By Marcus Uhe
Football fans at Casey Fields experienced a strange set of circumstances on Sunday afternoon – with the final siren sounding and the Casey Demons’ song not blaring over the loudspeaker.
Instead, it was the Richmond theme song that washed over Cranbourne East, as the Tigers became the first side to beat the Demons at home since Footscray in July 2021, running out 12-point winners 14.10 94 to 11.16 82.
A forward line of AFL premiership players in Tom McDonald, James Harmes and Ben Brown were all involved in the Demons’ opener, with Tyler Edwards the beneficiary of their chained handballs on the grandstand-side wing.
Ryan Valentine kicked their second to establish a 12-point lead, and it appeared that the Demons would do what they have done so often over the years and steam ahead.
But a combination of inaccuracy and Richmond excellence would mean they would not kick another major for the remainder of the half, where the Tigers piled-on seven of their own.
A Matthew Jefferson miss running into an open goal epitomised their troubles in front of the big sticks in the first quarter as the rot began to set in, and they entered the rooms at half time with a 24-point deficit.
George Grey and Luke Dunstan did their best to restore order at their fortress, lifting their intensity in the midfield and having their say in a handful of goals as the Demons looked to fight back into the contest.
Dunstan found Harmes twice on his own inside forward 50 while Grey kicked one of his own and setup Tom McDonald for another in the third term, but they were unable to make inroads as Richmond continually answered the challenge thrown their way.
The margin grew to as much as 34 in the 20th minute after they kicked three in a row, but the home side answered with three of their own to close the quarter with momentum.
Grey’s football IQ came to the fore again early in the last term when he hit Dunstan on the lead inside forward 50, who kicked truly to reduce the margin to just eight points.
Like they had all day, however, Richmond was able to respond to the challenge thrown down to them and kicked the next two in quick succession to restore a multiple-goal buffer.
A strong pack mark from Edwards resulted in his second for the day and Harmes kicked his third after more excellence from Grey at the contest, but ultimately the reigning premier fell 12-points short of the yellow and black brigade.
Dunstan finished the contest with a whopping 48 disposals and two goals, while Harmes had 36 and kicked three, but too much was left to too few for Casey, who appeared to miss two of their stars in Josh Schache and Bailey Laurie, both on standby for senior football duty as emergencies.
The Demons will venture into South West Gippsland next week for a clash with Box Hill in Wonthaggi.
