Casey Cardinia league review – round 5

By Mark Gullick
BY QUARTER-TIME the match of the round had fizzled after Devon Meadows produced a six-goal to one opening term at Keysborough.
The Panthers were never headed and cruised to a convincing 59-point win.
The final score was 15.10 to 6.5.
“Our entire first half was really good,” Devon Meadows coach Steve O’Brien said. “We won the areas that counted the most, such as the contested ball and we were able to move the ball pretty quickly to our forwards and our blokes up there looked dangerous all day.”
O’Brien was wary of Keysborough, especially its forward six.
“I think they’ve probably got the best forward line in the competition and I thought our back line overall was superb.”
O’Brien was pleased with his match-ups of Aaron Henneman’s on Greg Walker and Daniel Rigg on Tyson King. Ryan Murphy was the Panthers’ best player. Big man Adam Jago continued his excellent early season form.
No team has scored more than seven goals against Devon Meadows and they have conceded the fewest points in the competition.
“People have got to start looking at our back line and start paying it some respect,” O’Brien said. “We’ve the best defensive unit in the competition at the moment.”
After five rounds, they lead the ladder, which may surprise many people, but not O’Brien.
“Internally, we sat down and assessed ourselves and discussed some medium-term plans,” he said. “It’s not a total surprise to us. We thought we were capable of being in this position as long as we could gel as a group, and we’ve been able to do that. We know we’re a pretty good side.”
Keysborough coach Brad Canavan was disappointed with his players’ efforts.
“Devon Meadows were very polished, very slick,” he said. “They highlighted a few flaws in our game plan and highlighted a few flaws in our individual players. We played very individual football. We had (only) four good players.”
While keen not to downplay his opponents, Canavan believes his team was hampered by the umpiring.
“I know it’s Umpire Appreciation Week, but we had 12-1 free-kicks against us at quarter-time and it was 31-11 by the end of the game,” he said. “I never use umpires as an excuse, I thought we were outplayed and that was fair and reasonable, but 31-11 was quite a discrepancy and I’m going to ring (umpires coach) Peter Marshall about it. I thought it was too significant.
“My biggest issue was having three umpires, which I think is unnecessary because the interpretation of the three were very different in terms of holding the ball and correct disposal. I don’t want to sound like a whinger because credit goes to Devon Meadows.”
It was Keysborough’s first aberration for the year, but Canavan remains upbeat.
“We still have high expectations of ourselves and we still expect to play finals, even if that means finishing fifth,” he said.
Will Gayfer moved into the midfield and was Keysborough’s best player. Dean Gentle was effective in defence, Tyson King was placed in the midfield after starting up forward and Shaun Witherden tried hard in the ruck.