Sport
19 December, 2025
Laanecoorie Dunolly to meet Colts Phelans in MDCA one-day Grand Final rematch
For the third time in four years, familiar foes Laanecoorie Dunolly and Colts Phelans will meet at Bryants Oval tomorrow to decide who will be crowned kings of the MDCA one-day realm.
Heading into Saturday as four-time reigning one-day premiers, current league ladder-leaders and with home field advantage, Laane look to be the odds-on favourite this Saturday.
However, paper doesn’t provide the context that Laane’s juggernaut has arguably been at its most vulnerable to being dethroned this season.
Laane’s quest for a five-peat has faced some serious challenges throughout the one-day campaign, but, as great teams do, they have routinely found ways to untangle themselves from difficult situations.
“The season so far has been relatively even. We have certainly noticed the gap is closing on the competition and it’s becoming a lot more even,” Laane’s A grade player-coach Matt Smith said.
“We certainly would have liked to have been more consistent in terms of our all-round performances, but we also know we are on a journey this season and we don’t have to play at our best yet.
“By having so many capable and strong players in our team, sometimes it can just be up to one or two people who can change a game.”
Many of the club’s stalwarts have stepped up in critical junctures this season.
Reigning Ken Gibbs medallist Tom Hannett has already hit two fifties and a century, a hard-fought 50 from Smith allowed Laane to escape with a 19-run win against Maryborough and Tom Hart smashed a stunning 105 last week against Clunes.
Some of Laane’s greatest individual performances this season have come against their season finale opponents, with both clashes between these heavyweights decided in the final over of the match.
“We have had two absolute nailbiters against the Colts this year, so we are fully expecting that it will be another really close and even contest on the weekend,” Smith said.
“We have got to play every ball. Those little things make a big difference and that’s probably been the main learning we have taken away from our two performances against the Colts so far.”
Those little moments went in Laane’s favour when they met the Colts in round five at Hedges Oval.
After a 101-run fifth-wicket partnership between Asim Akhtar and Ben Evans allowed the Colts to finish the first innings on 8/185, Laane’s run chase found itself hanging by a thread at 7/115.
While star recruit Nafis Shaikh anchored the innings with a team-high 66, Laane’s young trio of Will Chamings, Lachie Condie and Thang Nguyen stepped up at the death, with Nguyen hitting the winning runs with the second-last ball of the innings.
Smith said that performance has been a snippet of the impact Chamings, Condie, Nguyen and star prospect Joe Lovel have had on this season.
“It has been great to see our younger players continue to develop,” he said.
“A lot of these guys like Joe Lovel, Thang Nguyen and Lachie Condie have played quite a bit of A grade cricket already and I guess that’s been a deliberate ploy from the club to fast-track their development.
“We know they are not a finished product yet, but we also know that they will continue to work hard to round out their games for us.”
Smith also pointed out star recruits Shaikh and Josh Fitzpatrick for providing extra firepower to an already stacked lineup.
While small in stature, Shaikh packs a serious punch with the bat, leading the competition with 343 runs with an average of 57.8.
Fitzpatrick has shown similar class with the bat in patches this season, but most of his impact has come with the ball, taking 12 wickets, including 3/33 in that aforementioned round five triumph.
“We have been really pleased with our imports. Nafis is incredibly professional — his cricket intellect is certainly of a high calibre and we have found that really beneficial to lean on him in different times during games,” Smith said.
“Josh has played a few different roles with the ball and bat, certainly been amongst the wickets most weeks and bowled some really important spells for us.”
When the teams met again at Bryants Oval in round eight, it looked as though Laane would break out of jail again, recovering from being 6/67 to finishing on 6/180 thanks to a powerful 93 from Sam Bartlett.
However, Abdaar Ishaq capped off a brilliant unbeaten 78 with a boundary on the last ball to snap the Colts 1848 day wait to defeat Laane in A grade.
“I think it’s just the self-belief that we are capable of beating them, they have been the top side for a lot of years and it’s always nice to knock them off once and know you are competitive,” Colts Phelans’ Gary Wagstaff said.
“The aim was to make the one-day final and once we are there, which we are, we will just take every over as it comes and see if we can put our best foot forward.”
The Colts have arguably felt the biggest detriment to Laane’s recent one-day domination, losing the 2022/23 decider by eight wickets and falling just short in last year’s finale by 45 runs.
While last season’s A grade premiership somewhat lessens the sting of those Grand Final heartbreaks, the Colts remains thirsty for glory, aggressive over the off-season as they looked to bolster their lineup.
Their recruitment drive has already delivered in spades, finishing with the one-day regular season on the same points as Laane with an 8-1-1 record.
With deadly seamer Nick Henderson, tricky spinner Evans, and newcomers Akhtar and Jack Gallimore all taking double digit wickets so far this season, the Colts lead the league in wickets taken with a staggering 78.
Alongside his expertise with the ball, Akhtar leads the way with the willow, with his highly aggressive mindset delivering 279 runs so far this season.
While the likes of Evans, Rhys Egan, and Tarkyn Balzan have notched impressive knocks throughout the season, the fresh face of Josh Collinson has arguably been their most valuable batsman, routinely stepping up when the Colts’ top order has collapsed on occasions this season.
With very little separating the two sides, Wagstaff said he expects tomorrow’s decider to be a high-quality advertisement for the competition.
“Grand Finals are always hard to win. There’s nothing between the two sides, so it’ll just be who performs on the day and who holds their catches,” he said.
“It will be a high-scoring game out at Dunolly because the pitch is always good and the outfield is fast, so I would suspect either team would have to score somewhere between 200 and 230 to be in the game.
“Collinson has been our batting steadfast for the year so far, making a few runs with Akhtar, so between the two of them, we are hoping they continue their season and get a few runs on the board.”