BROKEN by KC from Casey

The late-season run of Casey wins was broken in their first semifinal against Frankston in a heartbreaking end at Kinetic Stadium on Saturday night that in many respects reflected their entire season .

When they were bad, they committed all of the football transgressions, including poor disposal, indiscipline, an inability to exert pressure, and some terrible decision-making, as exemplified by the period in the game when they conceded nine unanswered goals from early in the second quarter until halfway through the third term. You rarely win when you do this.

When they were good, they formed an exciting combination, capable of playing thrilling, winning football.

On this occasion, however, the Demons were unable to demonstrate enough of the latter, and although they mounted a comeback to trail by less than a goal in the game's final moments, they were unable to secure victory and advance to a preliminary final playoff.

The game opened as an armwrestle with Casey settling down to hold a six-point lead at the first break. The Dolphins were coming off a thrashing in their qualifying final and looked to be more motivated than they were last week against the top-of-the-ladder Bulldogs. However, when the quick thinking Jai Culley got boot to ball and slotted the first goal of the second term, the Demons looked to be on their way.

However, it was not to be and the game changed dramatically. Things turned around quickly with the Dolphins exerting their dominance over the game. It seemed as if they could not miss in front of goal as their purple patch saw them skipping away to a seven goal lead by halfway through the third quarter.

And while Casey turned the tide and nearly won in the end, Frankston’s second half haul of eight goals from nine scoring shots was decisive.

There was talk in the crowd that some of the 15 Melbourne-listed players had already been notified that they were not on the required list for 2026. If this is true, then it was a poor move by the club because it appeared that a number of players were particularly uninterested on the night.

One of those who did play his heart out was former West Coast Eagle Culley who finished with 19 disposals, five marks and three timely goals. Tom Campbell was also strong both in the ruck where he amassed 47 hitouts and around the ground with 23 touches including nine clearances and four marks. The main beneficiaries of his prowess were Bailey Laurie with 29 disposals, six clearances and a goal and Jack Billings (26 touches) and Koltyn Tholstrup also had his moments.

Mitch Hardie was a strong contributor in the comeback up forward with his three goals while Riley Bonner and Riley Baldi were solid contributors on the night.

Unfortunately, there were too few who matched the desperation of the home team and there were far too many defensive failures to enable the team to proceed into next week. The free kick count of 23 to 12 in favour of the home side was also telling as was the poor conversion near goal.

A testament to Frankston’s accuracy for goal is that they went inside 50 on 45 occasions for their 16 goals. Casey had 15 more entries for their 13 goals … and sadly, that is in many ways the story of the two Demon outfits in 2025.

CASEY DEMONS 3.2.20 4.5.29 8.9.57 13.12.90

FRANKSTON 2.2.14 8.4.52 13.5.83 16.5.101

GOALS

CASEY DEMONS Culley Hardie 3 Kentfield 2 Cross Laurie Tholstrup  Yze

FRANKSTON Ellison Mynott 4 Jones 2 Blamires Grant Hamill Hipwell Johnson

BEST

CASEY DEMONS Laurie Culley Johnson Hardie Baldi Campbell

FRANKSTON Hipwell Voss Blamires Lloyd Ellison Barlow