Star Parkmore recruit Danny Casset has achieved the 100-goal milestone and is this weekend looking to add a premiership medallion to his swag of awards over a stellar career.By Marc McGowan
PARKMORE enters this weekend’s Southern Football League (SFL) Division Three grand final match-up with North Kew at Ben Cavanagh Reserve as a heavy favourite.
With colossal full-forward Danny Casset fit and firing, Parkmore has little to fear from North Kew.
He has dominated defences all over Victoria – and also spent a season playing for Rennie in southern New South Wales – in his football career, kicking five tons, and this season has been no different.
Casset kicked the quickest century in metropolitan football in Victoria this year.
The Bears felt his wrath in the second semi-final two weeks ago, when Casset slid eight goals past their hapless defence.
The sides shared their home and away contests this season, but their round 13 clash, which resulted in a 44-point win to Parkmore, was a disturbing precursor to their top-of-the-ladder finals opener.
Heading into the second semi-final match-up, Pirates assistant coach Gary Connolly highlighted the Bears’ running game as a possible concern, but North Kew ran out of legs in the final stanza as the difference blew out from 28 points at three-quarter time to the mammoth final margin of 84.
Parkmore’s few injury concerns before the second semi-final all came up in that game, and with two weeks’ rest the team will be at full-strength.
The Bears will take heart from their seven-point triumph over the Pirates in round four and their come-from-behind 19-point win over Black Rock in the preliminary final.
Both teams won 15 games in the home and away season, with Parkmore taking top spot on percentage.
The Pirates have come a long way since their well-publicised struggles last year and look set to complete the Richard Houston-sponsored fairytale.
Barring a minor miracle, the Pirates will comfortably account for North Kew on their way to tougher and higher competition next season.
