ON THE RAMPAGE by KC from Casey

[Demonland 73,106]

The Casey Demons had it easy on a windy day under sunny skies at the home of the VFL Kangaroos at Arden Street on Sunday. They caught the hapless Roos who were badly depleted by injury on the hop and disposed of them with little trouble. It was the second time in consecutive seasons that Casey inflicted a 100 plus points defeat on the Roos who had no answers for an opponent on the rampage.

When the game started, Casey was without three important forward line components in Mitch Brown, Kade Chandler and Jake Melksham who were all in Perth with the Melbourne team. In the reshuffle caused by the three late changes came VFL-listers Jake Bell, Tyler Edwards and Roan Steele, all with roles to play in coach Mark Corrigan’s plan for the ladder leaders. 

They might have been down to 13 AFL-listed players with depleted forward line strength on paper, but it didn’t matter as they scored at will throughout the day including a nine goal third quarter blitz that made the Kangaroos look like road kill. 

After a brief lapse inside the first minute, it was clear that the Demons’ twin key tall forwards were going to prove a handful for the home team. WA recruit Jacob Van Rooyen has been threatening a break out game for a few weeks and this was the day. He fed the ball out to Luke Dunstan for the team’s first goal and, soon after, capped it off with his second. Then Weideman clunked a great mark to score his first and what followed was a race between the two for top goal kicker on the day that ended in a dead heat on six apiece. It was a masterclass in key forward play with both kicking goals from great ground play and strong marking. One wonders how they could have worked in Mitch Brown who was across the Nullarbor.

It wasn’t all the work of the twin towers either. Dunstan suffered from leather poisoning in the middle and kicked three goals to go with his 31 disposals. Toby Bedford took time off from his professional medical sub duties at Melbourne to showcase his pace and new maturity gained from his proximity to the A Team this year. He also kicked a couple of nice goals. Bailey Laurie is coming on in leaps and bounds as well and his four second half goals would have pleased Jason Taylor and his recruiting team. Taj Woewodin showed some glimpses of a future in the big time on his return from a fortnight out with concussion. 

Majak Daw also returned to the team with a strong performance in the ruck and he was very capably assisted by Jake Bell who played his best game yet at the club. Casey was also well served by skipper Mitch White, the ever-reliable Jimmy Munro and defender Matt Buntine who booted his first goal, courtesy of a 50 metre penalty. Likewise, George Grey was full of sparkle as the team ran riot and served notice to all and sundry that it was determined to hold tightly onto its top of the ladder status.

In a strange quirk of fixturing, both sides have a bye next week while their AFL counterparts will be slugging it out at Marvel Stadium. Surely they could have had their byes this week and played before that game?

CASEY DEMONS 5.7.37 11.12.78 20.17.137 26.21.177 

NORTH MELBOURNE VFL 2.2.14 5.3.33 7.4.46  10.7.67

Goals

Casey Demons Van Rooyen Weideman 6 Laurie 4 Dunstan 3 Bedford 2 Buntine Grey Turner White Woewodin 

North Melbourne VFL Walker Mitchell-Russell 2 Dib Dick Hore Jones

Best 

Casey Demons Dunstan Van Rooyen Weideman Daw Grey Bedford White Munro Laurie

North Melbourne VFL Hore Jones Tyson Smith Watkins Guthrie

Statistics 

Oskar Baker 1 behind 17 kicks 3 handballs 20 disposals 8 marks 3 tackles 94 dream team points
Riley Baldi 2 kicks 6 handballs 8 disposals 3 marks 3 tackles 33 dream team points
Toby Bedford 2 goals 2 behinds 13 kicks 11 handballs 24 disposals 3 marks 5 tackles 101 dream team points
Jake Bell 4 kicks 10 handballs 14 disposals 3 marks 3 tackles 26 hit outs 74 dream team points
Matt Buntine 1 goal 1 behind 9 kicks 5 handballs 14 disposals 2 marks 1 tackle 55 dream team points
Majak Daw 1 behind 10 kicks 4 handballs 14 disposals 7 marks 3 tackles 44 hit outs 117 dream team points
Luke Dunstan 3 goals 1 behind 18 kicks 13 handballs 31 disposals 2 marks 1 tackle 112 dream team points
Tyler Edwards 5 kicks 7 handballs 12 disposals 1 marks 2 tackles 40 dream team points
Corey Ellison 5 kicks 2 handballs 7 disposals 3 marks 28 dream team points
George Grey  1 goal 2 behinds 11 kicks 8 handballs 19 disposals 3 marks 6 tackles 88 dream team points
Bailey Laurie 4 goals 1 behind 10 kicks 6 handballs 16 disposals 4 marks 2 tackles 85 dream team points
Tom Macrae 4 kicks 4 handballs 8 disposals 2 marks 26 dream team points
Judd McVee 3 kicks 1 handballs 4 disposals 2 tackles 16 dream team points
James Munro 1 behind 8 kicks 18 handballs 26 disposals 2 marks 4 tackles 78 dream team points
Fraser Rosman 7 kicks 3 handballs 10 disposals 2 marks 1 tackle 37 dream team points
Deakyn Smith 8 kicks 5 handballs 13 disposals 5 marks 3 tackles 62 dream team points
Roan Steele 3 behinds 9 kicks 7 handballs 16 disposals 1 mark 2 tackles 56 dream team points
Adam Tomlinson 20 kicks 7 handballs 27 disposals 6 marks 2 tackles 97 dream team points
Daniel Turner 1 goals 5 kicks 5 handballs 10 disposals 2 marks 1 tackle 42 dream team points
Jacob Van Rooyen 6 goals 2 behinds 10 kicks  12 handballs 22 disposals 6 marks 2 tackles 116 dream team points
Sam Weideman 6 goals 2 behinds 12 kicks 7 handballs 19 disposals 6 marks 1 tackle 1 hit out 113 dream team points
Mitch White 1 goal 1 behind 16 kicks 11 handballs 27 disposals 2 marks 2 tackles 92 dream team points
Taj Woewodin 1 goal 1 behind 12 kicks 6 handballs 18 disposals 7 marks 3 tackles 82 dream team points