A LITTLE RAY OF SUNSHINE by KC from Casey

 Two clubs that have been hard hit by injury recently took part in a dour battle under dark clouds and, with intermittent showers falling, it wasn’t a pretty game at Victoria Park on Sunday.

Despite all that, the Casey Demons added a little ray of sunshine to their day to get the job done over a "traditional" rival with a 15 point victory over Collingwood VFL that breathed life back into their season.

There were a few highlights at the ground that in past days has seen many titanic battles between Demons and Magpies. Coach Sam Radford was forced to shuffle his team around to cater for Melbourne’s upcoming five day break but the sheer dominance of Braydon Preuss in the ruck was certainly memorable. Returning from one week in Max Gawn’s big shadows, the giant ruckman amassed 75 hit-outs and had 19 disposals to turn the game in his team’s favour.

Defenders, Marty Hore (playing against his old VFL club) and Declan Keilty stopped countless Magpie attacks and were responsible for keeping them down to just two goals to the final break. Indeed, Collingwood was kept goalless from the nine minute mark of the opening term until early in the last such was the stregth of performance of the Casey back half.

Also impressive was Josh Wagner who had the run with role on Magpie skipper Alex Woodward and the two engaged in a fascinating contest throughout the day with the Demon’s two goals proving crucial to his team’s victory.

As usual, the Casey effort was helped by the reliables - former skipper Jack Hutchins and the hard man Jimmy Munro while Luke Tynan, who began his career at the club before spending some time at Port Melbourne, celebrating his 150th VFL game with a meritorious performance and was one of his team’s best.

The win moved the Casey Demons into the top eight by two premiership points over the Box Hill Hawks who have a game in hand so that next week, when the Demons head to Casey Fields for their last home and away match of the season, they must defeat an improving Frankston and hope that Box Hill drops one of its two remaining games to play off in this year’s finals series.

2019 Hard Yakka / Totally Workwear VFL

Casey Demons 2.0.12 4.3.27 5.7.37 8.9.57

Collingwood VFL 2.4.16 2.8.20 2.11.23  5.12.42

Goals 

Casey Demons Chandler Neal-Bullen J Wagner 2 Hutchins White   

Collingwood VFL Gallucci 2 Crocker Hetherington Stanford   

Best 

Casey Demons Keilty Hore Hutchins Tynan J Wagner Preuss

Collingwood VFL Tardrew Woodward Hetherington Crocker Appleby Wellings

Statistics

Toby Bedford 1 behind 4 kicks 3 handballs 7 disposals 4  tackles 51 dream team points  
Austin Bradtke 1 behind 2 kicks 2 disposals 1 tackle 13  dream team points    
Kade Chandler  2 goals 7 kicks 2 handballs 9 disposals 4 marks 5 tackles 69 dream team points  
Dylan Collis 5 kicks 3 handballs 8 disposals 5 marks 4 tackles 52 dream team points  
Tom Freeman 12 kicks 2 handballs 14 disposals 4 marks 3 tackles 64 dream team points  
Matt Gahan 10 kicks 3 handballs 13 disposals 3 marks 3 tackles 64 dream team points 
Marty Hore 20 kicks 5 handballs 25 disposals 9 marks 2 tackles 100 dream team points  
Jack Hutchins 1 goals 9 kicks 3 handballs 12 disposals 10 marks 1 tackles 70 dream team points  
James Jordon 8 kicks 3 handballs 11 disposals 2 marks 1 tackle 49 dream team points  
Declan Keilty 8 kicks 5 handballs 13 disposals 8 marks 1 tackle 1 hit out 60 dream team points    
Jay Lockhart 1 behind 6 kicks 3 handballs 9 disposals 3 marks 1 tackle 39 dream team points  
Nick Lowden 2 kicks 4 handballs 6 disposals 1 mark 1 tackles 18 dream team points  
Corey Maynard 6 kicks 6 handballs 12 disposals 2 marks 3 tackles 42 dream team points  
James Munro 11 kicks 11 handballs 22 disposals 9 marks 9 tackles 119 dream team points  
Alex Neal-Bullen 2 goals 8 kicks 7 handballs 15 disposals 3 marks 5 tackles 77 dream team points  
Braydon Preuss 16 kicks 3 handballs 19 disposals 5 marks 2 tackles 75 hit outs 149 dream team points  
Charlie Spargo 7 kicks 7 handballs 14 disposals 1 mark 3 tackles 47 dream team points  
Cory Stockdale 7 kicks 2 handballs 9 disposals 3 marks 5 tackles 51 dream team points  
Billy Stretch 10 kicks 8 handballs 18 disposals 2 marks 1 tackles 53 dream team points  
Luke Tynan 13 kicks 8 handballs 21 disposals 5 marks 3 tackles 80 dream team points  
Josh Wagner 2 goals 20 kicks 2 handballs 22 disposals 7 marks 4 tackles 101 dream team points 
Liam Wale-Buxton 1 behind 5 kicks 2 handballs 7 disposals 3 marks 2 tackles 13 hit outs 50 dream team points 
Mitch White 1 goal 2 behinds 10 kicks 1 handballs 11 disposals 5 marks 2 tackles 64 dream team points