By JARROD POTTER
VICTORIAN FOOTBALL LEAGUE
REVIEW – ROUND 5
ACTIONS spoke louder than the five-point loss Casey took at the hands of Werribee.
The Scorpions remained competitive throughout the match, tussled in the torrid conditions and, most pleasingly for coach Rohan Welsh, the players fought for each other.
The individualism and “me-first” attitude in Casey’s 58-point loss last weekend to Sandringham had evaporated, leaving behind the team play and resolve demanded of a high-calibre football team.
Slogging away through the driving rain, Casey found its way forward sporadically after quarter time, where the Scorpions smashed five first-quarter goals.
The Tigers pounced on the gradually slowing Scorpions, restricting Casey to just eight points after half-time while kicking four-goals-10 to run over the top.
Casey could not find that go-ahead goal in the crunch situation, with the ball going temptingly near the goals on occasion in the last term.
Jake Best had a shot on goal to clinch the match in the dying moments, but in the wet weather and with a heavy ball, his kick stalled and faded left to bounce out of bounds.
Mitch Clisby, Michael Evans and Jimmy Toumpas ran all day through the guts while captain Evan Panozza excelled defensively in the detritus as he kept the ball mostly out of Tigers’ full forward Ben Warren’s hands.
“It had to be (better than last week), we couldn’t do any worse than that,” Welsh said.
“Pleasing thing from our point of view was… the effort was there.
“We didn’t get the points, but the effort was there… so there are some positive things to come out of it.”
Over-possessing the football was the problem Casey found itself unwilling to solve according to Welsh, as the kick-handball ratio skewed towards 1:1.
“We were out on our feet in the last quarter, but still we didn’t help ourselves with the way we were playing.
“The rain came and the ball was slippery, yet we were having 42 kicks and 42 handballs – can’t do that in those conditions… you’ve got to get it going forward.”
Sitting 12th on the ladder, Casey faces Northern Blues on Saturday at VISY Park from 2pm.
VFL
CASEY SCORPIONS 5.1 7.3 7.4 8.5 (53)
WERRIBEE TIGERS 1.1 4.2 5.8 8.10 (58)
CASEY
Goals: T. Smith 2, J. Fitzpatrick, C. Garland, M. Evans, J. Best, N. Page, J. Strauss. Best: M. Clisby, M. Gawn, C. Garland, J. Fitzpatrick, J. Toumpas, M. Evans.
WERRIBEE
Goals: M. Wood 3, B. Warren 2, T. Shinners, S. Sherlock, K. Turner. Best: M. Sodomaco, J. Crichton, K. Turner, B. Warren, M. Wood, S. Wright.
