Sunbury claims historic VTCA premiership, second straight promotion
Just two seasons after crossing from the GDCA, Sunbury has won its first VTCA premiership, beating Footscray United to claim the Division 4 title and promotion.
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Sunbury stormed to a historic maiden VTCA premiership on Saturday, claiming the Division 4 Clark Shield title.
Cruelly denied the Division 5 flag last season by the arrival of the coronavirus, the Roar were never going to let another opportunity slip.
It’s also the club’s first since its 2011-12 triumph in the Gisborne District Cricket Association’s second tier Johnstone Shield.
The club crossed GDCA at the end of 2018-19 and have since made two grand finals and earned back-to-back promotions.
Having lost just one game in the 2020-21 regular season Sunbury claimed the best-of-three grand final series 2-0 over Footscray United.
The Roar took Game 1 last Saturday by 60 runs as Craig Ballinger hit 41 runs and Michael Treweek produced 30 and 2-14.
They backed it up with another commanding win in Game 2 as Jason McGann hit 63 and took 4-12 in a 109-run victory to seal the premiership.
Skipper Steve Treweek said it was a fantastic achievement for the entire club after a difficult season.
“It’s a monkey off the back that’s for sure,” he said.
“Last year is what it is, the side that finishes on top should reap the rewards of that and we weren’t too disheartened.
“It’s a well driven group at the best of times but a little bit of added ammo certainly didn’t hurt.”
“It’s a pretty crazy season, especially one-day cricket, a lot of games were a flip of the coin and we were lucky enough to be on the better side of 95 per cent of games.”
Batting first at Progress Reserve, Sunbury were in early trouble at 3-14 before McGann, Regan Connell (20), Lachlan Treweek 15) and Jordan Tentonello (13) guided their team to 8-152.
Footscray United were then in immediate trouble, falling to 4-19, and were dismissed for just 43 in the 21st over.
McGann backed up his performance with the bat with four wickets and was supported by Jay King (3-10) and Jason McGowan (3-21).
Treweek was blown away by his star’s performance.
“Two games in a row we were 3-10, so it wasn’t the best of starts,” he said.
“If you had have told me we’d be 3-10 and make 150 you’d shake hands and take that, Jason batted superbly yesterday, he’s a superstar.
“The bowling group has done the job all year, so I just let them do their thing.
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“It was pretty crazy to watch to be honest, it all happened so quickly.”
Sunbury will now move up to Division 3 and a third straight promotion is certainly a possibility.
“That’s the plan, we’re definitely looking forward to the new challenge,” Treweek said.
“We’re looking forward to facing new sides and see how we handle the higher division.”
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