The Northern Blues were comprehensively beaten by the Casey Scorpions by 107 points at Casey Fields on Sunday afternoon.
Casey dominated in wet conditions from the first bounce to walk away 19. 11. (125) to 2. 6. (18) winners.
Northern were thrown on the back foot almost immediately with Casey kicking the first four goals of the game within 10 minutes.
The Blues couldn’t get the ball out of defence, with the Scorpions locking the ball and restricting Northern to nine inside 50s for the quarter.
Kristian Jaksch was moved behind the ball late in the first quarter, but was forced to stay down there for the remainder of the game when Kieran McGuinness came off the ground.
The captain Tom Wilson was carried from the ground on a stretcher during the third term after hitting his head on the ground while being tackled.
The two incidents saw both men taking to hospital as a precaution, with the two leaders losing feeling in their arms immediately following the respective collisions.
The Blues evened up the game in general play in the second quarter, but despite only having nine fewer inside 50s, they conceded nine more goals to trail by 57 points at half time.
It was more of the same in the third with Casey kicking the first three goals of the quarter, before Tim Totevski got Northern on the board 20 minutes into the third term with a kick off the ground from the goal square.
Hisham Kerbatieh kicked the Blues’ second from a free kick early in the fourth quarter, but that would be the end of the side’s scoring for the afternoon.
Casey kicked away with late goals to blow the margin right out over three digits, sealed by a goal on the siren.
The Blues would finish the day with just one fit player, with Daniel Gorringe and Cameron Wood both having their days also prematurely ended.
Nick Graham was nominated as his side’s best player, as he led the way for the Blues with 32 disposals, nine marks and 14 tackles as a lone hand in the middle.
Matthew Dick was again prolific with 27 disposals, while Kerbatieh had 19 disposals to go with his final quarter goal.
Casey finished the game with 55 inside 50s to Northern’s 29, and had a multitude of goalkicking options going forward including Jaxon Briggs and Sam Weideman (four goals each).
Speaking post-match, Graham said the Blues were comprehensively beaten for the entirety of the contest.
“It really wasn’t a great performance, there’s really no excuse for the performance we dished up today and we’ll review that pretty heavily,” Graham said.
“There wasn’t a lot that went right, everything we planned for during the week we didn’t execute and I think we went into self-preservation mode late.”
After riding the highs of a Carlton win against Collingwood on Saturday afternoon, Graham said the performance Northern conjured was even more disappointing.
“It was a great win for the Carlton boys yesterday and they clearly put in a four quarter effort which we didn’t do: we’re a whole of club and united so it’s important we all work together and improve as a group,” Graham said.
“It was really tough to see two of our leaders Kieran McGuinness and the captain Tom Wilson go down, so it’s important we all rally around each other – especially those boys.”
The Northern Blues will need to bounce back next week again Williamstown at Burbank Oval on Saturday afternoon.
