By Jonty Ralphsmith
There have been four components of Beaconsfield’s monopoly in the Turf 2 competition this season: Tyler Clark, the growth of young role players, Mark Cooper’s on-field contributions and increased unity.
The common denominator that binds each, is Cooper.
Clark, the opening batter who has provided ubiquitous contributions all season played with the 33-year-old at Kooweerup prior to arriving at the Tigers.
The left-hand-right-hand opening pairing has worked wonders for Beaconsfield as their off-field friendship filters into on-field chemistry.
Each has the instinct to know when to go and when to play second-fiddle.
Part of Clark’s development this season has been the increased expansion in his stroke-play, something for which Cooper’s coaching is directly attributed.
Then there’s been Cooper himself.
In some instances, his output with the bat would win him the league medal yet he walks out to the middle each game with a batter who has more season runs in his kitty.
Regardless, if Clark doesn’t go on with it, Cooper does.
With so much experience and cricket nous to his name, he judges the state of the game and bats accordingly.
In a grand final against a perennially strong team, he assessed the situation early and never lost patience, nor got bogged-down before clicking into gear, scoring 60 off 109 balls.
“I think that innings personifies him as a cricketer: gritty, hard-working and he’s not a natural stroke player, but he finds ways just to make runs and that’s part of his love of the game and want to improve,” said opening partner Clark.
“He has got to the stage where he doesn’t have to look flashy to make runs and today was just a really workmanlike innings to set ourselves up for the back-end and Jesse did really well.
“It gave us the chance to post a reasonable total. He’s quite level-headed so he’s perfect in that role.
“It wasn’t too different to what we would normally speak about (in the middle), it was just about being positive and being proactive and as productive as we could to tick the strike over, even though Cranbourne bowled really well early without taking risks we didn’t need to.”
Intertwined with that philosophy at the crease is that he never plays beyond his means.
A foundation-setter who can play an anchor role, rarely this season did he play a low-percentage shot.
When he did, it tended to be at a stage where it was hit-out or get-out, because his role had already been performed.
At Perc Allison Reserve, players having a clear understanding of their roles has been crucial, given how tricky it has proven to play in the past.
Jesse Busacca’s twin quickfire cameos in each of the finals this season has been a perfect example of a player developing into their ability.
A crisp front-foot ball-striker who was low on runs early in the season and lacked continuity, he finally found himself when it mattered.
Meanwhile, just to qualify for the final required a herculean effort from a middle-order player with Cooper and Tyler Clark out cheaply. Riley Clark’s 72 last week is one that has come on the back of technical work with Cooper in the nets.
“He’s put a lot of work in over the last six months to get (players like Riley and Jesse) to a point where they can provide that for the team so I think that has been something we have started to get the benefits in the finals series and we will continue to get them in the next few years and I’m excited to see what he can build these younger players into,” Tyler Clark said.
With the ball, Cooper’s lengths create doubt, with his cricket nous instilling confidence for his team. It’s just about the summary that could be used to describe Mitch Tielen’s efforts in the final.
The left-arm tweaker got the first three wickets including Harsaroup Singh and Mick Sweeney to effectively suffocate the contest as Cranbourne fell well short of the 188-run target.
Tielen’s is another story of growth under the tutelage of Cooper, after being a bowler opposition teams might target as a weak link earlier in the season.
Cooper’s experience breathes an air of calm and confidence which had a young squad firing for the right two weeks of the season.
The success of the Tigers in this, their 100th season, extended beyond the First XI with all five senior teams reaching the semis.
While it was only Cooper’s men that reached the big dance, many attribute the holistic growth of the club to a newfound unity at Perc Allison under Cooper.
“He’s very humble, very giving, speaks well and cares and I think that transfers into his cricket,” Clark said.
“He genuinely cares about our players and giving them guidance, he individualises a lot of his coaching, it’s not so much technical, a lot of it is around culture and educating about when things aren’t going your way and how to respond. That has been a trademark of his for a period of time and I think that’s in local level the best way to go about it and it has paid dividends this year.”
Cooper has won a series of premierships across a glorious local cricketing career, but revealed after the grand final that he thought it might take some time before Beaconsfield tasted that success.
“I wasn’t expecting it, I thought it was going to be a bit of a grind for a couple of years so we’ve definitely done really well to get into the position we are to compete for it particularly after Christmas, it was very up and down, the losses taught us a lot about our game and our group and we kept on pushing each other and striving for the end result,” Cooper said.
“It’s just taking those learnings into preseason and continue that development.”
