By RUSSELL BENNETT
WEST GIPPSLAND CRICKET ASSOCIATION
PREMIER DIVISION – SEMI FINAL PREVIEWS
CARDINIA v TOORADIN
THIS is it. The painstaking dress rehearsal of the past two weeks featuring Cardinia and Tooradin in the West Gippsland Cricket Association’s top flight is finally over and we can get down to business – watching two of the most professional sides in the competition go head-to-head in a do-or-die battle.
The Bulls deserve to go into this game as warm favourites, and they will. They’ve shown remarkable consistency all throughout what has so far been an unbeaten season.
Skipper Neil Barfuss (504 runs and 33 wickets) has led the way in a stellar 2014/15 campaign that could well result in the Terry Stephenson Medal (for Premier’s best player) being draped around his neck at the league’s presentation night.
But Cardinia has had plenty of other strong contributors too, like wicket-keeper batsman Luke Turner (224 runs and 27 dismissals), player-coach Simon Parrott, and breakout performer Dean Henwood.
But of the four teams fighting out this year’s finals series – Cardinia, Merinda Park, Kooweerup and Tooradin – the Gulls have the most upside. Tom Hussey has scored runs for fun all season with 650 at an average of 50, to be exact. But there’s a mountain of improvement left in Aaron Avery and Cal O’Hare. It could only take one of these three to fire and spark Tooradin into another grand final.
But the Bulls have been running rampant for too long now. We’re tipping them to knock off the Gulls in the semis for the second time in as many seasons and advance to another decider.
MERINDA PARK v KOOWEERUP
Many pundits had Merinda Park missing out on a finals berth this season, and that includes this reporter. It seemed losing Jarrod Armitage, Matt Grayson and – at the time – Dylan Cuthbertson would be too much for the boys from the Snake Pit to overcome.
But there was plenty of venom left in the side, and Cuthbertson’s return in the second half of the season has made a huge impact (200 runs at average of 40, to go along with 20 wickets at 13.9).
Daniel McCalman has stepped up with the bat in Grayson’s absence, but it’s the Cobras’ all-rounders who provide such an impressive and varied arsenal of weapons.
But Kooweerup is a team built for the finals. Opening batsmen Chris O’Hara and Michael Giles have both struggled with their consistency throughout the season, but each of them has shown enough in recent weeks to suggest they could again be difference-makers when it counts. And it was only three rounds ago when the Bright twins – John and Ron Jr – tore through the Cobras’ batting line-up. These Demons thrive on finals pressure, and it’s mainly for this reason we’re tipping them in a nail-biter.
