Casey Demons

The Casey Football Club,[1] nicknamed the Demons and formerly the Scorpions, is an Australian rules football club based in Cranbourne East, Victoria. The club, which was known until 2005 as the "Springvale Football Club" and the "Casey Scorpions" (2006–16) and was based in Springvale, currently plays in the Victorian Football League (VFL). It has a reserves affiliation with the Melbourne Football Club.[2]

Casey Demons
Names
Full nameCasey Football Club[1]
Former name(s)Springvale Football Club
(1903–2005)
Casey Scorpions
(2006–2016)
Nickname(s)Demons
Former nickname(s)Scorpions, Vales
2018 season
After finals2nd
Home-and-away season2nd
Leading goalkickerCameron Pedersen (32 goals)
Club details
Founded1903 (1903)
Colours     Red      Navy blue
CompetitionVictorian Football League
PresidentDavid Dillon
CoachSam Radford
Captain(s)Mitch White
PremiershipsVFA/VFL D1: 5 (1987, 1995, 1996, 1998, 1999)
Ground(s)Casey Fields (capacity: 4,000)
Uniforms
Home
Away
Alternate
Other information
Official websitewww.melbournefc.com.au/casey-demons

The club changed its nickname to Demons prior to the 2017 season to strengthen its alliance with the Melbourne Football Club, also known as the Demons.[3]

History

The club was founded in 1903 as the Spring Vale Football Club, and from 1915 it played at what became its traditional home ground, the Spring Vale Recreation Reserve at Newcomen Road, Spring Vale. After initially playing in the Mulgrave Football Association, the club joined the Berwick District Football Association in 1911, where it played until the Second World War; in its time in the BDFA, the club won seven premierships. After the war, the club switched to the more metropolitan-based Caulfield Oakleigh District League. After winning the 1956 premiership, the club switched to the Federal Football League, the top suburban league in the southern suburbs of Melbourne. The club became a powerhouse of the Federal League, and in its 25 years in the league from 1957–1981, it won seven premierships, including four in a row from 1960–1963, and missed the finals only twice. Overall, the club won fifteen senior premierships at suburban level.[4]

Due to Springvale's strength as a club, it was seen as a strong contender to join the Victorian Football Association, the second-highest level of senior football in Melbourne. The club was offered entry to the VFA in 1961, after its first Federal League premiership, but the club turned down the offer, seeking to consolidate its strength in the Federal League, and worried that the proximity of Oakleigh and Dandenong could stifle its competitiveness.[5] The club applied for VFA membership in 1978, but the VFA was not looking to expand at that time.[6] Finally, as part of the VFA's expansion and restructure in 1982, Springvale was admitted to Division 2.[7] Springvale won the Division 2 premiership in its second year in 1983, and was promoted to Division 1 in 1984, and narrowly avoided relegation for the next three years.

In December 1986, Springvale was earmarked for exclusion under the Association's controversial Football Organisation Review Team (FORT) recommendations, which sought to rationalise the Association to a stronger twelve-club competition in a single division, but which were never formally enacted after being rejected by the clubs.[8] Less than a year later, after recruiting Phil Maylin and three other former League players in the pre-season,[9] Springvale proved the FORT wrong by rising to the finals for the first time and winning the 1987 Division 1 premiership. Springvale was one of only two of the FORT review's excluded clubs to survive in the VFA beyond 1991, the other being Werribee. Springvale dominated the VFA/VFL in the late 1990s, winning four premierships in five years: 1995, 1996, 1998 and 1999.[4]

When the VFA/VFL was aligned with the TAC Cup, Springvale was initially aligned with the nearby Oakleigh Chargers,[10] with that affiliation lasting from 1995 until 1998. Since 1999, Springvale has been affiliated with the Gippsland Power.[11][12]

Casey Scorpions logo from 2006 to 2016.

