DAVE: Good morning boys, what a massive week of sport; we’ve a had a Pro-Am series through West Gippsland, the Woolamai Cup was on, Country Week has begun, and then there’s all the local sporting action as well. Juzzy, kick us off with your best action mate.
BEST ACTION
JUSTIN: My best action in person was the pure blistering pace of Brad Butler when he knocked over Morteza Ali at Rutter Park. It was a good battle between aggressive batting and bowling. But my best action overall comes from the Pakenham Warriors, who played their “play-in” series on the weekend. First of all congratulations to the club, that is now the only club in Victoria to have all four teams at State Champ level this year…
DAVE: No way…that’s huge!
JUSTIN: It sure is; Men’s, Women’s, Youth Men’s and Youth Women’s all at the top level. It didn’t look good for the women, who were down by 14 with five minutes to go against Frankston, in a do-or-die game. They came back but Stella O’Loughlin missed a lay-up with about 25 seconds to go to put them in front. But she then made up for it by stealing a pass on the next possession and finding Dakota Blacka for a three, with about four seconds to go, to win the game by two. Because they finished second last in Champs Division last year, they needed to win two games to stay up. They beat Camberwell 74-54 and then Frankston 86-84 to stay up. Stella and Dakota produced that big play with seconds left on the clock to get the Warriors home.
DAVE: Mate, I’ve got goose-bumps right now. The Pakenham Warriors have come so far over the last few years and that’s absolutely huge to have that feather in their cap. And the O’Loughlin legacy continues around Pakenham. I’m sorry to say this, but Stella’s dad Tom is now a clear third in the family pecking order…although he probably was already!
JUSTIN: I’ll leave that for you and Tom to sort out Dave. But you’re right; you can’t say enough good things about the Warriors, especially Brayden Venning, who is a regular within this column. To take the Youth League Men from Youth League 2 to State Champ level, in the space of three years, is just ridiculous.
DAVE: The Warriors need a bigger stadium mate; the local community is really making the Warriors their local sporting club of choice.
JUSTIN: Absolutely…it’s only getting bigger.
BLAIR: That’s huge. The DDCA had a full weekend of cricket, a two-dayer over Saturday and Sunday and there were plenty of highlights. Dale Tormey is another regular name on this page and he made 157; he’s been hanging out for the ton this year and he made it a big one once he got to triple figures. He hit three consecutive fours to go from 92 to 104, a hell of a knock from him and the Bucks are cruising at the minute. The Tormey ton, Ben Wright also made a century, the Bucks had no shortage of contributors. It must be a great deck at Park Oval with 726 runs scored there over the weekend. And a special shoutout to Ishan Jayarathna, a former Wookey Medallist, who was executing his ramp shot very well.
DAVE: The Bucks are on fire. Boys, I was doing the scoreboards last night and noticed the CCCA A Grade game between Clyde and Pakky Upper went all the way down to the wire. Pakky Upper was chasing 263 and was 9/259 when skipper Lucas Plozza walked to the crease. I watched the replay last night, and when Plozza arrived in the middle he received a welcome from Clyde veteran Brett Reid. I’m sure it was innocent enough, but the pressure was right on Plozza. He faces up for his first ball, plonks his front foot down the wicket and smashes Tristan Walton high over mid-on to win the game. Now I don’t know if he panicked under the pressure, or that’s just the way he plays, but he won the game – nine down – with the first ball he faced. He threw his bat about 30 metres towards mid-wicket in celebration. That’s my best action from the weekend.
UNDER PRESSURE
DAVE: It was a funny situation on Saturday with Cardinia losing four batters to run outs in a narrow loss to Tooradin. It looked like some players really felt the pressure and it got me thinking. How important is that six inches between your ears in sport? My question is: Give me some examples of pressure impacting a result and tell me if you young blokes have already felt the pressure of a moment?
BLAIR: When you think of pressure, the mind wandered, because 10 days before I was born in 2002; Feb 16, Winter Olympics, Steven Bradbury does the Bradbury (Boys laugh). But the pressure didn’t get to him, he was just pacing himself, it got to all the other guys. They wanted it so bad, but none of them got it in the end and our boy Bradbury waltzes on through for one of the greatest underdog wins of all time…our first ever Winter Olympics Gold Medal.
DAVE: Watching that footage just makes you smile.
BLAIR: All the other skaters sliding across the ice for second and third while Bradbury skates away with gold. As for myself with pressure, I’m a low-order bat so there’s quite often pressure to make runs and steer the boys home, and also pressure with the ball bowling those death overs. A part of you wants that responsibility, but there’s also plenty of pressure when the equation is tight and the runs gettable. But this question took me back to my junior days in basketball, the under 14s. We were down by one in a prelim and we called a time out with about 20 seconds left on the clock. None of us wanted the responsibility at that age, but the coach pulled me aside and said “Blair, you’ve got take the last shot.” Then no-one volunteered to pass it to me, so she picked my brother to do that; drew up this big plan and it didn’t work at all. I drove it to the rim and got the job done to win the game; that’s one time I did handle pressure.
