Weekly Region Wrap: Ovens & Murray Bowls Region
“We’re still within striking distance. We’re still alive in the last round. We’ve got hope. We can only do what we can control.” Maurie Braden, Wangaratta Bowls Club
It’s the final round of A1 Weekend Pennant in the Ovens & Murray region. Last year’s winners Wodonga sit on top after a strong season with only 1 loss to their name and 183 points. They’re hoping to turn this season into Premiership number 28. Like last week’s coverage on Frankston, Wodonga are also no strangers to State Pennant Championships, having made it 3 years in a row. Corowa RSL sit in 2nd with 142 points with YMGCR in 3rd with 136 points. Both of these clubs are eyeing 2nd to secure the double chance in finals. Corowa RSL plays bottom of the ladder Yarrawonga in the last round while YMGCR have to get past top of the table Wodonga.
“Wodonga have been dominant, won 27 in the last 40 years, and they’ll be pretty hard to beat. Corowa RSL are good too. They’ve built over the last few years and are more than capable, they went into last year’s Grand Finals as favourites. I expect them to play each other again. YMGCR will finish third. Rutherglen are hanging in there and have done really well, Mason Bayliss has really turned them around in the last few years. They played finals last year and they may play finals again. The rest of the competition has been pretty competitive.”
The last spot in finals is where it gets interesting. Rutherglen sit 4th on 113 points, while Wangaratta sit in 5th on 106. Both sides play teams below them on the ladder, and in their round 7 games when they played these sides previously, both sides had close wins with Wangaratta securing 16 points and Rutherglen securing 14 points. Being 7 points behind, Wangaratta need to win and hope that Myrtleford get a win against Rutherglen.
“We’re playing Lavington at home and we’re fancying our chances. Rutherglen need to win against Myrtleford. We’re only 7 points behind. We think Myrtleford’s more than capable of beating Rutherglen, it’s a pretty even competition. We just need to beat Lavington at home to secure our spot. A bit disappointing we couldn’t play last week due to the heat as points matter.”
“We’re about where we thought we might be. We’re happy we’re contending for finals. We like to think that we’re competitive. We’re improving our training like doing drills on Thursday, and that’s reflecting in our results. We’re capable of winning a final. I think RSL and Wodonga would be the strongest teams, but on the day you never know.”
“We field 4 sides. We’re a chance for finals in 3 of those sides. As a club we’re pretty happy. Membership’s been pretty stable. We’re looking to improve the lighting on the first two greens. Let us run some Friday night games. That’s gonna open up some more avenues to play out of the heat and lets the club make some more revenue.”
𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑾𝒆𝒆𝒌𝒍𝒚 𝑹𝒆𝒈𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝑾𝒓𝒂𝒑 𝒊𝒔 𝒂 𝒏𝒆𝒘 𝒘𝒆𝒆𝒌𝒍𝒚 𝒇𝒆𝒂𝒕𝒖𝒓𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝑹𝒆𝒈𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒂𝒍 𝑽𝒊𝒄𝒕𝒐𝒓𝒊𝒂𝒏 𝑷𝒆𝒏𝒏𝒂𝒏𝒕. 𝑰𝒇 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒂𝒏 𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒓𝒆𝒈𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒔𝒕𝒐𝒓𝒚 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒑𝒉𝒐𝒕𝒐, 𝒑𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒔𝒆 𝒔𝒆𝒏𝒅 𝒊𝒕 𝒕𝒐 𝒄𝒐𝒐𝒑𝒆𝒓@𝒃𝒐𝒘𝒍𝒔𝒗𝒊𝒄.𝒐𝒓𝒈.𝒂𝒖