By 2000, the club was hindered by its Newcomen Road ground. Aside from the rundown condition of the facilities, the surrounding area of Springvale had developed a bad reputation as a drugs hotspot, which was keeping people away. The club continued to train and play some of its games at Newcomen Road, but played most home games nomadically at a variety of south-eastern suburban grounds for the next few years, initially at Waverley Park in 2000, and then in 2001 and 2002 at venues including Moorabbin Oval and Shepley Oval.[13] It returned almost full-time to Newcomen Road from 2003 until 2005.[14][15][16]

In 2005, to attempt to financially secure its long-term future, the club came to an arrangement with the City of Casey, which had developed the new Casey Fields multi-sports complex in Cranbourne East and was seeking a VFL team to play there. The club moved its training and playing base to Casey Fields in 2006, and changed its name to the Casey Scorpions Football Club.[17] This also brought the club geographically closer to its Gippsland Power affiliate.

When the VFL and the AFL Reserves merged in 2000, Springvale carried on as a stand-alone club for one season before entering reserves affiliations with Australian Football League clubs. From 2001 until 2008, the club was affiliated with the St Kilda Football Club.[18] Since 2009, it has been affiliated with the Melbourne Football Club, which also maintains a training base at Casey Fields.[19] In December 2016, the club was renamed the Casey Demons Football Club to strengthen the alliance with Melbourne, which is also nicknamed the Demons. The club will adopt Melbourne's traditional guernsey design from 2017, retaining the navy blue and red colours common to both teams.[20][21]

Honours

Club
  • Victorian Football League
    • Premiers (5): 1987, 1995, 1996, 1998, 1999
    • Runners up (3): 1990, 2016, 2018
    • Minor Premierships (4): 1995, 1999, 2012, 2016
    • Wooden Spoons (1): 2004

Individual
  • JJ Liston Medallists: Stuart Nicol 1990, D. Robbins 2000.
  • Norm Goss Medallists: D. Vernon 1987, M. Mellody 1995, K. Taylor 1996, B Delaure 1998, D. Donati 1999.
  • Games Record Holder: Damian Carroll 233.
  • Goals Record Holder: Shayne Smith 470
  • Longest Winning Sequence: 16 (1999)
  • Longest Losing Sequence: 10 (2005)

Statistics

Finals won:

Senior
  • 1987- Springvale 14 16 (100) d. Port Melbourne 7 20 (62) at Junction Oval
  • 1995- Springvale 14 10 (94) d. Sandringham 6 15 (51) at Victoria Park
  • 1996- Springvale 11 7 (73) d. Frankston 10 10 (70) at Princes Park
  • 1998- Springvale 11 17 (83) d. Werribee 5 15 (45) at TEAC Oval
  • 1999- Springvale 19 11 (125) d. Nth Ballarat 9 11 (65) at TEAC Oval

Division Two
  • 1983- Springvale 17 9 (111) d. Brunswick 13 16 (94) at Toorak Park

Club song

The club song is sung to the tune of The Battle Hymn of the Republic.

Honour roll

VFA/VFL era captains and coaches

YearCaptainCoach
1982Phillip PinnellPhillip Pinnell
1983Laurie FowlerLaurie Fowler
1984Laurie FowlerLaurie Fowler
1985Geoff AndersonLaurie Fowler
1986Daryl VernonPhil Fryer
1987Phil MaylinPhil Maylin
1988Phil MaylinPhil Maylin
1989Phil MaylinPhil Maylin
1990Craig MeadePhil Maylin
1991Graham DempsterPhil Maylin
1992Rod MorganBernie Sheehy
1993Rod MorganBernie Sheehy
1994Denis KnightBernie Sheehy
1995Denis KnightMichael Ford
1996Kain TaylorBrad Gotch
1997Kain TaylorBrad Gotch
1998Kain TaylorPeter Nicholson
1999Kain TaylorPeter Nicholson
2000Jason CaplesPeter Nicholson
2001Jason CaplesPeter Nicholson
2002Jason CaplesKen Sheldon
2003Steven HarrisonGerard FitzGerald
2004Steven HarrisonGraham Wright
2005Steven HarrisonPeter Banfield
2006Steven HarrisonPeter Banfield
2007Nigel CarmodyPeter Banfield
2008Kyle MatthewsGreg Hutchison
2009Kyle MatthewsPeter German
2010Kyle MatthewsBrad Gotch
2011Kyle Matthews / James WallBrad Gotch
2012Evan PanozzaBrett Lovett
2013Evan PanozzaRohan Welsh
2014Evan PanozzaRohan Welsh
2015Evan PanozzaJustin Plapp
2016Jack HutchinsJustin Plapp
2017Jack HutchinsJustin Plapp
2018 Jack Hutchins Jade Rawlings
2019 Mitch White Jade Rawlings
Sam Radford

