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After a season and a quarter during which they dominated the VFL competition, the Casey Demons made an uncharacteristic slip up that resulted in a two goal defeat. It would be unfair therefore, to be too critical of their performance in going down to Richmond on Sunday at the home fortress, Casey Fields. At the same time however, it would be fair to say that the circumstances of the defeat were more than disappointing. The team Casey fielded included 14 AFL listed players as against about half a dozen on Richmond’s AFL roster. Moreover, they had the advantage of experienced veterans all over the ground to the point where it should never have been a struggle to win and where defeat was almost unthinkable. One has to wonder as to whether the result was an outlier. After all, it doesn’t often happen that your three key forwards on the day, Ben Brown, Tom McDonald and Ryan Valentine kick two goals 10 behinds between them. And more than half of the missed shots for goal were very, very gettable. After all, Brown and McDonald have 369 AFL games and more than 500 goals between them! But the most unforgivable aspect of the game was the lack of intensity displayed in the battle for the points on offer. For that, both teams were responsible but Casey has been renowned of late for its contested football and strong tackling game. When Senior Coach, Taylor Whitford and his assistants sit down to discuss their first loss for the season, they will be confronted with the fact that nine of their players on the day, failed to execute a single tackle and three others managed just one. The entire team managed only 35 tackles for the game - exactly the same number of tackles executed in his three games this season by the club’s currently injured tackle machine James Munro. That figure tells us how sorely missed this one player was to the team. After dominating the first ten to fifteen minutes of the game, the Demons dropped their guard. They were sluggish and appeared unwilling to take risks. Eventually, they allowed the Tigers back into the game and then the opposition sensed weakness and took control. After a horror second term when they scored a mere five behinds to 6.1, they were in an uncustomary position, trailing by four goals at half time. They regrouped and pegged the deficit back to half that margin by the end of the game but even then, it was left too far too few to do the heavy lifting. Casey in general was not fighting hard enough to keep the ball within the fifty metre arc and therefore, the was unable to bridge the gap to victory. Three players deserve to be mentioned in the wash up to this game. Luke Dunstan was a tireless worker for the team and combined strongly with James Harmes in stemming the tide and bringing the team to within a kick or two of regaining the ascendancy in the last half of the game. Likewise, Daniel Turner was rock solid in defence, often against a deluge. He looks to have a future at a higher level. Full credit to the winners for playing as a team and sticking to the plan of playing positive attacking football and refusing to become overawed by a more seasoned opponent. Things won’t be any easier for the Demons in their next challenge which takes the form of a top of the table clash against an in-form and undefeated Box Hill Hawks to be played next Sunday afternoon at the Wonthaggi Recreation Reserve. CASEY DEMONS 2.4.16 2.9.21 8.13.61 11.16.82 RICHMOND 1.2.8 7.3.45 12.4.76 14.10.94 GOALS CASEY DEMONS Harmes 3 Dunstan Edwards 2 Grey Jefferson McDonald Valentine RICHMOND Melville Nathan 3 Ross 2 Bilston-McGillen Faimalo Hicks McDonagh May Olden BEST CASEY DEMONS Dunstan Harmes Turner Howes Edwards Woewoedin RICHMOND Ross McDonagh Trezise Bracher Teal Olden Statistics Jed Adams 5 kicks 2 handballs 7 disposals 4 marks 28 dream team points Jack Bell 5 kicks 3 handballs 8 disposals 3 marks 2 tackles 25 hit outs 54 dream team points Ben Brown 4 behinds 7 kicks 5 handballs 12 disposals 6 marks 1 tackles 51 dream team points Luke Dunstan 2 goals 20 kicks 20 handballs 40 disposals 12 marks 4 tackles 162 dream team points Tyler Edwards 2 goals 11 kicks 3 handballs 14 disposals 3 marks 3 tackles 66 dream team points Kyah Ferris-White 2 handballs 2 disposals 12 hit outs 11 dream team points Max Gregory 3 kicks 6 handballs 9 disposals 21 dream team points George Grey 1 goal 10 kicks 5 handballs 15 disposals 2 marks 2 tackles 62 dream team points James Harmes 3 goals 10 kicks 19 handballs 29 disposals 6 marks 3 tackles 113 dream team points Blake Howes 8 kicks 8 handballs 16 disposals 5 marks 5 tackles 72 dream team points Matt Jefferson 1 goal 1 behind 3 kicks 1 handballs 4 disposals 2 marks 1 tackle 28 dream team points Tom McDonald 1 goal 3 behinds 11 kicks 3 handballs 14 disposals 3 marks 9 hit outs 60 dream team points Andy Moniz-Wakefield 6 kicks 5 handballs 11 disposals 3 tackles 40 dream team points Harvey Neocleous 2 kicks 5 handballs 7 disposals 2 marks 3 tackles 31 dream team points Oliver Sestan 1 behind 9 kicks 1 handballs 10 disposals 4 marks 37 dream team points Miles Shepherd 5 kicks 3 handballs 8 disposals 2 marks 27 dream team points Cooper Simpson 2 kicks 5 handballs 7 disposals 1 mark 19 dream team points Deaykin Smith 7 kicks 5 handballs 12 disposals 3 marks 37 dream team points Roan Steele 1 behind 6 kicks 5 handballs 11 disposals 2 marks 2 tackles 42 dream team points Adam Tomlinson 11 kicks 4 handballs 15 disposals 4 marks 53 dream team points Daniel Turner 13 kicks 5 handballs 18 disposals 8 marks 2 tackles 80 dream team points Ryan Valentine 1 goal 3 behinds 6 kicks 6 disposals 5 marks 1 tackle 2 hit outs 49 dream team points Taj Woewodin 1 behind 11 kicks 8 handballs 19 disposals 2 marks 2 tackles 64 dream team points