Grand final time is here

CRICKET

LVDCL

By LIAM DURKIN

THE wait is almost over to see who will be crowned premier for season 2021/22 in the Latrobe Valley and District Cricket League.

Churchill and CATS will fight it out at Ted Summerton Reserve, Moe for this season’s Premier

A title.

The best team of the 2021/22 campaign is up against a side that has emerged as a contender in recent weeks.

Churchill finished 10 points clear on top of the ladder at the conclusion of the home-and-away season, with just two losses to its name.

The Cobras have certainly made a mockery of their pre-season declaration to

The Express that they “won’t be as good as we were last season”, and will go into the grand final with eight consecutive wins behind them.

CATS too are in form, having not dropped a game in over a month.

CATS, with their genuine X-Factor players in Cal Stewart and Tinashe Panyangara, have the

ability to walk games in, although the question on most people’s lips will be: did CATS play their grand final last week?

After winning a pulsating semi-final by four runs, it will be intriguing to see if there is any emotional baggage from those in the CATS line-up.

Speaking of line-up, one would expect both teams will go in unchanged, although this being a grand final there are often curveball selections.

While it is highly dangerous to tinker with a settled team, there can be some logic in plucking

someone from obscurity.

Just think of Marlion Pickett – how do you plan for someone you’ve never seen before?

Churchill probably won’t feel a need to change their order. The Cobras are seasoned cricketers and another grand final could well just be a case of ‘been here before’.

Grand final day will mark a fifth consecutive A Grade decider for Churchill.

The Cobras made the grand final in their last season in the Traralgon and District Cricket Association and have made the grand final in every season the LVDCL has been in existence.

As most cricketers are also footballers, you would be hard pressed to find a town that has enjoyed as much recent success in the two sports as Churchill.

With five cricket grand final appearances and appearances in the last two North Gippsland

Football-Netball League grand finals, Churchill certainly mounts a strong case as a sporting

beacon.

Cobra players Brendan Mason, John Keighran, Ryan Harvey and Steve Warr will bring no shortage of experience into the contest this weekend, which will surely count for something.

CATS by contrast has undergone a more up-and-down last few years, making the Premier A Grade grand final in 2018/19 before getting relegated the very next season to winning the A Grade flag last season to be promoted again.

It now finds itself back playing in a Premier A Grade decider, again against Churchill, just as it

was three years ago.

The general consensus last season was that CATS were ‘too good’ for A Grade. Now that they have a Premier A Grade grand final to play, they have the chance to show just how good they are.

You would be brave to tip against Churchill, although this writer did say ever so quietly last week CATS was a dark horse for the premiership.

MOE and Trafalgar will meet at Yinnar Turf for the A Grade premiership.

The Lions and Ships finished the regular season in the top two on their respective ladder, meaning a good contest should be on the cards.

Trafalgar lost only one more game than Moe during the home-and-away, while both traded wins against each other the two times they played.

Andrew Philip and Rhys Holdsworth will no doubt take top billing for Moe and Trafalgar and

could be the difference, but the Lions and Ships have had an even contribution from players with either bat or ball this season, which should provide the opportunity for many to put in a match defining moment.

Generally in a grand final there is always one unassuming hero, someone who has perhaps flown under the radar all season and chipped in with a few handy 20s or cheeky two-fors that plays out of their skin on the big stage.

Just who that player ends up being will add to the narrative of what takes place on the day.

As bizarre as it sounds, Saturday will also present a rematch two years in the making for a game that was never played.

Moe and Trafalgar were scheduled to play each other in the 2019/20 A Grade grand final,

only for the match to be abandoned due to COVID. In the wash-up, the Ships were awarded the premiership after ending the regular season as minor premier.

As many of the Moe and Trafalgar players from then are still around, Saturday will at least give players the chance to play in a grand final, while also giving some indication as to whether or not the Ships won that premiership on their own merit or were simply handed it.

From a club perspective, Trafalgar could also see this game as a stepping stone in expediting the process of getting a turf wicket.

If the Ships happen to win and get back into Premier A Grade, they could hold some significant bargaining power in seeing their turf wicket dream come true.

The players themselves will surely want to return to the top flight and avenge what was a fairly dismal maiden campaign last season.

With just three days to go before the grand finals, a great deal of excitement is sure to surround the clubs involved.

Before the day arrives however, players and officials might like to draw on a passage from Act 2 Scene 3 of Romeo and Juliet, in what could well be the only time you will ever see Shakespeare quoted in a sporting story: “Wisely and slow, they stumble that run fast.”