AS soon as the premiership medallions were handed out to their opposition, Werribee turned its attention to next summer in the Victorian Sub-District Cricket Association.
The Tigers have come a long way in 12 months, leaping from 10th place to runners up.
Their dream run could not stretch into the grand final, losing to finals-hardened western rivals Melton Lions by 68 runs at MacPherson Park.
CLICK HERE for our picture gallery from the grand final.
Tigers captain Shaun Dean told the Weekly his side had what it took to go one better a year from now.
“We’re obviously disappointed,” he said. “You can’t get too disheartened and let it get to you.
“We’ve got the foundations there, we’re good enough to win it with this side, no doubt about it.”
The Tigers had the home side where it wanted it to be with an hour to go on the opening day.
Sure, the Lions had wickets up their sleeve, but runs were at a premium. Then came five deadly sins from the Tigers.
“We had them 166 after 72 [of 80 overs] and I was looking at them making 200 or 220,” Dean said.
“The last hour, it fell away quickly. We dropped five catches, all on the fence.
“Then they started to clear the fence, their crowd got on the back of them and it might’ve rattled a couple of our blokes.”
The Lions powered to 5-241 and runs on the board in a final are priceless.
The Tigers saw off the new ball, but, in doing so, chewed up more overs than they would have liked.
Their top five batsmen — David Wolfe (26), Matthew Dean (15), Shaun Dean (30), Tim O’Brien (15) and Kyle Andrews (15) — made positive starts, but did not capitalise.
The Lions bowled a nagging line and were backed up by the fielders.
“They were a bit more disciplined with the ball and made it hard for us to penetrate the field,” Dean said.
“They’ve got a lot of older guys. They only have one young guy in their side and the rest of them are 25-plus and three of them are 40 or something.
“They’ve got all the tricks of the trade.”
A desperation 40 from Adam Alifraco and 15 not out from Stephen Plumridge was in vain for the Tigers, who were bowled out for 173 in the 75th over.
Dean said the experience of playing in a grand final would be invaluable for the handful of his players who were under the age of 21, but intimated that inexperience would not be used as an excuse or the loss accepted because of where this team has come from.
“Grand finals are a different game and today they played a bit harder than us,” Dean said.
“The guys who have played Premier Cricket are up to that, but maybe for some of the other guys it was a bit of a shock to them.
“You never want to lose one, but maybe we have to go through that and get taught a bit of a lesson before you win one.”
VSDCA GRAND FINAL
Melton 5-241 (D Kirk 59 A Gale 53no J Liddy 43no M Alexander 33 MD Allen 30; S Plumridge 2-39) d Werribee 173 (A Alifraco 40 S Dean 30 D Wolfe 26; B Jones 6-52 S Harwood 2-24).