Jumpers
  • Home jumper (2006–16)
gollark: Great for random access or something, I don't know!
gollark: (a triply linked list has pointers to the previous element, next element, and some other random one somewhere (it stores the index in the list that this random one has))
gollark: But more slowly, and stupidly.
gollark: You can use this yromemralugertsuj for many tasks, since it can hold data in the form of, well, regular byte-y data.
gollark: Fine, triply linked list.

References
  1. "ABN Lookup". abr.business.gov.au. 1 November 2014. Retrieved 22 March 2019.
  2. Casey Scorpions officially change name to Casey Demons in alignment with Melbourne by Ben Higgins on Herald Sun, 19 December 2016
  3. Casey Demons becomes official, Melbourne FC website, 19 December 2016
  4. Casey Scorpions (21 September 2007). "The Club – History". Retrieved 14 July 2014.
  5. Frank Morley (5 November 1960). "VFA approach to Springvale". The Sporting Globe. Melbourne, VIC. p. 10.
  6. Marc Fiddian (14 August 1981). "Springvale bid to join VFA". The Age. Melbourne, VIC. p. 24.
  7. John Craven (16 October 1981). "'Springy' for VFA". The Herald. Melbourne, VIC. p. 28.
  8. Len Johnson (6 December 1986). "Radical plan to cut VFA to 12 teams". The Age. Melbourne, VIC. p. 39.
  9. Sam Prenesti (2 May 1987). "Maylin's men spring back". The Age. Melbourne, VIC. p. 36.
  10. Adrian Dunn (13 October 1994). "Plan a 'victory' for VFA identity". Herald Sun (Afternoon ed.). Melbourne, VIC. p. 73.
  11. Rural and regional services development committee (December 2004). "Inquiry into country football" (PDF). p. 217.
  12. "Borough Continue To Build On Oakleigh Chargers Relationship". Port Melbourne Football Club. 23 February 2016. Retrieved 30 July 2016.
  13. Santo Caruso; Marc Fiddian; Jim Main (2002), Football Grounds of Melbourne, Essendon North, VIC: Pennon Publishing, pp. 140–143
  14. "Victorian Football League (VFL), 2003". Australian Football.com. Archived from the original on 2 April 2015. Retrieved 7 March 2015.
  15. "Victorian Football League (VFL), 2004". Australian Football.com. Archived from the original on 2 April 2015. Retrieved 7 March 2015.
  16. "Victorian Football League (VFL), 2005". Australian Football.com. Archived from the original on 2 April 2015. Retrieved 7 March 2015.
  17. Ben Carbonaro (29 April 2006). "Good start out at Casey Fields". Retrieved 30 March 2014.
  18. Daniel Cherny (3 May 2014). "Saints staying in Seaford despite government funding at Moorabbin". The Age. Melbourne, VIC. Retrieved 14 June 2014.
  19. Cenza Fulco; Debbie Lee (2010). "Read like a demon: football heroes promoting reading to primary school students" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 February 2014. Retrieved 30 March 2014.
  20. "Media Release: Casey Demons Football Club". Casey Scorpions. 19 December 2016. Archived from the original on 19 December 2016.
  21. "Casey Demons becomes official". Melbourne Football Club. 19 December 2016. Archived from the original on 19 December 2016.
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