Zero wins and two losses to start the season with their best player snapped up for higher honours. Emma Greenhalgh knew Western District-UC's response would define them as contenders or pretenders.
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Contenders they are, with Wests set to shoot for their fourth premiership on the trot when they meet North Canberra-Gungahlin in the Cricket ACT Lynne O'Meara Cup final at Kaleen Turf Oval on Saturday.
But this time they will be doing it without the reigning SJ Moore medallist of the past four years, who almost single-handedly drove Wests to the title a year ago.
"We’ve been a bit under pressure this year because of the loss of Zoe Cooke to the [ACT] Meteors, but we’ve really gelled at the end of this season," Greenhalgh said.
"We’ve won four games in a row now going into the grand final, which gives us a little bit of confidence. We’re still trying to take it a day at a time. Saturday is a new day, and we’ll just do what we can.
"It’ll be a big deal to get four in a row, but equally it’s Wests’ 50th year, so it’s a really big year for the club. To take home some silverware is really important in this year."
For Norths, a grand final triumph would mark the end of their own Cinderella story led by player-coach Sarah Staples and co-captains Maddie McGarry and Amy Slocombe.
"At the start of the season we weren’t winning games, we didn’t really pull together as a team. We’ve really pulled our focus together and come together as a team," Staples said.
"We’ve changed our team culture, we’ve worked on developing our players and our skills, so we’ve really learnt to work together as a team and I really think we can do this.
"We’ve created a leadership group through all of this, we’ve banded together and really pulled together as a team."
CRICKET ACT LYNNE O'MEARA CUP FINAL
Saturday: Western District-UC v North Canberra-Gungahlin at Kaleen Turf Oval, 12.45pm.
