Casey coach Brad Gotch gives his player review of the Scorpions’ Round Ten loss to Williamstown.

Daniel Bell -
Belly was probably our best player.  He had a role on their captain - Johnson - and while he still did some good things, and he’s a good user of the footy, kicks it well, handballs it well, we kept him to about seventeen possessions.  I thought that, in the circumstances, it was a great effort by Belly.  He worked really hard all day.  At least he could hold his head high at the end of the day.

Paul Johnson -
I thought Johnno was probably our next best player. Unfortunately, there was an indiscretion from him in the third quarter.  He’s been offered a week for that, and I don’t really think we can fight it.  So, at this stage, he’s going to take the week.  It’s a bit disappointing for him, because at least I thought in the ruck, or as a loose man in defence, or up forward, he gave us a bit of a contest.  He was one of the better players, it was just a shame that he had a bit of a brain fade.

Kyle Cheney -
I thought Kyle was pretty solid.  We had him down back, and then we moved him into the midfield in the last quarter.  We gave him a bit of a chance on the ball just to see what he could show us.  He still had a fair bit of the ball - we had him down for 24 touches - so I rated him as having a good game.  He’s pretty consistent.  I put him back to Liddell for a little bit there in the second quarter, and early in the third quarter.  I thought we were going down the gurgler anyway, and we had one of our best running players doing a negative role, so I moved him off Liddell.  That tied him up for a little while, and that’s why he might have gone a bit quieter.

Jake Spencer -
I thought Jake worked pretty hard in the ruck.  He and Johnno shared the duties.  We had him down for about fifteen touches, so he wasn’t the worst performer on the ground.  It’s just that I don’t think he used the ball.  If you look at some of his kicks, he had a chance to kick a goal, and he had a chance to go inside 50 with another kick, and he got it a bit off the outside of his boot.  It’s an area of his game that he just needs to polish up.  What happens to his possessions is important.  But I thought he tried really hard, especially when the ball hit the deck after tap outs - he followed up his work fairly well.  And, as he’s been out for a few weeks, he’s only going to get better when he gets his timing and his centre bounce stuff right.  It was pretty hard in the bog to have much influence.

Jamie Bennell -
It was a bit stiff for Jamie coming in for his first game with us in those circumstances.  The mark was a beauty, and he showed some things, I thought.  He tried to break the lines, and offer a bit of run and carry, and good use of the footy.  He took them on a few times, but they were really up and about with their physical pressure.  I don’t think he had the impact with the ball that he could have had with some of the other sides.  The pressure of Williamstown was great, but over the course of the game, Jamie still contributed.

Austin Wonaeamirri -
I thought Aussie started really well.  He seemed to be in the play a lot early on, and then once the team started to slide, it didn’t help Aussie’s cause, because naturally we weren’t getting the ball forward of centre that often.  But, I thought his pressure was noticeable, and we had him down for seven tackles.  It wasn’t like he wasn’t trying to contribute or impact on the game, it was just that he didn’t get enough opportunity.  We put him in the midfield in the second half to try and get him involved in the game a bit more, but he just doesn’t have that elite fitness of typical midfielders - but it was good that he did a bit of cameo stuff in there.  He had the right attitude.

Addam Maric -
I thought Addam had one of his quietest games for a while.  I reckon it just caught up with him - he sounded pretty flat.  It’s been a big campaign, on heavy grounds, and it’s just caught up with him.  He couldn’t find much gas on the weekend.  I thought they played really tight on him, which was good play by them, and didn’t give him much space.  Normally he can outrun his opponents and create some opportunities, but we had him down for only eleven possessions, so that was probably one of his quietest games for the year.  Hopefully he’ll bounce back after the break.

Liam Jurrah -
I suppose we were just happy to get Liam through the game.  He was up forward for most of the first three quarters, and the ball wasn’t coming in.  He did a couple of good things, and he looked likely a few times to maybe hit the scoreboard or create some opportunities for some other blokes.  In the last quarter, I decided to put him up on the wing, just to try and bring him into the game a bit more, and I thought he had a few good touches there.  He’d be really buoyed by the fact that he got through.  Now it’s just a fitness issue with him.  The more games he plays, the better he’ll get.

James Strauss -
I thought Straussy really struggled.  We only had him down for seven possessions for the day. He’s been a really important player for us this year, especially from a rebounding defender’s point of view.  But he just couldn’t raise a gallop.  He was really sore, and he felt heavy.  He might have been another culprit of having it catch up with him a bit.  So I reckon he’s going to benefit from the break.  With a couple of one-on-ones - we put him onto Patrick Rose in the third quarter, and Paddy outmarked him a couple of times, and I thought we just haven’t seen that - Straussy has been so good.

Jack Fitzpatrick -
Jack did a couple of good things early - kicked a really good goal from a snap in the first quarter - and he looked up and about and trying to do some things.  We had him in the forward line and as a backup ruckman, and even on the wing for a little bit.  He wasn’t the worst going around, but it was quite a tough first game.  He shows enough signs that he could be a decent player for us, I think.  He needs to keep training hard and have some impact.  Our stats show that he didn’t touch the ball in the second or third quarters, but he had some possessions in the others, so he’s just got to combine that to have some impact on the game.  He got through, because he’s had that shoulder, and now that’s it’s just a fitness issue and deciding where we’re going to play him.