CASEY Demons coach Justin Plapp says the club’s ability to make the last AFL Victoria Development League Grand Final, which will take place this weekend, is a positive sign for the future.

Plapp said it was a big achievement by Casey’s Development League team to play off for this year’s flag, which will take against Williamstown at Fortburn Stadium (North Port Oval) at Port Melbourne this Saturday, 11:30am.

“Our development team has made it through to the Grand Final, which is a good sign of our younger players and our program has been really strong this year,” he told melbournefc.com.au.  

Paul Carbis will coach the Casey Development League team for the final time and told vfl.com.au that it was with mixed emotions.  

“It’s exciting but it’s also going to be pretty sad because we’ve had some really good improvement over the last few years,” he said.

“It’s going to be pretty bittersweet, really exciting [and] an opportunity again.

“We lost last year [and] we have an opportunity to win it this year, especially against Williamstown who are a really proud club. But at the end of it, it’s going to be pretty sad.” 

But Plapp said there was a little bit of an unknown at this stage with the competition, given the Development League is set to finish up after this weekend’s Grand Final.

“We don’t know how the competition is going to structure up without the AFL Victoria Development League next year, so it’s a bit of a waiting game at the moment – just with how that’s going to look,” he said.

“Regardless of where that all goes, I’m sure we’ll put a strong program in place.

“It will give our players an opportunity to keep tasting success around finals time at VFL.”

Reflecting on his senior side’s season, which ended in last weekend’s semi-final to Richmond at Fortburn Stadium, Plapp said plenty had been gained from this year.

“To be one [win] and five [losses] after the first six rounds – we weren’t tracking well. But to turn our season around with two blocks of six wins was a pretty big effort from our VFL program,” he said.

“To start so poorly and then get some momentum and then get into a top two finish.

“Our players showed a huge amount of character and effort to get some of those wins through the middle part of the season.

Although Plapp said the senior Casey side faced its challenges this year, particularly through injury, he added that plenty was gained from 2017. 

“I still think we learned plenty this year, especially our first and second-year Melbourne players,” he said.

“It gave them a taste of finals football. I understand the intensity needed to succeed in finals footy, so that was a positive. For our Casey-listed players, it was seen as a missed opportunity for us, but they’ll be better players for it and they’ll be better equipped next time.

“Bayley Fritsch’s season has been a real highlight and he’s tracking to feature pretty prominently in the upcoming draft. He ended up being our leading goalkicker for the year, which is an extraordinary effort, when the kid didn’t play at all last year. To come back in and do that just shows you his high talent.”

Plapp praised his coaching group and said it had made a genuine impact on the AFL and VFL-listed Casey players.

“I can’t question our coaching group – it was one of the better coaching groups that I’ve seen come through the VFL program,” he said.

“The work that Max Rooke, Mick Stinear, Danny Ryan and Sam Radford have done, with the support of Matty Egan, on game day has been fantastic.

“The investment they put in with the players and the program was a huge amount. They were unconditional in their support for me and the program. Our players got some great development from those coaches as well.”