DAVE: Alright boys, the grand finals of both of our major competitions have been run and won, with Springvale South claiming the DDCA Turf 1 premiership and Kooweerup winning the CCCA Premier Division title, both with comfortable victories. But before we start on those games…Jonty…what are you wearing on your head?
JONTY: Dave, you know perfectly well what it is, it’s the company birthday hat, a very colourful item that I am wearing to celebrate my 20th birthday today.
DAVE: Congratulations mate, but geez I feel old…I was an over-the-hill 34-year-old cricketer by the time you were born.
JONTY: I normally wear a cap Dave, but this is replacing it today.
DAVE: How would you describe it Marcus?
MARCUS: It’s borderline fascinator – if Jonty was going to the spring carnival he’d nearly get away with that.
JONTY: Good point Marcus, it does have a bit of that.
DAVE: Righto, enough carry on from us three, let’s get stuck into it. Marcus, tell us how the DDCA Turf 1 granny unfolded from your point of view.
GRAND FINAL GLORY
MARCUS: I was expecting a tighter contest to be honest, but full credit has to go to the Springvale South bowling attack, because Buckley Ridges was 1/82 at one stage and looking pretty comfortable at the crease. They capitulated to 147 all out with Blade Baxter and Jarryd Straker doing most of the damage with the ball. The Bloods chased it just four wickets down in the 37th over. But full credit to the bowlers for staying focussed in horrific conditions to bowl in. It was hot and it was windy to the point where you couldn’t hear each other speak from one metre away. They had three bowlers take 20 wickets for the season, in one-day cricket, which is pretty impressive and their opener Yoshan Kumara took 15. Congratulations to Springvale South for going back-to-back.
DAVE: The conditions were shocking at Kooweerup as well, but on a synthetic pitch. Did the heat and really strong wind have an effect on the pitch at Berwick?
MARCUS: I don’t think so, but Jordy Wyatt said if he had won the toss he would have bowled, which I thought was a surprise, but I don’t think it played a role…it was just an awful day to bowl and field.
JONTY: So Baxter and Straker; are they best and fairest-type players? They obviously stood up in the grand final, but have they performed well all season?
MARCUS: Baxter has been their best player since Christmas, pre-Christmas it was Ryan Quirk with his centuries and two fifties…
JONTY: He was leading the Wookey wasn’t he?
MARCUS: Yes he was, but Baxter has been outstanding since then, and Straker has been as consistent as you want throughout the whole year.
DAVE: I think we’ve missed the boat here boys…the combination of the name Blade, who plays for the Bloods, is something we haven’t capitalised on with our headlines this season. Hopefully he has another belter when October rolls around for the 2023/24 season.
Boys, I had the privilege of watching Kooweerup win its eighth premiership in 14 years on the weekend, and the main storyline to emerge from this one is the unbridled passion this club has for its returning skipper Michael Giles. I interviewed every player after the match, and to a man they all mentioned the return of ‘Doofy’ as a key component of their premiership success. Doofy was stood down as captain of the club after a public incident just over seven years ago, but returned this season to try and win a premiership. He achieved that on the weekend with two of his great mates – Chris and Matt Bright – who played in an incredible eighth premiership together. The two Brights said it was like playing with a third brother, that’s how close they are to Giles. There were some very emotional scenes down at Koowee, but none better than when Chris Bright picked Giles up after he collapsed to the ground after the last wicket. It was pretty symbolic I thought – one of his great mates picking him up when he was down. I just imagined that happening quite a few times over the last seven years.
From a cricket point of view, the two attacks were polar opposites, Cardinia relying on its spin while Koowee has the best three-pronged pace attack that I’ve seen in the local game in the last dozen years.
Adam McMaster, Luke McMaster and Jess Mathers – good luck dealing with those three, they were absolutely relentless.
MARCUS: That’s a big call Dave, the best attack you’ve seen.
JONTY: I was about to say the same thing.
DAVE: Not the most balanced attack, but the best pace attack. You might get one; two is a luxury, but to have three bowlers sending them down on tidy lines at a pretty hot pace was magnificent to watch. They knocked over Tooradin last week for a tick over 100, and Cardy this week for 129 on grand final day…the results speak for themselves.
SAD OR EXCITED
DAVE: Next topic is firstly directed at you Jonty. What are you going to miss about cricket or what excites you about the football season ahead?
JONTY: It’s a bit of an answer, followed by a contradiction that I’m going to give here.
MARCUS: Here we go!
JONTY: What I’m going to miss about cricket is that there’s more of a relaxed atmosphere and an opportunity to interact with players and people on the sidelines, because it is such a long day and people are happy to chat. That’s enjoyable, but my contradiction is that what I’m most looking forward to about footy is that cut-throat nature, the passion that comes with it and exploring more talking points. I’m not saying there are no talking points in cricket, but it gets elevated during footy season. I’m looking forward to the change and it’s come around quite quickly.
