JONTY: Boys another big weekend of sport. Obviously, finals time reached fever pitch for me on the weekend with grand finals and you guys have yours coming up. I’ll speak about some under-the-radar storylines in those premierships but first I’ll start with you guys – What are some under-the-radar storylines that might not get the main coverage but are still interesting? I’ll start with you, Marcus.
STORYLINES
MARCUS: We’ve got Buckley Ridges against Springvale South in Turf 1, an outstanding game, so I’m super excited for this one. I’m looking at the Springvale South top-order. Ryan Quirk has fractured his foot so he’s not going to be available, he’s the leading run-scorer in the competition, a massive loss, and outside of him between Mitch Forsyth, Cam Forsyth, Jordie Wyatt and Jackson Skecher, their top five outside of Ryan Quirk, they’ve made five 50s post-Christmas. Jordan McKenzie is replacing Quirk and has been in really good form in the reserves and they’re happy with what he’s bringing. He looked okay on Saturday but that’s one thing I am going to look for, how the top-order is going to go.
DAVE: Very good analysis from you Marcus. Not bad for a bloke who didn’t take it up until after Christmas.
JONTY: He’s nodding in humble approval.
MARCUS: I’ve learnt from the best.
JONTY: Nagel?
DAVE: Nagel! Wowee, what happened to Dave? Ralphsmith, I think the underlying story for this week’s CCCA grand final – Kooweerup v Cardinia – is Michael Giles return to Kooweerup. He’s a favourite son, a four-time premiership player, a premiership captain, but left on difficult terms and it has taken a while for him to come back. Now he’s on the precipice of taking them to a premiership in his first year back as captain. I did speak to him after the game on Sunday and when I brought up what it would mean to him, he got emotional. His return really means a lot to him and I think that is a big part of the story and has gone under-the-radar this year.
JONTY: I went more down the line of a couple of players who have been impressive but overshadowed at my clubs. Noman Khan is one for Dandy West, the captain Anthony Brannan really highlighted him, he’s been at the club for several years, worked through E grade from the thirds to seconds and now firsts. Not only that, he’s opened the bowling in the last few weeks and bowled well in tandem with Nuwan Kulasekara, who’s obviously the main storyline. For Beaconsfield, Jesse Busacca hasn’t done heaps all year, but Mark Cooper and others from Beaconsfield really highlighted his knock at the end was essentially premiership-winning. The foundation had been set, but it still required someone to come out and capitalise which he did twice in finals. Mitch Tielen, too, we’ve seen him develop and the club trust him more and more as a go-to spinner up top, and he’s shown why. Three big wickets on the weekend.
MISSED OPPORTUNITIES AND TOUGHIES IN LOCAL SPORT
JONTY: Moving on to the next topic, if we take a more worldly view, Australia has just been beaten 2-1 by India. A missed opportunity? We see these Aussies as probably the best squad to have gone over there for more than a decade so I’ll leave it open to you. Do you want to look at the most difficult task in local sport, and liken it to beating India in India, or go down the missed opportunity route. I’ll start with you Dave.
DAVE: The equivalent of beating India in India locally is beating Tooradin at Tooradin, has been for years, but Kooweerup seem to do it consistently. I don’t know what it is…maybe they’re just a bloody good cricket team!
JONTY: Is Tooradin a similar dimensioned ground to Kooweerup?
DAVE: (Bluntly) no, couldn’t be any different. (Marcus laughs uncontrollably)
MARCUS: I’m going to look at a missed opportunity: I’ve spoken a few times about Lucas Ligt. He finished the season on 832 runs. The last game of the season, Devon Meadows was pretty much guaranteed to finish top, they were going to play bottom-of-the-ladder Gembrook, I think there is a chance he could have hit 168 and broken the 1000-run barrier if they had played.
DAVE: Jonty, I’m going to applaud that…that’s brilliant from Marcus.
MARCUS: Gembrook had to forfeit the game so he didn’t get the opportunity, but in a game where there wasn’t a lot on the line for either side, I think that was a real disappointment and an opportunity missed.
DAVE: And looking at his record Marcus, there’s probably a real chance that could have happened. I know saying someone’s going to make 168 runs is out there but it’s not out of his capabilities. Jonty, pressures on you mate because that is outstanding.
JONTY: That is outstanding but I think this is equally as outstanding but it doesn’t jump off the page as much.
BOYS IN UNISON: We’ll be the judge of that, champ!
JONTY: Beating Casey at Casey – no-one can do it!
DAVE: But that’s purely because they’re a good team.
JONTY: It’s more than that, you think of Casey, it’s always cold, wet, rainy, it suits the way Casey play. Look at individuals. What do guys who have been stalwarts over the years thrive on, Jimmy Munro, Mitch White: those precise conditions.
