Cats paw sore Scorpions

By Marc McGowan
A TALENT-laden Geelong Cats side and a depressing injury list conspired to deliver the Casey Scorpions an 81-point poleaxing in dreary conditions at Casey Fields on Saturday.
In drastic contrast to the Scorpions’ AFL-affiliate St Kilda, the Cats have no such injury issues and paraded an amazing array of performers on the weekend.
Most notably, Geelong’s out-of-form ruckman and former captain Steven King (21 possessions and 32 effective hit-outs) was relegated to the VFL to regain form and he did so with aplomb.
He could be in some trouble, however, after being reported for allegedly tripping Casey captain Nigel Carmody (20 possessions) in the final term.
King combined with Cats’ prospect and former Gippsland Power star Trent West to repeatedly feed his midfield that included the likes of the fleet-footed Shannon Byrnes, Mathew Stokes (33) and Brent Prismall (23).
Geelong set the tone from the outset, but sprayed many attempts at goal in the first period after there was heavy rain prior to the contest.
By quarter-time, the Cats had racked up a five-goal lead, courtesy of 13 scoring shots to the Scorpions’ three and an astonishing 18-5 inside 50 count.
The encounter had also already established a predictable trend – the dominance of AFL-listed forward Charlie Gardiner, who, along with Todd Grima, was beginning to make Casey’s pre-game nightmares a reality.
It took until the nine-minute mark of the second stanza for the Scorpions to register their first major when workhorse Shane Birss (25), following a free kick for a push in the back, slotted one from the pocket.
Unfortunately, it did not provide any momentum as King, after taking a relieving mark in defence moments earlier, managed to put through Geelong’s sixth to re-establish its authority.
Birss kicked another, but the Cats produced the next two before eventually going into the main break 38 points clear.
It proved to be Casey’s most competitive period as Geelong kicked on in the second half, with the individual brilliance of Kyle Mathews (18) not enough to offset his team’s continued poor disposal.
The Cats put-paid to any chance of a Scorpions’ revival and rode the superb performances of Byrnes and Stokes to a nine-goal-to-five term.
The one positive out of the quarter for Casey was the back-to-back six-pointers to Fergus Watts, who was making his 2007 debut and Birss, which was the first time they had achieved the feat for the match.
The game trailed off in the final stanza, but Geelong managed to further extend its lead as its goal tally reached 22 and in the end they were far too good for the Scorpions.
Casey coach Peter Banfield was far from resigned to defeat before the match, but conceded his side was always going to be up against it.
“Put it this way, we knew it was going to be a tough game when we saw the side they’d be sending down to Casey Fields,” he said.
“This competition is great, but sometimes it is an unlevel playing field and at the moment we are going through a bit of that.”
Banfield drew positives from the encouraging efforts of Mathews and fellow youngster Steven O’Bryan (18).
“Kyle is a great player. I wish I had more Kyle Mathews and he’ll be an even better player when we get more tall support around him,” he said.
“The likes of Kyle and Steven are the future of the club and they’ve only played a touch over 10 to 15 games each so far.”
The rapidly accumulating injuries at St Kilda have dosed the pre-season expectations within the club.
“I thought with a clean run of injury we’d have won two or three more games, but we’ve been severely hampered by what’s happened at St Kilda and unfortunately we have no control over that,” Banfield said.
“Once we get a few more players back, we are still going to be a good side.”
The Scorpions face another hard battle on Sunday when they take on Coburg at Coburg City Oval at 2pm.
It will be their last match until 2 June with the upcoming bye and state match between the VFL and the West Australian Football League on 26 May.