This was a weekend of history with Anzac Day commemorations throughout the community including the sporting world including the VFL. For the Casey Demons, which originated from the Springvale Football Club founded in 1903, it was a double celebration as Saturday’s game was a celebration of the club’s 750th VFA/VFL match since admission to the competition in 1982.
Springvale became the Casey Scorpions in 2005 when the club moved to Casey Fields and since 2017 has been known as the Casey Demons in line with its AFL affiliate. This is how the modern version of an old club found itself braving wild and woolly conditions at the old Punt Road Oval (now known as the Swinburne Centre) on the afternoon of Anzac Day Eve.
The Casey Demons were taking on the reigning VFL premier (from 2019) Richmond, in a game that was expected to be tight and close all day and it certainly looked like it was going to turn out that way in the early going when the home side did most of the early attacking and kicked the first goal .
However, after ten minutes the Demons steadied. Ben Brown booted their first and a steady stream of goals came. Thereafter, it was never really a contest and by the end of the game, Brown had increased his tally of goals to four and fellow key forward Sam Weideman had booted three to add to their claims for promotion into an AFL side that’s proving most difficult to break into. Between them, the pair took 13 marks despite the conditions which made marking difficult.
A three goal lead at quarter time was turned with ease into 33 points at the main break and, despite the wet conditions, Casey’s dominance was maintained throughout the game.
It was an even team performance led in the ruck by Majak Daw who was recruited in March to bolster Melbourne’s ruck and key forward stocks. Their first draft selection Jake Bowey, playing his second game was also outstanding with 26 touches and Oskar Baker was busy on a wing with 24 disposals. Neville Jetta showed that his career is not yet over. He showed his experience in marshalling the defence and was exceptional with his work rate in the conditions.
Of the team’s VFL listed players, veteran Jimmy Munro had a day out with ten tackles to go with his 21 touches while former Sydney Swan impressed with a solid performance that included a handy goal when the going was tough in the opening quarter.
It was a comprehensive victory to the Casey Demons who broke a 10 game Richmond winning streak that stretched back to the middle of 2019. The game highlighted the Melbourne Football Club’s depth this season with only dampener being an apparent shoulder injury to Harry Petty.
Casey sits in second spot behind Footscray in a not dissimilar formation to the AFL. It’s next game is on Thursday night in a televised Foxtel game against cellar dwellers North Melbourne under cover at Marvel Stadium.
2021 VFL Mens
Casey Demons 5.4.34 8.8.56 11.14.80 13.18.96
Richmond VFL 2.4.16 3.5.23 4.5.29 5.7.37
Goals
Casey Demons Brown 4 Weideman 3 White 2 Bradtke Foot MacHaya Munro
Richmond VFL Chol 2 Coleman-Jones Ryan Stack
Best
Casey Demons Daw Bowey Munro Foot Brown Baker
Richmond VFL Coleman-Jones Naish Stack Martyn Chol Collier-Dawkins
Statistics
Riley Baldi 4 kicks 2 handballs 6 disposals 2 marks 2 tackles 31 dream team points
Oskar Baker 1 behind 18 kicks 6 handballs 24 disposals 5 marks 2 tackles 90 dream team points
Toby Bedford 3 behinds 12 kicks 7 handballs 19 disposals 5 marks 6 tackles 94 dream team points
Jake Bowey 14 kicks 12 handballs 26 disposals 5 marks 81 dream team points
Aaron Bradtke 1 goal 5 kicks 3 handballs 8 disposals 1 mark 1 tackle 8 hit outs 43 dream team points
Ben Brown 4 goals 2 behinds 10 kicks 2 handballs 12 disposals 5 marks 3 tackles 2 hit outs 87 dream team points
Majak Daw 3 behinds 13 kicks 5 handballs 18 disposals 7 marks 6 tackles 32 hit outs 126 dream team points
Zac Foot 1 goal 13 kicks 7 handballs 20 disposals 5 marks 3 tackles 85 dream team points
Tom Freeman 7 kicks 1 handballs 8 disposals 4 marks 1 tackle 41 dream team points
George Grey 10 kicks 3 handballs 13 disposals 5 marks 5 tackles 71 dream team points
Jack Hutchins 1 behind 7 kicks 2 handballs 9 disposals 3 marks 1 tackle 38 dream team points
Neville Jetta 16 kicks 7 handballs 23 disposals 6 marks 80 dream team points
Tom McCaffrey 13 kicks 2 handballs 15 disposals 8 marks 68 dream team points
Cory Machaya 1 goal 8 kicks 2 handballs 10 disposals 3 marks 44 dream team points
James Munro 1 goal 1 behind 12 kicks 9 handballs 21 disposals 2 marks 10 tackles 107 dream team points
Harrison Petty 8 kicks 1 handball 9 disposals 5 marks 1 tackle 40 dream team points
Fraser Rosman 4 kicks 3 handballs 7 disposals 1 mark 21 dream team points
Deakyn Smith 7 kicks 8 handballs 15 disposals 2 marks 1 tackle 49 dream team points
Ryan Sparkes 7 kicks 5 handballs 12 disposals 2 marks 5 tackles 54 dream team points
Tom Sparrow 1 behind 11 kicks 7 handballs 18 disposals 5 marks 1 tackle 62 dream team points
Sam Weideman 3 goals 2 behinds 9 kicks 4 handballs 13 disposals 8 marks 1 tackle 82 dream team points
Mitch White 2 goals 1 behind 13 kicks 6 handballs 19 disposals 3 marks 1 tackle 79 dream team points
