HISTORY will be made one way or another at a sweltering Swan Hill Recreation Reserve tomorrow afternoon, with Nyah District and Barham-Koondrook set to meet in this year’s SHDCA A grade grand final.
For the Raiders, a win tomorrow would signal a new era within the SHDCA, with the club earning their first piece of silverware since joining the SHDCA two years ago, ratifying the club’s decision to head north and following the dissolution of the Northern Districts Cricket Association.
For the Demons, who head into the match as reigning premiers, victory would not only be the first time since 2000-01 that they claimed back-to-back premierships, but would also see them become the first club to win all three A grade titles in a season.
Having already won the Kookaburra Cup and McDonald’s T20 premierships, Nyah District will go into tomorrow’s match knowing exactly what it takes to perform on the big stage, with Demons captain Ben Shadbolt confident his team is ready.
“We’ve been in this position before and some years when we’ve won the Kookaburra Cup (in the same season), we’ve relaxed a little bit in the back end of the year and by extension not prepared as well as we should have,” Shadbolt told The Guardian this week.
“But this time I think we’re primed and we’re ready for it, we know what we need to do now and we’re that keen to try and win all three.
“It would be an awesome result if we could, the boys pumped and ready, but we also know that it’s going to take a lot of hard work and it’s not going to just happen.”
Regardless of the result, Saturday will be a proud moment for the Barham-Koondrook Cricket Club, which will appear in their first grand final since 2022-23 – the final year of the Northern District Cricket Association.
The Raiders have earned their place in the decider due to their consistency, with the club finishing second on the ladder with a seven win, seven loss record at the end of the home and away season.
But it was their performance in last Saturday’s semi final against arch rivals Wandella that set tongues wagging, posting their highest score with the bat for the season (190 runs) in the 88-run victory.
“I think a lot of our form has come with maturity, we have a lot of younger players that are just starting on their cricketing journey and I think they’re just starting to understand the game a bit better for a situational standpoint,” Barham-Koondrook co-captain Jayden Hall said.
“Our batting collapses haven’t been as regular and I think that coincides with everybody just knowing their role.
“Everyone in our first 11 has a very specific role and everyone’s aware of what their role is.
“I think there’s a few guys who started the season off slowly, especially with the bat, but are now batting to their ability and I think that’s also helped.
“Guys like Lachie (Laursen) who had a hell of an innings on Saturday and I’m hoping he has another one in him this weekend and Kynan Laursen who has improved as well.
“Even Garry and Warren (Lolicato), who are guns, they’ve taken their games to another level as well.”
Barham-Koondrook will go into tomorrow’s grand final at full strength, while the Demons will be without all-rounders Nash Richman and Max Thompson in a massive blow to the reigning premiers middle order and bowling attack.
Coming into their line-up will be Ethan Curran, who is expected to take the gloves from Dean Harrop, and Ben Sheridan, who will help replace the overs lost by the Richman and Thompson.
“We missed Ethan (Curran) last weekend, he’s been keeping really well for us and has scored some handy lower runs, so he’ll be a huge in tomorrow,” Shadbolt said.
“We have plenty of depth, which is a great problem to have, it’s just a shame we have to put it to use this weekend.
“Both Nash (Richman) and Max (Thompson) will leave a hole for us to fill, but it’s just another challenge that we will have to overcome and that’s the way we need to approach it.”
It was a battle for the ages the last time the two clubs clashed, with Nyah District eventually holding on for a one-wicket win in the final over of the game.
After Barham-Koondrook set a target of 171 for victory, the Demons chased down the score with just one wicket and two balls remaining, with leading run scorer Charlie Boulton top scoring with 75.
Although ultimately falling short, that game was one where Hall and his teammates look back with confidence in the knowledge that their best cricket is good enough to match it against the reigning premiers.
“I think we do get a bit of belief from that game, especially coming up against the team we consider to be the benchmark side,” Hall said.
“If you go back to last season as well, we had a couple of close games against them (Nyah District).
“They’re definitely the benchmark team since we’ve been in the in the competition, so we take belief out of that, but we probably take a lot more belief from the cricket that we’ve been playing over than last month or so.”
Boulton has been a key figure for Nyah District this season, taking out the league batting aggregate on Wednesday night with 561 runs at an average of 37.40, along with Mitchell Grinham (419 runs @ 29.93), Joel Walsh (393 runs @ 35.73) and Dean Harrop (311 runs @ 28.27).
The Raiders on the other hand have been well served by their bowlers, with Garry Lolicato claiming the SHDCA’s Bill Gurnett best and fairest on Wednesday night following his 30 wicket haul this season.
Lolicato has also been in fantastic touch with the bat, scoring 304 runs at an average of 25.33, which was bettered only by brother Warren (429 runs @ 35.75).
While Lolicato has been Barham-Koondrook’s strike bowler, he hasn’t been their only weapon with ball in hand, with Chameera Akurugoda (25 wickets @ 11.36) and Jayden Hall (20 wickets @ 18.35) also contributing strongly to their teams run to the grand final.Bill Gurnett voting
Garry Lolicato 51 votes
Charlie Boulton 49 votes
Guri Singh 48 votes
Lachie Edwards 42 votesBen Shadbolt
IT was a cracking game of cricket last time, the full hundred overs, it was a good show. We know what they bring to the table. They’re a great cricket side. They’ve got good depth as well. Got good batters, good bowlers. Just be a matter of who’s better on the day.
Let’s hope that they’ve played their grand final, but they are in good nick at the moment. Waz is in great touch. Young Lawson. Lucky Lawson, I think it is, has been making runs down the order, and the doctor has been bowling quite well as well. They’re a team in form and they’ll be ready for it too. They’ll be as keen as mustard being their first grand final. So it will be, will be a great challenge.Jayden Hall
It’s definitely exciting. I think just speaking with all the boys, everyone’s very excited. The message that we’ve sent through is we want everyone to enjoy it, because a lot of people don’t get to play in senior grand finals or in grand finals at all, so we want all the boys to enjoy it. Everyone’s keen to keep in there on Saturday.
Yeah, absolutely super proud of the boys. But just the club in general, there’s so many people who go into that as well, so like the committee members and all that.
The club’s in a really good spot.
We just need to focus on ourselves and play our brand of cricket, and that’s what our focus has been. We’ll talk about individual players and things like that, but as a whole, we just want to focus on the way that we go about it.
