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In years to come, the old timers will talk in wonderment about the “Avalon Avalanche” that hit Werribee’s Avalon Airport Oval on a mild winter’s afternoon at about ten minutes after the halfway mark of the game between the local Tigers and their cross town rivals, the Demons from Casey. At that moment in time, the game was poised as if on a knifepoint. Up until the main interval, it had been the visiting team which had maintained the lead from the start but it had struggled to entirely assert its dominance in field play on the scoreboard. The Werribee tactic had been to close down play and crowd the Casey forward line preventing the highly talented Demons from opening up a big break in the game. They had one effective forward in Sam Weideman with two goals to thank for their 17 point lead at that stage, one that should have been a lot more. The standard of the game had been poor, the pace at times was barely pedestrian. Then, when play resumed after half time, the home side was ready to strike. It opened up the play, ran into space and for ten minutes took over the proceedings. But for their inaccuracy in front of goal — they kicked 2.4 from several forays into the forward line punctuated by Weideman’s third goal in the middle of their run — they would have been able to snatch away the ascendency in the game and grab a nice lead. As it was, they were down by just seven points but you could sense alarm bells ringing in the Demon camp. Then the avalanche struck. In the space of seven minutes, the Demons ran the Tigers ragged with their superior pace and ball movement into attack with five different players scoring goals to catapult them into an unassailable position. One of the goalkickers was newcomer Kye Declase who was recently plucked away from Werribee per medium of the the Midseason Draft and who has a future in the game. The other was a surprise packet playing just his fourth game. His goal at the 17 minute mark of the third term was his first in the VFL and made up one of the stories of the day. Corey Ellison is a local product from Cranbourne who spent a couple of years on the fringes at the Dandenong Stingrays and missed out on playing alongside teammate Toby Bedford in their 2018 premiership. (Ironically, it was Bedford who kicked the first of those five avalanche goals after some exciting play from Jake Bowey turned defence into devastating attack). After committing to Casey last year, Ellison took to the gym and built himself up during the lockdown and did his preseason with the Demons but the presence of Ben Brown and Weideman meant he was consigned more into defence. He was selected there for this game but, as fate would have it, he was up forward in the third term. Late in the quarter, he managed two quick goals and with the game free and open at last, he added another three in the final term to make it six for the game to match his six goal haul for Cranbourne on Anzac Eve which gained the high flyer his VFL debut on a Thursday night against North Melbourne back at the end of April. Earlier in the day, Bowey had shown his class and composure and signaled that his elevation to the big time was not far away. Weideman was in his element as a key forward who at times roamed far and wide to generate some attacking spark for the team. The experience of Aaron vandenBerg and Jake Melksham shone out in the second half and Tom Sparrow had some big moments before injuring himself late in the game. The two midseason draftees Declase and Kye Turner are coming on nicely. Apart from Ellison, the Casey listed contingent was well led by Mitch White and the tackling machine that is Jimmy Munro. George Grey also showed some flashes of pace and brilliance. With another percentage boosting win to give it a 7-1 record, it is believed that a finals berth beckons in the magical mystery competition that is the VFL in 2021. But all of that depends on a bigger landscape as we await the next avalanche. CASEY DEMONS 3.0.18 5.5.35 13.8.86 17.14.116 WERRIBEE TIGERS 1.2.8 2.6.18 5.10.40 7.15.57 GOALS Casey Demons Ellison 6 Weideman 3 Chandler 2 Bedford Declase Grey Melksham Munro Sparrow Werribee Tigers Kemp Thar 2 Buzza Malual Pinnuck BEST Casey Demons vandenBerg Ellison Lockhart Melksham Weideman Declase Werribee Tigers Sodomaco Garoni Thar Pinnuck Gribble Hayes Statistics Oskar Baker 11 kicks 4 handballs 15 disposals 5 marks 4 tackles 71 dream team points Toby Bedford 1 goal 1 behind 7 kicks 7 handballs 14 disposals 5 marks 4 tackles 73 dream team points Jake Bowey 1 behind 15 kicks 4 handballs 19 disposals 7 marks 3 tackles 87 dream team points Aaron Bradtke 7 kicks 4 handballs 11 disposals 6 marks 44 dream team points Kade Chandler 2 goals 2 behinds 9 kicks 1 handballs 10 disposals 3 marks 2 tackles 60 dream team points Majak Daw 10 kicks 3 handballs 13 disposals 5 marks 2 tackles 33 hit outs 90 dream team points Kye Declase 1 goal 1 behind 12 kicks 7 handballs 19 disposals 7 marks 1 tackle 83 dream team points Corey Ellison 6 goals 1 behind 10 kicks 1 handballs 11 disposals 6 marks 4 tackles 2 hit outs 106 dream team points Zac Foot 9 kicks 6 handballs 15 disposals 5 marks 7 tackles 83 dream team points George Grey 1 goal 5 kicks 6 handballs 11 disposals 1 mark 5 tackles 57 dream team points Neville Jetta 11 kicks 6 handballs 17 disposals 4 marks 2 tackles 62 dream