The Casey Demons have rubber-stamped a dominant VFL season to claim premiership glory, overcoming a fierce test from Southport Sharks to win the grand final by 32 points.
Played in torrential rain at Ikon Park, three final-term goals from Melbourne AFL forward Jake Melksham, and four for the match, proved the back-breaker in a low-scoring scrap, the Dees kicking away late to claim victory 10.10 (70) to 5.8 (38).
Having relocated from Springvale and become the Demons’ AFL-affiliated club in the early 2000s, the win is Casey’s first VFL premiership since winning a third flag in fourth years in 1999 as Springvale.
The Sharks were left to rue spurning a series of chances in the first half, including a shocking miss from Billy Gowers; but once the Demons got on top midway through the second quarter, they seldom relented.
Captain Mitch White was a fitting winner of the Norm Goss Medal for best afield, having clamped down on Sharks star and former Gold Coast Sun Jacob Dawson while winning 29 disposals and laying 13 tackles himself.
For Melksham, who returned to the Casey line-up having finished the season in the AFL team during their straight-sets finals exit, the victory was bittersweet.
“I played the first two-thirds of the year with these boys… lots of senior players, lots of great young talent,” he told Channel 7.
“To come back after a disappointing week last week [in the AFL] and have an opportunity to play in a grand final and win one, I was never going to let that opportunity slip.
“It was a long week, not drinking and thinking about the loss [to Brisbane in the semi-final]… I’ll enjoy a few beers tonight and just enjoy the great success for the club.”
With the Demons having lost just one game for the season and cruised through the finals with 47- and 51-point wins in their qualifying and preliminary finals respectively, the Sharks were heavy outsiders heading into the decider.
But after Melksham kicked the first, it would be the underdogs who would start fastest, their quick play and attacking instincts proving too much for the previously miserly Dees defence, with several former AFL players key to the surge.
With Richmond 2017 premiership hero Jacob Townsend looking dangerous in attack, booting a goal and having a hand in several other chances, and one-time Port Adelaide player Boyd Woodcock running riot in midfield with 10 disposals, the Sharks had 19 inside 50s to 7 for the first quarter.
But wasteful kicking would prevent them from capitalising on that dominance, leading by just seven points at quarter time.
Costly set shot misses to Ryan Davis and Daniel Charlesworth looked set to prove costly, but having conceded one goal or fewer in five of eight quarters this finals series, the Dees looked decidedly rattled at the first break.
A more egregious miss would follow to start the second; running into an open goal with just two players ahead of him, a Shark and a Demon, Billy Gowers had the choice of drawing the man or kicking the major himself. He chose the third of two options, missing on the run; and the miss would spark the Demons to life.
Beginning to dictate terms out of the middle, with Sam Weideman fighting admirably in an unfamiliar ruck role against Sharks giant Brayden Crossley, it was young gun Kade Chandler, whose ten games at AFL level for the Demons have seen him start as the medical sub in eight, who turned the tide.
With 15 disposals to half time, the 22-year old led all Dees at the main break; a superb smother to deny a Sharks shot at goal, and an excellent chasedown tackle shortly after the resumption, were just as crucial.
Inspired, the Demons would kick the only two goals of the quarter – the second, an outstanding set shot from another AFL-listed Dee in Mitch Brown, giving Casey the lead.
The margin was just six at the main break, but as the rain grew more and more severe and the momentum having well and truly turned, it seemed more decisive than that.
The change in the game was confirmed when cult hero Jimmy Munro, tough in the clinches all day with a staggering 17 tackles, snapped truly from congestion.
It would be Casey’s only goal from a non-AFL listed player all afternoon – but having struggled for opportunities early, the Demons could now do no wrong.
Having not goalled since midway through the first quarter, Townsend’s second in the shadows of three quarter time kept the Sharks within distance; but an instant reply through Bailey Laurie, another Dees AFL young gun, preserved a 15-point lead at three quarter time.
A monster goal from Melksham from outside 50 to begin the last quarter, a remarkable strike given the conditions, would all but seal the result.
With lightning spotted, thunder heard and the rain not easing, only the match being put on hold due to the conditions could delay the inevitable Casey coronation.
With the Demons making all the running, only an utter capitulation – like the team rushing as one to celebrate an apparent Oskar Baker goal without realising a point had been awarded, and allowing a fast Sharks kick-out – could snatch the premiership off them.
When Melksham added a third with a close-range dribbler to shut the door, the premiership was official.
More goals to Brown and Melksham again, whose return to the team after being on AFL duties throughout Melbourne’s ill-fated finals campaign, saw the margin blow out. Having been outgunned, all the Sharks could do at the end was blow off steam, triggering a brawl after a pair of sensational Daniel Turner smothers.
Kicking a goal while half the Demons were distracted fighting, the Sharks won that battle. But with the siren sounding shortly after – though there was still time for Melksham and Townsend to threaten a repeat – Casey, like they have all year, won the war.
Casey 10.10 (70) defeated Southport 5.8 (38) by 32 points at Ikon Park.
Goals
Casey: Melksham 4, M Brown 2, Woewodin, Bedford, Laurie, Munro.
Southport: Townsend 2, Pescud, King, Johnson.
Best
Casey: White, Chandler, Melksham, Weideman, Munro, Dunstan.
Southport: Woodcock, Boakye, Joyce, Townsend.
Norm Goss Medal: Mitch White (Casey)
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