‘Dutchie’s’ double: Gavan Holland’s grand final heroics in District cricket
Ten years apart, Richmond wicketkeeper Gavan ‘Dutchie’ Holland played a big part in two of Victorian District cricket’s most memorable grand finals. Here he reflects on two Tiger triumphs.
When St Kilda captain Shaun Graf won the toss and said his team would bowl, his Richmond counterpart, Ray Bright, snorted.
“Well that’s the first mistake you’ve made!’’ Bright told his former Victorian teammate.
They had come together before the 1989-90 Victorian District Cricket grand final at the Junction Oval, and Graf, seeing a green-top wicket, was happy to send the Tigers in.
He was doubly happy a couple of hours later when his bowlers reduced Richmond to 8-54.
But from such an unpromising position, the Tigers fashioned one of District/Premier Cricket’s most thrilling grand final victories.
The match ended when Graf, after an outstanding century in a tense run chase, was caught down the leg-side by wicketkeeper Gavan Holland for 103. The Tigers won by three runs.
Graf was aware Bright had brought his fine leg up to in front of square and went to work a ball from David Saker into the vacant territory.
But he got his glance too fine and Holland gleefully accepted it. “He dived wide and caught the fucking thing!’’ Graf says.
He walked, being trailed by St Kilda’s young No. 11, Shane Warne.
Exactly 10 years after Richmond’s rousing win, Holland was again front and centre in another memorable Tiger premiership.
Again the Tigers batted first and again they were in early trouble, stumbling to 5-103 against a Melbourne attack bristling with the pace of Shane Harwood and Simon Cook.
But they made a remarkable recovery to reach 568.
There were centuries from David Harris (112) and Ian Hewett (125).
And there was a ton from No. 10 Holland, his first and only century in District cricket. He made 108 not out, having survived a going-over from the Demons quickies and some testing tweakers from Steve McCooke and Ash Henry.
Melbourne maestro Warren Ayres hit a ton in the Demons’ reply, but they were all out for 249.
Holland’s part in two grand finals is well remembered by District/Premier Cricket long-tooths. Last year, as Carlton and Casey South Melbourne fought out the decider, someone mentioned that Richmond recovery and the gloveman’s century.
The two flags were the highlight of Holland’s long career behind the stumps.
When he retired at the end of the 2001-02 season, he’d made 498 dismissals – 468 catches and 30 stumpings – and 1590 runs, highlighted by his unlikely grand final ton.
*****
Gavan “Dutchie’’ Holland has been doing some reading about Richmond.
He caught up with Ian Hewett, who was recently given a scrapbook of press clippings about the Tigers.
It included the Sun’s report of the 1989-90 grand final, with the headline “Graf fall brings Tiger joy’’ and a photo of a dejected Graf heading for the pavilion, Richmond players in the background, feeling as much relief as elation.
A decade later, there were Richmond headlines again – “Tigers tighten final’s grip’’ – and mention of Holland’s century.
Holland says he’s often thought about “the synchronicity and the timing of those finals, being exactly 10 years apart, and the complete opposite in terms of the margins, from three runs to 319’’.
He was still a young cricketer when he celebrated the first flag.
From Warrion Cricket Club near Colac, Holland joined the Tigers in 1988-89 after playing three matches for the combined North Melbourne-Geelong side 12 months earlier.
When the trial amalgamation finished after three years, Holland followed David Harris to Richmond.
He had not been fitted up for the gloves. They were up for grabs; another keeper, Richard Hockney, had come to Melbourne from Adelaide.
Both performed steadily in a practice match but the selectors went with Hockney, and Holland started the season in the seconds with David Saker.
Both were promoted a few rounds into the 1988-89 season. And that was where they stayed, in Holland’s case for 14 years.
*****
Gavan Holland says the 1989-90 grand final produced three great knocks on a Junction Oval wicket that was “doing a lot’’.
“It had a lot of green grass on it,’’ he says. “It felt like every ball that went past the bat in our innings had an edge on it.’’
Sent in, the Tigers lost Michael Quinn, Gerard Clarke, Paul Quinn, David Harris and Geoff Parker when there were only 24 runs in the scorebook.
Wickets kept falling: 6-24, 7-38, 8-54.
“We were done,’’ Holland says. “The scorecard looked like a 1800-number. There were single figures all the way down. You thought, ‘We could be rolled for 50 here’.’’
But by the close Ray Bright and Paul Reiffel had lifted the Tigers to 8-196, which they extended to 215 early on day two, Bright out for 77, Reiffel not out on 79.
“You couldn’t play orthodox cricket on that wicket, you couldn’t bat in an orthodox way because you would get out,’’ Holland says. “It was a bit like Sam Konstas and Bumrah. They went unorthodox and threw the bowling off a little bit. They threw the bat at stuff and got away with it and before you knew it the momentum started to swing a bit. The rub of the green started to go our way a bit more too.’’
A total of 215? Given the state of the wicket, the Tigers thought they could defend it, Holland says.
Having made runs, Reiffel grabbed four top-order wickets as the Saints slumped to 5-69.
But their skipper, Graf, was unbowed, pushing them towards their target with help from Jason Jacoby (21).
When play picked up on day three, Graf was on 65 and St Kilda on 7-158.
