HELP by KC rom Casey

The Casey Demons finished off their home and away season against Frankston at Skybus Stadium on Sunday with a narrow, unconvincing 6-point victory that left the door slightly open for a top eight berth when the VFL finals begin in a fortnight’s time.

While sunny skies prevailed over Frankston in the morning, the skies became overcast by noon and heavy waves pounded the bay nearby as the rains came in to greet the players as the game started. And conditions stayed dark and dreary for the remainder of the day as the rain lashed the ground making the spectacle as poor an advertisement for football as you can get leaving one to believe that the Demons certainly need some more help from above if their season is to remain alive.

The game epitomised all what has become of the Demons’ season. Injuries again left the team with less than double figure numbers of AFL listed players and those who took part kicked no goals and nine behinds in an afternoon of wasted opportunities and ended in near defeat as the fast-finishing Dolphins side almost reeled them in during the latter stages of the final quarter of an otherwise dreary low scoring affair.

The Casey Demons started brightly with Brayden Preuss once again dominating the hit out count and were seemingly in complete control of the game for much of the opening term. Mitch White booted the opening goal at the two minute mark and by 10 minutes in Jack Hutchins kicked the second to make it 2.2.14 to nothing. Incredibly, Casey kicked half its goals in that period and it still managed to win despite kicking only two goals for the rest of the game.

You can certainly put that down to the conditions but, sad to say, it appeared that too many players were going through the motions, tired and incapable of lifting, even when their season was on the line.

The exceptions were Preuss who once again excelled at this level and amassed an amazing 23 kicks, 8 tackles and 63 hit outs in a brute of a performance which along with the indefatigable Jimmy Munro (28 possessions and 10 tackles) willed their team across the line.

A few others like Josh Wagner, Hutchins and skipper Mitch White worked hard but there was certainly nothing in this performance to indicate that the Demons are capable of making inroads should the Magpies do them the unlikely favour and give them some help by disposing of the Hawks at Box Hill City Oval next Saturday.

2019 Hard Yakka / Totally Workwear VFL

Casey Demons 2.6.18 3.8.26 4.13.37 4.14.38

Frankston 0.2.2 3.3.21 3.4.22 4.8.32

Goals 

Casey Demons Hutchins 2 Wale-Buxton White 

Best

Casey Demons Preuss Munro Hutchins Tynan Lockhart White

Statistics 

Oskar Baker 6 kicks 7 handballs 13 disposals 3 marks 3 tackles 60 dream team points  
Toby Bedford 6 kicks 4 handballs 10 disposals 1 mark 6 tackles 49 dream team points
Austin Bradtke 2 kicks 2 disposals 1 mark 1 hit outs 10 dream team points    
Dylan Collis 6 kicks 3 handballs 9 disposals 4 tackles 40 dream team points  
Wayne Collis 3 kicks 1 handballs 4 disposals 1 mark 2 tackles 13 dream team points
Tom Freeman 9 kicks 1 handballs 10 disposals 2 marks 2 tackles 44 dream team points  
Matt Gahan 3 kicks 3 handballs 6 disposals 1 mark 1 tackles 42 dream team points 
Mitch Gent 5 kicks 3 handballs 8 disposals 2 tackles 29 dream team points
Jayden Hunt 12 kicks 2 handballs 14 disposals 3 marks 6 tackles 69 dream team points
Jack Hutchins 2 goals 2 behinds 10 kicks 3 handballs 13 disposals 4 marks 5 tackles 83 dream team points  
James Jordon 1 behind 10 kicks 9 handballs 19 disposals 4 tackles 66 dream team points  
Declan Keilty 3 kicks 2 handballs 5 disposals 2 marks 2 tackles 22 dream team points    
Mitch Lewis 6 kicks 5 handballs 11 disposals 2 marks 4 tackles 51 dream team points
Jay Lockhart 3 behinds 12 kicks 7 handballs 19 disposals 1 mark 4 tackles 92 dream team points  
Nick Lowden 4 kicks 5 handballs 9 disposals 3 marks 9 tackles 61 dream team points  
Ariek Lual 6 kicks 2 handballs 8 disposals 3 marks 1 tackle 32 dream team points
James Munro 1 behind 11 kicks 17 handballs 28 disposals 2 marks 10 tackles 115 dream team points  
Braydon Preuss 5 behinds 23 kicks 23 disposals 5 marks 8 tackles 63 hit outs 187 dream team points  
Cory Stockdale 3 kicks 5 handballs 8 disposals 2 tackles 24 dream team points  
Luke Tynan 8 kicks 4 handballs 12 disposals 2 marks 4 tackles 55 dream team points  
Josh Wagner 1 behind 10 kicks 9 handballs 19 disposals 1 mark 5 tackles 73 dream team points 
Liam Wale-Buxton 1 goal 2 kicks 2 handballs 4 disposals 2 marks 6 tackles 11 hit outs 67 dream team points 
Mitch White 1 goal 1 behind 12 kicks 6 handballs 18 disposals 5 marks 9 tackles 98 dream team points