Comets finals hopes dashed

By Gavin Staindl
AFTER all the debilitating losses that threatened to destabilise the core of the Casey Comets, the Women’s Premier League club has missed out on making the finals by only one point.
Casey even had the chance to sneak into the top four with a win over Box Hill but had to settle for a 0-0 draw against the league leaders at Comets Stadium.
The defence-minded Box Hill needed just the one point to secure top spot, which did not help Casey, which found penetrating its opponents’ defence laborious.
Lisa Cloke had two clean opportunities in the second half to give her side a shot at finals but was denied by Melissa Barbieri, the Matildas’ and Box Hill’s goalkeeper.
The Comets needed Ashburton to lose to have any chance at finals, so as news filtered through with 15 minutes left that Ashburton was two goals down the Comets began to work overtime for the late winner.
The goal never came and that failure meant Casey had missed out on making the Premier League finals by less than three points in the past two years.
After the match Casey coach Debbie Nichols could not help but look back to the past month and wonder what might have been.
“They gave it their all and one game killed us,” she said. “The Bendigo game was what did it for us.”
She was referring to Casey going down 0-3 to Bendigo three weeks ago in what she described as one of the most “embarrassing” performances she had been a part of.
The Bendigo loss followed poor performances against South Melbourne and Sandringham that eventually proved the difference between playing finals and missing out.
“It is hard to swallow,” Nichols said. “We have the ability to play finals but we somehow can’t put away the teams that are below us.
“It is a preparation thing, and I don’t think our frame of mind when we come up against the top teams is the same as when we come up against the lower sides.”
Nichols is undecided on what the future has in store and she will go into talks with the club next month.
“I’m 50-50 at the moment. After the Bendigo game I would have said there is zero chance I would come back again but now it is a more-than-likely chance,” she said.