St Peter’s through to GCA T20 final after win over North Geelong

St Peter’s will enter the T20 competition final against St Joseph’s as underdogs, but the GCA2 side’s captain believes they can match it with the best.

St Peter's skipper Luke Ford. GCA2. Picture: Wes Cusworth

ST Peter’s captain Luke Ford believes there is “no massive difference” between his side and the GCA1 sides they had beaten on the route to the T20 final.

The GCA2 contender has knocked off GCA1 sides North Geelong and Newtown & Chilwell, as well as Little River and Leopold in the competition, and will face St Joseph’s in the final on Tuesday.

Ford said sides could be complacent ahead of the Tuesday fixtures, while St Peter’s was always eager to compete against the best sides in the region.

“We understand that while the team‘s we’ve faced so far are pretty close to full strength, there is a mindset surrounding mid-week competitions compared to Saturday cricket,” he said.

“I have no doubt that our best team and our best eleven can match it with some of these sides in division one, there‘s no massive difference except sometimes the depth through the whole grades.

“It’s most exciting that we get to play against quality opposition, everyone was buzzing to be able to come up against North Geelong, who is a really quality outfit that wins division one premierships on Saturdays.

North Geelong's Tom Mathieson comes close to running out St Peter's Billy Ford. T20 Cup semi-final: St Peter's v North Geelong at the Walker Oval, Herne Hill Reserve. Picture: Alan Barber

“It’s all about the learning experiences that we can get from playing sides like that, there are some guys in these teams that think about the game so much more than we’ve ever imagined.

“The way they strike the ball, the way they set their fields, it’s all such a massive learning experience for some of our guys.

“They’re always on the same page 100 per cent of the time, and it helps them that they’ve been playing together for a number of years while our team ebbs and flows a bit.”

St Peter’s set North Geelong a target of 134 after its 20 overs, with Ford contributing 47 runs to the total.

Ultimately St Peter’s bowled the Magpies out for just 115, setting up a final against St Joseph’s, which overcame Murgheboluc by 38 runs.

Sam Bourke bowling for St Peter's. T20 Cup semi-final: St Peter's v North Geelong at the Walker Oval, Herne Hill Reserve. Picture: Alan Barber

Ford said he would give the side that beat North Geelong the first crack at St Joseph’s, with the impressive performance enough to go in unchanged if all players were available.

“One or two guys might need to work on Tuesday and so we might need to make some changes, but we’ll go in unchanged if we can,” he said.

“I thought our bowling was really impressive, it was pretty much our first’s bowling line-up but our efforts to bowl accurately really helped us, we didn’t force ourselves to bowl extra balls.

“We probably left 15 or 20 runs out there with the bat, so I didn’t think we had made enough runs, but we bowled and fielded really well.”

The final of the competition will be played at Queens Park in Highton.

Originally published as St Peter’s through to GCA T20 final after win over North Geelong