Premier Cricket 2024-25: Ringwood’s silver-lining in cruel season-ender

Ringwood hit the Premier finals as one of the form teams, missing the top-four by a whisker ahead of an abrupt finish. But the coach says there’s plenty to take from the heartbreaking ending ...

Ringwood’s promising season finished in heartbreaking circumstances on Sunday. Picture: Valeriu Campan

It missed the finals double-chance by a run.

And on Sunday, its season was brought to an abrupt and cruel end amid the inclement weather.

Ringwood will be left to rue what might have been following its semi-final draw with the Camberwell Magpies.

Chasing the Rams’ 9-193d, the higher-seeded Maggies put up 6-140 as the match came to a close.

But coach Sean Flynn was optimistic most, if not all, of the pieces were in place in the hunt for sustained success.

“That was discussed in the rooms (afterwards) that we certainly felt that the talent is in the room – we’ll keep our ears and eyes open (for recruits), but we think what we’ve got in the club is going to be the basis of a successful season next year,” Flynn said.

The Rams were pipped by Camberwell for fourth spot by a run despite a rich vein of form ahead of the finals which included the scalps of Dandenong, Carlton and Prahran before a victory over Melbourne in an elimination bout.

Edged into fifth and a cutthroat final, Flynn pinpointed the match his team let the double-chance slip.

“There’s any number of ways you could find another run during the season, but that’s the way it goes. We let ourselves down in the game against Kingston where we were 0-100 chasing 200, and we weren’t able to get that win,” he said.

“But there’s no point looking backwards … we’ll certainly learn from what happened and we look forward now.

“We were just a bit unlucky with a couple of draws against Casey and Richmond in the two-day games … even the first game of the year we felt we were well positioned to beat Camberwell, and rain interfered.”

Could Ringwood’s David King salute a second Ryder Medal this year? (Photo by Josh Chadwick)

Contesting the past two preliminary finals, the coach said the disappointment burned deeper this time around.

“You could say we’ve gone backwards a step because we’ve finished a week earlier, but we only lost three games for the season,” Flynn said.

“The disappointment was greater this year – the previous two years we’d been beaten in the prelim and you can’t really argue against that.

“Whereas this year just feels like we just won’t know what we could have done, but we know how the rules work so it’s just the way the cookie crumbles on this occasion.

“It would’ve been a very good finish to the game whether we’d won or not – Camberwell were probably backing themselves to get the runs.”

Highlighting the seasons of captain David King which could be capped off with a second Ryder Medal following 810 runs and 30 wickets, and state-listed slugger Tom Rogers with returns of 131 and 70 across two finals, Flynn said “There’s lots to be excited about”.

“(David King) to be able to have a season like that as a 34-year-old is amazing, and to get Tom Rogers into the state system and play eight (Sheffield) Shield games and all the one-dayers … when he returned to play for us in the finals, he was outstanding,” he said.

A string of emerging names also put forward their case this season.

“Justin Beaton’s jumped up as a fast bowler, Dylan Walker has emerged as a left-arm finger spinner – there’s lots for us to be excited about and we think there’s lots of improvement in the team going into next season.”