A beautiful day for football at Casey Fields for the King’s Birthday Eve clash has seen the Casey Demons go down by 14-points at the hand of the Collingwood Magpies, the final score 8.11 59 to 11.7 73.
From the first bounce, everything was going the way of the Casey Demons.
Playing their natural game, the ball was dropping to the midfielders from the ruck contest and from there the options were wide open.
Going forward, Matthew Jefferson was finding himself in acres of space as lead after lead was kicked towards him.
Josh Schache, partially playing in the ruck, was imposing himself around the ground and making his presence known to all.
While Casey club icon Jimmy Munro also known as “Moose” was returning from injury and looked like he hadn’t missed a game this season.
Crashing the pack, never letting go of a tackle, weaving past multiple defenders, Munro was taking the game by storm and doing it all off his own boot.
The first 4 goals of the game could all make a highlight reel for the Demons.
Jefferson with two, Harvey Neocleous and Andy Moniz-Wakefield with two wonderful bending efforts from distance with Mitch White and Munro linking up to cap off a sensational quarter of football for the Demons.
However, it all unravelled and fell apart for Casey after the first term.
Casey lost their dominance in the midfield and began losing the ball from stoppages.
Around the ground, every kick looking to go forward was finding the hands of a player wearing black and white stripes as opposed to the navy and red.
The defence for Casey, that was missing a few key names, looked to struggle for answers when the likes of Nathan Kreuger began to aerially take charge of the game.
Casey didn’t seem to find any solutions and went into half time down by three points having not kicked a goal for the second term.
After the main break, it was more of the same.
Collingwood were playing freely and moving the ball through the lines with ease.
The Demons defence with no solutions or ways to combat this dominance.
With Daniel Turner injured and Adam Tomlinson playing AFL recently, the defence didn’t seem to have a leader to take charge and reset their structure.
Going into the final quarter only 11-points behind, Casey was never out of the game but had to significantly shift the momentum of the match if they were to find the win.
It started well, beginning to win the stoppages and clearances again, like the first quarter but going forward, every target was missed or intercepted by a Collingwood defender.
Jefferson was trying his hardest to make space, but a third man would always seem to pop up and spoil chances for the young forward.
A goal from White halfway through the term gave Casey some hope but it was too little to late with the final siren sounding and the disappointment coming across the faces of the Demons players.
Still struggling to the find some consistent form, and with forward entry issues, Casey will continue to work hard of the training track for the next few weeks.
A bye next week should be a great time to reflect and reset for the Demons as they will look to come back firing for the second half of the season, which will see them make the travel across the bay to Geelong for a Friday night clash.
CASEY: 5.4 5.6 6.10 8.11 59
COLLINGWOOD: 1.2 6.3 9.3 11.7 73
BEST: Moniz-Wakefield, White, Munro, Baldi, Dunstan, Howes
GOALS: 3 Jefferson, 2 White, 1 Neocleous, Moniz-Wakefield, Melksham
DISPOSALS: 31 Howes, 27 Munro, 22 White, 22 Steele, 20 Lauire