team points Jay Lockhart 20 kicks 4 handballs 24 disposals 8 marks 1 tackle 96 dream team points Jake Melksham 1 goal 1 behind 13 kicks 7 handballs 20 disposals 5 marks 4 tackles 86 dream team points James Munro 1 goal 1 behind 9 kicks 10 handballs 19 disposals 1 mark 10 tackles 86 dream team points Fraser Rosman 1 tackle 4 dream team points [injured] Miles Shepherd 7 kicks 2 handballs 9 disposals 3 marks 1 tackle 38 dream team points Joel Smith 14 kicks 4 handballs 18 disposals 6 marks 1 tackle 68 dream team points Tom Sparrow 1 goal 10 kicks 10 handballs 20 disposals 4 marks 7 tackles 96 dream team points Daniel Turner 11 kicks 3 handballs 14 disposals 6 marks 1 tackle 58 dream team points Aaron vandenBerg 3 behinds 14 kicks 7 handballs 21 disposals 10 tackles 101 dream team points Sam Weideman 3 goals 10 kicks 8 handballs 18 disposals 7 marks 3 tackles 4 hit outs 101 dream team points Mitch White 1 behind 10 kicks 5 handballs 15 disposals 4 marks 1 tackle 55 dream team points

When Dion Johnstone kicked his second goal for Casey Demons to give his team a 19 point lead early in the time on period of the third quarter at Hogans Road Reserve, Hoppers Crossing the visitors appeared poised to win their second game for the season and grab a spot in the top eight of the VFL competition. Unfortunately for the Demons they hit a wall and were swamped by a Lindsay Thomas-inspired Werribee which kicked the last five goals of the match to a miserable four points in the final forty minutes before the final siren sounded with the home side 13 points in front. Thomas had an action-packed game that saw him reported for a head high bump on Corey Maynard early in the second term which saw the rookie stretchered off the ground and out for the game. At the time, Maynard had been playing well and was well on his way to another high possession game. Former Bomber Jake Melksham was also in strife with the men in white after two incidents involving Werribee’s Matthew Hanson. Earlier in the match, Casey took control of the game in the second quarter after an arm wrestle in the first term of the hard fought contest to hold a 15 point lead at half time. The Demons retained that lead for most of the third term with Melksham outstanding in a performance that would have been even more formidable has his kicking for goal been on target - he finished with one goal five behinds for the match. Assisting him among the better AFL listed Demons were Billy Stretch, Jack Trengove and Ben Kennedy (23 touches each) while young ruckmen Mitch King and Declan Keilty worked hard but were overpowered by North Melbourne giant Braydon Preuss who had 71 hit outs. The loss to injury of Melbourne's two talls Gawn and Spencer is cutting deep through to the VFL ranks as well. Youngster Johnstone stood out with some strong tackling along with his two goal effort to indicate he is becoming more comfortable at this level. Bayley Fritsch continues to impress while Dylan Collis played his best game for Casey. In the end, it was Thomas' two final quarter goals that broke the deadlock between the teams after booting his first in the shadows of three quarter time. The Demons have another tough away game coming up this week against the fourth placed Northern Blues at Preston. Casey Demons 2.3.15 8.7.55 10.10.70 10.14.74 Werribee 3.3.21 6.4.40 10.6.66 13.8.86 Goals Casey Demons Johnstone Scott 2 Fritsch Keilty Kennedy Kent Melksham Vander Haar Werribee Larkey 4 Thomas 3 Zurhaar 2 Buykx Cleeland Fordham Williams Best Casey Demons Melksham Collis Munro Keilty Hutchins Fritsch Werribee Hanson Nielson Fordham Mountford Preuss Sodomaco Statistics James Harmes 7 kicks 12 handballs 19 disposals 2 marks 5 tackles 66 dream team points Liam Hulett 11 kicks 1 handballs 16 disposals 5 marks 1 tackle 51 dream team points Dion Johnstone 2 goals 10 kicks 2 handballs 12 disposals 1 mark 7 tackles 77 dream team points Declan Keilty 1 goal 4 kicks 9 handballs 13 disposals 1 mark 8 tackles 11 hit outs 85 dream team points Ben Kennedy 1 goal 2 behinds 13 kicks 10 handballs 23 disposals 3 marks 4 tackles 93 dream team points Dean Kent 1 goal 1 behind 11 kicks 5 handballs 16 disposals 3 marks 8 tackles 93 dream team points Mitch King 4 kicks 8 handballs 12 disposals 1 mark 5 tackles 28 hit outs 74 dream team points Corey Maynard 4 kicks 3 handballs 7 disposals 2 marks 2 tackles 33 dream team points [injured] Jake Melksham 1 goal 5 behinds 26 kicks 9 handballs 35 disposals 7 marks 10 tackles 157 dream team points Billy Stretch 1 behind 12 kicks 11 handballs 23 disposals 6 marks 3 tackles 87 dream team points Jack Trengove 1 behind 16 kicks 7 handballs 23 disposals 5 marks 4 tackles 95 dream team points Mitchell White 17 kicks 4 handballs 21 disposals 7 marks 2 tackles 89 dream team points Sam Weideman 1 behind 3 kicks 3 handballs 6 disposals 3 marks 2 tackles 1 hit out 27 dream team points The Development League team had another unusual clash with Werribee which kicked poorly in the first term allowing them to grab the lead late in the second term and then stream away to win by 34 points. AFL Development League Casey Demons 1.0.6 5.3.33 10.5.65 14.8.92 Werribee 1.11.17 2.14.26 4.15.39 7.16.58 Goals Casey Demons Foote 3 Baker Lefau 2 Ambler Cotte Dwyer Dan Johnston Lewis-Smith Lok Machaya Werribee Liberatore Maishman 2 Cotter Johnson Kershaw Best Casey Demons Dwyer Foote Filipovic Lok Ferreira