CLEAN HANDS by KC from Casey

The Casey Demons headed into town and up Sydney Road to take on the lowly Coburg Lions who have been perennial VFL easy beats and sitting on one win for the season. Last year, Casey beat them in a practice match when resting their AFL listed players. That’s how bad they were.

Nobody respected them on Saturday and clearly not the Demons who came to the game with 22 players (ten MFC), but whether they came out to play is another matter because for the most part, their intensity was lacking and not many wanted to get their hands dirty. They allowed a rag tag bunch of unknowns, many of them suburban players, to overrun them and dominate proceedings after the first half hour of play with a final result, a 26 point defeat, flattering to them.

Sometimes a game of football where one team has the upper hand early and the other takes over control is called “a game of two halves”. In this instance, for the Casey Demons, it was a game of one quarter - the first. They appeared to come out firing and doubled Coburg’s score in the first quarter but even that was an illusion because they had the advantage of the early breeze.

For the Demons, at least Matt Jefferson with two goals continued on from an encouraging game last week with a couple of goals in the opening term. Mitch White led from the front and Koltyn Tholstrop and Andy Moniz-Wakefield showed a bit.

After that, it was a one way street with the home side running rings around them in the second quarter booting seven goals to one. You could tell how the enthusiastic Lions from Coburg went into the rooms at half time compared to the way their dejected opponents trudged off that it was already all over.

And so it was, although the home team only extended its lead by a mere four points in the second half.

The Demons were beaten in the ruck, at the stoppages and around the ground. Their skills were appalling at times. White stood out and did his best and he had some good lieutenants in Edwards, Neocleous and Steele. Blake Howes picked up a lot of possessions but he was always under the pump while Jed Adams and Bailey Laurie worked hard all day. Too many players came out of the game with clean hands and, unlike last week, it can’t even be said that it was a gallant defeat.

CASEY DEMONS 4.6.30 5.8.38 9.9.63 12.10.82

COBURG 2.3.15 9.6.60 14.6.90 16.12.108

GOALS

CASEY DEMONS Fullarton Jefferson Lewis Neocleous 2 Moodie Sestan Szybkowski Tholstrop 

COBURG Weightman 3 Gentile 2 Bromell Coriliano Dammersmith D’Intinosante Gillard Serong Thomas Walker 

BEST

CASEY DEMONS White Adams Laurie Neocleous Steele Edwards

COBURG Gentile Rigoni Weightman Podhajaski Bromell Trudgeon 

Statistics 

Jed Adams 7 kicks 4 handballs 11 disposals 7 marks 2 tackles 55 dream team points
Kynan Brown 7 kicks 4 handballs 11 disposals 2 marks 5 tackles 52 dream team points
Tyler Edwards 2 behinds 9 kicks 8 handballs 17 disposals 3 marks 2 tackles 58 dream team points
Tom Freeman 6 kicks 3 handballs 9 disposals 3 marks 2 tackles 36 dream team points
Tom Fullarton 2 goals 1 behind 11 kicks 8 handballs 19 disposals 4 marks 1 tackle 18 hitouts 89 dream team points
Max Gregory 7 kicks 8 handballs 15 disposals 4 marks 5 tackles 53 dream team points
Blake Howes 24 kicks 8 handballs 32 disposals 9 marks 3 tackles 129 dream team points
Matt Jefferson 2 goals 2 behinds 8 kicks 1 handballs 9 disposals 3 marks 2 tackles 59 dream team points
Brayden LaPlanche 2 kicks 5 handballs 7 disposals 1 mark 3 tackles 31 dream team points
Bailey Laurie 1 behind 16 kicks 11 handballs 27 disposals 4 marks 4 tackles 100 dream team points
Caleb Lewis 2 goals 1 behind 2 kicks 1 handball 3 disposals 3 tackles 34 dream team points
Andy Moniz-Wakefield 14 kicks 15 handballs 29 disposals 7 marks 3 tackles 105 dream team points
Ned Moodie 1 goal 8 kicks 6 handballs 14 disposals 5 marks 59 dream team points
Harvey Neocleous 2 goals 9 kicks 5 handballs 14 disposals 4 marks 5 tackles 82 dream team points
Ollie Sestan 1 goal 6 kicks 6 handballs 12 disposals 3 marks 2 tackles 48 dream team points
Roan Steele 12 kicks 4 handballs 16 disposals 3 marks 1 tackle 57 dream team points
Mitch Szybkowski 1 goal 4 kicks 11 handballs 15 disposals 3 marks 5 tackles 67 dream team points
Koltyn Tholstrup 1 goal 1 behind 15 kicks 6 handballs 21 disposals 6 marks 9 tackles 114 dream team points
Ryan Valentine 2 kicks 5 handballs 7 disposals 2 marks 3 tackles 31 dream team points
Will Verrall 7 kicks 2 handballs 9 disposals 4 marks 1 tackle 18 hitouts 57 dream team points
Mitch White 2 behinds 19 kicks 12 handballs 31 disposals 9 marks 4 tackles 124 dream team points
Kai Windsor 1 kicks 3 handballs 4 disposals 1 marks 2 tackles 20 dream team points