KC from Casey

Two players from Rowville in the ENFL Nick Lowden and Kyle Stainthorpe are set to play with Casey when the VFL kicks off on August 1.

Paul Amy has reported that former Dandenong Stingrays premiership captain and leather-tough onballer Campbell Hustwaite has joined the Casey Demons for the shortened VFL season after an encouraging debut year with Collingwood VFL in 2019.

VFL set to launch 2020 season on August 1 with eight teams AFL Victoria told clubs today that the VFL season will proceed this year with full contact training starting on Monday July 13 with the opening round starting on Saturday August 1. No AFL-listed players will take part in the competition but the eight clubs will be Box Hill, Casey, Coburg, Frankston, Port Melbourne, Sandringham, Werribee and Williamstown.

For starters, two strong suburban leagues have folded for 2020 and one of them - the Eastern Football League is in close proximity to both Casey and Box Hill so they could supply top up players. Though we don’t know about future lists, Melbourne would be wise to encourage players with AFL potential to the fold so it could keep an eye on their development. Think Bayley Fritsch, Jay Lockhart and our old favourite Declan Keilty.

Interesting times ahead for the VFL and the traditionalists will be hoping the competition can survive. What makes it more problematic is the fact that there are so many unknowns about the future of second and third tier football with so much unresolved such as AFL list sizes, what happens to the northern clubs and the NEAFL and even the NAB Under 18 competition.

Radford excited by Casey Demons youth

Another setback in the preparation for the season ahead as several MFC listed players were expected to take part.

I couldn’t make the game but there’s one next week v Port Melbourne. The sad and sorry details from today are - Casey Demons 0.3.3 0.9.9 0.10.10 2.12 (24) Box Hill Hawks 3.2.20 5.3.33 7.7.49 11.7 (73) Goals Casey Demons Rivers C Wagner Box Hill Hawks Ross 4 Bowman Jeka 2 Cucinotta Day Reeves

These are the players who were on the list I have been provided:- (48) Jaxon Briggs — talented small forward with loads of pace. In his fourth season at Casey he played 9 games for the club but showed plenty of improvement in 2019. (35) Andrew Courtney — an 18 year old athletic 201cm ruckman/forward out of the Sandringham Dragons via St Bedes who, like many big men of his size, needs to work on his skill set in senior ranks. At last year’s Draft Combine he produced a 94cm running vertical jump, an 81cm standing vertical jump and clocked a three-second flat 20m sprint. (44) Corey Ellison — 19 year old, 189cm, 85kg defender from Dandenong Stingrays. (35) Mitch Lewis — plagued by injuries in his time at Casey but has shown plenty of class in between knee and ankle injuries and concussions. The classy flanker who can play at both ends was restricted to 8 games last season. He has elite running ability (runs 2km in six minutes) and was considered an outside chance for selection in last year’s mid season draft. (17) Tom McCaffrey — the 25 year old midfielder enters his third season with Casey after playing with the Wondonga Raiders in the Ovens & Murray Football League. He played 3 games with Casey in 2019. (16) James “Jimmy” Munro — an inspirational, hard tackling veteran, Munro has been a source of constant drive for Casey since transferring from Sandringham. Averaged 21.3 disposals and almost nine tackles from his 18 games last season. (27) Ryan Sparkes — 18 year old, 185cm, 82kg winger from Gippsland Power also played for Vic Country last year. He works hard, is super competitive, runs all day and takes the game on. (30) Anthony Vella — the left footer transferred from Port Melbourne last year but was injured and restricted to only five games in 2019.

The Casey Demons will have a practice match on Saturday 14th March 2020 at 11.30am at Casey Fields against Port Melbourne. That game takes place in the weekend before the start of the season when there are no AFL games played and will give the opportunity to players who have had injury-interrupted pre seasons and are racing against time to get match fit for round 1.

As far as I’m aware the rule change is - • VFL clubs will have a development list introduced, made up of 19-year-old players. • All clubs will be required to play 23 players per match, which will include 1 x 19-year-old development player and 1 x under-21 player (i.e traditional 23rd player).

I don’t think Smith is tall enough to play in the ruck. However, he did show in his Under 18 games for Vic Country that he has the makings of a solid KPF. I don’t know enough about Courtney. However, I will add that height is a definite asset at VFL level. It wasn’t all that long ago that Casey had a young tall by the name of Oscar McInerney who was borderline seniors/development league. Now he’s a regular with the Brisbane Lions.

Andrew Courtney, a 201cm ruckman/forward from the Sandringham Dragons has signed with the Casey Demons. AFL Draft Central He joins another ruckman/forward in 195cm Josh Smith (Gippsland Power & Vic Country), 185cm utility, Ryan Sparkes and 190cm defender Tye Hourigan, both also from Gippsland Power.

Not sure. I haven’t been out there during the cricket season. I will try to check.

Leslie’s currently in discussion with Williamstown.

Paul Amy has tweeted that the Casey Demons have made three good signings from Gippsland Power — Josh Smith, Tye Hourigan and Ryan Sparkes. The Demons are keen to nab a fourth Power graduate in midfielder Riley Baldi who was on the fringe of getting drafted.

Paul Amy tweeting that “Lachlan Lamble training well at Casey under his former school teacher, Demons VFL coach Sammy Radford. Lamble won the St Bede’s College best and fairest this year in a team that won the Herald Sun Shield for the first time.“

The Casey Demons are also chasing the signature of former Gold Coast Sun Jack Leslie who was surprisingly delisted at the end of the season. Leslie played some impressive games in defence and I wouldn’t rule out a future return to AFL. Post script: More on Mutimer here - VFL: Casey makes key signings Dandenong Stingrays players Jarryd Barker and Corey Ellison are also training at Casey.

No doubt there’s a lot of work going on in the background but very little of a concrete nature will come out until after all of the drafts.

The delisted free agent trading period part 1 ends tomorrow and so far about four players found new homes in basically one day and then - nothing apart from one or two suggestions that have yet to materialize. So what next?

Tom Freeman’s brother James who has been with Casey for four years, mainly on the fringes, has crossed over to Sandringham.

Not Casey but he will stay in the colours with Southern Football League Club Bentleigh known as the Demons.

Congratulations to Jimmy Munro who won the Casey b & f with Corey Wagner the runner up and Jack Hutchins third.

Journalist Paul Amy is reporting on Twitter that Declan is a “man in demand” and Casey officials are “keen for him to stay a VFL Demon.”

Werribee’s Thomas Gribble was the runaway winner of the JJ Liston Trophy polling 25 votes - eight more than Footscray VFL youngster Rhylee West with Thomas Campbell of North Melbourne VFL coming in third on 15 votes. The leading vote getter for the Casey Demons was Braydon Preuss who polled 12 votes to come in at equal ninth. Casey votes went to - 12 Braydon Preuss 7 Mitchell White 6 Jay Kennedy Harris 5 Marty Hore Corey Wagner 4 Jack Hutchins 3 Jordan Lewis Jay Lockhart James Munro Harrison Petty Josh Wagner 2 Timothy Smith Liam Wale-Buxton 1 Thomas Freeman Jake Lever Corey Maynard James Munro and Mitch White made the VFL Team of the Year