Sharks to go for broke
GEELONG City is hoping the baggage of last week will hang over both sides as they gear up for their last chance to sneak into the top six.
Despite a disastrous first week, City bounced back against Grovedale, while its upcoming opponent Murgheboluc collapsed to lose by 100 runs to St Joseph’s.
The Sharks sit just one game and percentage behind the Frogs, with everything to play for in the final game of the season.
“I wonder how much (Murgheboluc losing last week) will play on their minds when they could have sown up the spot in the finals,” said City coach Aaron Randall.
“It just shows the evenness of the competition, absolutely they could have sown up the spot in the last few games but we haven’t been able to either.
“If they think we’re going to turn up and hand them an easy six points to sow it up, they are severely mistaken.
“But if our boys show up and think Murgheboluc are going to turn in a performance like they did last week we will be walking off the ground knowing we won’t play finals.
“I’d like to think that maybe in the back of their minds they will approach it a bit differently and absolutely I am backing the boys to get the job done.”
It was a more positive second half of the last game for the Sharks, who pushed the league leading Tigers to within two wickets of a miraculous reverse outright.
City entered the day on the brink of conceding first innings points and the fight shown should provide some confidence.
To make the six, City must defeat Murgheboluc and either overtake them on percentage or hope Newtown & Chilwell lose to Bell Post Hill, while simultaneously hoping South Barwon loses to Grovedale.
“We want to be playing finals cricket, we did everything we could last week after being extremely disappointing (the week before),” Randall said.
“It gives us something to go on but the bare facts for us were that we got absolutely pantsed in the first 40 overs against Grovedale.
“The position we put ourselves in we didn’t really deserve the points. But on the flip side, to take them so deep and put them under extreme pressure with bat and ball showed our players what’s required to win at this level.”