Wild weather is no defence

By Russell Bennett
A TRIO of young Berwick Cougars have Melbourne’s unforgiving weather gods to thank for a marathon on-field stint on Sunday afternoon.
“It was just ridiculous,” said seniors coach Wayne Porter. We’d only played three-and-a-half innings and it was already 5.40pm.
“The weather went from hot and blowing a gale one minute, to cold and wet the next.”
But, heartbreakingly, it was a string of calamitous errors that cost the Berwick City Cougars in their 8-3 loss to Sandringham last Sunday.
Porter refused to blame Melbourne’s fickle weather for his side’s poor on-field performance. “Defensive errors just killed us,” he said. “Josh (Leite) threw pretty well but those errors cost us three runs.”
Porter said the day was littered with wild throws, and even a tunnel-ball in the first inning.
But three first team players were burning the Sunday afternoon oil, having already played reserves and juniors earlier in the day. “I put one young kid – Scott Simpson – into the game late in the day,” Porter said.“He’d already played the under-18s and the reserves. He would have woken up at 7am and played through to after 7pm. David Mulhall was in the same position and Mark Surtees was also feeling pretty sore, having played the juniors as well.”
Porter said one first team player even had to leave the game early to head to work to start his night shift.
“Josh (Leite) had his family out from America at the game,” he said. “They definitely got Melbourne’s weather in spades.”
Porter said, following Sunday’s frustrating loss, the Cougars were still confident of finishing out the season above the ledger with more wins than losses.
“I just don’t want us to go backwards or even lose any more games,” he said. “We want to stay ahead of .500 and with the likes of young Matthew Chilcott relieving so well, we’re confident for a win against Sunshine and Port Melbourne.”