BY MICHAEL ESPOSITO
WERRIBEE left the battle for fourth spot wide open after failing to fire a shot against Casey on Saturday.
The Scorpions have only lost three games at Casey Fields in the past two seasons, and they never looked
like dropping Saturday’s game, defeating the Tigers 17.11 (113) to 10.9
(69), and stealing fourth spot from Werribee.
Brendan Fevola bagged six goals
for Casey but for Werribee coach
Paul Satterley, he wasn’t the main problem.
“They were really able to negate a lot of what we’ve done really well this year which has been our switch of play and our ability to get some run and rebound from half-back,” he said.
“I thought where the game was going to be won or lost was in the midfield. We’ve been the number one clearance side all year and they carved us up in there.”
Kyle Hartigan, who marked Fevola all game, was one of the few players Satterley commended.
“It was always going to be hard for him with the amount of footy that was coming in but he just stuck to his task and at no stage did I ever want to take him off (Fevola),” he said.”
The Tigers will have to beat North Ballarat at Eureka Stadium this Saturday to secure fourth spot.
MEANWHILE, Williamstown rebounded from the previous week’s gruelling five-point loss to Port Melbourne in mighty fashion, thrashing Box Hill by 101 points in a merciless performance on Saturday.
It was even more impressive considering Williamstown had eight changes to its line-up from the Port Melbourne game.
Williamstown had seven players
who had played no more than two games for Williamstown’s senior side, and
had collectively played seven senior games.
Matthew Cravino, in just his second game for the senior side, was among Williamstown’s best.
Williamstown finished the game more than 100 possessions ahead of Box Hill, with Dyan Addison (26 possessions), Sam Reid (26), Brett Johnson (25) Mitch Hahn (25), and David Stretton (24) among the major ball winners.
Box Hill’s Brad Neil kicked the game’s first goal just 34 seconds after the first bounce, but the Hawks’ second didn’t come until the 18-minute mark of the second quarter.
In between time, Williamstown piled on 11 goals to effectively kill the contest at the main break.
If Box Hill decided to play for pride in the second half, it didn’t show, as the Williamstown juggernaut rolled on against the flimsy resistance of the Hawks, ensuring that if the Seagulls and North Ballarat finish the season on equal points, Williamstown will have the better percentage to secure second spot.
