Jump to content

SLUGFEST by KC from Casey

Featured Replies

Posted

In boxing parlance you would describe the Scorpions' win over the Hawks in the last hit out for the season before the finals as a "slugfest". 

From the very beginning of the bout, the opponents traded heavy blows with first one, then the other seemingly on top. After all, this was a fight between the  heavyweight champion of recent times in the VFL and the new contender. The Box Hill Hawks are on their way down, the Casey Scorpions are on the rise with their eyes on the championship belt. A win would go along way to securing a title bout but for the Hawks, it was their last chance to go out fighting. 

And so, at the City Oval on a cool, windy afternoon, the Hillmen did come out slugging and they landed the early blows. They were ahead on points early (4-0) before scoring goals through the agency of AFL premiership players Matt Spangher and Will Langford. When the bell rang to close off the first quarter, the visitors were goalless and in fact were smarting, having kicked only one goal in their last three quarters of football after their poor finish last week.

Five minutes into the second term, Box Hill now kicking against the breeze, scored another goal to go to a handy 16 point lead. It was up to big hitter Cam Pedersen to stop the bleeding and in short time, he landed two heavy blows to narrow the margin to four points before Dean Terlich put them in front. Viv Michie landed another before the half time bell and the Scorpions were 9 points in front.

It was lively rover Ben Kennedy who came to the fore and extended the points lead to 14 but the Hawks refused to be beaten. They picked themselves up and got off the canvas swinging wildly but hitting the mark, kicking the next four goals and reversing the Casey lead to go into the final round with a 9 point lead.

The time had come for the Scorpions to step up. Kennedy scored first but the home side hit back with another from Langford. The sparring continued and big man Jake Spencer scored the next blow and the Scorps kept coming - a rushed behind leveling the scores at 55 apiece. Jack Grimes put them in front by a point. Kennedy who along with Alex Neal-Bullen had been the outstanding small man in the ring on the ground, kicked his third goal and a flurry of minor scores ensued before Cam Pedersen landed the killer blow at the 17 minute mark. Box Hill were down on the ropes - there was no coming back. Dean Terlich added injury to insult, the lead was out to 25 points and, with the news of Collingwood's loss to Footscray, the Scorpions were heading to the top of the ladder.

When Clayton Oliver who was one of the stars of the day (finishing with a game high 33 disposals) marked and passed off to Michie for his second, the Hawks' fans were calling in the referee to stop the fight and call a technical knock out. The season was over for them.

But it will continue next week for Casey which just keeps on punching. They have a strong list of AFL listed players qualified and on this display, you would expect them to win a final for the first time since the alignment began with Melbourne. Casey listed players like Angus Scott and skipper Jack Hutchins add to the side's quality. They have a good enough mix of experience and youth to go all the way and claim the VFL's heavyweight crown.

Casey Scorpions 0.4.4 4.7.31 5.10.40 11.20.86

Box Hill Hawks 2.4.16 3.4.22 7.7.49 8.8.56

Goals 

Casey Scorpions Kennedy Pedersen 3 Michie  Terlich 2 Spencer

Box Hill Hawks Langford 3 Hardwick Spangher 2 Stewart 

Best 

Casey Scorpions Michie Kennedy Neal-Bullen Dunn Grimes Oliver

Box Hill Hawks Howe Langford Mirra Willsmore Spangher O'Donnell

Statistics

Lynden Dunn 14 disposals 12 kicks 2 handballs 6 marks 1 tackles 62 dream team points
Colin Garland 22 disposals 16 kicks 6 handballs 6 marks 6 tackles 75 dream team points
Jack Grimes 2 behinds 28 disposals 16 kicks 12 handballs 8 marks 5 tackles 119 dream team points
Liam Hulett 5 disposals 3 kicks 2 handballs 2 marks 2 tackles 27 dream team points
Ben Kennedy 3 goals 3 behinds disposals 17 kicks 6 handballs 8 marks 7 tackles 131 dream team points
Jay Kennedy-Harris 1 behind 21 disposals 11 kicks 10 handballs 6 marks 2 tackles 77 dream team points
Viv Michie 2 goals 1 behind 31 disposals 21 kicks 10 handballs 8 marks 2 tackles 128 dream team points
Alex Neal-Bullen 32 disposals 14 kicks 18 handballs 4 marks 4 tackles 106 dream team points
Clayton Oliver 33 disposals 13 kicks 20 handballs 4 marks 4 hit outs dream 89 team points
Cam Pedersen 3 goals 1 behind 15 disposals 10 kicks 5 handballs 6 marks 2 tackles 3 hit outs 87 dream team points
Joel Smith 13 disposals 4 kicks 9 handballs 2 marks 2 tackles 41 dream team points
Jake Spencer 1 goal 7 disposals 4 kicks 3 handballs 3 marks 3 tackles 23 hit outs 70 dream team points
Dean Terlich 2 goals 2 behinds 14 disposals 9 kicks 5 handballs 3 marks 3 tackles 1 hit out 83 dream team points
Josh Wagner 21 disposals 12 kicks 9 handballs 3 tackles 63 dream team points
Mitch White 1 behind 23 disposals 12 kicks 11 handballs 7 marks 1 tackles 84 dream team points

The late season winning run of the Scorpions Development League team came to an end in the top-of-the-ladder clash against Box Hill who won by 20 points. Casey retained second position going into the finals and will be looking forward to the rematch.

