While Oakleigh and Caulfield played off for Sub-District cricket’s biggest prize at the weekend, Werribee lurked in the shadows pondering what might have been.
The Tigers were comprehensively beaten by Caulfield in the semi final, but captain-coach Mitch Johnstone felt his side had finished a week short of its full potential.
“I think it’s an opportunity missed, but that’s probably the optimist in me,” Johnstone said. “You finish where you deserve to finish.
“We’ve got a few deficiencies in our team, but we’ve also got a lot of strengths, which other teams would’ve been frightened of I guess, if we could’ve got our stuff together.”
The fight for redemption has already begun for Werribee.
The Tigers are looking at the holes they need to plug in their squad to take the next step.
They have began sounding out players for next season.
All clubs need to be proactive in the marketplace or miss out on reeling in the big fish.
When you’re one stop away from a grand final, a new recruit could prove to be the difference between a deep finals run or a premiership.
“April is a bit of a meat market with player transfers and movement, so you’ve got to get in early,” Johnstone said. “You’ve got to add pretty quickly in this day and age.
“We’ll try and lock away most of our list and make sure there’s a bit of space for youngsters as well. As a second year coach heading into next year, I know what we need now to improve the list and the way we go about things as well. There’s always a few changes, we don’t know what they are yet, and that always happens at this level.”
Johnstone has spent three seasons in Sub-District cricket since crossing from Essendon in the Premier Cricket.
He knows all-too-well how competitive this competition can be at the pointy end of the season after playing two seasons with Roxburgh Park-Broadmeadows, where he experienced losing grand final.
“Subbies premierships are tough to win,” he said. “There’s 14 sides in each group and you’ve got to be absolutely on top of your game to pinch one.
“We’ve got a finals record to improve and it gives us motivation. “We’ll reflect on what we’ve done this year and look to move on pretty quickly.”
In his first summer with Werribee, Johnstone was the seventh ranked bowler in the competition, taking 28 wickets.
For the record, Oakleigh won a nail-biting south-west grand final by nine runs over Caulfield at Warrawee Park on Sunday, while Mount Waverley clinched the north-west title with a two-wicket win over Bayswater.
Werribee at least had a premiership celebrate with their fourth XI taking out the flag.
The Tigers, sparked by Matthew Crameri (4-18), wicketkeeper-batsman Darcy Phillips (39) and opening batsman Snehal Patel (31), had a four-wicket win over Plenty Valley at Yarrambat War Memorial Park.
