History beckons for Casey Demons in VFL Grand Final against Southport

About half of Casey Demons’ most recent premiership players have huffed over birthday cakes bright with 50 candles.

In 1999 the club was known as Springvale, and a thumping win over North Ballarat in the grand final brought the Vales their fourth flag in five years.

Former St Kilda defender Kain Taylor captained the 1996, ’98 and ’99 premiership teams.

And if his old club wins the VFL grand final against Southport at Carlton on Sunday, Taylor will pass the 2022 premiership cup to Demons’ captain Mitch White.

Similarly, if a Casey player is judged best-afield, five-time best and fairest and former captain Steve Harrison will present the Norm Goss Medal.

Taylor’s Springvale side was a warm favourite in 1999, just as the Demons will be when they meet the Sharks.

Under coach Mark Corrigan, the Dees were defeated only once in the home-and-away season, to Brisbane in Round 22, and their lead-in finals brought handsome victories over the Swans and Brisbane.

Leading VFL commentator Nigel Carmody, who played at Springvale and was then part of the club’s move to Casey Fields in Cranbourne in 2006, says the Demons have been as exceptional as the ladder suggests.

They have not conceded more than 88 points in a game and have regularly kept opponents under 10 goals.

“It’s a winning formula. For all their attacking arsenal, their defence is the thing to be celebrated,’’ Carmody says.

“It’s probably easier to defend when the ball’s not down there as much, but when it is, they’ve got a great system and work in unison really well.’’

The arsenal Carmody refers to includes Mitch Brown, Tom McDonald, Jacob Van Rooyen and Sam Weideman in a team thick with Melbourne players.

There is a historical element to the grand final, with the Demons aiming for their first flag under the Casey banner and Southport trying to land its first VFL premiership in its first full season in the league.

It’s Casey’s third GF in five completed seasons: It reached the grand final in 2016 under the coaching of Justin Plapp and in 2018 under Jade Rawlings.

White and fellow leader James Munro played in both matches.

“We’re really excited, we obviously played some really good footy throughout the year and now we’re at the last one … now it’s about who can play their best footy for the next two hours on Sunday,’’ Corrigan said at a press call this week.

“All along, the message I’ve been trying to convey to the players is to have an appreciation for the opportunity that is at hand every week – we’ve got a greater perspective given what’s unfolded over the past two years, so for us every week we don’t take for granted the opportunity to be out there playing so that’s bought us the opportunity to play off in a grand final, which has more significance and is probably a little bit more special given what we’ve gone through the past two years.’’

Corrigan has a high regard for the Sharks, who finished third on the ladder and are coached by former leading Victorian country coach Steve Daniel.

“They’ve been outstanding,’’ Corrigan said of the Queenslanders.

“They’ve played a really strong brand of football that is consistent every week, they’ve got mature bodies, experienced players, they’ve got youth and in the finals they’ve been able to play their best footy, so they’re going to be a real challenge, strong in the contest, they play a good forward half brand of football and they’ve got threats all over the ground.’’

*****

As Kain Taylor points out, so much has changed at the club and in the competition since Springvale’s 1999 premiership.

There were 11 teams in the VFL in 1999.

There were 18 in 2000 after the league absorbed the AFL reserves.

And there were 21 this year after the league took on board affiliates from the wound-up NEAFL in 2021.

For all its success in the 1990s, Springvale was struggling to stay afloat at its Newcomen Rd ground, and officials made the momentous decision to look to the growth area of the City of Casey.

Fresh fields were on offer in the form of the Casey Fields sporting complex.

The Springvale Scorpions relocated to Cranbourne east, became the Casey Scorpions and then the Casey Demons.

Carmody says ambition and adaptation are central to the club’s history.

“You think about the process going from the Berwick District league to Federal and then being prepared to have a crack at the VFA in what was a fairly volatile time,’’ he says.

“They always found a way. Those four flags in the 1990s were built on exactly the same thing.’’

When the VFL was revamped in 2000, Springvale went in as a stand-alone and, after a modest start to the season, flashed home to make the finals.

Long-time supporters remember it as one of their favourite years.

Coach Peter Nicholson had lost great players including Taylor and Denis Knight from the powerful 1999 team and pushed up a batch of youngsters to replace them.

More change came in 2001 when Springvale entered an alignment with St Kilda.

At the end of 2008 Casey and Sandringham swapped AFL clubs, Melbourne linking with Casey and St Kilda with Sandy.

“The club’s always been about adapting and having ambition, but also surviving,’’ Carmody notes.

“That played out through the move to Casey Fields and then the change in alignments. If you’re going to survive in this game and particularly in this tier of footy, you’ve got to adapt, and I think the club’s always done a good job of it.’’

He says Casey is mindful of honouring its past, as highlighted by the call-out to Taylor and Harrison for the grand final.

Still, Taylor was disappointed when the Scorpions changed their nickname to the Demons at the end of 2016.

“I don’t know how others felt, but I thought a fair chunk of our history disappeared when that happened,’’ he says.

“That was pretty hard to swallow, no doubt.’’

*****

Daniel Donati has picked up a lot of plaudits – and four premierships – for his coaching at local level in the past few years.

In 1999 he also picked up the Norm Goss Medal as best player in the grand final.

Donati had only one season with the Vales, but it had a profound influence on him. He says it was the best team he played in.

“I just remember the art of the old-school leadership there from guys like Kain Taylor and ‘Jeffsy’ (Michael Jeffs),’’ he says.

“They had this steely resolve about them that I’d never experienced. I was from Xavier College and I went to Springvale. I tell you what, it opened my eyes to the team and to care and all the things I’ve carried through my time in football. Those guys were extraordinary. I was lucky to be a part of it.’’

Damian Carroll, now the head of development at AFL club St Kilda, played in the team, as did his brilliant brother Johnny.

He says 1999 was the “last dance’’ for a “phenomenal’’ Springvale team.

“We knew that time was something special,’’ Carroll says.

“We had a really good mix of experience and young guys like Craig Clarke and Mark Passador coming through. It wasn’t like the club was paying big money but it was a place where players wanted to come and be involved.’’

Taylor says Springvale was a “roaring favourite’’ in 1999.

That year he battled his body as much as his opponents, and was happy to be towed along for the ride.

“I think the role I played, and it’s probably the same for blokes like ‘Knighter’ (Knight) and ‘Bones’ (ruckman Simon Clark), was to keep a level head on the young blokes,’’ he says.

“If we did that I thought the rest would look after itself. It did.’’

And the prospect, 23 years later, of the Springvale premiership captain potentially standing on the dais at a Casey Demons-Southport grand final?

“Yeah, big changes,’’ he says. “But look back at the competition 10, 15 years before I started playing at Springvale. It was so different then. It was the VFA and people would argue they were the halcyon days. And now more than 20 years after I stopped playing it’s different again with all these new teams.’’

But there was something old-fashioned about Springvale.

“Those four flags were based on a group of blokes wanting to do the right thing for their club and hang around and win as many premierships as they could,’’ Taylor says.

VFL Grand Final

Sunday, September 18

Casey Demons v Southport (Ikon Park, 12.50pm)

Tickets: $20 adults, $15 concession, U15 free. Available at the gate or here LINK: www.intix.com.au/events/vflgrandfinal2022