By JARROD POTTER
A ONE-QUARTER effort was always going to leave Casey Scorpions short against last year’s grand finalist Geelong.
Outside of an impressive third term, the Scorpions struggled to make a dent against the Cats’ bigger bodies in a 16-point loss at Casey Fields on Sunday.
Casey Scorpions floundered in the first half as Geelong chipped away to a five-goal lead at half-time by outpacing the nimble Scorpions to every contest and charging past them at every chance.
Whatever rev-up or spray that coach Rohan Welsh delivered in the rooms at the main change paid off hugely as the Scorpions woke up from their first-half daze.
Casey found numerous goal-kickers with former Cat Shannon Byrnes (three goals) drilling his majors in the third term with hard-marking Jack Fitzpatrick (three) and Christian Salem (two) also hitting the scoreboard in a rapid comeback.
Geelong jagged a late goal in the quarter to regain a slender four-point lead at the final change.
With the wind at its back, the Cats went into the last quarter with gusto and vigour, which the Scorpions could not match.
Four quick Geelong goals iced the match before Casey regained some score line credibility late in the clash once the result was decided.
Evan Panozza was exceptional as the central defender squaring off with Geelong tall Joel Hamling (two goals) and Aiden Reilly is a baffling omission from the Casey bests as he fought all day under the packs and generated a number of clearances.
Casey coach Rohan Welsh said the Scorpions in the third term had the level of intensity needed to win VFL matches, but the rest of the match failed them.
“We had our chances in the third quarter to probably put more scoreboard pressure on them and we didn’t capitalise on that,” Welsh said.
Sitting in 10th place on the VFL ladder, Casey will head to Frankston Park on Sunday to face the Dolphins from 2pm.
