by Paul Amy - Leader News

Bradley Gotch has more than 200 games and two premierships behind him as a VFL coach. So it was a shower of bouquets for the Casey Scorpions when he said he rated their victory over North Ballarat in Round 3 on Saturday as "one of the best wins I've been associated with".

The Scorpions trailed at every change at Eureka Stadium and fell 22 points behind early in the last quarter, but goals from Adam Maric and Michael Newton quickly brought the deficit back to 10 points and, according to Gotch, gave Casey belief.

Kicking with the wind, the visitors scrapped three more goals to win by 10 points.

Adding merit to the performance, Daniel Bell took a knock to the head and was unable to play in the final quarter, and with 15 minutes to go, ruckman Jake Spencer went off with a sore groin.

"It was one of those special wins," Gotch said.

"North Ballarat is always tough to beat up there. They don't lose at home too often, but the players had this attitude that they'd be prepared to do whatever it takes to get there. Even the boys who had quiet days still contributed. It was really exciting. The song bellowed out".

Gotch credited rover Danny Nicholls with supplying a spark in the last quarter with his penetrating kicking into the forward line. Maric burst into life, Rian McGough kept popping up like a malfunctioning toaster, Brad Miller was a worthwhile target and the experienced Jared Rivers won two important one-on-one contests.

The Scorpions could also reflect on a dogged third quarter, when they held the Roosters to 2.1. Rivers kept the dangerous Josh Smith under control.

The Reserves also came from behind, winning by one point.

Casey travels to Labrador on Saturday to meet the Gold Coast, which gained its first points for the season by drawing with Werribee on Saturday night. The Scorpions will fly to Brisbane on Friday afternoon.

Meanwhile, Nichols has taken the lead in the $3000 Leader-Alarah best-player award.

Each week the four members of the Casey match committee give every player a rating out of five. Nicholls received 15 of a possible 20 votes on Saturday and leads the count with 40 votes.

The award is sponsored by residential developer Alarah (www.alarah.com.au).

Casey Scorpions  1.1  5.3  6.3  11.7 (73)

North Ballarat  4.5  6.6  8.7  9.9 (63)

Goals

Casey Scorpions: Newton 3 Miller 2 Watts 2 Macreadie Stockdale Maric

North Ballarat: Dinnell 2 Peters Smith Tyler Driscoll Jones Benjamin Richardson

Best

Casey Scorpions: Nicholls Rivers McGough Maric Taylor Miller

North Ballarat: Harding Sewell Greig Pratt Tyler Moloney

Reserves

Casey Scorpions:  4.3  10.4  12.8  19.12 (126)

North Ballarat:  4.0  8.1  15.4  19.11 (125)

Goals: Waite 4 Fitzpatrick 2 Plummer 2 Simpson 2 Weekes 2 Johnson Lillie Smith Petropoulos Wonaemirri Sykes Hillberge

Best: Johnson Fitzpatrick Sykes Smith Waite Patti

$3000 Leader Alarah Player-Of-The-Year votes: 15 Danny Nicholls, 14 Jared Rivers, 13 Rian McGough.

Progressive: 40 Danny Nicholls, 37 Michael Stockdale, 34 Kyle Cheney, 32 James Wall.

$500 Alarah Reserves Award: 3 Jack Fitzpatrick, 2 Michael Johnson, 1 Brad Sykes