Port Adelaide Cricket Club aiming for first A grade two-day premiership since 1967/68

PORT Adelaide will aim for its first A grade two-day premiership since 1967/68 when it takes on Tea Tree Gully in this weekend’s Grade Cricket grand final.

THE last time Port Adelaide was in the grand final of Grade Cricket’s two-day competition the Beatles were dominating the charts, Don Dunstan was SA Premier and Eric Freeman was the Magpies’ opening bowler.

Freeman starred in the 1967/68 match against highly-fancied Prospect, snaring five wickets to help Port win their fourth premiership.

More than four decades on, the former Australian paceman is preparing for another decider with Port — this time as an assistant coach.

Freeman, 69, says the Magpies — whose three other flags came in succession from 1927-30 — can cause another upset against Tea Tree Gully this weekend.

“To see those boys that have worked so hard to get there, I’d love to be participating as a player,” Freeman says.

“I’m very proud of the boys.”

Making the grand final marks a significant turnaround for the Magpies.

Years of poor on-field performances led the South Australian Cricket Association (SACA) to threaten to remove the Magpies from the A grade in 2003 and then impose win-based conditions on Port’s four senior teams over the next three seasons.

The 117-year-old club has survived and Freeman says an A-grade premiership will cap its turnaround.

“People will see that Port Adelaide is a strong club and other players will look up to us and realise we’re not easybeats.”

Port’s latest star paceman, Nick Benton, is set for his first A-grade decider and plans to use Freeman as a sounding board.

Benton, 22, was dropped for Woodville’s 2011/12 premiership campaign despite playing all minor round games that season.

The Magpies’ acting captain says Port is still coming to terms with making the grand final after being on track to finish towards the bottom of the ladder at the start of last month.

“After the semi-final, there were quite a few people that came into the changerooms teary-eyed and couldn’t believe it,” says Benton, who has taken 42 wickets at 15.6 this season.

“We go in with heaps of confidence because we’ve played our best cricket at the pointy end of the season.”

Unfortunately for Freeman, he will not be there for any premiership celebrations after booking a holiday to the state’s west coast when Port looked unlikely to make the finals.

“The phone will be running hot I tell you.”

Tea Tree Gully will also look to make history this weekend as it chases an unprecedented hat-trick of Grade Cricket titles.

The Gullies, who won the Twenty20 and one-day crowns earlier this season, are aiming to become the first club to win all three flags in a campaign.

Play starts at 11am tomorrow and Sunday at Glenelg Oval.