Welcome to this week’s edition of Tah Talk with Jay Lenton.
This week we lead with the exciting Semi Final weekend ahead, Ollie Davies recent purple patch, and our brothers at Warringah advancing to this weekend’s Grand Final.
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GRAND FINAL SPOTS ON THE LINE
They don’t call this the business end of the season for nothing.
March into early April is when premierships are won – and lost – and there are no guarantees no matter what you’ve achieved in the previous five months.
Manly entered last weekend’s finals having reached the top two in all five grades, but that didn’t gift us a saloon passage to the semi-finals.
So, it was very pleasing to see all five teams adopt a hard-nosed approach and play good finals cricket to see off their opponents and qualify for the last four.
It was largely on the back of some quality batting, with centuries recorded in 1s, 2s, 3s and 5s and a 90 in 4s.
Our stats team at the Tahs is pretty good and they tell me that many centuries on the one weekend is probably some sort of record.
As an assistant coach, this makes me very pleased and proud and happy for those who are seeing the rewards of their hard work.
Incredibly, we now have the chance to reach grand finals in all grades.
I don’t need the stats men to tell me that would be a club first.
The semi-finals see 1s host Northern District at Manly Oval, 2s take on Wests at Coogee, 3s are at home to Easts at Graham Reserve, 4s take on Wests at Mike Pawley Oval and 5s are at Blacktown to meet Gordon.
Go Tahs!
OLLIE THE RUN MACHINE
Oliver Davies!!! What a back end of the season he has had.
Recently named in multiple media outlets in their Sheffield Shield teams of the year and rightly so.
Coming off two blistering centuries in the last two rounds of the Shield for NSW, I had the box seat on the weekend to watch him pile on another.
We all know the talent Ollie has, this talent is turning into pure class, the way he looks to score from ball one, while building himself an innings is a marvel to watch.
His effortless ability to play shots to all parts and simply take the game away from the opposition is a true testament to his growth as a player in the last 12 months.
The future shines bright for Ollie, however for the next couple of weeks his main focus is at Manly and something he and all the other state players do so well, invest back into the club.
SHIRE BROTHERS GETTING IT DONE
It’s not just in the grade teams where we are enjoying plenty of success.
Our brothers at Warringah Shires are also having a standout season.
The Men in Green are into three grand finals this weekend – 3rds, 4th and 5ths – while their Metro cup side (essentially a 6th Grade) – are through to the semi-finals.
These teams are essentially our Pathway kids and will one day, hopefully, filter through to the grade set-up at Manly.
So, for them to arrive on the back of a winning culture is tremendous on a number of fronts.
Warringah’s overall strength was underlined with a second-place finish in the club championship.
Go well this weekend, boys.
