THE TURNAROUND by KC from Casey

The Casey Scorpions have made to the 2016 VFL grand final by way of a resounding seven-goal victory over stand alone club Williamstown at North Port Oval on Sunday turning around their 44 point loss to the Seagulls from early in the season.

While the Scorpions benefitted by the obvious advantage of having 14 Demons in their side, they achieved the victory thanks to an outstanding mix of players which involved a massive contribution of Casey's VFL listed players.

Casey had to leave out Jack Grimes who has been an outstanding contributor over the past couple of months as well as leading goalkicker Liam Hulett, both due to illness during the week and this caused the side to be recast giving Tim Smith and Declan Keilty extra responsibility as talls on the forward line. The Scorpions  jumped out at the start booting four goals to nil and held a 4.6.30 to 0.1.1 lead at quarter time with Smith booting a couple and Keilty one to go with the goal scored by defender Lynden Dunn (his first for the season) when he made his foray into attack. Category B rookie Joel Smith displayed his skill garnered from an early basketball career and was causing Willy lots of discomfort.

The Seagulls lifted early in the second term but the resistance was soon snuffed out with the likes of Christian Salem, Clayton Oliver, Alex Neal-Bullen and the effervescent 23rd player Aloysio Ferrera getting right into the thick of things, the Scorps surged ahead to a near six goal lead, the only dampener being a concussion injury to Salem in the shadows of half time.

Having established the ascendency, the Scorpions simply locked Willy out with tight defence which crushed the life out of the opposition. The backline led by skipper Jack Hutchins, the evergreen Lynden Dunn, Colin Garland, James Munro and Mitch White was virtually impassable. While Jake Spencer and Williamstown's premiership ruckman Nick Meese battling it out in the ruck, young ruckman Oscar McInerney booted two second half goals as the game otherwise came to a standstill in the end.  

It was an impressive display of hard work, skill and power by the Scorpions who will go into the grand final  with plenty of confidence having overrun their opponent in Footscray only a fortnight earlier. The team is likely to lose Salem for the grand final against the Bulldogs but will regain Dean Terlich returning from suspension, Grimes and Hulett.

The overall team performance and its evenness all over the ground is a tribute to Justin Plapp's coaching and the way he has melded the team together. It was only a couple of seasons ago that Casey was the lowest rated team in the competition after the untimely departure of Bendigo Gold. On Sunday, the Scorpions will be playing for its ultimate prize.

Casey Scorpions 4.6.30 8.7.55 11.11.77 12.13.85

Williamstown 0.2.2 2.8.20 4.10.34 5.13.43

Goals 

Casey Scorpions Smith 3 Keilty McInerney 2 Dunn M Jones Morris Oliver Scott

Williamstown Carr Dunell  Meese  Jolley Schultz  

Best 

Casey Scorpions Oliver Dunn Neal-Bullen J Smith T Smith Hutchins

Williamstown Wheeler Fahey Bese Carr Greiser Hislop

Statistics

Lynden Dunn 1 goal 24 disposals 22 kicks 2 handballs 12 marks 3 tackles 128 dream team points

Colin Garland 13 disposals 7 kicks 6 handballs 2 marks 3 tackles 45 dream team points

Matt Jones 1 goals 1 behinds 16 disposals 11 kicks 5 handballs 4 marks 6 tackles 84 dream team points

Ben Kennedy 2 behinds 9 disposals 7 kicks 2 handballs 0 marks 2 tackles 33 dream team points

Viv Michie 18 disposals 16 kicks 2 handballs 5 marks 13 tackles 120 dream team points

Alex Neal-Bullen 30 disposals 18 kicks 12 handballs 3 marks 8 tackles 118 dream team points

Ben Newton 16 disposals 12 kicks 4 handballs 3 marks 4 tackles 64 dream team points

Clayton Oliver 1 goal 24 disposals 10 kicks 14 handballs 1 mark 17 tackles 5 hit outs 127 dream team points

Christian Salem 15 disposals 11 kicks 4 handballs 4 marks 1 tackles 54 dream team points [injured before half time]

Joel Smith 20 disposals 11 kicks 9 handballs 7 marks 4 tackles 79 dream team points

Jake Spencer 1 behind 9 disposals 8 kicks 1 handball 3 marks 7 tackles 22 hit outs 78 dream team points

Jack Trengove 1 behind 15 disposals 7 kicks 8 handballs 5 marks 4 tackles 2 hit outs 72 dream team points

Sam Weideman 1 behinds 3 disposals 1 kicks 2 handballs 1 mark 11 dream team points

Mitch White 13 disposals 9 kicks 4 handballs 5 marks 2 tackles 59 dream team points

The Development League team faced the rampant Box Hill Hawks for the third time in a month and once again, the result was something of a disaster for Casey. They lost by 105 points.

AFL Victoria Development League

Casey Scorpions 1.2.8 4.4.28 5.5.35 10.7.67

Box Hill Hawks  7.3.45 14.7.91 21.11.137 26.16.172

Goals 

Casey Scorpions Max King 2 J Anderson Cox Freeman Hillard  Hulett  Vander Haar Wilson Wyatt

Box Hill Hawks Brolic 6 Traynor 5 Langford Summers Switkowski 2 Dimasi Fisher   Gibson  Glass Gordon Kennedy Kidd McIntyre Walker

Best

Casey Scorpions Moncrieff Rutherford Fritsch Cox Wilson Di Pasquale

Box Hill Hawks Murphy Brolic Traynor Evans Switkowski O'Donnell