Despite a six-goal flurry by North Melbourne in the last quarter, Casey have held out the visitors to secure their sixth win of the season, the final score 18.9 (117) to 16.6 (102).
Casey began the game strong as they looked to have returned to their best and well-known style of playing out of the contest and favouring their tall forwards.
Casey we able to get numbers around the ball at each contest and find ways to outnumber the Kangaroos to win the ball.
Jack Bell was able to find himself winning the ruck battle and providing plenty of opportunities for the Casey midfielders to find the ball and get it moving.
Going forward, Ben Brown was the main target for Casey as they repetitively went for the tall forward when going inside 50.
However, he was consistently double-teamed and was unable to win the contest, resulting in the ball quickly rebounding outside the Casey forward line.
As the quarter progressed, Casey began to pick out other targets.
Joel Smith was one of them, as he took an incredible high-flying grab in the middle of a pack in the goal square.
The incredible contested mark was his first impression on the game, and he was able to begin influencing the match with his constant movement and drawing out defenders.
As the game progressed, Casey couldn’t break clear of a 5-point margin over the away team, until Joel Smith kicked his third for the game.
Smith’s goal began a four-goal unanswered streak for the Demons thanks to Smith, Oliver Sestan, Jake Melksham, and Matthew Jefferson.
This allowed Casey to pull away a strong lead going into half time.
The third term was an up and down quarter with both teams having the share of momentum and possession.
No team was able to kick two unanswered goals with the contest remaining tight and North Melbourne preventing the Demons was going the lead to anything out of reach.
Casey was looking in control going into the last quarter, but a strong Kangaroos team failed to give up hope of a comeback.
The away side slotted three goals in a row early in the quarter and bought the margin back to only 17-points.
This only kicked Casey into gear as they worked hard to hang onto the lead and not let a valuable lead slip late in the game.
Casey will be eager to continue their winning efforts next week as they take on a very strong Werribee team who were able to knock over the Gold Coast Suns.
CASEY: 5.1 9.4 14.7 18.9 (117)
NORTH MELBOURNE: 4.0 6.0 10.4 16.6 (102)
BEST: Smith, Laurie, Steele, Melksham, Schache
GOALS: 3 Smith, 3 Melksham, 3 Schache, 2 Brown, 2 Laurie
DISPOSALS: 27 Jordon, 24 Tomlinson, 23 Laurie, 23 Steele, 22 Turner