Parkmore Pirate Fabien Pataud takes a strong overhead mark during the Southern Football League Division Three match against Dandenong Demons on Saturday.In his flashy white boots, Pirate defender Terry McKinley leads Demon forward Robert Westin in the race to the ball.By Glen Atwell
IT was as though the Dandenong Demons had never heard of Danny Casset, and the Pirate full-forward made them pay for that mistake.
Saturday was a dark day for the Demons, who copped a 98-point Parkmore Pirate thrashing in their Southern Football League Division Three match at Wachter Reserve.
Casset commandeered the Pirates ship, booting 11 goals in a stellar stand-out performance.
The Demons attempt to shut down the SFL’s leading goal-kicker failed miserably.
Casset led, marked and goaled at every opportunity and left fans questioning the defensive tactics used by Demons coach Mick Hawken and assistant Joel Duggan.
Carl Meister, Matthew Boswell, Sam Fus and Brad Rae all rotated through the Demons’ full-back position, but were incapable of stopping the rampaging Casset. Hawken defended the man-on-man tactic, saying it was useless going into the game by flooding the backline.
“Unless a team has a strong forward line, you can’t afford to play extra men in defence,” he said.
“With a player as good as Casset, you can’t start negatively and throw extra players down there – it just doesn’t work.”
So what does?
“At quarter-time it was two goals the difference, things weren’t out of control,” Hawken said. “We were controlling the amount of ball flowing into the Parkmore attack, but we switched off and that cost us the game.”
Casset has booted 38 goals in five games and has definitely lived up to the pre-season hype surrounding his move from Doveton Football Club to the Parkmore Pirates.
Sean Millane and Anthony McDonald made impressive debuts for the Pirates and should play pivotal roles in the team’s hunt for a Division Three premiership.
Justin Isaac, Terry McKinley and Fabien Pataud were prominent players for Parkmore.
With Steve Coats missing from the Demons forward line, too much pressure is placed on Robert Westin to kick the bulk of the score.
The Demons simply did not have the attacking firepower to challenge Parkmore’s arsenal of goal-kicking players.
A big test is in store for the Pirates on Saturday, when they travel to Cerberus to play the three-headed dogs.
