CASEY has conceded its second loss of the 2023 season at the hands of the Gold Coast Suns.
As is typical Demons fashion, the ball was hotly contested early, and there wasn’t much space to be explored by either team.
Both sides tried to play their own game and break free from the contest, but the opposing pressure was just as persistent.
As both teams grew into the match, they began to have their time on the ball and build momentum.
Casey was able to do this best, particularly towards the back end of the quarter, where they were able to chain together scoring opportunities, thanks to an abundance of forward pressure.
The first term ended in Casey’s favour as they managed to have four different goal kickers in Jack Bell, Ben Brown, Joel Smith and Charlie Spargo.
The home side flew out of the blocks early in the second quarter, kicking the first two goals and bringing the scores back to level.
This was before a period of dominance on the ball by the Demons. They controlled the contest and broke free to the forward line on regular occasions.
Unfortunately, scoreboard pressure wasn’t able to be generated as the team managed to kick five behinds spanning across 10 minutes before Josh Schache was able to break the trend.
The Suns went into halftime seven points up, but that wasn’t without a lack of opportunities for the away side that could have handed them a multiple-goal lead had they converted their chances.
The majority of momentum shifted to the Suns in the second half, and Casey looked to be chasing the game from there on out.
Gold Coast was able to manage everything that was thrown at them by the Demons, and it was a struggle for Casey to find ways to break the opposition down and hold the lead or momentum for any sustained period.
A swing of control for the Demons gave Casey hope as a three-goal haul from Oliver Sestan, Bailey Laurie, and Andy Moniz-Wakefield brought them back within five points.
Casey, however, couldn’t sustain their forward pressure and found themselves behind by 17 going into the last quarter.
It was more of the same in the last term, with Gold Coast slowly extending their lead and time ticking down, Casey felt like a positive result was out of reach.
Late goals from Jake Melksham and Joel Smith gave Casey one final push with a slight chance of pegging back the result late, but the margin was too much.
Casey has a bye next week, which should give the team a period to reset and build for the next portion of the season. They return on May 20 against North Melbourne at home.
CASEY: 4.3 (27) 6.9 (45) 10.9 (69) 13.14 (92)
GOLD COAST SUNS: 2.3 (15) 8.4 (52) 13.8 (86) 17.10 (112)
GOALS: 3 Brown, 2 J.Smith, Melksham, 1 Sestan, Spargo, Schache, Moniz-Wakefield, Laurie, Bell
DISPOSALS: 25 Laurie, 24 Woewodin, 24 Howes, 23 Tomlinson, 22 Spargo
