By Tara Murray
Craigieburn is hoping to finish the Cricket Victoria Women’s Community North West A one-day competition on a high.
After a slow start to the competition, the Eagles are hoping their experience will show through and they can fight for a finals spot.
Eagles captain Litara Va’auli said they hadn’t played well early in the competition.
“We’re sitting down near the bottom and we have a bit of work to do if we want to make finals.
“We’re one of those teams that are quite balanced throughout the team and we know how each other work together.
“Hopefully we can get back on track. It’s very close and hopefully we can win from here on in.”
On Sunday, the Eagles faced the biggest test in playing ladder leaders Altona Roosters.
Batting first the Roosters made 5-146.
The Eagles fell just short, making 9-126.
While the Eagles one-day season hasn’t been what the club would have liked, they had a strong T20 series winning through to the north-west A grand final against Ballarat Women’s.
The match, originally scheduled to be played in the first weekend in December, was held earlier this month.
Unfortunately it was a game the Eagles would prefer to forget.
Looking for their first T20 title, the Eagles were bowled out for 77.
Dianna Cachia top scored with 19.
Ballarat got the runs with ease, finishing 1-78.
Photo Gallery: Craigieburn vs Altona Roosters
Va’auli said the time gap between the T20 competition and the final hadn’t been ideal.
“We did quite well to make the grand final. We were pretty pleased … with only two teams making finals.
“[But] We didn’t play our best on the day up in Ballarat.
“We were unlucky in the end, we hadn’t played T20 cricket in a month, so with such a long break in between games didn’t help us mentally.”
The Eagles junior girls program continues to improve.
Va’auli said it was exciting to see the talent coming through.
“We’ve got two junior girls teams, under-13s and under-15s and there’s about eight players in each team.
“Some of them have been filling in for the senior team. About three have played two or three games during the session and show some good passion.
“There’s a good future at the club and we want to keep growing numbers and there’s somewhere for girls to come and play.”
Next weekend, the Eagles are holding a Pink Stumps day and a $5000 club reverse draw on Sunday.
The day coincides with the Eagles match against Carlton-Brunswick 3.
