Back: John Stephens, Joey Pall, Ethan Birks, Luke Berkrey, Jono Pall, Matt Brown. Front: Joel Pearson, Josh Purtell (c), Nick Louttit, Oscar Roberts and Dean Bradley.
The Coota Bulls have secured an A-Grade Three-peat in the South West Slopes Cricket Grand Final held in Coota on Saturday.
The Times spoke to Coota stalwart and star Joel Pearson about the solid win and what it was like to go three in a row.
He said, “Stock won the toss and batted first and they got 107 from their 40 overs but on the last wicket they had five overs to spare.
“We got the runs seven wickets down and had less than ten overs to go. Stockinbingal brought Max Tiernan and Alasdair Sides out for the opening partnership with the duo scoring 5 and 17 respectively.
It was Jack Caldwell who steadied the ship with a solid 43 off 90, falling short of what would have been a good half century.
This is where John Stephens and Pearson struck, causing a middle order collapse with the next 4 wickets going in quick succession. When Josh Purtell chimed in, Stock were in trouble having lost 4 wickets for 18 runs.
Purtell added to the pain to claim 2 more wickets for 10 and a duck. Harvey Holt put on 13 but it wasn’t enough with Stock bowled out in the 36th over for 107.
Pearson spearheaded the bowling attack and rolled his arm over for 6.2 overs with four maidens. He took 3 for 5 and was ably assisted by veteran John Stephens who chimed in with 3 for 35 off 6 overs.
Dean Bradley bowled his usual Glenn McGrath style line and length, a style which has seen the big quick terrorise opposition sides for nearly 25 years. He returned the figures of 0 for 11 off 8 overs. Josh Purtell chipped in with 2 for 27 off 8 overs while Luke Berkrey and Oscar Roberts both jagged a wicket.
Pearson doesn’t blow his own trumpet but had to admit his figures to the paper. “I took 3 for 5 off six overs and Johnny Stephens took 3.”
Coota didn’t find the going easy. After spending 36 overs in the field at 38 degrees, the players were a little parched and although they had a thirst for runs they were up against it.
Joey Pall faced 20 ball for 2 runs while Nicholas Louttit manage 8 from 36. When Harvey Holt caught the stylish Berkrey at first drop for lbw and 1 run, the future was looking dire for the Bulls and their three-peat.
Oscar Roberts brought the batting back together scoring a solid 18 and kept the scorecard ticking over.
When Roberts departed it was cometh the men cometh the hour and Purtell and Pearson piled on the runs in a match wining partnership. Purtell realised that Pearson must have been seeing them like watermelons and he played the steady end playing his role, while Pearson unloaded on the Stock attack with a strike rate of 134.88 and a 58 not out knock. Effectively winning the game for the Bulls Pearson got man of the match which is two times in the last three years in the Grand Final.
“We were 4/35 when I went in and we were in all sorts of trouble chasing the runs. They were well on top of us. Purt and I batted together for a while and hit a few runs and he didn’t hit a whole lot himself but did a really good job, he was there the whole time. We kept plugging away at it and kept getting a bit closer as we went along and managed to get close enough to the point that we got back on top and ended up getting home pretty comfortably in the end.”
“For Stock, Jack Caldwell had a really good game, he hit 43 before we got him out and he got a couple of wickets.”
“He was massive for them again. He was really good last year in the Grand Final for them too. He hit most of their runs. His two performances in a row in Grand Finals have been unreal.
“Oscar Roberts is about our youngest cricketer and he has played a couple of years of A Grade now and he is a gun too. He is so good we expect so much of him. He hit runs when we were under pressure too. He got an unlucky decision against him. There was a couple of strange ones where Stock played a catch and they weren’t super confident and the central umpire said not out, but the square leg umpire said ‘I think it was out’ and they overruled it even though they are not supposed to. The central umpire’s decision is supposed to take precedence. There was a bit of confusion and after about 30 seconds they put the finger up and gave him out and that was it for him.”
“It was a bit stiff, but we got the job done which is what matters in the end. The umpires are there to do a job and it’s their decision and you have to respect that. There’s no point kicking and screaming whether you won or lost. It doesn’t matter.”
“The boys are enjoying the win. It’s a pretty big effort to go three in a row and not only that finish the year undefeated and win a Grand Final at home. These are things (not the undefeated part) that we highlighted early on knowing Coota was going to host a Grand Final and it was a chance to three-peat it at home. We book marked it pretty early that we wanted to dig in and do that.”
“We will probably just unwind a little bit but Purt did say that he is not going to skip the side next year.
“Purt has captained us the last three wins. It’s a pretty unreal effort from him to do that. He is still going to play but just step back and be a player and not run the show.
“Purt said in his speech at the end of it that we play regularly with these boys and it’s a healthy competition but a lot of respect as well between the sides. It’s pretty hard cricket, but at the end of the day we all get along and we are all mates.
“It’s great to win but it is also hard as it’s your mates on the other side that haven’t got the win.”
The Times also spoke to three time winning captain Josh Purtell who was happy with the win and impressed with Pearson’s onfield game and consistency over the last few years.
“In the three-peat we had the last two years against Stock and the year before that was Temora.
“We started a bit fresh and had a new sponsor at the Club and changed things up and though you never really have big expectations, we did set a goal to be in the Grand Final every year and we have just been good enough the last three years. There were some really close games and some of them could have gone either way but we have managed to get the three in a row.
“I think it’s the first club to win three in a row since it’s gone to the inter-town South West Slopes comp.
“It’s really pleasing as the boys have put in heaps of work and heaps of training.
“We have preseasons and everything like that. It’s pretty unknown for local cricket. We have a four to six week preseason every year. It’s normally two nights of training every week and we changed our standards a little bit and it has paid off.
“Everyone knows each other’s games. We all get along, we are all mates.
“I got a couple of wickets and only scored about ten runs. I batted at number five and Stock were on top for most of the game.”
“We bowled first and it was stinking hot. It was about 38 degrees and we did it tough. We hadn’t played a game for three weeks.
“We had a beaten total of 107 and on that wicket I thought that was a really good total and to be honest Stock were on top for 80 percent of that game.
“Oscar scored about 20 and was looking good. We got things going and then Joel came to the crease and the game was still in the balance, but he just took the game away from them and I just sort of sat at the other end and defended and got the single when I could and Joel had the hot hand and played the innings to win us the game.”
“Joel just needed someone to stick around with him I guess and that is what I sort of did.”
“That was my final game as captain. I just thought three years was long enough. After three years you keep saying the same things over and over and you start doing the same sort of things and I thought it would be time now to freshen it up and someone else to come in with something a little bit different.
“There’s guys in the side like Joel Pearson, Luke Berkrey, Dean Bradley who are great captains in their own right.
“I don’t want to do it for too long and it’s time for someone else to do it now.
“Hopefully out of those three we will work something out and all stick together for next year.
“I know I give Joel a wrap in the paper regularly, but he does deserve it. Over the last three years he’s probably the main cricketer in town with his all-round play, bat and bowl. He’s just taken it to another level. He has found something in the big games that has set him apart from all the other all-rounders. He needs a massive shout out. In the last three years, realistically he has won us two grand finals and in the third one he did well in it as well.
“He’s just gone into that next level of all-rounders with people like Darren Connell and it’s great to have him on our side that’s for sure.
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