Welcome to this week’s Rovers update.
The 2026 season has now wrapped up, with the final two Grand Finals played over the weekend.
Congratulations to Red Beret 2nd Grade on their premiership win, and well done to Super Global Services Tier 3 for a fantastic season, finishing runners up after a strong Grand Final effort.
We also came together on Friday night at the Red Beret to celebrate the season at our Presentation Night. Congratulations to all award winners and teams on what has been another great season for Rovers.
A big thank you to our volunteers, coaches, committee members and supporters who give their time so generously throughout the season. We also extend our sincere thanks to our sponsors for their ongoing support it truly makes a difference to our club.
If you have any club equipment that needs to be returned, please let us know. Keep an eye out for our upcoming AGM date, and no doubt we will be calling on a few helpers for a working bee in the coming weeks to get things sorted around the shed.
Here is to a well earned break and an even bigger and better season ahead.
ALL GRADE RESULTS
2ND GRADE RED BERET ROVERS – GRAND FINAL WINNERS!
Rovers 3-110 defeated Barron River 109
Rovers win by 7 wickets!
SUPER GLOBAL SERVICES ROVERS – RUNNERS UP
Grand Final Weekly Wrap – Tier 3 Super Global Services Rovers v Barron River
After a build-up longer than a Boxing Day Test, Grand Final day finally arrived. Fourteen day lead-up with lots of rain, covers on, covers off, covers back on again… by the end of it the covers had done more work than most.
Standing in the way were the top of the table Barron River, a full-strength outfit of 13 and a team that had been the benchmark all season. Super Global Services happy to take the title of underdogs into the clash.
Captain Mungus, in his final ever juniors game, headed out for the toss… and for one last time, the coin said no. Barron sent us in on an absolute belter of a wicket, beautifully prepared by newly appointed Rovers Life Member Rodney Stratford. After two weeks of chaos, it was a pitch worthy of a Grand Final.
The Batting Innings
Rocco and Thomas came out with intent, putting on a fluent 30 run opening stand at run a ball pace against a Barron attack that looked like it had accidentally came a day early for the Second Grade decider.
Rocco was the first to go, nicking one behind off Eddie Hammerton, but the tone had been set.
Luca joined Thomas and the pair went about building our innings with class, adding a composed 54 run partnership before Luca was run out.
Thomas continued on, producing yet another quality innings, finishing with 46 off 76 balls. Just another chapter in what has been a remarkable season, with seven scores over 40. Consistency at its finest.
Captain Mungus then joined Hugh at the crease, and together they built what can only be described as a Hugh-Mungus partnership, adding 45 runs and keeping the scoreboard ticking. Mungus, clearly enjoying his final junior innings, but was less than thrilled to be dismissed with just one over remaining.
That brought semi-final hero Lucas to the crease, who calmly took a single off his first ball, handing the strike to Hugh. What followed was the perfect finish. Hugh Ferguson unleashed, scoring 14 runs off the final 5 balls to close the innings in style. Hugh finished 41 not out, capping off an incredible season as the competition’s leading run scorer. Not bad for someone technically a year too young to even be playing in the comp unless he had already been playing rep cricket.
Super Global Services finished with a strong total of 4/147 on the board and plenty of belief heading into the second innings.
The Chase
The change of innings brought energy, noise, and a sea of green from the Rovers supporters. The boys knew the task. Keep it simple. Bowl top of off. Back each other. Remember to have fun, at the end of the day you are playing cricket on a Saturday with your mates on the Grand Final stage! How good! Barron’s top order had dominated all season and were always going to be tough to contain. With some assistance of some early wayward bowling, they built a steady 50-run opening partnership, ticking along but without taking the game away.
The breakthrough came in the 13th over when Luca Hutton bowled a beauty that found the edge, and Rocco snapped it up behind the stumps.
Three overs later, Elijah produced a 2 over spell that will be talked about for a long time.
Each over saw a bowling clinic of setting up the batter at the start of the over, before bowling a peach that ripped off the wicket and sending the wickets flying. At 3/67 after 18 overs, the boys were right in the contest. Barron still had work to do, and the pressure was building.
