The Junee Stallions will need to sharpen up in the field if they’re going to get past Wyangle in the first round of the Elders Cup finals on Saturday.
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That’s the word from captain Trent Charlton, who said his side needed to shake an alarming habit of dropping catches to avoid letting the season slip through their fingers.
“We’ve been dropping catches like there’s no tomorrow,” Charlton said.
“When we drop one it really hurts us because we drop our heads and that carries over into our batting.
“But if we can hold onto our catches, I’d back our batting and bowling to get the job done.”
Junee is hoping to have a full-strength lineup on Saturday, after battling through a season marred by player unavailability.
Most of the team’s players are shift workers and some weeks have featured changes to almost half of the team as a result.
“We’ve had no consistency since game one, just completely different teams from week to week,” Charlton said.
“The one advantage has been everyone getting their chance to play and work themselves into some decent form before finals.
“But we’ve had the same team for the last two weeks and it should stay same from here.”
The Stallions head into its finals campaign on the back of a loss to Tumut RSL in the regular season finale in Junee on Saturday.
Already locked into fourth spot, the Stallions were merely playing for some much-needed momentum heading into the business end of the season.
But they could not get the job done, posting 170 before Tumut RSL finished at 9/176 after 38 overs.
Trent Charlton (71) led the way for Junee with a captain’s knock, but the skipper did not receive the support he needed.
Fellow opener Adam Peade was next best with just 14.
Junee’s bowlers then struggled in the early going, before a series of dropped catches only made matters worse.
Tumut made it to 90 without losing a wicket, before outstanding spells from Joe Crowder and Jonty Orr - both flirting with hat-trick balls during the day - fought back with a vengeance.
But it was not enough, as Tumut RSL passed the Stallions with one wicket in hand.
Junee’s elimination final clash with Wyangle is set for Saturday afternoon in Gundagai.
The winner will progress to the preliminary final.
