TESTAMENT by KC from Casey

At twenty-four minutes into the third term of the game between the Casey Demons and Footscray VFL at Whitten Oval, the visitors were coasting. They were winning all over the ground, had the ascendancy in the ruck battles and held a 26 point lead on a day perfect for football. What could go wrong?

Everything.

The Bulldogs moved into overdrive in the last five minutes of the term and booted three straight goals to reduce the margin to a highly retrievable eight points at the last break.

Bouyed by that effort, their confidence was on a high level during the interval and they ran all over the despondent Demons and kicked another five goals to lead by a comfortable margin of four goals deep into the final term before Paddy Cross kicked a couple of too late goals for a despondent Casey. A testament to their lack of pressure in the latter stages of the game was the fact that Footscray’s last ten scoring shots were nine goals and one rushed behind.

Things might have been different for the Demons who went into the game after last week’s bye with 12 AFL listed players. Blake Howes was held over for the AFL game but two others, Jack Billings and Taj Woewodin (not officially listed as injured) were also missing and they could have been handy at the end. Another mystery of the current VFL system.

Casey’s VFL contingent served the team well with Riley Baldi (25 touches), Mitch Hardie (24), Riley Bonner (20) and, Lachlan Bryce (19) were all prominent while the team was in the ascendancy and Cross contributed three of the team’s nine goals for the day.

The rucks of Tom Campbell and his understudy Will Verrall were dominant for most of the game winning 41 and 14 hitouts respectively, the former finishing up with 21 possessions and  10 clearances. Verrall also had 12 disposals.

Casey’s best was Bailey Laurie who had 27 disposals to go with his six clearances while Kynan Brown’s performance also pressed his claim for an AFL return with his 25 possessions, seven clearances and ten tackles.

Forwards Tom Fullarton and Aidan Johnson contributed three and two goals respectively. Johnson’s former Werribee teammate Jack Henderson was effective with 23 disposals and Oliver Sestan continued to show his improvement, as did defenders Jed Adams and Luker Kentfield while Jai Culley also had his moments.

The Demons return to Casey Fields next Saturday where they take on 2024 grand finalists, the Southport Sharks in what should be another tough battle.

CASEY DEMONS 1.3.9 3.5.23 7.8.50 9.8.62

FOOTSCRAY VFL 2.2.14 3.6.24 6.6.42 12.8.80

GOALS

CASEY DEMONS Cross Fullarton 3 Johnson 2 Hardie

FOOTSCRAY VFL Hargraves 4 Kennedy 3 Crofts 2 Lewis Orgill Smith

BEST

CASEY DEMONS Laurie Campbell Henderson Cross Kentfield Sestan

FOOTSCRAY VFL Duryea Smith Crofts Gardner Scott Jones