Mortlake, Heytesbury Rebels vault into South West decider

The Rebels' attack withstood a late-order partnership from reigning premier Pomborneit to book itself a ticket into next week's grand final against Mortlake.

"It's exciting. You always want to make the grand final, but our league is do-or-die so you have to come up against a brutal semi-final first," Moriarty said. "We've put in a mountain of work in the past two years to get here. Our confidence is up, so we'll keep doing the things we do well, keep having fun.

"We've done all the work, so we don't need to worry about anything. We just need to show up and try our best."

In the Rebels' way though is this year's benchmark squad, Mortlake.

Coach Todd Robertson was elated by his team's effort in making back-to-back grand finals after the Cats' own stellar batting performance won out over Bookaar.

"After such a big season where we've put in a lot of time and effort, it's a bit of reward for effort to make another grand final," he said.

"Our next brigade is really taking that next step and that's what is going to be important for us next weekend and into the future.

"It's pleasing for the club to see the team in a transition period and still able to compete and win flags hopefully."

The Pelicans put down 9-197 in its 50 overs, though Mortlake's Todd Lamont (70no), Will Kain (64) and Isaac Wareham (40no) made light work of the total to seal victory with just under eight overs to spare.

Despite not making a big total, the efforts of opener Corey Rounds (6 from 33) also impressed Robertson.

"On such a good deck (at Camperdown), the most important overs are those first five to 10 overs and Corey did his job, took the shine off the ball, wore a lot on his body and got through the tough period and was unlucky with his dismissal," Robertson said.

"Then, Todd's innings was sensational and was probably one of his best I've seen him perform for the club."

Over at Terang, Rebels coach Simon Harkness (80 from 149) led his team's early batting efforts against the Bulls, settling in at the crease for 95 per cent of the 187-run innings.

"'Harko' up top to make 80, the pitch was very difficult to play spin on and (Pomborneit) had two top-quality spinners (Amila Mendis and Tharaka Sendanayake) who were just impossible to play to be honest," Moriarty said.

While the Rebels' attack later had the Bulls on the ropes at 9-97, an inspired partnership between Josh Place (20no) and Tim Place (55no from 45) put the pressure firmly back onto the Rebels' shoulders.

"We had a lot of things go right for us," Moriarty said. "We bowled very well and had them on the ropes. Tim's normally a top order bat, so when he came out, we knew he wasn't a number 11 batter. And we gave him some chances, we dropped him and let them back in the game."

While it was disappointing not to finish off Pomborneit, Moriarty believes by withstanding the semi final pressure-cooker his team is well placed ahead of next week's grand final.

"It wasn't a walkover by any means, but the semi finals are typically the harder fought games being do-or-die to make the granny," he said. "It gives us something to work on, and our best is clearly good enough.

"Winning gives us a whole heap of confidence going into next week, and if we can put a full 50 overs together I think we'll be hard to beat."

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