Coburg went down to the highly fancied Casey Scorpions by 47 points at Casey Fields on Sunday. On a perfect winters day for footy, Coburg were rarely in the contest after being blown away early. To their credit they fought well in the second half to keep the deficit to below 50 points when many could have thought heads would be dropped and Casey would storm away through the likes of Jesse Hogan, James Magner and Neville Jetta (three of their best on the day).
The match began as a typical scrap, both teams going extremely hard at the ball, resulting in a large amount of stoppages in play. This went on for about the first 10 minutes of, with the score reflecting more of a soccer score than a football one. The contested start to the game seemed to be suiting Coburg, as it ensured the game remained tight, but it didn't take long until Casey's midfield busted the game open and they eventually went in to quarter time ahead by 15 points.
The second quarter is when Casey took full ascendancy in the match, the schackles had well and truely been broken and they began to run riot through the centre, the pace of neville jetta was a huge headache for Coburg, as he continued to win the ball and look dangerous in the forward half of the ground. Coburg struggled to get much of a grip on the footy for the term and lost the quarter 7 goals to 2, going in to half time down by 44 points. Carnell, Arnot and Nahas were the only Coburg goal scorers for the half, with Carnell in particular showing a lot of effort and coming out as the shining light for the half.
Coburg started the second half strongly, getting their hands on the ball a lot more often early on, and managing the first goal through Liam McBean who was missing last week. Unfortunately for the Tigers however, it didn't take long for Casey to again find their feet. The quarter was tightly contested, with Coburg managing to stem the flow of goals that saw them give up such a big lead in the first half, eventually going in to the last change down by 52 points.
Going in to the the last quarter, it could have been expected that the Coburg players heads may have dropped, and the 52 point lead could have been blown out to something much higher, to Coburg's credit however, they produced their best quarter of the day and managed to win the quarter 4 goals to 3, reducing the margin below 50 points to 47 at the end of the day. One of the best for the last term was Ben Clifton who began to look dangerous in the forward half and plucked his second goal in the dying seconds of the match.
Clifton, along with Carnell and Venditti were the major shining lights for Coburg on an otherwise disappointing day. Each of these players are Coburg listed (Not Richmond) and sent a message to the rest of the squad in terms of the effort needed to be competitive at the VFL level.
CASEY 16.15.111
COBURG 9.10.64
GOALS: McBean, Clifton 2, Arnot, Nahas, Carnell, McDonough, Longergan 1.
BEST: Carnell, Venditti, Dea, Derickx, Arnot, Clifton.
Next weeks match-up is against Geelong at Mantello Holden Oval, on Sunday at 2pm
The Development squad play at 11 against Werribee at Avalon Airport Oval.
Last Modified on 24/06/2013 11:00