All of a sudden, Hoppers Crossing has something to play for in sub-district cricket.
No, the Cats are not miraculously back in the east-west first XI finals hunt, but they can play the role of finals spoiler to arch-rival Werribee.
Would there be a better way for Hoppers Crossing to end a drab season than to get one up on the Tigers in their most important game of the summer?
Werribee made a long-awaited return to the top six on Saturday with a 50-run win over Altona, presenting Hoppers Crossing with a chance to spoil its neighbour’s finals dreams on the final day of the season.
Werribee captain-coach Tim O’Brien knows Saturday’s one-day derby is going to be one of this season’s trickiest games.
“I reckon they’d be keen to put us out of the finals,” O’Brien said.
“We’ve got everything to play for and they’ve got bragging rights to play for over the Wyndham shire.
“Hopefully, we can put a good game together and get the chocolates to play finals.”
Werribee will go into the match at Chirnside Park on Saturday as hot favourite – and rightly so. Keeping their heads above water in a month of do-or-die games, the Tigers have forced their way back into the top six.
They have enjoyed wins over Bayswater, Box Hill and Altona – the latter ensuring the Paul Jenkins Shield would return to the cage.
“It was good to get it back after they had it last year,” O’Brien said. “Paul Jenkins was a legend at both clubs.”
All this means the Tigers’ destiny is finally back in its own hands after they had been at the mercy of other sides for the best part of a month.
Their commanding win over third-placed Altona was a sign that if Werribee could lock away a finals berth, it could be a dangerous team come March.
“They’ve been fantastic, the last three games,” O’Brien said.
“Even before that, we were probably a bit unlucky with what happened on the Saturday-Sunday game at Balwyn when we bowled really well and then rocked up the next day and the sprinklers came on.
“The last four games, we’ve been playing really good cricket and shown we’re a dangerous side when we’re on song.”
Against Altona, Werribee put up a commanding 241 on the back of O’Brien’s 102 on day one.
The Tigers always had the upper hand on the second day, but they were still breathing a sigh of relief when they took 5-3 late to have the A’s all out for 191.
“They were still in the game at 5-180 – it was game-on,” O’Brien said.
O’Brien said snaring the wicket of David Kinsella, the A’s leading run-scorer with 77, was the key.
“We went through them,” he said. “Getting him out was a big coup for us.”
O’Brien, who got Kinsella out caught and bowled, capped a man of the match performance with 3-38.
“He hit it pretty hard and I just stuck the hands up,” he said of the catch. “I didn’t take it on the first bite – it hit my hands and popped up – but I leant back and caught it on the second bite.
“Billy Finnigan, the umpire, said, ‘Lucky you got a hand to it’ – it was going to hit him between the eyes.”
It all comes down to the final one-day game for the Tigers.
Win and they’re in the finals, lose and they will need a host of other results to go their way.
