AFTER winning just one game before Christmas, St. Mary’s-Tyntynder are now on the cusp of a remarkable turnaround, with the Bulldogs just one win away from qualifying for yet another finals campaign.
There is one team standing in their way however, with St. Mary’s-Tyntynder to face reigning premiers and ladder leaders Nyah District in an all-or-nothing contest at the Ken Harrison Reserve Saturday afternoon.
It’s a simple equation for the Bulldogs, with victory locking away a top four berth, with the potential of finishing as high as second depending on other results. Defeat would see them fall from the finals, with Ultima-TUF (fifth) and Wandella (sixth) both three points behind and set to meet at Riverside Park on Saturday.
It has been a remarkable turnaround from Nathaniel Holmes-Brown’s side, who have had to peel off five consecutive wins to get to this point.
But St. Mary’s-Tyntynder captain told The Guardian that now is no time to celebrate.
“We’ve known what we have had to do and we just needed to keep executing and keep winning and we’ve done that so far,” Holmes-Brown said this week.
“We feel like we’re building nicely and a few of our players are starting to hit form at the right time of the year, but we’ve still got the biggest challenge to finish off with against Nyah (District).
“They (Nyah District) have been the best side all year and by a long way, but the way we see it is there’s no point playing finals if you can’t beat them, so if we’re able to knock them off then we’ll deserve to finish in the top four.
“They’re always good contests between the two clubs and the last couple of years we’ve played each other in some pretty entertaining grand finals.
“There’s always a little bit of feeling when we play against each other, a few of the boys play footy together and have been playing cricket against each other for a long time and are good mates off the field as well, so it all adds up to a good day of cricket and one that we all look forward too.”
Although St. Mary’s-Tyntynder will go into the match at close to full strength, the Demons will be missing key players Joel Walsh, Nash Richman and Tom Bell, with Walsh and Richman’s absences set to leave the reigning premiers light on with both bat and ball.
One of Nyah District’s strengths this season has been their depth, and although it looks set to be tested against the in-form Bulldogs, Demons captain Ben Shadbolt still expects his team to rise to the occasion.
“We don’t mind the challenge, we weren’t full strength last weekend with ‘Walshy’ (Walsh) out, but the boys always stand up,” Shadbolt said.
“The boys know what we need to do when we’re not full strength and it’s been really good to see a few blokes lift over the last few weeks.
“It’s not always easy picking a finals team, so this is an opportunity for a few guys to stamp their authority on the team and put some pressure on the selectors.
“In terms of the game itself, we’ll just stick to what we know, we don’t need to go out and change our game plan, even for a team like St. Mary’s-Tyntynder, we’ll just stick to our bowling plans and our batting plans.
“We know our game works and even though they are a great opponent, it will be a good challenge to see if we can hold our end up and see if we can get the win.
Walsh’s absence didn’t affect Nyah District’s form last Saturday, with the Demons recording a comfortable 130-run win over Ultima-TUF, with Shadbolt leading the way with the bat scoring an unbeaten half century, along with youngster Max Thompson (54).
The Bulldogs bowling attack will pose a much sterner test however, with Holmes-Brown, Robin Sebastian, Corey Daniels and Austin McKerrow all capable of tearing through an opposition batting line-up, as they have proved regularly in recent weeks.
The key for the home side lies with their batting, however, with the Daniels brothers, Corey and Riley, along with Aydan Symons, Jack Shannahan and Charlie King needing to pile on the runs against the weakened, but still dangerous, Nyah District attack.
