JOEYS GO BACK-TO-BACK

Transcription

1 JOEYS GO BACK-TO-BACK THERE were doubters, including some internally, but St Joseph s silenced them all with a commanding win over North Geelong to claim back-to-back GCA1 titles. After posting 8-228, Joeys powered home at Stinton Oval on Sunday, bowling the Magpies out for just 124. Captain Trent Walerys pinpointed a game against Geelong City soon after the resumption from the Christmas break that helped reignite Joeys faltering season as they struggled with the tag of reigning premier. They won their last three games of the season after that loss in mid-january, and never looked back through the finals. Twelve weeks ago we were outside the top six, and a few doubters were starting to think we hadn t really got it in us, Walerys said. But the boys knew that if we got something started we d be pretty hard to stop, and I think we showed that in the finals series. We were just a really good, hard, finals-performing team. I think we were too much for a lot of sides the way we attacked and the way we were able to restrict scoring. I reckon I also (had doubts) after Christmas. We were umming and ahhing, with myself and Leigh (Kentish) the coach thinking things just hadn t quite clicked it was a good group, good players, good blokes, but we just hadn t gained momentum. It s easy to lose momentum but hard to get. Once we got it back with a few wins in a row at the back end of the season you could feel the difference within the group. And once we felt that we knew we could go all the way.

2 We had the belief that we could. Obviously a lot of hard work had to be done to do it, but we had the feeling after we got back our momentum that we could go pretty well. Walerys said there were no dramatic changes needed. We worked harder. We talked to the group. After the Geelong City game, we said we just had to work harder, he said While we were working fairly hard at training, we always thought we could do a lot more. It doesn t matter how hard you re working, you can always do a bit more. If it s not working you have to make it work and I reckon hard work does that. The group committed to doing it and they did it and results just started to happen. Things started to go our way. We won some games, put a few together and here we are. After breaking a long premiership drought last year, the Joeys have now claimed back-toback GCA1 titles. Walerys said it took some time before some players adjusted to being the hunted rather than the hunter. It s massive, obviously 25 years before last year, but back-to-back, you come out the next year and people are looking at you, looking to see how you re going to go as the reigning premier, and we probably felt that pressure a little bit, he said. I reckon some of the guys that were here last year maybe expected things to happen because we recruited fairly well with some Joeys players coming back to the club from Geelong. But there s eight guys in this club that played junior cricket for St Joseph s and that s a huge feather in the club s cap and exciting for the group.

3 Geelong Cricket Association - Division 1 1sts Round GF - Sat 28 Mar 2015 (12:30PM), Sun 29 Mar 2015 (12:30PM) Toss won by: St Josephs Batted first: St Josephs Venue: Newtown No.1. Stinton Oval Umpires: Trevor Anderson, Brian Jones Result: North Geelong LOST FIRST INNINGS 1st Innings - St Josephs R LA Ibbs run out 22 JD Foss b C Alford 50 A Hodgson c T Mathieson b Z Thorne 37 L Kentish b J Thorne 60 DJ Morgan not out 31 DN Fanning run out 2 T Nolan run out 1 A Casey run out 2 J O'Donoghue dnb +J Casey c M Troy b Z Thorne 3 *TA Walerys not out 9 D Hegarty Extras (nb 0, w 0, b 4, lb 7) 11 Total 8/228 (cc) Overs 86 FOW: 49 (LA Ibbs) 88 (JD Foss) 157 (A Hodgson) 191 (L Kentish) 193 (DN Fanning) 195 (T Nolan) 199 (A Casey) 203 (J Casey) Bowling O M W R Nb Wd C Alford T Mathieson A Wilson J Thorne Z Thorne Fielding c ro st M Troy T Mathieson st Innings - North Geelong R S Hall lbw b J O'Donoghue 40 +A Costello c A Hodgson b L Kentish 1 A Fergusson b TA Walerys 2 *J Thorne c A Hodgson b L Kentish 7 S Dillon run out (JD Foss) 28 C Alford c DJ Morgan b JD Foss 0 M Troy c A Hodgson b L Kentish 5 B Szponar lbw b L Kentish 9 T Mathieson b TA Walerys 16 Z Thorne c & b TA Walerys 3 A Wilson not out 6 Extras 7 (nb 3, w 0, b 4, lb 0) Total 124 Overs 65.2 FOW: 2 (A Costello) 5 (A Fergusson) 16 (J Thorne) 81 (S Hall) 90 (S Dillon) 95 (M Troy) 99 (C Alford) 99 (B Szponar) 111 (Z Thorne) 124 (T Mathieson) Bowling O M W R Nb Wd TA Walerys L Kentish DJ Morgan J O'Donoghue JD Foss Fielding c ro st DJ Morgan TA Walerys JD Foss A Hodgson 3 0 0

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