East Coburg claims VTCA Division 5 grand final

East Coburg has broken its 21-year premiership drought but admits it needed some “miracles and luck” to have gone its way in the last two weeks. Here’s why.

Sometimes you have to create your own luck.

But even then there comes a point where you think it might run out.

It wasn’t the case for East Coburg across the last two weeks as it stormed to what appeared to be sometimes be an unlikely premiership.

In the semi-final against Melton South, East was rolled for just 138 but managed to hold on by three runs.

And in the weekend’s decider was all out for 126 after winning the toss and electing to bat against Footscray Angliss.

That’s where Satheesh Fernandu came in on both occasions.

Just as he did in the semi-final, Fernandu finished with six wickets to haul his side to premiership while also earning promotion to Division 4 of the Victorian Turf Cricket Association.

It was also the club’s first top grade premiership since 2002.

Speaking on Monday, East Coburg president James Koochew admitted he was a little bit surprised how it had all played out.

“Firstly, we played two very good teams in the finals series and definitely had to earn this,” he said.

“In both games when we were bowled out, there were some of us thinking we didn’t have enough runs on the board. But then we managed to put ourselves in a really good position with the ball.

East Coburg celebrates its premiership. Photo: Facebook.

“We took three amazing catches in the semi and then we got the key wicket of (Daniel) Nightingale on Saturday (in the grand final) and that gave us some real confidence. He was such a big wicket because he’s someone who could have taken the game away from us with a quick half-century.

“When we posted the score that we did, you do think to yourself whether all of your miracles and luck has come to an end but we managed to find a way through.

“Satheesh has always been out strike bowler, to take 12 wickets across both games is astounding.”

Koochew said there were plenty of emotions on display in the clubrooms on Sunday night post-game.

For some supporters, they had seen their own children follow in their footsteps.

“In the last few seasons, we made a decision to put a lot more focus on our youth,” he said.

“We’ve got one guy over 30 and the rest are between 19 and 22. There are players in the current team whose fathers played in our last flag.

“It meant a lot to those older guys to see that. The premiership has just proven to us that we made the right decision to back in the youth.

“And it’s important because we’ll now go up a grade and they’ll continue developing as a team.”