Peter Jackson VFL – Round 6
Northern Blues v Casey Scorpions
Saturday 10 May 2014 – 2.00pm AEST
VISY Park, Carlton North

Head to Head
Played: 53
Northern Blues: 14       
Casey Scorpions: 39

Last Time They Met
R12, 2013 at Casey Fields: Casey Scorpions 13. 14. (92) defeated Northern Blues 9. 10. (64)

Already five rounds in, the Northern Blues face a defining point of their season when they host Casey Scorpions at Visy Park tomorrow.

With eerie similarities to their 2013 season, the Blues find themselves sitting in eighth position on three wins, two losses and a poor percentage of just 84 per cent.

But spurred on by embarrassing losses to Werribee (102 points) and Coburg (nine), and with experienced bodies expected to return given Carlton’s shrinking injury list, Northern will be hoping for a reversal in fortunes to avoid a third straight defeat.

Casey will arrive at Visy Park full of confidence playing at a venue that they have had recent success at – winning the last three at Northern’s home. 

The Scorpions’ wins have been scored over Essendon at Windy Hill and Frankston down the south-east coast.

Similar to the troubles Northern had with Werribee, Casey has historically relied on forward firepower, and long, direct ball movement to a forward line that has always been characteristically tall.

It ensures the Scorpions accumulate a multitude of inside 50s to place opposition defences under pressure. The flipside of that advantage is opposition defences have found rebounding – and scoring from rebounding – easy in previous years.

This year however, they boast the fourth-best record for scores against.

Their issue now is their own scoring – the third-worst in the competition. Casey has been hurt by a large player turnover and has the highest number of players in any of the 16 clubs to have played a VFL game.

Last year’s spearhead, Jesse Hogan has been missing all year, with the Scorpions possessing just two players to have kicked more than five goals, and just one player, Jack Best, to have kicked 10.

The midfield battle could be interesting one with respective ball winners Mitchell Clisby and Nick Graham going head-to-head, and it will be interesting to see how much time Luke Webster puts into Clisby, by trying to cut down his handball receives (averaging 12 a game).

Melbourne-listed players Aiden Riley, Jimmy Toumpas and Sam Blease also present the Blues with quality match-ups given current form.

For Northern, converting opportunities in front of goal and getting first use out of the centre will be vital, as the Blues haven’t kicked anything like a winning score since Round 3.

In the midfield, they will be boosted by the return of captain Brent Bransgrove, who plays his first VFL match for 2014.

As the Blues face a bye in Round 7 before an interrupted mid-season period with the State Game just fortnight later, tomorrow’s result is already shaping up to be more than about the four premiership points on offer.

Northern Blues Player Watch

22. Sam Cattapan: A notorious ball-winner, any thoughts as to how Cattapan would settle into VFL football were quashed after the first half of his debut in Round 2. 19 first-half possessions (to finish with 27 at the game’s end) sent the ball in motion, as Cattapan has enjoyed partnering with fellow possession, Nick Graham in the middle. One of the minority in terms of Northern Blues-listed players, his low status makes him dangerous weapon in the midfield.

26. Andrew McInnes: After a slow-ish start to the year, McInnes is returning to the form that makes him a nightmare for opposition forwards. Superb closing speed, rediscovered timing on the spoil and a ruthless attitude to defence, McInnes could be likely to take either Casey leading goal-scorer, Jack Best or Demons-listed Luke Tapscott as a second tall.

27. Cameron Wood: Superlatives have almost run dry for the Carlton rookie. 73 hitouts to go with 19 possesions and seven clearances rubber-stamped his credentials as the form ruckman in the competition to date. The pairing of Melbourne-listed Scorpions Max Gawn and Jack Fitzpatrick will be a good test, and – in the game’s perspective – decisive.

Northern Blues Selected Squad**
B Byrne M. Watson McInnes
HB Armfield Giles Bootsma
C Scotland McLean Lucas
HF Graham Anthony Bransgrove
F Garlett B. Johnson Ellard
R Wood Cripps Cachia
I/C T. Thomas Holman Wilkinson Tardio* Reynolds Posar Cattpan Totevski Wilson Temay Coulson Dufficy Sheehan

* Denotes 23^rd man

** The final squad will be confirmed in conjunction with Carlton’s team announcement tomorrow afternoon