Biggest game in years

Finals lure for Guild-Saints after drought

GUILD- SAINTS captain Mike Norris has declared today’s meeting with Alexander Thomson the biggest game for the club in three seasons.

In what has been one of the stories of the GCA3 season, the carrot of a finals finish remains dangling for the Saints if they can defeat the Vikings.

Guild, which has gone through some torrid times in recent seasons, sits inside the top four on percentage, narrowly holding out a logjam of sides capable of making a late leap into the finals.

“It’s definitely the biggest game the club has had in probably two or three years,” Norris said.

“We try to treat it as a regular game as best we can, but it’s hard to, because apart from myself and a couple of boys, nobody has played finals before in the first XI, and it’s new to everyone else.”

He believes a victory in the two-dayer over AT would all but secure a miraculous finals berth, providing his side can successfully navigate bottomplaced Waurn Ponds-Deakin in the last round.

“If we can knock off AT, we’d be pretty confident of knocking off Waurn Ponds in the last game, and it probably would cement our spot,” he said. “But we won’t take it easy, we’ve still got to get the six points.”

Norris is wary of the second-placed Vikings, who “absolutely pumped” his side in a one-dayer after Christmas, but the Englishman said everyone was up for the challenge.

“We’re embracing it really,” he said.

“The club hasn’t been here for a long time, so I think everyone is walking around with a smile.

“If we make finals this year it’s a bonus. If we don’t, we’ll still look back on a really, really good year for the club.”

If Guild is to defeat AT, much will rest on the batting unit led by Kane Sloan (240 runs @ 48) and Norris (169 runs @ 24) to see off the challenge of an even Vikings attack spearheaded by Jack Clapham and Jay Dunstan.

“We hadn’t batted 85 overs in a few years and this year we’ve managed to chase down scores of over 200,” Norris said.

“We made 270 against Geelong West, which unfortunately got rained out, and last week in the (washed out) Newcomb game I had full faith in the guys to chase down 220, which would’ve been a huge bit of confidence knocking off top of the ladder.”