Casey Scorpions 2.1.13 5.2.32 6.4.40 9.6.60

Box Hill Hawks   4.5  5.9.39 9.13.67 11.14.80

Goals

Casey Scorpions Freeman Max King 2 Baker D Collis Fritsch Wilson Wyatt 

Box Hill Hawks Lawlor 3 Firns Walker 2  Glass Lewis  Summers Traynor 

Best 

Casey Scorpions Jaffer-Williams Wilson D Collis Briggs Wyatt Beacom

Box Hill Hawks Brolic Lawlor Walker Kidd Summers Fisher

 

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Featured Content

  • PREVIEW: Brisbane

    And just like that, we’re Narrm again. Even though the annual AFL Sir Doug Nicholls Round which commemorates the contributions of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture to our game has been a welcome addition to our calendar for ten years, more lately it has been a portent of tough times ahead for we beleaguered Narrm supporters. Ever since the club broke through for its historic 2021 premiership, this has become a troubling time of the year for the club. For example, it all began when Melbourne rebranded itself as Narrm across the two rounds of the Sir Doug Nicholls Round to become the first club to adopt an Indigenous club name especially for the occasion. It won its first outing under the brand against lowly North Melbourne to go to 10 wins and no losses but not without a struggle or a major injury to  star winger Ed Langdon who broke his ribs and missed several weeks. In the following week, still as Narrm, the team’s 17 game winning streak came to an end at the hands of the Dockers. That came along with more injuries, a plague that remained with them for the remainder of the season until, beset by injuries, the Dees were eliminated from the finals in straight sets. It was even worse last year, when Narrm inexplicably lowered its colours in Perth to the Waalit Marawar Eagles. Oh, the shame of it all! At least this year, if there is a corner to turn around, it has to be in the direction of something better. To that end, I produced a special pre-game chant in the local Narrm language - “nam mi:wi winnamun katjil prolin ambi ngamar thamelin amb” which roughly translated is “every heart beats true for the red and the blue.” >y belief is that if all of the Narrm faithful recite it long enough, then it might prove to be the only way to beat the Brisbane Lions at the Gabba on Sunday. The Lions are coming off a disappointing draw at Marvel Stadium against a North Melbourne team that lacks the ability and know how to win games (except when playing Melbourne). Brisbane are, however, a different kettle of fish at home and have very few positional weaknesses. They are a midfield powerhouse, strong in defence and have plenty of forward options, particularly their small and medium sized players, to kick a winning score this week after the sting of last week’s below par performance.

    • 0 replies
    Demonland
  • REPORT: Hawthorn

    There was a time during the current Melbourne cycle that goes back to before the premiership when the club was the toughest to beat in the fourth quarter. The Demons were not only hard to beat at any time but it was virtually impossible to get the better them when scores were close at three quarter time. It was only three or four years ago but they were fit, strong and resilient in body and mind. Sadly, those days are over. This has been the case since the club fell off its pedestal about 12 months ago after it beat Geelong and then lost to Carlton. In both instances, Melbourne put together strong, stirring final quarters, one that resulted in victory, the other, in defeat. Since then, the drop off has been dramatic to the point where it can neither pull off victory in close matches, nor can it even go down in defeat  gallantly.

    • 0 replies
    Demonland
  • CASEY: Footscray

    At twenty-four minutes into the third term of the game between the Casey Demons and Footscray VFL at Whitten Oval, the visitors were coasting. They were winning all over the ground, had the ascendancy in the ruck battles and held a 26 point lead on a day perfect for football. What could go wrong? Everything. The Bulldogs moved into overdrive in the last five minutes of the term and booted three straight goals to reduce the margin to a highly retrievable eight points at the last break. Bouyed by that effort, their confidence was on a high level during the interval and they ran all over the despondent Demons and kicked another five goals to lead by a comfortable margin of four goals deep into the final term before Paddy Cross kicked a couple of too late goals for a despondent Casey. A testament to their lack of pressure in the latter stages of the game was the fact that Footscray’s last ten scoring shots were nine goals and one rushed behind. Things might have been different for the Demons who went into the game after last week’s bye with 12 AFL listed players. Blake Howes was held over for the AFL game but two others, Jack Billings and Taj Woewodin (not officially listed as injured) were also missing and they could have been handy at the end. Another mystery of the current VFL system.

    • 0 replies
    Demonland
  • PREGAME: Brisbane

    The Demons head back out on the road in Round 10 when they travel to Queensland to take on the reigning Premiers and the top of the table Lions who look very formidable. Can the Dees cause a massive upset? Who comes in and who goes out?

      • Thumb Down
      • Haha
      • Like
    • 126 replies
    Demonland
  • PODCAST: Hawthorn

    The Demonland Podcast will air LIVE on Monday, 12th May @ 8:00pm. Join Binman, George & I as we dissect the Demons loss to the Hawks. Your questions and comments are a huge part of our podcast so please post anything you want to ask or say below and we'll give you a shout out on the show. If you would like to leave us a voicemail please call 03 9016 3666 and don't worry no body answers so you don't have to talk to a human.

      • Haha
    • 52 replies
    Demonland
  • POSTGAME: Hawthorn

    Wayward kicking for goal, dump kicks inside 50 and some baffling umpiring all contributed to the Dees not getting out to an an early lead that may have impacted the result. At the end of the day the Demons were just not good enough and let the Hawks run away with their first win against the Demons in 7 years.

      • Thanks
      • Like
    • 364 replies
    Demonland