THE WALL by KC from Casey

At the 15 minute mark of Sunday’s game at the Swinburne Centre against Richmond VFL, the Casey Demons led by 5.1.31 to 0.1.1. By the time the first quarter had come to an end more than 20 minutes later, the lead had been reduced to a mere 11 points and that came on top of a goal on the siren by Lachlan Filipovic. At some time during those last 20 minutes, the Demons had hit the wall because, by the end of the day, they had channelled their senior counterparts from their last game and fell by 35 points.

The result came as no surprise in light of the changes to the team’s make up in the fortnight since its barnstorming opening round 107 point win over Coburg. Back then, there were 18 MFC listed players in the line up with many of them fighting desperately for a place in a Melbourne team that had just beaten North Melbourne for the first time in 18 encounters. Against the Tigers, there were just 12 AFL-listed players in the team with Harley Balic, Jayden Hunt, Joel Smith, Tim Smith, Billy Stretch and Sam Weideman out from the previous week.

The problem was compounded by an injury to Tomas Bugg after he landed awkwardly in a marking contest during the second quarter. The Demons were already a man down after 23rd player Mitch Lewis was concussed early in the game. To make matters worse, the bulk of the Demon listers had poor games and many were unsighted after the first break. 

The exceptions to the rule were Cam Pedersen who continued where he left off in the second half against Werribee and youngster Charlie Spargo who was busy all day and kicked two goals. Pedersen marked strongly and worked hard supporting an otherwise well beaten big man division and his five goals for the day kept the Demons in the hunt until the final quarter. Jay Kennedy Harris, Mitch Hannan and Oskar Baker had their moments but the rest of the AFL brigade were disappointing. 
 
The Demons were well served by their VFL listed players. James Munro and mature aged newcomer Ryan Morrison attacked the ball aggressively, Mitch Gent was solid.

Casey plays its first game at home on Saturday night when it takes on another VFL stand alone, Geelong.

Peter Jackson VFL 2018

Casey Demons 8.2.50 9.5.59 11.6.72 13.8.86

Richmond VFL 6.3.39 12.8.80 13.14.92 17.19.121

Goals

Casey Demons Pedersen 5 Spargo 2 Baker Filipovic Hannan Kennedy Harris Lockhart Scott

Richmond VFL Coleman-Jones 3 Baker Bolton Chol Grewar 2 Aarts Balta Drummond Ellis Moore Stengle  

Best

Casey Demons Morrison Munro Pedersen Spargo Kennedy-Harris Gent

Richmond VFL Miles Markov Moore Morris Soldo Coleman-Jones

Statistics

Oskar Baker 1 goal 2 behinds 11 kicks 3 handballs 14 disposals 4 marks 80 dream team points 
Jaxon Briggs 7 kicks 3 handballs 10 disposals 5 marks 1 tackle 43 dream team points 
Tomas Bugg 5 handballs 5 disposals 1 mark 3 tackles 25 dream team points 
Dylan Collis 5 kicks 5 handballs 10 disposals 1 mark 26 dream team points 
Lachlan Filipovic 1 goal 2 kicks 5 handballs 7 disposals 1 marks 2 tackles 6 hit outs 41 dream team points 
Mitchell Gent 14 kicks 6 handballs 20 disposals 1 mark 3 tackles 69 dream team points 
Mitchell Hannan 1 goal 1 behind 15 kicks 4 handballs 19 disposals 6 marks 6 tackles 104 dream team points 
Dion Johnstone 5 kicks 4 handballs 9 disposals 5 tackles 40 dream team points 
Declan Keilty 1 kick 2 handballs 3 disposals 1  tackles 11 dream team points 
Jay Kennedy Harris 1 goal 1 behind 12 kicks 5 handballs 17 disposals 3 marks 7 tackles 89 dream team points 
Mitch King 2 kicks 7 handballs 9 disposals 2 marks 1 tackle 9 hit outs 33 dream team points 
Mitchell Lewis no stats (concussed early in the game)
Jay Lockhart 1 goal 7 kicks 4 handballs 11 disposals 6 tackles 53 dream team points 
Corey Maynard 6 kicks 11 handballs 17 disposals 5 tackles 51 dream team points   
Ryan Morrison 13 kicks 1 handballs 14 disposals 2 marks 2 tackles 55 dream team points 
James Munro 9 kicks 19 handballs 28 disposals 1 mark 10 tackles 104 dream team points 
Cameron Pedersen 5 goals 2 behinds 12 kicks 6 handballs 18 disposals 10 marks 5 tackles 129 dream team points 
Harrison Petty 4 kicks 1 handballs 5 disposals 3 marks 2 tackles 28 dream team points 
Angus Scott 1 goal 6 kicks 6 handballs 12 disposals 1 mark 1 tackle 41 dream team points 
Charles Spargo 2 goals 1 behind 9 kicks 9 handballs 18 disposals 3 marks 3 tackles 80 dream team points 
William Stephenson 1 behind 4 kicks 3 handballs 7 disposals 1 mark 4 tackles 39 dream team points 
Corey Wagner 8 kicks 3 handballs 11 disposals 10 tackles 68 dream team points 
Mitchell White 6 kicks 4  handballs 10 disposals 1 marks 5 tackles 49 dream team points