AN injury to Alex Silvagni and the resting of David Armitage in the final quarter were hurdles to Casey's bid to defeat Williamstown in their top-of-the-table Round 13 VFL clash at Burbank Oval on Sunday. Courtesy of The Leader
The Scorpions were within 10 points at the last change and were finishing off with the wind.But two things conspired against them in a 16-point loss that stopped their streak of seven consecutive wins. Ace defender Alex Silvagni rolled his ankle a tick before the three-quarter-time siren.It meant coach Greg Hutchison had to send Matt Ferguson to the backline, denying the team a strong target in attack. They were missing Ben Waite, who was overseas on business, and Ben McEvoy was having a pig of a day. Armitage was on limited game time because he is in St Kilda's squad for this Friday night's game against Carlton, and he was kept out of the last quarter (Rob Eddy was also on limited time and did not play in the first term). With his bench down to two rotation options, Hutchison declared this was ``a fair-dinkum big test''. Within the first two minutes classy Chris Dunne kicked the first of his two goals for the quarter and it seemed another gritty win was going to develop in front of 1000 Willy supporters.But the next 20 minutes brought a Seagull spree of 10 shots at goal, returning three majors. ``In the end you could kick goals at both ends,'' Hutchison said after the game.``We missed a few in the third quarter (scoreboard end), and they worked harder in the last.''Hutchison was pleased the team kicked three goals in time-on, one from ruckman Michael Rix, another from Dunne and then Ferguson, sent forward again, to get the deficit back to 10 points.A couple of 50-50 frees went Williamstown's way in the centre and it ran the ball down to confirm the result. ``We could have been blown away,'' Hutchison said. Jarryn Geary had 21 possessions, kicked three goals and applied six tackles to be Casey's best player. Aaron Fiora (21 disposals), Dunne, Leigh Fisher, Jimmy Taylor and James Wall, who put clamps on Jason Cloke, were also good contributors. Taylor tailed Pat Rose in the second half. Looking to Saturday's match against Tasmania at Casy Fields on Saturday, Hutchison said: ``It's a short turnaround and we had a disappointing loss to them a few round ago. We've got to turn that around.''The Scorpions will be without Silvagni and Evan Panozza, who was injured in last week's match against Bendigo. They may give a debut to Gareth Snow, a tall youngster who won a league medal in the VAFA last season with Old Mentonians. Casey 4.0 8.4 10.10 14.11 (95) lt Williamstown 5.5 8.9 11.14 15.21 (111)Casey goals: Geary 3 Fisher 2 Dunne 2 Ferguson Birss Clarke Rix Parker Matthews McEvoy. Best: Geary Fisher Taylor Miles Birss Dunne $1000 Leader player-of-the-year award (votes by coach Greg Hutchison): 3 Jarryn Geary, 2 James Wall, 1 Jimmy Taylor. Progressive: 9 Silvagni, Rix, Birss 7 Gwilt, McQualter, 6 Jones, 4 Wall, Gardiner, 3 Geary, Ferguson, R Clarke, 2 Fisher, Milne, Armitage, McEvoy, Allen, 1 Panozza, Matthews, Howard, Taylor. Reserves - Casey 1.5 2.6 4.7 5.7 (37) lt Williamstown 0.2 8.6 13.8 25.14 (164)Casey Scorpions goals: Mercoulia Youle O'Bryan Snow Galvin. Best: Snow Crespin Terry O'Bryan Mercoulia Youle |
