Oakleigh will miss Subbies finals for the first time in two decades
Oakleigh president Peter Webb is confident his group will bounce back after its famous streak came to an end on Saturday.
Inner South
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Oakleigh president Peter Webb is confident the Oaks’ rare finals absence will be short lived.
After suffering a one-run defeat to Brunswick last weekend, Oakleigh’s chances of making finals were extraordinarily slim regardless of the result of Saturday’s match with Strathmore.
The miss is the end of an auspicious run for the Oaks, having featured in the Subbies finals every year since 2002-03.
While disappointed the First XI won’t appear in the finals, Webb is understanding of his Oaks’ run and is confident to return next season.
“The boys are very determined to get back in there, we’ve obviously got James (Pattinson) very keen to get involved and up and running,” he said.
“We will certainly work hard to get in there, we will see how the cricketing gods smile on us next season.
“Ten grand finals, six premierships in that period, so we’ve had more than our fair share of licking the ice cream over the years, we can’t complain.”
The addition of former Test man Pattinson will certainly help, while Webb is assured by the positive progress of some developing stars.
“I think for the club overall, given we have all of our other teams playing finals, we have a really good young group of players coming through,” he said.
“We’re really excited about them; we’re hoping they can produce the next wave.
“It might not be an ongoing tidal wave of the 20 years we have just had, but we’re quietly confident we’re going to be strong for the foreseeable future.
“That’s been the biggest positive out of the season, we have lost games we shouldn’t have lost, but overall, there has been a lot of hope for the future through the young blokes.”
Webb says Brendan McGuinness is expected to play on, while Blake Pearson is at this stage set to commit fully to his coaching role at Oakleigh Districts in the Eastern footy league.
Oakleigh and Brunswick both missed the North-South finals by three points, while Kew, Caulfield, St. Bernard’s OC, Brighton, Ormond and Elsternwick all made the top six.
NORTH-SOUTH FIXTURE
FINALS WEEK ONE
Kew v Elsternwick
Caulfield v Ormond
St. Bernard’s OC v Brighton
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