When Casey played their first match of the season to win over Melbourne University Lightning, their was an intensity to them that no one has seen before.
Now, 18 rounds later, they are set to charge into their first ever finals campaign where they will face Bupa VNL veterans North East Blaze.
Casey entered the season with some notable names on their line up, including former Super Suncorp Netball player Erin Bell and the 2019 Deakin University Australian Netball League MVP Emma Ryde.
The excitement to be representing the newest club in the league is yet to wear off Ryde and, with a Grand Final on the table, she makes sure everyone knows about it.
“Being our first season, we’re all pretty pumped and looking forward to the challenge of a first final,” Ryde explained.
“At the start of the season we were finding our feet, finding positions,
“Because we’re a brand new club, most of us had never played together so it was about our best combinations.
“Now, at the back end of the season, we’ve hit our stride, combinations are working really well and we’re looking good heading into our first final.”
Ryde feels Casey has an edge no other finals contenders do as the new kids on the block and can use that to they’re advantage.
“I think what will give us an edge is that we are an unknown team. This is our first year and, yes, we might be coming up against Blaze who have played with each other for multiple seasons, but we can bring different things out that they don’t know about.
“We are different and unique. There’s a lot of different characters and players and one of our strengths is that we’re quick. When we move the ball quickly and with speed we can be really awesome. I might not be the quickest in the team but the team put a lot of trust in me with their long-bombs into the circle.”
In their preparations to take on Blaze, Ryde said her team is focusing on the strengths that allowed them to get on top of Blaze last time they met.
“That game where we beat blaze, that gave us a lot of confidence that we could beat anyone. They were above us and in that moment was the first time where we actually felt like we had a shot,
“It showed the others in the competition too that we’re a force to be reckoned with and that Casey can.”
Someone else who agrees that ‘Casey can’ is their club president Rebekah Bogos, most likely Casey’s number one fan.
“We are unbelievably proud of the whole group. It’s been a big team effort to go from putting a submission together to putting the team on the court and the chance to be in finals is amazing.”
As someone who oversaw the entire process that has got Casey to where they are today, Bogos said every step that the club took has been worth it.
“It’s been a steep learning curve at times coming into the VNL world,
“When we put the submission in over 18-months ago now, we put everything into it. When we got the all good, which was the best shock of all, we realised we had to deliver and the real work began. I guess making it to finals has shown we can deliver that.
“Our local community love that they can be represented by Casey. They’ve shown their support all season by becoming our members, selling out home games, and really their grassroots support is an integral part of our success this year.”
A team full of many unknown players has grown over the past months to become a side with players of the netball future, at least that is what Bogos believes.
“Because they are so united and have gone about their business on court as well as off court, it shows that they are there to mix it with the best. Most of all we want to be respected by the other nine clubs.”
Casey Demons will battle with North East Blaze at the State Netball and Hockey Centre on Wednesday 31 July. They will be on Court 4 at 7.00pm.
