Demons no match for rampant Tigers

Casey couldn''t match the intensity of Richmond for four quarters 192828 Picture: ROB CAREW

By Tyler Lewis

In modern day elite level football, the victorious side has to play the full four quarters – especially against the best side in the competition.

For Casey, one half of football was never going to be enough to knock off the ladder leaders Richmond at their fortress that is Punt Road on Saturday.

With the senior match between the two affiliated AFL sides following the VFL match, a mammoth crowd turned out to the Swinburne Centre to see the first and second seeded sides from the 2018 home-and-away season do battle.

The game threatened to be a contested slog in the opening stages, playing into the hands of Jimmy Munro and the tackling juggernaut the Demons have proved themselves to be.

But when Richmond get the ball on the outside and the likes of Patrick Naish and Marlion Pickett start kicking the football in open space – the Tigers are merely unstoppable.

Unfortunately for Casey, that is exactly what the Tigers did, ultimately getting the jump on the Demons and going into the first interval with a healthy 26-point buffer.

The Demons lifted after the first break, when Jimmy Munro ran hard to kick a snapping goal and Mitch White converted his set shot, and Casey were slowly but surely pegging themselves back into the game.

Casey etched closer again in the third term with Jay Lockhart swerving his set shot through to make it a three kick game at the final break.

But the clinical Richmond side awoke at the threat of a contest in the final term to put the Demons away.

Ben Miller kicked the first of the last inside a minute before Toby Bedford replied not long after.

With time looming a factor, the Tigers had a five minute burst of brilliance – kicking three majors and ensuring they are in the box seat for the second straight year.

Despite the finals door still left ajar for Casey after losing to Richmond, Demons coach Sam Radford is prioritising each week and the development of his young group.

“We knew how they (Richmond) were going to play – we just weren’t good enough to stop it for four-quarters,” he said.

“We weren’t able to slow them down and the way they wanted to move the ball – we weren’t able to keep the ball in our half as much I would’ve liked which is an errant we need to improve on.

“I think the focus needs to be on us playing our brand of footy for four quarters.

“Because if we don’t do that it doesn’t matter how the ladder goes.

“We have a young team and it is about us developing and improving every week, we have Collingwood this week – they are in good form after an unbelievable win against the Blues so that will be a challenge.

“If we are worried too much about the next few weeks and finals – we won’t beat Collingwood.

“So we have to focus ourselves on beating Collingwood and that is what we are doing.”