Demonland

If the publicity ahead of Queens Birthday Monday was all about the Big Freeze and the game to follow the pre-game entertainment then the hardy group that braved the country’s cold snap to travel out to the windy plains beyond Cranbourne were given an early taste of what was to come in the Casey's big 52-point win over Collingwood VFL. The day started well with the Demons comprehensively beating the VFLW Magpies in the curtain-raiser elimination final and then their male counterparts donned the traditional Springvale heritage kit to dominate their rivals in the VFL match. With Melbourne holding back three players for emergency duties (Baker, Chandler and Tomlinson), Casey was left with 11 AFL-listed players but the VFL boys blended perfectly with them in what was a dominant display in the wild, woolly and freezing conditions. They were out of the blocks quickly in a 6 goal to nil opening term with the young and the old of Casey featuring. Youngster Roan Steele from Frankston YCW started things off with a left foot snap followed by Jimmy Munro’s long 50 metre goal. A couple of Casey talls in Jack Bell and Josh Smith chipped in among a great soccer goal from dangerous young Demon Jacob Van Rooyen and nippy forward Andy Moniz-Wakefield. A feature of the first quarter was Casey's deadly accuracy in front of goals. When the teams changed ends, Collingwood rallied briefly with the wind and were competitive for a while but the avalanche continued with more individual goals from Taj Woewodin, late inclusion Riley Baldi who was having a break out game, Luke Dunstan who was having a blinder and Sam Weideman who had played strongly for limited results on the scoreboard. By half time, when the rain had well and truly arrived to douse out any chance of a Magpie revival, the game was all but over. Coach Mark Corrigan would have been pleased with the fact that only one of his team’s 11 goals had come from a multiple goalkicker - Van Rooyen. The rest of the game turned into a dreary slog in the wet and when conditions moderated there was no pot of gold under the Casey rainbow for the visitors. The second half was an even arm wrestle but the Demons could be well satisfied going into the bye round undefeated and well on top. Dunstan rounded off a four quarter performance with 38 possessions, seven clearances, six tackles with solid contributions from Trent Rivers, Bailey Laurie, Taj Woewodin and Andy Moniz-Wakefield and Jayden Hunt. Toby Bedford also impressed with his strong tackling. Van Rooyen showed his versatility after kicking his two first half goals by backing up in the ruck when Josh Smith injured his meniscus. Casey’s skipper Mitch White added two goals in the gloom of the third quarter while Jimmy Munro was the perfect foil for Dunstan with 28 disposals. Jack Bell had a huge game in the ruck with 29 hit outs and 14 possessions and, as mentioned earlier Baldi produced an excellent all round game, the best of his brief VFL career. Another excellent performance came from Corey Ellison who held sway in the key defensive position in the absence of Tomlinson and Daniel Turner. In the end, it was another big, albeit early freeze for a visiting team at Casey Fields. CASEY DEMONS 6.2.38 11.3.69 13.8.86 14.10.94 COLLINGWOOD VFL 0.2.2 2.5.17 4.6.30 6.6.42 Goals Casey Demons Van Rooyen White 2 Baldi Bell Dunstan Laurie Moniz-Wakefield Munro Josh Smith Steele Weideman Woewodin Collingwood VFL Wetering 2 Fowler Hustwaite Roberts Voulanis Best Casey Demons Dunstan Baldi Bell Munro Rivers Woewodin White Collingwood VFL Brown Carmichael Poulter Bianco Tardrew Hustwaite Statistics Riley Baldi 1 goal 6 kicks 15 handballs 21 disposals 2 marks 4 tackles 1 hit outs 79 dream team points Toby Bedford 1 behind 6 kicks 6 handballs 12 disposals 4 marks 8 tackles 70 dream team points Jack Bell 1 goals 8 kicks 6 handballs 14 disposals 3 marks 4 tackles 29 hit outs 95 dream team points Matt Buntine 12 kicks 4 handballs 16 disposals 5 marks 5 tackles 79 dream team points George Churchill Grey 1 behind 10 kicks 3 handballs 13 disposals 3 marks 44 dream team points Luke Dunstan 1 goals 23 kicks 15 handballs 38 disposals 5 marks 6 tackles 138 dream team points Corey Ellison 11 kicks 4 handballs 15 disposals 3 marks 1 tackle 54 dream team points Jayden Hunt 12 kicks 4 handballs 16 disposals 3 marks 53 dream team points Bailey Laurie 1 goals 6 kicks 17 handballs 23 disposals 2 tackles 63 dream team points Tommy McRae 6 kicks 1 handball 7 disposals 3 marks 1 tackle 30 dream team points Judd McVee 3 kicks 2 handballs 5 disposals 1 mark 1 tackle 20 dream team points Bryce Milford 1 kicks 6 handballs 7 disposals 15 dream team points Andy Moniz-Wakefield 1 goal 1 behind 9 kicks 6 handballs 15 disposals 6 marks 58 dream team points James Munro 1 goals 9 kicks 19 handballs 28 disposals 1 marks 2 tackles 75 dream team points Trent Rivers 1 behind 17 kicks 4 handballs 21 disposals 8 marks 3 tackles 93 dream team points Miles Shepherd 2 kicks 4 handballs 6 disposals 1 marks 1 tackle 21 dream team points Deakyn Smith 5 kicks 4 handballs 9 disposals 3 marks 4 tackles 48 dream team points Josh Smith 1 goal 1 behind 3 kicks 1 handballs 4 disposals 3 marks 2 tackles 6 hit outs 41 dream team points Roan Steele 1 goal 10 kicks 6 handballs 16 disposals 5 marks 1 tackles 65 dream team points Jacob Van Rooyen 2 goals 8 kicks 6 handballs 14 disposals 6 marks 2 tackles 2 hit outs 67 dream team points Sam Weideman 1 goal 2 behinds 10 kicks 4 handballs 14 disposals 7 marks 1 hit out 69 dream team points Mitch White 2 goals 13 kicks 5 handballs 18 disposals 5 marks 3 tackles 82 dream team points Taj Woewodin 1 goals 10 kicks 4 handballs 14 disposals 5 marks 1 tackle 61 dream team points

Surely the AFL won’t penalise North’s only player.

Did you forget this glorious match?

That's a bigger attendance that Narrm vs North. How is that possible?

Collingwood 22 frees to 10

Getting murdered by the umps. 18 to 9 to Collingwood.

Carlton 17 frees to 6.

Essendon are putrid.

I’d love our forwards to get the same protection as Carlton forwards.

Carlton 12 frees to 5.

Carlton forwards are a protected species.

Blues killing them on the turnover.

Essendon doing their best to lose this game.

She will be an apologist for the Tigers and claim that Thursday is a school night and of course the Tigers fans aren't used to the cold because they haven't played that much at Marvel or in Tasmania.

I saw a couple of "reporters" on twitter justifying the small Tigers crowd citing Thursday (school) night and cold weather.

We are clearly a club that is in disarray. RIP.

In the past two weeks our last halves have been costly. 1.5 and 1.1 in the last two quarters in the Sydney match and 1.2 and 0.4 in the Freo Match. That’s 3 goals 12 behinds to 16 goals 9 to our opposition in the last half over the last 2 weeks. That’s 105 to 30 over 2 weeks in the 2nd half. 75 point deficit. Surely that is a worrying sign.

I'm sure the Dees will post it on their YouTube channel at some point during the day. I will post it here when it goes up. Interesting to note that not a single reporter at that press conference (over zoom) has posted anything to twitter as of the writing of this. I bet you if there was something inflammatory in the presser and not the common sense and matter of factness that Goody spoke then they would have been salivating to post about it.