Drysdale playing to win and hoping to sneak in

DRYSDALE coach Nick Hallam says his side’s sole focus must be on its home clash with Anglesea tomorrow now its finals destiny is out of its hands.

Fourth-placed Ocean Grove (30 points) only needs a win over Portarlington to play finals.

A Grubber loss opens a door for the winner of Drysdale (27 points) v Anglesea (24 points) two-day game to scrape into the top four.

“Whatever ( Ocean Grove and Portarlington) they do, that will happen — I can’t impact that game at all,” Hallam said.

“The only thing I can impact is what we do to actually beat Anglesea this week.

“There is no point thinking about that (Ocean Grove and Portarlington) game — it just confuses things for us.”

The team that finishes fourth will almost certainly face ladder-leader Collendina (51 points) in an away knockout semi-final at the Snake Pit.

A match-up between second-placed Jan Juc (43 points) and Barwon Heads (36 points) in third spot, looms the most likely scenario in the other semi-final.

An 180-run loss last weekend against Barwon Heads jeopardised Drysdale’s hopes of a top-four finish after finals rival Ocean Grove upstaged Jan Juc on February 18.

The result meant fifthplaced Drysdale had dropped out of the top-four.

Hallam said the size of its loss to Seagulls was hard to swallow and raised doubts if his side it was good enough to play finals.

“Well (finals) it is com- pletely out of our hands,” he said. “We have got to win this week and we have got to rely on other (teams to win and lose).

“It goes back to little moments within some of the games throughout the year where guys will think well, ‘what if’.

“And that is biggest thing we did not want to do at the start of the (season). It is disappointing.”

Hallam said this week’s opponent Anglesea proved anything was possible in finals last year when the Kangaroos grabbed fourth spot and won its first BPCA A-grade title.

“It is pretty even in the (BPCA) to be honest — it is just down to the guys who turn up on the day and how much they want it,” he said.

Two wins over Portarlington alongside bowling out Collendina for 149 in their raindrawn match were positives this season, but losses to bottom-placed Barrabool and Barwon Heads put a dampener on things.

Drysdale, which missed finals in 2015-16 and finished in seventh, took out the A-grade title two seasons ago under former coach Shane Cutajar.