“The ability for some of our players to stick at it even if the season wasn’t going great for them. They were still turning up, I was really impressed with them.”
A premiership built on everyone playing their roles: the Cooper way.
BUSACCA GOES BANG
After Cooper’s platform-setting 60, which included cameos from Tyler (27 off 53) and Riley (32 off 63) Clark, the Tigers had the upper-hand.
But the premiership was still going to hinge on someone capitalising on the early grind.
The run-rate was still manageable for Cranbourne to pull them back, so at 3/125, it felt something was going to happen to give one club clear momentum entering the innings break.
Jesse Busacca wrenched it Beaconsfield’s way.
Disregarding field placements, bowlers’ reputations and what had so far happened in the game, he played his natural game and targeted the straight boundaries.
It was an innings more akin to something you’d see with the stakes of a backyard cricket game on Christmas day than a grand final with a Turf 1 spot up for grabs.
He finished with 39 off 24 including three fours, one six and just four dots, taking what was shaping-up as a total of 170, to 7/187.
“We’ve tinkered with his role throughout the year and he’s gone back to the original role and his acceleration at the end really helped us,” Cooper said.
“It was a bit of a quieter season, but in a one-day season that happens if things go against you. So we did a bit of technical work about four weeks ago to open up the offside a bit more and he really bought into that and has worked really hard in the last few weeks to implement that and it really paid off.”
SPINNERS PERFORM ROLE
All 10 Cranbourne wickets fell to spin.
For the seventh consecutive week, Beaconsfield opened up with left-arm spin up one end.
Beaconsfield’s most recent clash with Cranbourne in the last round of the home and away season saw Tielen overtake Madushanka as the preferred option.
He spun a web around the Eagles then, claiming 2/7 off eight, and he did it again on Saturday.
After a loose two overs that Harsaroup Singh pounced on, his next five yielded figures of 3/4.
That set Cooper up to attack and kill off any chance of a resurgence with his wrist-spin.
“His bowling was typical Coops,” Clark said.
“It’s difficult when he hits the right length to know whether to go forward or back.
The consistency and subtle variations set him apart.
“He stepped up to the plate and he always does with his bowling and he just bowled a consistent line and length, which made them force the issue and in grand finals that’s the way to go, to hammer a length and when you hammer a length, you’re waiting on them to do something, so having a score on the board, with them needing to score at a rate of knots, he made them make the mistake.”
By the time Madushanka got two late ones, celebrations had already started for Beaconsfield on the sidelines.
CRANBOURNE TALKING POINTS
COLLETT PROMOTION?
Cranbourne never seemed in the contest after the loss of the third wicket, Harsaroup Singh, but one thing that may be reflected on is holding Matt Collett back until number seven.
By the time he got to the crease, the run-rate required was almost seven.
Had he come in at six, he could have combined with Pete Sweeney, the required run-rate still manageable at about five.
Given the need for an injection of aggression, Collett’s promotion, while still requiring a season-high individual score, would have given the Eagles an outside chance.
Arriving in the 28th over, he crashed the second ball he faced for a crisp boundary, just the second the Eagles managed after over four.
He finished with 20 off 23 including three of Cranbourne’s seven boundaries before holing-out as the run-rate was out of control.
The Tigers were allowed to dictate the tempo of the game until it was irreparable.
HUMILITY IN DEFEAT: Talk about bad luck. Coming to the crease early after the dismissal of Dean McDonell, Mick Sweeney was strong in defence facing his first delivery . The Eagles’ rebound in 2022-23 has been built off the back of the skipper’s post-Christmas surge as he’s scored two centuries and a half-century, and he top-scored last week with 39 against Heinz Southern Districts.
But on Saturday he was out second-ball with one that hit his pad before brushing leg stump. From there, it was always going to be an up-hill summit for Cranbourne.
The squad, led by Sweeney, however, remained in good spirits on the sidelines, aware it had been outplayed by a better outfit on the day.
HARSAROUP SINGH’S SELECTION: Singh’s fitness was the question mark all week for Cranbourne, the attacking opener and tweaker having ensconced himself as a key part of the lineup. After missing the past two weeks with a finger injury sustained against Doveton, he was brought back in and played an important role with the ball. His four overs cost just 13 runs just as Beaconsfield was starting to look to get more proactive. With the bat, he put spinner Mitch Tielen on the back foot early, punishing two short balls to the boundary before succumbing to the scoreboard pinch on 19. Allrounder Pardeep Boyal, who played an important role in the semi and has been in-and-out of the side for various reasons this season was the unlucky man to miss.