DAVE: If India is no good and you go over there, they’re still hard to beat, whereas you’re picking a premiership team as that’s why they’re hard to beat…
JONTY: I think it’s the other way round in a lot of ways though. The success has been built off the back of the dominance at home, rather than an outstanding side happening to play well at home. You think about the unique conditions of Casey Fields and the unique conditions of India, there’s correlation there…well, one’s wet, one’s hot.
MARCUS: (laughing) so the complete opposite?
DAVE: For me, the comparison with India in India is a team that is just outside the top five in footy or cricket…but it is always hard to go there and beat them.
JONTY: You said Tooradin in Tooradin…who you also said have been one of the best teams in the competition! I’m doing the same thing!
DAVE: I’ll go back a few years…
JONTY: Interjects: Yes Dave, we’re aware
DAVE: (Ignores the interjection): Casey were always easybeats at Casey Fields so I don’t think it’s the venue, I think it’s the team, but, good on you for having a crack young fella.
JONTY: Yep, well done to me for winning the participation award!
WICKET KEEPERS
JONTY: We’ll move on and this is one I am really excited about because I have seen a lot of good performances with the gloves in recent weeks. There’s two ‘keepers I want to highlight, who are the best glovemen in the competition. Dave, you first.
DAVE: It’s a coincidence you mention ‘keepers because yesterday I pulled up at Cardinia on the way home from Tooradin and the first person I spoke to was Luke Turner, the current president of Cardinia. He was a stunning wicket-keeper back in his day, short, stodgy, Rod Marsh in appearance and a great man behind the stumps…I used to love watching his glovework. At the moment, I would say Chris Bright from Kooweerup, he stands up to the stumps to a pace-dominant attack, he can dictate the way a batter has to bat. Rob Elston made Team of the Year this season, he’s 42-years-old or something like that and every time you watch him keep he’s so balanced and comes up at the right time. The ball melts into his gloves.
JONTY: Marcus, you had a really good moment from a ‘keeper on the weekend. So, enlighten us there.
MARCUS: Paul Hill for Springvale South put on a wicket-keeping masterclass on Saturday. He took two regulation catches off the seamers, and he got a legside stumping on Matthew Cox, the Hallam Kalora Park coach off Jackson Skecher’s medium-pacers. It was so clean, Cox barely knew what had happened by the time the bails had gone off, and then he took a catch off Skecher standing up to the stumps and he took one off Blade Baxter. I spoke to Blade Baxter and asked him the impact Hill has, and he said he’s a complete game-changer: he’ll tell the bowlers when he’s going to keep up to the stumps and that totally throws the batters. Their footwork goes and they don’t know what is going on and he’s one of the best people you can have in your side.
DAVE: Talking about ‘keepers, Ben Parrot was keeping up to the stumps to a medium-pacer on Sunday and Chris Bright, who we were just talking about, was batting. Parrott took a magnificent catch up to the stumps but unfortunately the umpire didn’t agree. Even if you are a good ‘keeper and capable of that, it is not always in your control whether you can impact a game or not.
MARCUS: One thing Blade spoke about as well is ‘keeping is one of those thankless tasks in sport. If a ‘keeper does well you don’t really notice it that much but if they make a mistake, you can come down hard on them, it’s just one of those things.
JONTY: You see that in India at the moment with Alex Carey. His batting has been not great, and that’s been highlighted, but his actual ‘keeping has been tremendous. We haven’t noticed him. I don’t think he’s really dropped a catch from what I’ve seen and he would have kept up to the stumps at least 75 per cent of the time with the amount of spin we bowl which is so different to in Australia.
MARCUS: And he really struggled in Sri Lanka as well, so he’s come a long way in eight months: credit to him.
JONTY: A ‘keeper would never win the Allan Border Medal or Allan Wookey Medal or Gartside because they’re not noticed.
DAVE: Are they the defenders of the Brownlow?
JONTY: Yeah, 100 per cent they are. My ‘keepers to highlight are Dyl Diacono and Matt Collett. Diacono opens the batting as well, but he’s so neat with the gloves, looks several classes above, and had the game-changing moment on the weekend. You can head to my Turf 3 report to read about that, but a stumping that came from him being hyper-alert and another magnificent catch. He can ‘keep up to seamers, too, as can Matt Collett. He does it frequently to Tim Fathers, did it on a little bit of an up-and-down pitch in the semi, took some catches up to the stumps and has a really good ‘keeper-bowler relationship with Peter Sweeney. He has executed plenty of stumpings for Sweeney including in that semi. Dave, before we leave, you have some other thankless people to give a shout out too.
DAVE: Thanks Jonty, I just want to give a quick shoutout to the volunteers from our local bowls and golf clubs who send in their contributions each week. To Des Leigh (Pakenham Bowls), John Moore (Cardinia Waters Bowls), Damian Brick (Garfield Bowls), John Rich (Berwick Bowls), Jodie Mays (Lang Lang Golf), Terry Webster (Garfield Golf) and Glenn Robinson and Sharon Rippon (Drouin Golf), thank you very much for your ongoing support.
JONTY: Well said Dave…we’ll see you next week.
