South Wagga Warriors and Turvey Park meet again in grand final

The exception was last season when the Warriors beat Saints in the grand final.

In each of the three years prior to that the Warriors won by the smallest of margins and they are out to make it six straight premierships.

Warriors and Turvey have met on four occasions with Warriors winning two, drawing one and losing the opening game of the season and a fortnight ago applied the mercy rule in a big semi-final win.

For six and a half innings last Saturday it seemed that Saints would again be the Warriors grand final opponent, but a purple patch with the bat saw Turvey score five last innings runs to win.

If Turvey Park is to challenge the might of the Warriors they will have to produce equally good offence as they did in that final half inning.

Further, the Turvey pitchers, supported by their fellow fielders, will have to play to a plan to restrict the number of runs scored by the Warriors bats.

With such a powerful Warriors batting lineup, that will be a real challenge for the Turvey fielders, with lead batter to number nine all capable of a strong safe hit.

Generally speaking they hit to left and left of centrefield so Jane and Leila Wadley are sure to be kept busy.

The Turvey pitchers, Jade Olsen and Paris Hall, worked well in tandem last Saturday and will have to do so again this Saturday to help restrict the batting prowess of the Warriors.

In Kristy Tenison, Jess Swaysland and Montana Kearnes, the Warriors have three versatile batters who can hit long or play the short game effectively.

To that end the Turvey corners will have to be at their best.

In defence the Warriors are rarely ruffled. They have a choice of four pitchers, Montana Kearnes, Carmel Hutchinson, Kristy Tenison and Jane Kearnes, with Montana Kearnes likely to get the nod.

She and catcher Sam O’Neill has been the most used combination and statistically the most successful.

The Warriors will look to get early runs as its very hard to play catch-up softball against them.

By the same token, Turvey will be out to limit the Warriors scoring for that same reason.

If Turvey can bat to their potential they’re in with a chance against the Warriors.

However, the Warriors will be just as keen to snare victory and build on their record of successive premierships.

Earlier in the day Turvey Park are in both the C grade and the B grade grand finals, with a Turvey Park premiership a certainty in B grade as Turvey Park Red will play Turvey Park Yellow.

Lake Albert is Turvey’s C grade opponent.

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