On he pushed, losing Gerard Cull and Darren Walker until he had only one partner left, Warne, in his first season of District First XI cricket.
Successive boundaries off Saker took Graf to his ton and his team to the brink of victory.
“The tension … it was like, every ball we were going, ‘Are we going to win, are we going to lose?’ All it was going to take was a nick just wide or just over or of course a wicket,’’ Holland says.
And then, when one more boundary hit would have given the Saints the flag, Graf glanced Saker fine. And Holland was waiting.
“It was a standard catch,’’ he says. “When you say standard catch, in that situation obviously there was a bit of pressure and you’ve still got to move and do all the right things. I made sure the footwork was right, not that you think too much about that stuff, but that’s what you train for.
“Had it been a thicker edge, it would have been the match. It was such a fine line. It’s almost fate. You can’t plan for that.’’
Holland holds up Graf’s innings on a lively wicket as “amazing, just with his commitment to the cause and leading from the front’’.
That season, Holland had come across an article in which former state fast bowler and St Kilda stalwart Nigel Murch told of his regret at not playing in a premiership.
Holland cut it out, put on the fridge and looked at it often. “I thought, ‘Here’s a guy who played for Victoria and it’s one of his biggest disappointments, so if you ever get that opportunity, win one’. It was just a constant reminder to work hard. I always trained as though the next game was a grand final.’’
Sadness was around the corner for Holland, who at the time was working as a linesman for the Melbourne City Council Electricity Supply.
Nine days after the grand final, a workmate was killed on the job, taking his last breaths in the arms of Holland, who had tried to rescue him.
Trying to reconcile the two events and untangling such contrasting emotions took some time.
He had a close connection to his workmate, John. They were both from Colac, they met through Colac Football Club, they were in the same class and their parents knew each other. John had also been pivotal in Holland getting the position at the power authority, paving him the way for him to move to Melbourne and pursue his cricket.
“I’ve gone from that joy and elation to … yeah,’’ he says.
*****
After the 1989-90 triumph, Gavan Holland’s next grand final was 10 years later, against Melbourne at the Albert Ground.
Paul Reiffel again made runs when the Tigers needed them, but this time he had far greater support. He walked out with the match on a bat’s edge at 5-103 and with David Harris carried the score to 6-242. Remarkably, from there the Tigers added more than 300, with Harris, Hewett and Holland all scoring centuries.
Holland went out to bat with the score on 8-328, a score still well within the grasp of a crack Melbourne batting unit of Warren Ayres, Brad Hodge, Andrew McDonald and Andrew Kent.
He had never gone close to a District ton. But the wicket had been rolled out, the outfield was fast and the bowlers were tiring (Richmond was to bat for 210.2 overs).
Hewett and Holland put on 174 for the ninth wicket, and then Holland and Allan Wise added another 66 for the last peg, with the left-arm fast bowler digging in to see his keeper through to three figures.
“When I went in I just wanted to make sure I did the right thing and play my role and keep Ian going,’’ Holland says.
“Slowly, slowly we kept ticking it over and he ended up making a hundred and putting us in a really strong position.’’
Holland needs a prod to mention his own ton.
It came after what he calls his “worst year’’ with the bat; his aggregate hadn’t passed 100 for the season.
“I was going at about six for an average,’’ he says, adding he was lucky he wasn’t listed in the order at No. 11.
On the morning of the grand final, knowing he would be facing Harwood, Cook and co, he decided to put in his kit a bottle of water he had brought home from Lourdes in France. It was the town in which the Virgin Mary is said to have appeared before a woman in 1858.
Holland thought that if he ever needed some divine intervention, this was the time.
“To end up on 108 not out batting at No. 10, was it the placebo effect? Who knows.
“If you were to ask teammates and based on my season’s batting performance I’m sure they would say it was definitely a bloody miracle.’’
It’s fair to say the fiery Harwood didn’t care for the Tiger No. 10 hanging around.
“I never felt the ball hit the bat and jar my wrists until I faced him,’’ Holland says. “He bowled a really heavy ball. That made me understand what it meant when people talked about a heavy ball. Thankfully I got him after he bowled quite a few overs!’’
Holland was proud to take his place in such a strong and cohesive side.
Teammates became mates. “The friendships are enriched by the success you have together,’’ he says.
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Gavan Holland played no cricket after retiring from Richmond.
He felt “cooked’’ after 227 games and 15 years of District cricket, and was also co-parenting his daughter.
His love of surfing took him back to Geelong (where he works as a project manager for Optus).
In 2012-13, Richmond added GJ Holland to its hall of fame. He was already in the record books: for the most victims in a season (51 catches in 1999-2000), for the most victims in an innings (seven against Camberwell Magpies in 1997-98), for the most victims in a match (10, against the Magpies in 1997-98) and, of course, for the highest ninth-wicket partnership, his 174 with Hewett in that grand 1999-2000 grand final.
RAY BRIGHT ON GAVAN HOLLAND
“His numbers speak for themselves, don’t they? And he was probably a bit unlucky not to play a bit higher himself. He had good hands and he was quick on his feet, and I suppose it helped that he had a fairly good array of bowlers to keep to. The number of chances that he clanged …. I can’t remember too many. It’s OK taking the hard ones, but you’ve got to take the regulation ones too, don’t you? As a keeper and clubman, he’s one of the all-time greats, no doubt.’’
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