St Kilda’s first-round draft pick David Armitage has improved every round and gathered 27 possessions on the weekend to be the Scorpions’ best four-quarter performer.By Marc McGowan
THE Casey Scorpions just failed to steal victory against the Williamstown Seagulls with a withering final-quarter burst earning them a draw at Casey Fields on Sunday.
It was the Seagulls’ second straight tied result after producing a comeback of their own last round against Port Melbourne.
The players were greeted with a howling breeze favouring the Berwick-Cranbourne end and Williamstown took full advantage in the first term.
Former Tiger Dean Limbach continued his early season goalscoring heroics to put three on the board as the Seagulls racked up a 42-point lead by the first change.
Casey coach Peter Banfield asked his side to lift its intensity and it was blue-chip St Kilda prospect David Armitage (27 touches and four clearances) who delivered the goods early on in the second quarter.
Scorpions’ ruckman Luke van Rheenen capped a solid stanza for his team with a booming 50-metre goal after being set-up by small defender James Taylor to leave the half-time deficit at 20 points.
Williamstown managed the opening four goals of the third period to push its lead out to 45 and looked set to blow the game open, but Casey dug in, courtesy of a brilliant solo performance from Troy Makepeace (20).
The Scorpions were desperately seeking a leader in defence and Makepeace stood up in taking two pressure-cooker marks 25 metres out to end separate Seagull surges.
He also dribbled through a goal, but Casey’s hopes appeared forlorn at the last break as it sat 40 points in arrears.
With the wind at their backs, the Scorpions had a quiet confidence about them in the three-quarter-time huddle and made a stunning start to the fourth term.
Makepeace began the run with another sensational pass to Sweeney, who goaled from 45 metres and Kyle Mathews, James Wall and Brett Voss (19 and five marks inside 50) also added majors in a five-minute period that slashed the lead to 15 points.
Both teams traded minor scores before Sweeney grabbed a big mark inside 50 and used the wind to perfection to make it a one-goal contest.
Makepeace then made another blockbuster run through the midfield and barely evaded his Williamstown tackler to send the ball forward.
Mathews managed to get on the end of it just outside 50 and duly saluted for one of the biggest goals of his young career to level the match.
Casey had all the momentum and gun midfielder Clinton Jones (16) gathered possession at the 27-minute mark.
Rather than sending the ball long as the Scorpions had done so well in the final term, Jones decided to run and was penalised for going too far.
Neither side was able to produce a quality forward foray from then on as time expired.
Banfield took some solace from the result, but felt his team had the opportunity to take the four points.
“Given we had 15 shots here in the last quarter two weeks ago, I thought it was possible that we could work ourselves back into the game,” he said.
“We got two points out of it and two points is better than getting none at all. If we’d just had a bit more luck in that last quarter we would have won.”
Banfield praised the second-half contributions of Makepeace and Mathews, which were pivotal in the comeback.
“I thought (Makepeace) was a bit quiet in the first half. In the last quarter he really stepped up to the plate and showed what a great player he is,” he said.
“Mathews was tremendous. He did some really nice things in the second half and his energy and tackling was very good.”
Casey has now won all three of its final terms following a tough pre-season.
“We’ve put a lot of work into these guys. I know we can run out games. We just have to get the starts right now,” Banfield said.
“We know if we’re thereabouts at three-quarter-time we’re going to run over them and win.”
The Scorpions sit in sixth position and in their sternest test yet meet the undefeated three-time reigning premiers Sandringham at Trevor Barker Oval at 2pm on Sunday.
