By Marc McGowan
Clive Rose was one of the few Casey-South Melbourne players who could hold his head high against Carlton at Princes Park last Saturday. 26473 Picture: Luke Plummer
CASEY-SOUTH Melbourne faces almost certain defeat – and possibly outright humiliation – against Carlton this Saturday after another disastrous weekend of Premier Cricket action.
The Swans’ batting has struggled all season and only five players – three of them barely – reached double figures against the Blues at Princes Park.
All-rounder Clive Rose top-scored with a typically stoic 38 in Casey-South Melbourne’s miserable total of 125.
Carlton moved within 29 runs of first-innings points by stumps for the loss of only three wickets.
Opener Michael Sheedy (45 not-out off 111 balls) paced the Blues’ reply as they reached 97 from 37 overs.
The Swans lost struggling wicketkeeper Tom Hussey early, but looked to have steadied with Rose and in-form teenager Jake Best at the crease.
They pushed the tally to 1/40 before Best became the first of right-arm quick Chris Salm’s (3/38) three victims for the day.
But the real disaster came when skipper Craig Entwistle was dismissed playing a horrible shot off the bowling of Victorian left-arm off-spinner Jon Holland (5/36). Entwistle’s wretched run of outs has now reached six innings – a period in which the 2006/07 Premier Cricket team-of-the-year recipient has made only 35 runs.
His wicket was the first of three for just three runs that left Casey-South Melbourne at 5/66.
Michael Hansen (28 off 66), who battled through his own case of captaincy blues last summer, joined Tim Dale in a 36-run union, but the tail collapsed meekly.
Economical Carlton opening bowler Andrew Dickinson claimed 2/16 from 10 overs.
Sheedy and Jake Hancock guided the Blues to 45 without loss and the run chase continued strongly despite Rose removing the latter on that score.
Only two late wickets to Jayde Herrick (2/23) – both with Carlton on 88 – gave the Swans any chance of an unlikely victory.
Casey-South Melbourne coach Mark Ridgway was massively disappointed with his players’ display.
“It was a terrible day – we’re mentally soft as a club. That’s the problem,” he said.
“There’s plenty of talent there, but there’s no-one who is prepared to dig in and bat all day.
“It’s driving me nuts – almost to the point of exploding – it doesn’t take much to put value on your wicket and play shots that you can play.”
Ridgway also conceded that Entwistle’s batting slump was a major concern.
“I haven’t sat down and discussed it with him, which is something we really need to do,” he said.
“His form is certainly not as good as what even he expects or we expect it to be.
“I don’t know if he’s struggling with the captaincy and the batting, but the last two years he’s been a shining light with the bat.
“We need our captain to lead from the front and make plenty of runs and if the captaincy is affecting Craig’s ability to do that then that’s something we need to address.”
The round-13 clash resumes at Princes Park at 11am on Saturday.
Meanwhile, Casey-South Melbourne’s second XI bowling woes continued at Casey Fields on the weekend.
Carlton’s Jeremy Brown smashed a barely believable 270 not-out off only 216 balls, with 34 fours and seven sixes.
Brown was largely responsible for the Blues’ 510 before their attack restricted the Swans to 3/3 at stumps.
