Kangaroos’ veteran Corey Jones started on the right foot in a dominant display up forward, but had a premature end to his match after a sickening clash of heads with a team-mate.
The 29 year-old was taken from the ground and had to be transported to hospital for observation.
Just prior to the incident, Jones was enjoying plenty of the ball and had five shots on goal in the first quarter, but inaccurate kicking left him with a tally of just one goal and four behinds.
“While Corey didn’t have a great day, he wasn’t alone. Josh Smith also struggled a bit up forward and only managed to kick one goal. However, you really have to take the weather into account and it wasn’t ideal for Josh,” Lamont told kangaroos.com.au.
Two players who did adapt well were defender Daniel Pratt (25 possessions) and Leigh Harding (20 possessions). Both would be hoping their best on ground performance will cause North coach Brad Scott to sit up and take notice.
Harding was dropped for the second time this year while Pratt is still aiming to play his first AFL game for 2010 after frustrating run of injuries.
Pratt had plenty of support from Luke Delaney down back with the rookie also spending time in the ruck. Marcus White (19 possessions) spent the majority of his time in defence during the first half before moving forward with less of an impact in the second half.
The Roosters led by two goals at three quarter time, but couldn’t capitalize despite a home ground advantage, eventually losing by 10 points.
“There were way too many mistakes made and too many turnovers, as well as some inaccurate kicking which really cost us,” Lamont added.
While youngsters Cruize Garlett and Warren Benjamin were in and out of the game, both finished with 17 possessions for the day.
Earlier in the day all eyes were on in-and-under midfielder Ed Lower as he made his way back from a broken leg in the reserves.
Despite playing just 65 minutes of game time, the 22 year-old collected 20 possessions and gained some much needed match fitness.
“Ed told me he was really feeling it after the match, but he was extremely happy to have made it through unscathed and he will now look to really step up and increase his fitness and force his way back to the AFL.”
2010 VFL Seniors
North Ballarat 4.5 6.6 8.7 9.9 (63)
Casey Scorpions 1.1 5.3 6.3 11.7 (73)
GOALS:
North Ballarat: Dinnell 2 Peters Smith Tyler Driscoll Jones Benjamin Richardson
Casey Scorpions: Newton 3 Miller 2 Watts 2 MacReadie Stockdale McGough Maric
BEST:
North Ballarat: Harding Sewell Greig Pratt Tyler Moloney
Casey Scorpions: Nicholls Rivers McGough Maric Taylor Miller
REPORTED PLAYERS:
North Ballarat: Nil
Casey Scorpions: Nil
2010 VFL Reserves
North Ballarat 4.0 8.1 15.4 19.11 (125)
Casey Scorpions 4.3 10.4 12.8 19.12 (126)
GOALS:
North Ballarat: McKenzie 4 Jones 3 Linke 2 Struth 2 Couch 2 Nicholls 2 Bell 2 Peters 2
Casey Scorpions: Waite 4 Fitzpatrick 2 Plummer 2 Simpson 2 Weekes 2 Johnson Lillie Smith Petropoulos Wonaemirri Sykes Hillberge
BEST:
North Ballarat: McKenzie Couch Peters Tate Jones Lower
Casey Scorpions: Johnson Fitzpatrick Sykes Smith Waite Patti
