Case points to finals for Casey women

By Gavin Staindl
THE Casey women have gained an unlikely but vital point over Heidelberg in their endeavour to catch Ashburton in time for the finals.
Fifth-placed Casey had a shock 1-1 away draw while fourth-placed Ashburton was smashed 0-4, reducing the gap between the two teams from six points to five.
With three rounds left, Natalie Grubis’s equaliser in the second half means Casey’s home match against Ashburton in two weeks may well be the clash that decides who makes finals.
Natalie Grubis was one of four players replacing influential youngsters Lisa Cloke, Alex Gummer, Tahlia Silivestros and Laura Haws who all missed last Sunday’s match because of school commitments.
“Natalie Grubis and Danny Lawrence both have been doing quite well in the reserves and their selection is purely based on their performances there,” Comets coach Debbie Nichols said.
“They (Heidelberg) struggled in the opening 10 minutes. We had Grubis, who is just as quick as Nicola Prins, up front so they had to try and reset themselves to get used to the two quicks up forward,” Nichols said.
But the momentum that came with a dominant Casey first half quickly evaporated when Heidelberg scored in the 40th minute.
“I said to myself, ‘I don’t believe this’, we had done all this hard work then they score what I thought was a very soft goal,” Nichols said.
The tap-in header gave the home team a 1-0 lead heading into the remaining half but a rejuvenated Comets responded after the break with Grubis bobbing upto level the scores.
The end-to-end game gave both teams ideal opportunities to claim the lead but some agonising misses left the result dead-locked at 1-1.
For Nichols, the game was as frustrating as it was satisfying.
“It’s good to get a point on Ashburton and keep us in a chance for finals,” she said.
“But this game summarises my frustration. I haven’t done anything different at training for two weeks to change how we perform but we go from what we were like two weeks ago to this. It doesn’t make any sense.”
Two weeks ago, with a full squad, the Comets were trounced 0-5 by Sandringham at home.
Last week with an undermanned team the Comets travelled to Heidelberg and stole a point from the in-form team of the competition.
“We haven’t got points off Heidelberg at Heidelberg for as long as I can remember,” Nichols said.
Casey now has a three-game home stretch, beginning with Bendigo this weekend, to round out the season.