JUSTIN: I like this topic Dave, so I’ve gone a bit overboard; starting with local football. Anything can happen on grand final day and here are some examples just from last year. In Southern Div 1, Dingley went 17-1 and lost the grand final; in Divvy 3, St Kilda City went 15-3 and lost the grand final and in Outer East Under-16s Mt Evelyn went 16-0 and lost the big game. Pressure can do amazing things and you lose your mind.
DAVE: I gather you’ve got more?
JUSTIN: I sure have. In 2007, Geelong started 2-3 after going 10-11 in 2006 and missing finals after being identified as a potential contender that year. On May 6, 2007, John Ralph wrote an article in the Sunday Herald Sun and put all the Geelong players in the following five categories. Improved, Stagnated, Gone Backwards, Young Players and Injured. He put Cameron Ling, Corey Enright and Andrew Mackie in stagnated (boys laugh); Stevie J, Tom Harley and James Kelly in ‘Gone Backwards’ (boys laugh harder). That day Geelong defeated Richmond 35-12(222) to 9-11(65), then lost one more game for the year and won the grand final by 119 points. Talk about responding to pressure.
DAVE: Let me guess, you’ve got more?
JUSTIN: Yep. In 2012 LeBron James was seen as a complete choker. He was the best player in the best league in the world but he couldn’t win a championship. In 2011 he had the worst performance of his life and ended up losing. In 2012, his team Miami Heat went down 2-3 in the Eastern Conference Finals and people were thinking ‘here we go again’. He came out and had 45 points, on 19 of 26 shooting, 15 rebounds, five assists, and the Heat went on to win that game and eventually win the Championship. They won the next year and the rest, as they say, is history.
DAVE: More?
JUSTIN: One more! I would like to think I am an extremely composed basketball player, I never show emotion, I never get involved in any smack talk or trash talk. But a couple of years ago in a domestic grand final I completely lost my head. We were up by about 20 and I was playing alright, but then started to miss shots and the other team came right back. I got subbed off and punched the bench and it’s the only time I’ve ever received a technical foul in my life. I was that furious with myself but then had to sit off for five minutes. The other team hit the lead; I got my head together, and got the game-winning assist. That was biggest response to pressure in my experience. I almost threw away the game.
BLAIR: That’s funny.
DAVE: No video unfortunately, we could post that on our socials. Pressure comes from expectation and there has been no greater expectation on anyone in Australian Sport than what Cathy Freeman experienced in the 2000 Olympics. The whole country was riding on her shoulders that night. As a Collingwood supporter this hurts, but Dom Sheed in 2018 from the pocket. I have a question mark over this, because did he handle pressure or were the expectations so low that he had a free kick at glory.
JUSTIN: Jack Darling felt the pressure…dropped a simple mark in the goalsquare.
DAVE: Yes, that was pressure. I love my golf boys and my hero growing up was Greg Norman. In 1996 he was waltzing his way to victory in the Masters, the tournament he wanted to win so badly, but gave up a six-shot lead in the final round and lost by five. I woke up that morning expecting great things, but he was on the eighth hole and Nick Faldo had nearly already caught him. It became a nightmare, and for all the great things Greg Norman did on a golf course, he will always be known for not handling pressure in the biggest moments of his career. He was a bit stiff by the way; Google Larry Mize and Bob Tway and you’ll see what I’m talking about. At the other end of the Masters spectrum is what Rory McIlroy did last year, completing the career grand slam after 11 years of trying. I’ll be honest boys, I thought the McIlroy story was going to end with no Masters triumph, but he handled the pressure and the relief was obvious as soon as that last putt dropped in. Having no pressure actually affected Rory after that, because he became so relaxed that he had a poor stretch of form and suffered for a lack of motivation.
JUSTIN: Let me guess Dave…you’ve got more?
DAVE: Very funny Justin! Just a couple of quick ones; Jana Novotna led Steffi Graf 4-1 and 40-30 in the third set of the Wimbledon final when her game completely fell apart. She started hitting second serves miles wide and both her body and mind completely gave up on her. Novotna cried of the shoulders of the Duchess of Kent that day, who told her, “I know you will win it one day, don’t worry.” Novotna was one of the lucky ones; she recovered from her choke and won it in 1998. And as for my experience with pressure: I have two. I was in the middle at the non-strikers end when I was playing with Rosebud and we chased down a big score to break a premiership drought. We needed six runs to win from the final five overs, but it felt like 40 runs to be honest. I was a very relieved boy when Mark Maddock hit a hook shot for six to win the flag. I think I jumped into his arms before the ball had landed. And I choked it up big time in the final round of the Golf Club Championships at Pakenham. Fortunately I had a six-shot lead and got across the line, but I’ve never felt more pressure in a sporting sense than that day. When it comes to pressure, I think of people like Chris O’Hara, Matt Davey, Travis Canavan, Jess Mathers, Shane Dole and Chris Bright from Kooweerup and how they were so composed under pressure. Koowee won eight flags in 15 years and the six inches between their ears played a big role in that.
Great chat boys…let’s handle the pressure and go again next week.
