The Hoppers Crossing players were down in the dumps on Saturday, thinking they had blown their chances of reaching the Victorian Turf Cricket Association senior division finals after losing to minor premier Yarraville Club by 74 runs at Hansen Reserve.
But there would be a silver lining to a dark cloud for the Cats, a phone call revealing that fifth-placed Strathmore had suffered a shock loss to the Greenvale Kangaroos and so wouldn’t leapfrog the Cats in the standings.
Picture gallery: VTCA | Hoppers Crossing v Yarraville Club
The Cats held on to fourth by a mere 1.11 points to set up a rematch with Yarraville Club in a semi-final at the same venue in a cut-throat two-dayer this weekend.
Cats player-coach Greg Kennedy described the way the day unfolded as “weird”.
“We had a pretty flattening loss against the top team, our first loss in two-day cricket for the season,” he said.
“But as we finished, our scorer got a result through from Greenvale and we heard that Greenvale had done the right thing by us.”
Hoppers Crossing could not have asked for a better finals tune-up.
The Cats got to study the defending champion Clubbers up close and get accustomed to the West Footscray ground conditions.
“We’ve got a bunch of notes we can take away from the game, lots of information about the batsmen and the bowlers we’re going to face this week,” Kennedy said.
“It was like a two-week training run into a semi-final. We couldn’t be better prepared.”
Kennedy is excited to have delivered a first XI finals berth in his first year back at Hoppers Crossing after returning from Premier Cricket and to be witnessing five of the club’s top six senior sides play finals.
The Cats tasted their first success on Sunday when the one-day fifths won their grand final against Sunshine Heights.
“I’m super proud,” Kennedy said. “We should have 55 blokes jumping out of their skin at training this week. It’s been such a pleasure to come back to such an enthusiastic playing group.”
The Cats are confident they can cause an upset in the senior division semi-final.
“We know we can perform with both bat and ball – as can all of the teams at the top,” Kennedy said.
Can a premiership be won from fourth position?
Yarraville Club did so only 12 months ago.
“They limped into the finals and went on to win it,” Kennedy said.
“All it takes is three good Saturdays and Sundays of cricket and we could be lifting the trophy.”
Where did Wyndham clubs finish?
Hoppers Crossing: 4th, senior division. Will play Yarraville Club in the semi-finals.
Wyndhamvale: 4th, west A1. Will square off with Williamstown CYMS in the semi-finals.
Werribee Centrals: 7th, west A1. Strong late-season form sees them survive in the division.
Point Cook: Last, west A1. Summer of disappointment, finished bottom and relegated.
Seabrook: 6th, west B1. Up and down like a rollercoaster. Too bad the downturns outweighed the upswings.
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