CASEY suffered its first loss of the VFL season on Sunday afternoon, falling to Richmond by 35 points in a free-flowing contest at the Swinburne Centre.

Casey Demons 13.8 (86) defeated by Richmond 17.19 (121).

The Demons started aggressively, taking the game on with an attacking style of play, and after just 13 minutes, had five unanswered goals on the board.

But as the game opened up, the Demons couldn’t restrict Richmond’s run, and conceded 36 scoring shots throughout the match.

“The disappointment was that when we were challenged strongly we weren’t able to stem the momentum,” senior coach Jade Rawlings told Melbourne Media.

“We showed some good resilience in the third quarter … but we got out classed and overrun in the end.”

Playing with an impressive dare early, Casey smothered the Tigers with ferocious pressure, and carried the ball through the centre well, with Oskar Baker showing his dash on the outside.

“You can’t be unhappy when the scoreboard reflects the way it did after 15 minutes,” Rawlings said.

“But they raised their intensity around the ball, their good players got involved and their forwards looked dangerous, so it was quite a handful to cope with.”

Cameron Pedersen was the beneficiary of repeated forward entries early, with three goals to his name by the 21-minute-mark of the match.

In a 14-goal opening term, the Demons took an 11-point lead into the first break.

But Shai Bolton provided a spark for the Tigers, as they kicked six goals to one in the second quarter, changing the momentum of the match.

“We got challenged by a really good footy club,” Rawlings said.

“We had our own challenges, but Richmond were just too good in the end.”

Casey fought on in the second-half, with Charlie Spargo and Mitch Hannan getting their hands on the ball, but basic errors let the Demons down, as Richmond eventually converted in front of goal.

“We had people dropping marks and missing handballs … so that had a lot to do with their scoring opportunities,” Rawlings said.

“We were really poor aerially, so we’ve got a lot of work to do across the ground.”

Pedersen was the dominant forward finishing with five goals for the match.

“I thought he played four quarters and was a genuine target down there,” Rawlings said.

“He presented well and we asked a fair bit more of him after his game against Werribee and he delivered.”

Tom Bugg limped off after landing awkwardly in a marking contest in the second term and failed to return, while Mitch Lewis was also left on the sidelines after suffering concussion in just the second-minute of the match.

After starting the game well, Jay Kennedy-Harris spent time on the bench in the third-quarter with a shoulder complaint, but was able to go back on the ground.

James Munro was the most impressive of the Demon midfielders with 27 disposals, showing desperation around the ball and tackling with intent.

Casey named a significantly different side to last round, with just 12 Melbourne-listed players taking the field against the Tigers. Without Harley Balic, Jayden Hunt, Joel Smith, Tim Smith, Billy Stretch and Sam Weideman from the victory over Werribee, the undermanned Demons were left with a mighty challenge against last years VFL grand finalists.

But Rawlings refused to provide excuses for the inexperienced outfit.

“We’ve trained our Casey-listed players to be able to play against the best,” he said.

“It’s the reality that you have good weeks with AFL player access and availability and you have weeks where it’s more challenging, but it is up to us to be able to deal with it and we didn’t do that well enough today.”

Richmond proved too good as the game wore on, with Tiger Callum Coleman-Jones booting three goals and steering his side to victory.

For the first time this season, Casey will return home to Casey Fields next Saturday night, taking on Geelong at 7pm.

CASEY DEMONS    8.2    9.5    11.6     13.8  (86)
RICHMOND              6.3  12.8  13.14   17.19 (121)

CASEY GOALS
Pedersen 5, Spargo 2, Baker, Filipovic, Hannan, Kennedy-Harris, Lockhart, Scott

CASEY BEST
Pedersen, Munro, Spargo, Morrison, Baker, Hannan