BY PAUL AMY   GREG Hutchison  took a swig on his bottle of water, left the coaches box and marched to the changerooms.   It was  half-time  of Saturday's Round 14 VFL match against  Tasmania. The  Casey Scorpions were trailing. And Hutchison, their coach, was steaming.

He'd just seen them  be outscored  seven goals to one in the second quarter and he had the look of a man  who would struggle to  keep his emotions under control once he  reached the privacy of the rooms.

Presumably, he gave  his crew a decent old spray.

By three quarter time, the match  had changed and so had the coach's demeanour,   words of commendation replacing condemnation.

The Scorpions  came out and produced a nine-goal term, turning  a 20-point deficit into a  33-point  lead.

They kicked another five goals into the wind  in the last quarter to  win by 40 points and  all but lock up a  top-four finish.

The move of Michael Rix   from centre half back to full  forward  yielded two goals for the big fellow in the third term.

In the same  period Shane Birss drifted forward to kick three  and  the ever-improving Chris Dunne slipped in with two on his way to a four-goal haul. He is a sharp improver.

Rix was also front and centre in a melee at three quarter time.  The VFL  will probably pop both clubs with a fine. Players  pushed, shoved and  wrestled,  and there were some wild punches thrown. All this as  spectators came on to the ground.

  It was  as ugly as Casey's second quarter.  Raph Clarke   had a terrible time of it, to the extent that there was a chorus of concern from  Scorpions supporters every time he went near the ball.

 First he kicked out on full.  Tasmania   drilled a goal from the free. A short time later a Clarke  kick  was smothered and Tassie  kicked a goal again. And then he dropped a soda of a mark,  letting  the Devils in for a third goal. Thankfully, he  played with  more surety  in the second half.

The Scorpions  were again without  injured pair Alex Silvagni and Evan Panozza, but inclusions from the St Kilda end  ensured they sent out their strongest team this season.

In the first quarter there was a  centre-square combination  of  Michael Gardiner, Adam Schneider,  Leigh Fisher and Birss. 

Steve  Baker  was  in defence and Adam Fiora cruising around the wing and half forward. Fiora wound up with  26 possessions, but he was a fair way behind Jarryn Geary. The young  right-footer  had  24 kicks and 14 handballs, a 40-disposal day garnished   with five tackles and  two goals.

Birss had 37  possessions and  laid 10 tackles, and  Dunne  had 26 touches and took 15 marks.

The Devils  were brave and did not deserve  the vulgar language directed their way from a handful of beer-swilling  ferals on the balcony of the social club.

The Scorpions play  Werribee  at Chirnside Park  on Sunday.

Casey Scorpions   5.5  6.8  15.15  20.17 (137) d Tasmania   3.1  10.5  11.6  15.7 (97)

Goals: Casey Scorpions: Dunne 4 Birss 3 Gardiner 2 Fiora 2 Geary 2 Rix 2 Parker 2 Matthews 2 McEvoy

Best: Casey Scorpions: Geary Birss Dunne Schneider Fiora Taylor.

$1000 Leader player-of-the-year award (votes by Paul Amy): 3 Shane Birss, 2 Chris Dunne, 1 Jarryn Geary.

Progressive: 12 Birss, 9 Silvagni, Rix, 7 Gwilt, McQualter, 6 Jones, 4 Wall, Gardiner,  Geary 3  Ferguson, R Clarke, 2 Dunne, Fisher, Milne, Armitage, McEvoy, Allen,  1 Panozza, Matthews, Howard, Taylor.