By Marcus Uhe
A fourth-quarter fade out consigned the Casey Demons to a third loss of the season on Wednesday afternoon, overrun by Richmond in a Anzac Day eve clash at Richmond’s Swinburne Centre.
Trailing by two points at the final break, Tom Fullarton kicked the all-important first goal of the final term to retake the lead in what had been a seesawing affair, before the Tigers kicked the final four of the contest to finish 20-point victors, 15.5 95 to 11.9 75.
It was a close contest all afternoon, with the lead never more than two points to either side at each of the three breaks – twice to Casey and once to the home side.
Richmond led for much of the contest, however, with Casey’s biggest lead of the contest only seven points late in the first term.
Taylor Whitford’s side showed resilience time and again to ensure the Tigers’ lead never grew beyond 20 points until the dying stages of the afternoon.
The Tigers kicked the consecutive goals on two occasions in the contest and four also twice, where Casey could only manage one run of each.
Where the Tigers had 10 individual goalkickers, Casey had only five, with debutant Shane McAdam and Josh Schache leading the forward pack with three goals apiece.
McAdam, in his first contest in red and blue since being traded from Adelaide at the conclusion of the 2023 AFL season had 11 disposals and took five marks, including two in the first half that will be hard to top as the best of the VFL season.
The first saw him climb onto the shoulders of a Richmond opponent in front of him and fully extend from his already elevated position, while the second saw him complete a lead by jumping into the hip of teammate Will Verrall to elevate over the pack.
Adam Tomlinson finished with 38 disposals and 15 marks and Marty Hore took nine as the key posts down back felt the pressure of the repeat entries from the Tigers.
Lachlan Hunter had 23 disposals.
The Demons will welcome Williamstown to Casey Fields on Sunday in what will be just the second time this season that they will take to the field in consecutive weeks, thanks to a bye in round four and a league-wide bye for the AFL’s Gather Round on the opening weekend of April.
