Scorpions on a winner

– Marc McGowan
IT TOOK nine rounds, but the Casey Scorpions are finally ahead in the win-loss ledger after the Northern Bullants became their third straight victim on the weekend.
The Scorpions have been playing catch-up since their 103-point opening-round shellacking at the hands of Sandringham.
But they have established strong momentum in recent weeks, following a series of tight losses and are looking confidently ahead to a match-up with second-placed Williamstown next round.
Casey has a break this weekend due to the split round, but coach Peter German believes it will have a positive impact on his players.
“We’re more into the season now, so a bit of a break on the weekend mightn’t hurt us, where early (when we had the bye) we were still building our momentum,” he said.
“Now we’re actually starting to build a bit of confidence in the team … I think we’ll handle it a lot different than last time.”
German also said his side faced several crunch games in the second half of the year.
“The losses we had to Box Hill and North Ballarat – two games we really played well in and didn’t win – have put us behind the eight-ball,” he said.
“Pretty much every game we play now against a side above us is a real watershed game for us.”
Reserves players Ben Waite, Wade Lees, Josh Bolton, Jimmy Taylor, Gus Patti and Melbourne-listed Trent Zomer are pushing for a senior call-up.
Ruckman Jake Spencer suffered an ankle injury in the reserves match on Saturday and is likely to miss a couple of games.