The Southport Sharks came to Casey. They saw and they conquered a team with 16 AFL-listed players who, for the most part, wasted their time on the ground and failed to earn their keep.

For the first half, the Sharks were kept in the game by the Demons’ poor use of the football, it’s disposal getting worse the closer the team got to its own goal and moreover, it got worse as the game progressed.

Make no mistake, Casey was far and away the better team in the first half, it was winning the ruck duels through Tom Campbell’s solid performance but it was the scoreboard that told the story.

Even in the first quarter, it was 3 goals 5 behinds to 3 goals 2 with Southport’s last goal coming at siren time to give them a sniff. By half time, it was a wasteful 13 scoring shots to 8 for a five point lead.

Things only worsened in what they call the premiership quarter which opened with three consecutive behinds to the home side in the first two minutes before the visitors took the lead with two quick goals and the rest is history. At three quarter time, the score was Casey 4.17.41 to 9.7.61, a lead of 20 points to Southport despite having far less scoring chances.

At least, the comedy of errors in kicking for goals was over for the Demons but so was the game as they managed two straight meaningless goals in the final quarter with the game inevitably slipping further and further away. Imagine how the Southport coach laughed all the way to the airport as he banked his team’s 41 point victory.

The plus for the Demons was Jake Lever’s successful return from his ankle injury with 17 disposals and eight marks in managed time. Not surprisingly, when he was off the ground, the team literally fell apart. Whilst on the ground, he gave Jed Adams, Blake Howes, Luker Kentfield and Ollie Sestan the benefit of his experience in defence with Howes the best of that bunch with 30 touches and 13 marks. Sestan continues to improve.

Melbourne dropped three players from its loss last week to Hawthorn — Jacob van Rooyen, Matt Jefferson and Koltyn Tholstrup. They all disappointed with their poor disposal and effort. We can expect to see them back in the VFL next week.

Tom Campbell beat his opponent in the ruck with Will Verrall provided some solid support. Kynan Brown with his 19 disposals and seven tackles was a strong contributor along with Jack Billings (20 touches) and Taj Woewodin who worked hard for his 22 disposals.

Mitch Hardie and Riley Bonner with 28 and 26 possessions respectively were the best of the Casey listed players. Paddy Cross kicked two goals, one of them was a ripper.

The game however, was a calamity for the Casey Demons. While their VFL list is so much better this year, they are not getting enough from their Melbourne listers and it’s difficult to gauge performance on possessions won when so many of these are wasted through errant disposal and poor decision making.

CASEY DEMONS 3.5.23 4.9.33 4.17.41 6.17.53

SOUTHPORT 3.2.20 4.4.28 9.7.61 14.10.94

GOALS

CASEY DEMONS Cross 2 Hardie Jefferson Tholstrup van Rooyen

SOUTHPORT Dixon 3 Buzza Crossley Hayes 2 Foot Hay Rowe Sexton Woodcock

BEST

CASEY DEMONS Hardie Howes Billings Brown Smith Bonner

SOUTHPORT Foot Joyce Manteit Pescud Crossley Dawson

Nailed it with an insightful and thorough wrap up. A number of blokes on the payroll need to pull their socks up and show some pride in the jumper.

Edited May 18, 2025May 18 by Tarax Club

6 minutes ago, Tarax Club said:

Nailed it with an insightful and thorough wrap up. A number of blokes on the payroll need to pull their socks up and show some pride in the jumper.

It's difficult to pull up your socks when you don't have any on TC.

2 minutes ago, old dee said:

It's difficult to pull up your socks when you don't have any on TC.

Didn’t know budget austerity was going quite that deep OD.