Young prospects shone through and an old head made a successful return to footy, yet the Northern Blues fell to their second straight defeat at the hands of Casey by 28 points on Saturday afternoon.
Travelling down to Casey Fields, there was much excitement about the comeback match of Andrew Carrazzo, returning from a calf injury that has seen him sidelined since Round 2 of the AFL season.
Casey jumped the Blues early with two goals to young Melbourne prospect Jesse Hogan. The 17-year-old grabbed two of his eventual six goals inside the opening five minutes.
Well-beaten around the clearances early on, it took the efforts of Carrazzo and youngster Nick Graham (25 possessions, 8 clearances) to generate forward movement out of the contest.
They would eventually prevail as the Blues’ managed two first-quarter goals through Northern’s Tim Lincoln and Tom Wilson.
Wilson’s goal was beneficiary of a terrific intercept mark by Nick Duigan, who carried the ball for 60m before dishing off for the goal assist.
Duigan’s four first-quarter spoils, along with five rebound 50s from Andrew McInnes, epitomised the defensive work rate and desire of the Blues who rallied late in the first quarter to trail by just 14 points at quarter time.
The second quarter began with a bang through a goal to Jeremy Laidler off the ground, before Sam Rowe finished some brilliant midfield pressure from Dylan Buckley to cut the margin to three points.
Buckley would grab his own goal late in the quarter, with a beautiful running finish from the 50m arc after receiving a sweeping handball from Graham.
Tom Bell (22 possessions) was bullish through the midfield as the Blues’ turned the tide in the midfield, trailing by just six points at half time.
Playing predominantly forward, Rob Warnock registered the Blues only two goals of the third quarter after a quiet first half.
McInnes and Duigan continued to be fantastic roaming across half back, but the Casey tall forwards continued to give the Blues headaches doing crucial damage on the scoreboard.
Northern entered three-quarter-time 16 points in arrears, as Carrazzo sat out the rest of the match in a predetermined move.
The Carlton vice-captain was excellent finishing with 21 possessions (12 contested), five clearances and five tackles on around 70 per cent game time.
His absence partially wounded the Blues out of the centre in the final term, but wayward kicking in front of goal saw the Blues cost themselves opportunities to cut into the lead.
Casey took full advantage of the missed chances making the Blues pay, ultimately kicking seven of the last 10 goals of the match to run out 28-point victors at the final bell.
Speaking post-match, Coach Luke Webster said his side needed to get better at limiting the opposition’s uncontested footy.
“We had a slow start and played well for three quarters and ran out of legs just like last week,” Webster said.
“It’s something we’ll have to address, along with trying to stop opposition sides getting free footy. They almost doubled us today.
“I thought our desire was up for most of the day, especially in tackles (50-33). We were up and about in the first half, but we couldn’t sustain it.”
Webster also pointed to his sides’ poor disposal and goal kicking – 3.10 in the second half – as contributing factors.
“We had plenty of chances today to win the game…but there was too many times where we just turned the ball over with short kicks,” Webster said.
“Against good sides like Casey they’ll make you pay and it showed.”
Sitting precariously in eighth spot after Round 12, the Northern Blues will travel to Windy Hill to take on Essendon next Sunday afternoon.
NORTHERN BLUES 2.0 6.0 8.5 9. 10. (64)
CASEY SCORPIONS 4.3 6.6 10.9 13. 14. (92)
GOALS: Warnock 2, Wilson 2, Buckley, Rowe, Laidler, Mitchell, Lincoln
BEST: Meese, McInnes, Graham, Carrazzo, Duigan, Wilson
Matthew Lodge covers Northern Blues games for Carltonfc.com.au. You can follow him on Twitter: @MatthewSLodge
