CFN underdogs in the frame for finals
A CFN A Grade side who haven’t played a two-day decider since 2010-11, may have emerged as the unlikely favourites to seal a finals berth next month with one game remaining.
This season, CFN adopted a top two finals system for the longer format game but the make-up of the decider won’t be known until the end of Round 6.
Atherton lead the competition with 44.9 points and are guaranteed a finals spot.
Meanwhile, fifth-placed Mulgrave are a mathematical chance of nabbing the second finals spot, but on top of winning their final match against fourth-placed Rovers, they’ll require Atherton to defeat Barron outright and Norths and Rovers to both drop their games.
So realistically, that leaves three teams – Barron (32.46), Norths (31.14) and Rovers (30.33), to fight it out for a crack at the remaining finals spot. Of these three teams, Barron will be the only one playing a higher-ranked side, but they may not have the most difficult challenge of the weekend.
Norths will face the tough task of taking on last-placed Cassowary Coast Cyclones … without eight of their regular players including rep duo Angus Warnock and Chris Stanger.
The pair are the only Norths batsmen featuring among CFN’s top 10 run scorers for the season so far. Warnock is ranked fifth and Stanger ninth.
Then, their next best, Connor Kilpatrick sits at 25th with 75 runs from five innings, averaging 15.
Norths all-rounder Stanger said his side was used to playing the season with an unsettled team that had a strong reliance on the club’s lower grades.
“The majority of our side is players that work week on, week off,” he said.
“Any given week, we’re often down two or three players and then you take the rep players out of that.
“That’s a bit of the tale of our season really. I think I’ve only played four weeks of club cricket this year. This season the first round started on a rep weekend, so Round 1 we were down players.”
Norths lost to the Cyclones in a one-dayer in the only meeting between the sides earlier this season but Stanger said he was confident his team would redeem that loss.
“We weren’t far off beating Cassowary Coast earlier this year when we were really depleted.
“It’ll be our batting – if we can put runs on I’m very confident we’ve got the bowlers to bowl Cassowary Coast out. One luxury we’ve got is that Barron River are versing Atherton. Most of Barron River’s wins have been against depleted sides. So you’d think Atherton will get the job done against Barron River.”
If Stanger’s predictions for Atherton-Barron are right, and Cassowary Coast manage to upset a heavily depleted Norths side again, that leaves Rovers in the box seat to leapfrog their way from fourth, to their first two-day final in 10 seasons. They’ll take on a Mulgrave side who’ve one only won one game this season and will be without their leading run scorer and wicket taker – Jake Roach.
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