Unfortunately for us Barron’s batters dug in and produced a match-winning 83-run partnership, batting with patience and control to guide their side to victory.
Reflection
It didn’t go our way on the day, but what a season it has been.
A young Super Global Services side that, on paper, wasn’t expected to feature heavily come finals time, came together, improved week by week, and fought their way all the way to a Grand Final.
An outstanding achievement, and great proof of how much can be achieved when everyone plays for each other, week in and week out.
Except for old man Mungus, this group has plenty of junior cricket ahead of them, and the future for Rovers is incredibly bright.
Thank You
A massive thank you to:
• Tash, for managing and scoring week in, week out. The team simply couldn’t function without you
• Pete F and Peter B, for umpiring and for consistently reinforcing the right way to play the game
• Green Army for coming to support today and throughout the season
• Simon, Sim and all the board for all the work you do behind the scenes that lets our kids play cricket with their mates on a Saturday morning each week!
Final Word
Well done boys. An incredible season, a great group, and a privilege to coach.
Enjoy the off season, and we’ll see you all back in a couple of months ready to go again.
The Rovers story for this group of young men is only just getting started.
HALPIN PARTNERS COLTS ROVERS V MULGRAVE – 21ST MARCH
Grand Final Wrap-up
Halpin Partners Rovers CPL Colts (190/0) defeated Mulgrave(90)
After multiple rain delays our 10 AM Grand Final at GP 2 morphed into a 4 PM day/night spectacular at Cazalys Stadium; a fitting setting for what was to be a brilliant Grand Final.
Rovers faced a “shootout” with our top season rivals, Mulgrave, who finished just one point behind us in the ladder.
Rovers batted first on a well-prepared wicket and wonderfully drained ground following weeks of heavy rain. Captain, Ian De Lange then proceeded to present a masterclass in opening batting, scoring his maiden century (100/115 not out) raising his bat to a delighted Grand Final crowd. Certainly, a Grand Final Captain’s knock for the ages! Ian was well supported by Cody Peters (74/127 not out). Both openers carried their bats in a memorable and rare unbeaten Grand Final opening partnership of 190 for none.
After fuelling up with hot pizza and fruit (thanks Sim) and motivational talks from coaches Simon and Dolf, Rovers set about defending the 191-target focusing on dismantling the opposition.
First-up bowlers Blake Watson (2 for 5 off 5 overs) and Xavier Curtin (1 for 17 off 5 overs) opened the cracks in the Mulgrave top order early in the Mulgrave innings. Tadhg Mcdavitt then struck a vital below, clean bowling Harvey Rees, a regular top performer for Mulgrave. Mulgrave started to wilt.
Enter the spinners. Brodie North (2 for 14 of 6 overs) struck early and proceeded to pin down the Mulgrave batters. Then stepping up to the plate was the brilliant Lucas Brierley (3 for 5 off 5 overs-yes these figures are correct) Like a cyclone, Lucas tore down three of Mulgrave’s best, leaving our opponents on the ropes and stumbling at 7 for 60.
Mulgrave faced the challenging task of hitting 131 runs off 101 balls with just three wickets in hand.
Any prospects of a “Captains knock” from Mulgrave’s Nicholas Martin were soon snuffed with Brodie North striking, LBW.
Mulgrave bravely fought on adding runs until Blake Watson struck again. Mulgrave were bogged down at 78.
With Mulgrave holding on, refusing to die, it was left to Tadhg Mcdavitt to take the final wicket sealing a great Grand Final victory having held the fiercely competitive Mulgrave to just 90 runs.
The celebrations began. Halpin Partners Rovers CPL Colts – 2026 Premiers and Grand Final winners! Congratulations fellas on an awesome season and GF.
A huge thank you to coaches Simon North and Dolf De Lange for a wonderful season, to our seasons most dedicated scorers Sanet and Clare and to all the other volunteers, parents and supporters who helped make this a special and memorable season. Congratulations on a great team effort all round.
President – John Margiotta
Vice President – Simon North
Treasurer – Noelle Halpin
Secretary – Mark Malone
Junior Representative – Sim North
Players Representative – Chris Davies and Aaron lock
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