players tend to fumble.However I find the extended contract to SPENCER weird.

He cannot kick and cannot play anywhere else. Fitzy is not a full forward so why does the club continue to play him there.Why isn't the reserves playing like the seniors. I also wonder ,are the players despondent because they do not get a chance to play at senior level.

WHO is going to get the chop at the end of the year? FITZY,Evans,Gawn,BYRNES,TAPSCOTT,STRAUSS,NICHOLSON,MINCHIE,BLEASE (reserves) ,Jordie MacK,TERLICH,MATT JONES.

PAUL ROOS needs to change things re the reserves i.e more inclusion and the coach needs to set the bar much higher for the reserves.The Kangaroos are currently making a meal of the Demons