Allansford-Panmure women's coach Simon Rea is grateful Claire Logan decided to join the Gators for her maiden Warrnambool and District cricket season.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
The talented bowling all-rounder hails from Macarthur but moved to Warrnambool after finishing high school to become a stable-hand under local horse trainer Tom Dabernig.
Since debuting in round one, she has become a key cog of the Gators line-up that is aiming to avenge last year's grand final loss when it takes on Brierly-Christ Church in Sunday's decider.
The opening bowler has taken six wickets from 10 matches while also contributing some handy runs in the middle-to-lower order.
"I think she messaged me there out of the blue and I took a couple days to get back to her," Rea told The Standard of Logan's arrival at the club.
"She turned up and I could see the first night she was here she was going to be a good find for us."
Rea also has a special connection to the club through her dad Ian, a former senior Gators cricketer.
Funnily enough, Ian, who will be supporting his daughter on Sunday at the ground, used to play alongside Rea at the club.
Logan, who is looking forward to Sunday's showpiece game, said it was "really good" being a member of the Allansford-based club and was full of praise for her teammates.
"They're really good, they were really welcoming to me and there's a lot of good cricketers in the team," she said.
Rea said his side's six-run win against rivals Nestles had given him and his side a "lot of confidence" heading into the grand final.
He is wary of the Bulls though, who are haven't lost a game all season.
"They've played good cricket all year but every week's another game and here we go," he said.
"We've put ourselves in the position that we wanted to at the start of the year and we've got one more box to tick."
The Gators mentor said last season's heartbreaking one-wicket loss to Nestles in the decider was fuelling his players however they hadn't placed too much emphasis on it.
"Those that know me well know that I'm fairly competitive, I don't like getting beaten," he said with a laugh.
"(But) we can't overplay that sort of thing. If you play that too much it increases the pressure on all of the players and I think we're a very level-headed group of players and I think in pressure situations in finals I'll be fairly hopeful that we'll shine through."
Matt Hughes
Matt is a sports journalist at The Standard.
Matt is a sports journalist at The Standard.