MARCUS: I like that point about striking up conversations on the sidelines during a long cricket day, that’s spot on. I like looking at the politics of who walks laps with whom during a batting innings. I don’t know why I find it so fascinating, but I just enjoy trying to piece together why they’re doing it. Are they batters that bat together, are they talking tactics as a bowling group, are they…
JONTY: (interjects) Are they just talking sh*t…
MARCUS: Exactly right. I just enjoy watching who walks with who and making my own assessments.
The other things I take for granted is wearing shorts and a t-shirt to games, there’s no wet weather to worry about.
JONTY: He says there’s no wet weather to worry about because he came in after the six weeks of washouts to start the season.
DAVE: Correct, the DDCA was the Dandenong and District Canoeing Association through October and November.
MARCUS: True, but you don’t have to worry about wearing thermals on anything like that. Glorious weather, that’s what I’m going to miss about cricket.
DAVE: For me it’s the same at the end of every footy and cricket season, you’re going to miss the people. We’re very lucky to associate with people who all love their sport and we won’t see or hear from most of them for six months. There’s a cheeky bugger down at Kooweerup called Chris O’Hara – who I wrote one negative sentence about roughly three years ago – who now calls me the Poison Pen. It’s all good banter and don’t worry, he gets back as good as he gives! I agree with you as well Jonty, the cut and thrust of football is exciting and we need to be on our toes.
LONG-RANGE FORECAST
DAVE: Alright boys, I’m going to throw a sneaky one at you both. Marcus, who are we going to be talking about as premiers of DDCA Turf 1 in 52 weeks’ time?
MARCUS: (Makes a weird horse noise that goes for five seconds)
DAVE: How do I spell that Jonty?
JONTY: (Laughing uncontrollably) I have no idea!
MARCUS: I still think it’s Springvale South’s to lose (Jonty still laughing in the background). It’s the easy option, I’m sitting on the fence I know, but they’re the team to beat. They’ve just won two, and three in a row is so hard, but they’re such a tight knit bunch, there’s a lot of continuity and not much chopping changing and I think they have every right to be premiership favourites right now.
DAVE: How does Buckley need to improve to knock them off?
MARCUS: Their bowling attack isn’t as strong, so that’s something that Buckley could look at strengthening.
JONTY: When you asked the question to Marcus my immediate thought was HSD, because I didn’t want to go the obvious and they’re an up-and-coming team that has been around the mark for the last couple of years that got to the grand final last year and was a semi-finalist this year. But thinking about it, I’m going for Cranbourne to finally break its Turf 2 duck. They’ve played finals as well, and I just think that one-day cricket keeps things tighter and the longer form of the game will give them the chance to shine. It’s the easy option as well, and the same in Turf 3, Coomoora. They’re strong, they’ve got continuity and have some players that have played a higher level…I really like them for next year.
DAVE: Boys, before I get into my tip, I just want to say how much I’m looking forward to Devon Meadows coming up to Premier Division next year. Officer came up this season, but their batting was brittle, whereas Devon Meadows has put together a sustained period of strong cricket that I think will hold them in good stead later this year. Obviously that really good bowling attack from Kooweerup will probably sort them out, but they won’t be on their Pat Malone there! Listening to the early drumbeats – I think Devon are a genuine chance of making finals in their first season back in Premier. They’re a well-run club with a couple of genuine stars and they appear to be heading in the right direction. My tip: As long as the McMasters and Jess Mathers are firing it’s going to be hard to go against Kooweerup. They lose their skipper Giles, but he was basically carried as a player this season to cover for his outstanding leadership…so they may be even stronger. Tooradin, with a fit and firing Dylan Sutton and Brad Butler, are the big dangers.
JONTY: I’m really disappointed in us because none of us made a bold prediction.
DAVE: What, tipping a newly-promoted team to make finals next season isn’t bold enough for you now that you’ve turned 20 old man?
JONTY: Yeah, nice one, but you didn’t tip them to win the flag.
DAVE: Okay then, let’s promote them even further…Devon Meadows to make the grand final.
JONTY: Now you’re talking.
MARCUS: Hey boys, look out the window, you can tell football’s not too far away, our maintenance man Stewie is mowing the lawns on a ride on. The smell of freshly-cut grass signifies the beginning and end of the footy season.
DAVE: Nice way to finish Marcus. Now boys, I’m heading off on a short break on Thursday this week, celebrating my 30th wedding anniversary to my darling Kellie by drinking wine in the Barossa for 10 days. I’ll be back on deck on Monday 3 April, ironically the day of our anniversary. It’ll just be you two next week.
MARCUS: Not quite Dave, we’ve invited a special guest in your absence.
DAVE: Who?
MARCUS: Our readers will have to buy a copy of next week’s Gazette to find out.
DAVE: Nice tease…see you in a couple of weeks boys!
