RSL will be hoping their good late season form continues when they clash with ladder leaders Nyah District for a spot in this year’s SHDCA A grade grand final at Nyah on Saturday.
With strong wins against Wandella and Woorinen, and a hard-fought loss to St Mary’s-Tyntynder wedged in between, the Blues should go into Saturday’s must-win contest confident of an upset following their recent form resurgence.
Last Saturday’s dominant win over the Tigers is the perfect example of what RSL, at their best, is capable of, but the challenge for the Blues is to not only produce that level of performance two weeks in a row, but to do so against the SHDCA’s reigning premiers.
The Demons have been one of the teams to beat all season, with strong top end talent mixed with good depth right throughout their batting and bowling attacks, with RSL captain Oscar Hier acknowledging the challenge their opposition presents.
“Hopefully our big guns fire for us, but at the same time we’re also looking for the other five or six guys to just play their role as well,” Hier said this week.
“Nyah (District) is the best example of that, in that their entire team from No.1 through to No.11 all know how to play their roles really well and that’s something that we’ve been trying to implement a bit more, especially with our younger guys.
“They don’t need to be the stars of our team, we just need them to play their role and help us produce a full team performance.
“There will be finals pressure on both teams, so a full team effort is exactly what we need and hopefully a few of our key players also keep performing like they have been.
“The key is to not over complicate things during finals, it’s all about keeping it simple when the pressures on.”
There’s little doubt that when it comes to finals experience, that advantage lies with Nyah District, with the club having not only won last year’s premiership, but also holding the McDonald’s T20 and Kookaburra Cup one-day titles.
Although the Demons have plenty of finals experience on their side, so too do RSL, with several key players such as Ryan Hinton, Stuart Patterson, Paul Munro and the Caldwell brothers, Brenton and Pat, having played in countless finals matches and premierships.
“We’ll stick to what we know and hopefully we get the job done, I’ve said it plenty of times over the years, but finals are a different game and anything can happen,” Nyah District captain Ben Shadbolt said this week.
“We just have to focus on what we do and hopefully we’re able to get the job done.
“We know what they (RSL) bring to the table, their batting line-up, especially their top five, is as good as any in the competition and they have plenty of experience with guys like ‘Ryno’ (Hinton), ‘Patto’ (Patterson) and ‘Buddah’ (Munro).
“They’ve all been making runs and getting a few scores, which is something we have to be wary of, but if we stick to our plans then hopefully we’ll be able to get the job done.”
The Demons will be close to full strength, with all-rounders Joel Walsh and Nash Richman returning to their line-up, while wicketkeeper Ethan Curran is set to miss the cut-throat match.
RSL will also be close to full strength, with batter Todd Day-Henery the only one set to miss from the Blues’ best 11.
After winning both contests between the two clubs this season, Nyah District deserve to go in as favourites, but a hard-fought contest should be expected as is always the case when the two clubs meet.
