Match result: Werribee 7.3.45 defeated by Casey 21.25.151
Venue: Casey Fields, Cranbourne
Conditions: Beautiful conditions for football

Story of the game

With a daunting task against the top-of-the-table Scorpions, Werribee hit the ground running with the first two goals of the game through Sam Durdin and Declan Mountford.

Unfortunately, that was where the Tigers' momentum stopped. 

Casey went into the first change with only at 13-point lead, but the tally of 13 scoring shots was a true representation of their dominance.

There were few highlights for Werribee on a tough day, with the Scorpions increasing their lead to 36 at the main break, 76 at three quarter time, and 105 by the final siren.

The coach said

"It was very disappointing. We knew we were going to be up against it today because they (the Scorpions) are a great side.

"They move the ball particularly well and they are really clean.

"We lost three guys really early which didn't help ... it mightn't have made a huge difference anyway, but it didn't help things." - Senior Development Coach Gavin Brown. 

North players in action

- Ben Jacobs (17 disposals, 4 marks, 1 goal)
- Sam Wright (7 disposals, limited game time)
- Sam Durdin (12 disposals, 2 goals)
- Will Fordham (13 disposals)
- Mitch Hibberd (18 disposals, 7 marks)
- Ben McKay (7 disposals, 2 goals)
- Declan Mountford (12 disposals, 2 goals)
- Daniel Nielson (9 disposals)
- Braydon Preuss (10 disposals, 33 hit-outs)
- Joel Tippett (16 disposals, 6 marks)
- Ed Vickers-Willis (13 disposals, 5 marks)
- Corey Wagner (11 disposals, 8 tackles)

Best of the AFL

Joel Tippett

Tasked with the job of playing on Melbourne veteran Chris Dawes, Tippett battled hard all day, with plenty of strong spoils despite the Scorpions' countless attacks.

"He was terrific. He was really good," Brown said.

"His one-on-one work was really good on big Dawes, who's an AFL player.

"He had a lot of contests down there with a lot of ball coming in his way, so he was very good." 

Best of the VFL

Matt Hanson

Hanson was strong at the contest and on the outside to provide some much-needed drive for Werribee going forward. 

Points of interest

1. Ben Jacobs and Sam Wright made their awaited returns to football after long injury lay-offs, the former playing the full game, the latter the first half.

Jacobs lined up against Jack Trengove during the first half, before a rare stint up forward late in the game.

"He looked a bit scratchy touch-wise, but we expected that from a long lay-off," Brown said.

"The pleasing thing was he got through the game well.

"We just wanted him to get a bit of match practice really. He went deep forward (in the last quarter) just to get a little bit more time into him before he came off." 

Wright played in defence, registering seven rebound 50s in an encouraging return.

"It was really positive. He kicked the ball particularly well for a guy who hasn't played in a long time, so that was really encouraging," Brown said.

"He got involved when he needed to and did his bit." 

2. Corey Wagner earned praise, despite not racking up the numbers statistically.

"He was really busy. I don't think he had a massive impact on the game so to speak, but in terms of his ability to just get around the footy, hunt it, get involved ... he was particularly good in that area," Brown said. 

3. Daniel Nielson was under the pump in defence, but like Tippett, held up strongly.

"Apart from the last couple of minutes where he had a couple of marks taken on him, I liked some of the things he did," Brown said. 

"He was proactive in defence. He came up and marked the ball and used it by foot pretty well and his hands were pretty good. That was encouraging." 

4. Ben McKay didn't see a huge amount of the football given Casey's dominance at the other end, but was able to impact when he had the chance.

Lynden Dunn and Colin Garland were among the Scorpions' defensive group, but McKay acquitted himself well, laying several big tackles and pulling down a great one-handed mark in the third term.

"He's got a great set of hands on him and he attacks the ball ferociously," Brown said.

"He laid three really strong, effective tackles today.

"The pleasing thing with Benny is he's got a really aggressive nature to the game and he works really hard."

Most likely AFL call-up: Ben Jacobs
Next week: v Footscray at Avalon Airport Oval, Sunday August 21 at 12pm EST