Cressy is the only thing that stands in the way of Longford and a rare TCL Premier League premiership treble this weekend.
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The Country Tigers have long been the competition’s most-feared opponents – dominating the past three seasons.
However, Bulldogs captain-coach Damian Whybrow is confident his side can overturn the 119-run semi-final loss to the same opposition a fortnight ago, when they are reunited at Hadspen Oval this Saturday afternoon.
Cressy defeated Longford in the penultimate home and away match and is coming off a 20-run victory over Hadspen in last week’s preliminary final.
“We were pretty ordinary a couple of weeks ago being bowled out for 60, but we had won every game since Christmas and maybe the boys slacked off a bit because we had the second chance?” Whybrow said.
“We’ve got a 50-50 chance. Varun (Nadesh) has hit his straps and has been important for us but we know that we’ve all got to play well together with all 11 blokes putting something together.”
Whybrow said he was still open to what his side would look like, while Longford captain-coach Josh Adams said his charges have embraced what lays ahead and it was unlikely he would make any changes to his XI.
Longford defeated Hadspen last season to lift the cup and Trevallyn, who Whybrow was leading, the year before.
“We have a chance to create history and we’re going to go flat out to do that,” he said.
“If we play somewhere near our best we’re going to be very hard to beat as we bat pretty much right down and our bowling attack is probably the best in the comp.
“Whybrow is their key wicket and we will target him but I watched the partnership last week between Varun and Sammy (Graham) and they played well.
“They’ve got some good players right through and we certainly respect them. We’re going to have to play some pretty good cricket.”