Tara Murray
Rivergum has been awarded the 2019-2020 North Metro Cricket Association Jika Shield premiership nearly six months after the season came to a premature end.
With COVID-19 hitting, the Kookas grand final against arch rival Rosebank never went ahead, with the association initially deciding to not award a premiership in any of the grades where grand finals didn’t go ahead.
That decision was appealed late last month, with the appeals panel deciding that the higher ranked team in the three grand finals that didn’t go ahead, including the Kookas, would be awarded the premiership.
The Kookas were the higher ranked team after winning a semi-final against Rosebank, which had been the minor premiers.
Kookas captain-coach Matt Perri said the announcement was a bit unexpected.
“It’s five-six months later, so it’s a bit weird,” he said. “We had all sort of moved on and it’s now been given to us.
“It got back to us that we had won the premiership, so it was a pleasant surprise. Everyone was pretty happy.
“Hopefully down the track we can have a beer for it.”
The premiership is the club’s fifth in eight years, adding to an already impressive resume having made the last nine grand finals.
Perri said while it wasn’t the same as the others, it was still good to get the recognition.
“We would have entered the grand final as the number one side,” he said.
“If the weather played a part in the grand final, we would have been on the right side.
“We did deserve it, even though we didn’t play the game.”
The decision also brings to an end the rivalry between the Kookas and Rosebank, with Rosebank switching to the Diamond Valley Cricket Association over the winter.
The 2019-20 season was the eighth season in a row the two teams were due to meet in the grand final.
Perri said it was the one team they really looked forward to playing each season.
“It’s a bit sad,” he said. “It will be very different for us.
“We would play them twice a year and then a couple of times in finals and it was always a tough game.
“The best bit about it was having a beer after the game and as you’ve got such a good rivalry, you talk about the past years.
“We’ll miss every part of it.”
Perri said they were only starting to think about the upcoming season, which is still to be finalised with some uncertainty due to COVID-19.
There has been some talk of the season commencing on November 14.
“It’ll be a short pre-season,” he said.
“We’re normally slow starters and have poor pre-seasons, so I don’t think it will hurt us.
“It normally takes us two months to get going. Maybe everyone else will be the same.”
Perri said all of last season’s finals team was set to return, while a number of players from their second XI will continue to push for selection.
He said they had a really even balanced side, which reflected in the statistics last season.
