Sharks’ finals fight
Geelong City to ride T20 momentum
CAPTAIN Richie Oliver concedes Geelong City has a fight on its hands to remain in finals contention when it meets South Barwon in a crunch clash today.
Fresh from Tuesday’s hardfought Geelong Advertiser T20 Cup win that catapulted the Sharks into the final, Oliver admitted his side was in no position to be talking finals.
“I feel no differently to the way I felt at the start of the year ... I think we’ll be lucky to get into the top four,” Oliver said.
“But we’ve given ourselves a great chance now with four wins on the board. I still think there’s so much work to be done.
“Momentum’s a big thing and when we lost to East, we were just building something nice. Then we played Murghe and Grovedale and we were building something nice and we lost (to North).
“I think that (T20) win is great. I really think it’s good for our group to buy a bit of momentum back.
“And we’re hurting from Saturday. They wanted to prove a point and it gives us confidence going into the next game.”
Thrashed by North Geelong, City slipped to fourth on the ladder and is in danger of losing its spot in the top four.
Asked what went wrong in the seven-wicket loss to the Magpies, Oliver quipped: “It was a simple as us playing really s--and them playing really well.”
“But Andrew Fergusson took the game by the scruff of the neck. Even though we didn’t make as many runs as we would’ve liked, Fergusson took the game on and didn’t give us a sniff.
“We have to hold our hands up and say ‘well played’ to Ferg. (Curtly) Balshaw hung in there for a good partnership as well but Ferg didn’t give us a chance.
“Their bowlers put them in a position where there was no pressure, with only 160 on the board. It was almost the perfect performance, I thought.”
South Barwon will also be desperate to make amends, having lost to Murgheboluc, which chalked up its first win of the season.
“I”m sure they would admit they have been below par for where they expected to be,” Oliver said of the Swans.
“By the same token, we’ve probably been above par. What can you say? Cricket’s all about the next ball and if you play well you give yourself a chance, but if you don’t play well you can be on the wrong end of it.
“With some of the results this year, and I don’t want to say that cliche that anybody can beat anybody, but if you’re not on your game you open yourself up to be turned over.
“So we’ve got to make sure we bounce back from a pretty poor performance against North.
“I know we can be better than that, and if we are better, that will give us the best chance of knocking South over.”
South Barwon v Geelong City; Grovedale v St Joseph’s; Lara v Murgheboluc; North Geelong v East Belmont; Newtown & Chilwell v Leopold.
Newcomb & District v St Peter’s; Highton v Bell Park; Manifold Heights v Bell Post Hill; Marshall v Torquay. St Albans Breakwater v Alexander Thomson; Thomson v Guild-Saints; Geelong West v Corio; Modewarre v Waurn Ponds-Deakin. Barrabool 147 v Winchelsea 1-9; Jan Juc 122 v Collendina 0-42; Ocean Grove 7-237 v Barwon Heads; Little River 0-18 v Drysdale 85; Portarlington 152 v Anglesea 1-15; Queenscliff 148 v Inverleigh 0-3