By Justin Flynn
Newtown & Chilwell went from sixth to fourth on the Geelong Cricket Association ladder without even playing and will meet North Geelong in a semi-final this weekend.
All round 14 day two fixtures were cancelled due to extreme heat, but the Two Blues had already secured first-innings points against Highton on day one.
The win also pushed Newtown & Chilwell’s percentage higher than St Joseph’s. The six points allowed the Two Blues to end the home and away season on 39 points, the same as Joeys and South Barwon, who had to settle with three points.
Skipper Dylan Hodge said his side was eyeing off an outright result to make the finals, but it had all worked out in the end.
“That was part of our reasoning to declare straight after passing Highton’s total last week and the best chance at an outright,” he said.
“Luck was on our side and we didn’t get on, which worked in our favour.”
The Two Blues will take on ladder leaders North Geelong this weekend at Osborne Park and are in good form.
“Since Christmas, I think we’ve had that stability in our selection and availability with players and confidence is a huge thing,” Hodge said.
“We’ve had some great individual performances, but as a team, we’ve had different people step up every week. We take a lot of confidence in our form post-Christmas. We think we’ve performed just as well as any other side since the start of the 2024 season.”
Hodge said it was a challenge playing North Geelong, but that his players would enjoy it.
“They’re obviously a good side,” he said.
“I think we’ve tried to learn from what they’ve done the last couple of years around how to balance, how to play tough, hard cricket and kind of a ‘we can win from anywhere’ type of mantra. We’ve got enormous respect for North Geelong, but we’ve actually had a decent record against them and we’ve had some good wins so we’ll take confidence in that same thing. It’s 11 against 11.”
East Belmont will host Grovedale at Winter Reserve in the other semi-final.
Play begins at 11.30am on both days, Saturday March 16 and Sunday March 17.
