From The Age
Reported by Brent Diamond
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COLLINGWOOD'S rich depth of talent continued to shine in its sizzling 115-point win over Casey Scorpions in a ''David versus Goliath'' second elimination final at TEAC Oval yesterday.
Meanwhile, reigning premier North Ballarat powered its way through to a preliminary final after defeating Port Melbourne by 48 points at Eureka Stadium.
The Magpies have several guns pushing hard for an AFL finals berth with midfielders Danny Stanley (34 disposals and four goals) and Ryan Cook (34 disposals) leading the way.
Sharrod Wellingham, an emergency for today's qualifying final clash against the Saints, was left out of the team.
Brad Dick was at his elusive best with five goals with coach Gavin Brown full of praise for the livewire's performance.
"He was really dangerous as we know he can be and he worked really hard to get to those spots," Brown said.
Cameron Wood was also prolific in the hit-outs while adding a defensive side to his game.
"He really gave himself a chance for next week," Brown said.
Rookie Jarryd Blair (33 touches) was also dynamic in the clinches along with the Magpies' VFL captain Damien Peverill.
The lopsided scoreboard, reading 26.21 (177) to 9.8 (62), was almost half-expected in the lead-up to this contest considering Scorpions coach Peter German termed it a "David versus Goliath" battle.
It was one of the VFL finals' biggest ever mismatches in terms of talent with Casey having just three Melbourne-listed players, while Collingwood had 21 AFL-listed players, plus ex-Bomber Peverill.
Casey had 13 Demons eligible to play but 10 of them including Jack Watts (broken hand), Kyle Cheney (ankle) and Danny Hughes (hip) were forced out by Melbourne because of post-season operations and to give the young players enough time to gear up for their next pre-season.
German called on AFL Victoria to start and finish the VFL season earlier to give AFL teams an opportunity to ready themselves for next season without hurting their VFL affiliates.
"It just makes it tough for Melbourne to get any continuity with the start of next season, especially the young kids," German said.
"I've suggested that the finals should have started two or three weeks ago so you're not putting some teams like us who are with an AFL club preparing blokes for next year."
German appeared shattered after his sixth-placed team's most demoralising loss of the season.
"If I knew that was going to be the story of the day, you'd actually rather not make the finals because I just think it's really done some harm to our footy club today," he said.
North Ballarat was far too polished for Port Melbourne with Cruize Garlett and Daniel Feery leading the Roosters to a 15.8 (98) to 6.14 (50) win in Tom Roach's 100th game for the club.
The reigning premier's class and skill shone with North Melbourne's Corey Jones impressing with three goals.
