CASEY had a fantastic turn of form during the second half of their round four encounter with the Southern Saints on Sunday.
The Demons were scoreless and a goal down at the quarter-time break, in wet conditions at Casey Fields, before turning the game around to be on their terms and running away with the four points.
“We prove that we play our best when we have really strong pressure around the ball, and then drive our legs, taking the ball forward as quickly as possible,” senior coach for the day Tamara Hyett said when speaking to Melbourne Media post-game.
“It was wet weather football, and we were probably overusing the ball a little bit in the first quarter. We were allowing the Saints first access to the ball and we were just really on the back foot and being bystanders.”
The challenge put to the Casey girls at the quarter time break was to re-focus and get the game back on their terms.
“The girls really turned it around,” Hyett said.
“They did well to hang in there that second quarter and then we made a couple of slight changes, putting a couple of different bigger bodies in the midfield and that seemed to work really well.”
After half time, it was a different Casey side that ran out from the change rooms. Only down by one point, the girls rallied to take control of the second half. The Demons were able to put on three goals to take a 19-point lead going into the last quarter.
“It was a tale of two halves really,” Hyett said.
“In the second half, we played really, really strong football around the contest, won a lot of those clearances and we're able to use our legs to drive the ball forward.
“Our pressure on the forward half was good last week but once we got into it, in that second half, it was really good. We brought the ball in and just had repeat entries into our forward 50.
“But being able to assert ourselves around the ground was great and it was one of those games where the ball was going to be on the ground a lot with the conditions.”
The last quarter saw the Demons limit the Saints to only two scoring shots while having three of their own, tying up a 25-point victory.
Eliza West stared with 28 disposals and one goal along with 11 clearances. She was clean around the ground despite the wet conditions.
West was assisted by skipper Sammy Johnson, who made her presence felt around the ground and lead from the front after quarter time.
Niamh McEvoy and Tahlia Fellows provided great targets up forward and kept up the pressure on the Saints defence. Both were able to score two goals each for the afternoon.
Emma Humphries also showed plenty of class across the half-forward line.
A tantalising second versus third clash now looms against Collingwood this weekend, who are equal top with Port Melbourne.
It will provide a great challenge to the Demons against the reigning Premiers from 2019 as the Magpies are yet to lose a game in 2021.
The game will be played this Saturday at 10am at Victoria Park.
Hyett took the reins in round four due to senior coach Pete Mercoulia travelling with Melbourne – he is an assistant coach of the AFLW side.
Casey Demons: 0.0 2.1 5.4 6.6.42
Southern Saints: 1.0 2.2 2.3 2.5.17
Goals: Niamh McEvoy 2, Tahlia Fellows 2, Eliza West, Isabella Simmons
Best: Niamh McEvoy, Emma Humphries, Tahlia Fellows, Eliza West, Caitlin Conroy, Samantha Johnson
