By Nick Creely
VICTORIAN FOOTBALL LEAGUE
REVIEW – ROUND 17
Casey’s stunning charge towards a top four spot continues to gather momentum, and after knocking off the Northern Blues by 37-points on Saturday, remain percentage out of the four with just two rounds to play.
At the Casey Fields fortress where they have still yet to lose a game this season, the Demons set the win up with a completely dominant first half.
Off the back of a ruthless midfield group that denied the Blues any freedom with ball in hand, the Dees benefited in attack in the first quarter, kicking five unanswered goals to open up a 29-point quarter time lead.
With Bayley Fritsch (four goals) and Yillber Zijai (three goals) electric in the forward half, the Demons extended the lead out to 46-points at half time.
The damage had already been done by half time as the Blues started to find some more open football in the third quarter, but the Dees held firm in defence in the second half to slow the momentum down of the opposition and defy any potential comebacks.
Casey coach Justin Plapp was happy to walk away with the four points despite some inconsistency throughout the game, and understands there is still a long way to go to secure the double chance.
“We’re going to be presented with the opportunity (to finish top four) and I don’t think we’re going to die wondering,” Plapp said.
“It’s the carrot, but we’ve got to do a lot of things right.
“We can’t be having performances the way we did in the second half.
“I thought we dropped the ball a bit and we drifted out of the game.
“Against better teams you’d like to think we’d be a bit more resilient and probably a little bit more in tune to finish the game off.”
Fritsch was once again stellar as the dominant forward on the ground, Ben Kennedy once again found mountains of the football and snuck forward to kick three goals, while Officer youngster Callum Porter capped off an encouraging debut for the club with a final term goal.
In one of the Demons’ biggest tests of 2017, they will host ladder leaders Williamstown on Saturday afternoon.
Earlier in the day, Casey’s Development League team went down by 10-points to the Blues, 5.9(39) to 7.7(49).
Narre Warren’s Mitch Cox was named best for the Demons.
CASEY DEMONS 5.1 9.3 11.4 16.6(102)
NORTHERN BLUES 0.2 1.5 4.9 8.17(65)
CASEY DEMONS
GOALS: B. Fritsch 4, Y. Zijai 3, B. Kennedy 3, L. Hulett, C. Salem, E. Morris, A. Ferreira, C. Porter, J. Kennedy-Harris, J. Watts.
BEST: D. Keilty, B. Kennedy, J. Trengove, C. Salem, B. Stretch, Y. Zijai.
NORTHERN BLUES
GOALS: R. Palmer 2, T. Wilson 2, M. Korcheck, A. Gallucci, K. Declase, J. Thorpe.
BEST: L. Russell, R. Palmer, D. Stevens, C. Byrne, C. O’Shea, M. Korcheck.
