Bendigo looked destined to continue its surge up the ladder on Saturday, until they ran into the Casey Scorpions, as Adem Saricaoglu writes.
The Gold led Casey by 29 points at three-quarter time at Windy Hill and seemed to have things in control, but the Scorpions, as they so often have this season, clawed their way home and kept Bendigo goalless in the final term.
“Very disappointing to not come away with the win,” Bendigo coach Hayden Skipworth said after the game.
“To go down in the last five minutes is a bit heartbreaking, but that was the first game we’ve lost in seven weeks, so still overall a pretty good block of form for the boys,”
If Bendigo had held onto its lead, it would have been their seventh straight win and possibly put them in the top four.
The signs were good early for the Gold as they established a one goal lead at quarter time.
Their momentum continued into the second quarter and by the halfway mark the term found themselves 24 points up.
But soon after Casey scored three quick goals of their own and ended up levelling the quarter, Bendigo were up by a goal once more at halftime.
Despite Casey successfully closing down Bendigo’s trademark run, the Gold again added to the scoreboard quickly after halftime.
Injury-prone Essendon star Jason Winderlich stretched the lead to 18 before dangerous small forward Matthew Little found himself on the end of a coast-to-coast goal as the quarter ticked into time-on.
Up by five goals but kicking into the breeze, Bendigo looked to have things taken care of early in the last term.
Shots on goal that would have iced the game continued to fall short in the wind for the Gold, which soon became very costly.
The Scorpions again added three quick goals to bring the game back within a kick and were rewarded for their direct forward entries, something Skipworth demanded his side do at quarter time.
Ruckman Jake Spencer scored the sealer at the 28-minute mark as Bendigo struggled to break free to halt Casey’s momentum.
Skipworth said his side took its foot off the pedal to allow Casey back into the game in the final quarter.
“I thought for three quarters we were really on top of them and then in the last quarter we played pretty safe and let them dictate to us,” Skipworth said.
“They got the game on their terms and they were good enough to score enough goals to win in the last quarter.
“We ran out of legs a bit in the last, but we were trying to get deeper entries and getting it to Matt Little, who’s playing well up forward.
“We were chipping it around in the middle a bit too much.”
Bendigo’s line-up was hit by Essendon naming Tom Bellchambers and Scott Gumbleton, which Casey’s talls seemed to benefit from.
“They (Casey) were really good at getting an extra number at the high ball coming in, but to their credit they did take a lot of marks and they switched it really well,” Skipworth said.
“Probably our forwards were a bit undersized without having Gumbleton go up and Bellchambers go up.
“We lacked a big target to go to and they were able to get a few marks.”
Essendon stalwarts Winderlich and Mark McVeigh were both impressive for the Gold.
“I thought McVeigh had a really good third quarter and was really instrumental in us getting a big lead,” Skipworth said.
“We couldn’t ask too much from those guys because they’ve been out of the game for a fair while and it was Jason’s second game back so we couldn’t ask too much from him.
“I think he got two goals (one goal) and set up a lot of our play, so they were both contributors on the day.
“I thought Jackson Merrett was really good. Brendan Lee was super; we had him down for 39 touches.
“He’s had a terrific year and he’s done nothing wrong all year but play good footy.”
Bendigo’s run into the finals won’t get much easier with dates against Sandringham, Geelong and Port Melbourne ahead.
“We’ve got a really tough draw coming home,” Skipworth said.
“Unfortunately we play all the top teams twice, so if we make the finals and if we’re lucky enough to finish high in the finals, then we’ve really earned it because we’ve had to play the better teams twice.
“But if we’re lucky enough to make the finals, it’s going to hold us in good stead to be able to play against these better teams.”
This week sees the Gold returning to Queen Elizabeth Oval in Bendigo to take on fellow top four hopeful, Sandringham.
Last Modified on 18/07/2012 16:43