By DAVID NAGEL
THE Casey Cardinia Football League is just one step away from a top-10 ranking in the state after the Demons overcame a nervous start to down Bellarine by 45 points at Geelong’s Simonds Stadium on Saturday.
The CCFL now stands alongside Geelong and Central Highlands as the only leagues in Victoria to have won all three inter-league contests since the Worksafe VCFL Championship restructure in 2012.
Wins over Nepean, Wimmera, and now Bellarine have seen the Demons climb from 17th to 12th, with a showdown against Sunraysia next year to decide if the Demons can make it four-in-a-row and continue their rise up the rankings.
Bellarine looked the better team in the first quarter with its fleet-footed half-backs capitalising on some sloppy use of the ball from the normally exquisitely skilled Demons midfield. If not for the magnificent work of Kain Baskaya, Nick Scanlon, Brandon Osborne and Nathan Brown down back, the Demons could have been much further in arrears than the 20-point margin at quarter time.
Coach Michael ‘Jock’ Holland instructed his team to dispose of its short kicking and go long in the second quarter, a simple instruction that transformed the Demons from confused – into a confident and hard-running machine.
Midfielders like Matt Wade, Josh Tonna, Michael Collins, Steve O’Bryan, Matt Lee and Dom Paynter took control, benefitting from the great work of Kym Jones and Jake Gains in the ruck. Goal-kicking machines Marc Holt and Kerem Baskaya, and the heir apparent Jordy Andrews, started licking their lips.
Baskaya and Andrews kicked three each for the afternoon, but it was Holt who took centre stage with eight goals in a best-on-ground performance. The Cranbourne ace marked everything in sight as the Demons kicked 12 goals to one in the second and third terms to take a stranglehold on the match.
Kain Baskaya, Wade, Scanlon, Tonna and Osborne joined Holt as the Demons’ best contributors.
