COOMEALLA captain Jacob Slimmon hopes last week’s Murray Darling Golf Association Pennant loss to Riverside Gold was an aberration, while opposing skipper Jarrad Stokker wants it to be precursor.
Sunday’s Division 1 Men’s final is a rematch between the two sides who met in the final round of the season last week, when the previously undefeated Coomealla were defeated by their less experienced counterparts.
It sets up an intriguing decider at Mildura Golf Resort this weekend to the first Pennant season since 2019.
Slimmon hopes he and teammates Troy Neville, Justin McPhee, Ed Parker and James Daly can reverse the 4-1 result from Robinvale Golf Club last week.
“We’re still feeling good, we’ve got a fair bit of experience in our side,” he said.
“I think I might be the second youngest at 41, and the youngest is 24. We’ve probably played in the last four or five finals but our record hasn’t been the best, so we’re keen to turn that around.”
Stokker, meanwhile, believes his team of Shawn Clarke, Alex Spooner, Nick George and Dom Vartuli are still the underdogs coming into the contest.
Simon Dale, who played a part in last week’s win, is absent for the final allowing Spooner to come in.
“They’ve got four country week players, and a potential extra one, in their line up, where as we’ve got two who have really gotten a look in,” he said.
“It’s a very inexperienced side but for what we’ve got we’ve done very well.
“A lot of teams doubted us, and our passion for the club and belief in ourselves got us over the line in the end. We went in as underdogs each week and if we won, great, but if we didn’t, we still went and played next week.
“There’s some guys in our team who will be trying extra hard this week because they know what it means to the club, and to get over the top of these guys again would be great.”
Gamesmanship has already began between the two captains when predicting each other’s playing order. In head to head competition it’s a blind ballot and players from opposing teams won’t know their direct opponent until sheets are submitted.
Slimmon said it can be a game of “cat and mouse”.
“How each side will line up and who will play against will be an important part of how the day will go,” he said.
“I’ll probably have seven or eight team sheets written up in different orders to make sure I can find the perfect match ups that I want,” Stokker added.
The Division 1 Men tee off at 11.15am Sunday.
In the Ladies’ division, which tee off at 10.30am, the undefeated Red Cliffs go in as favourites against Coomealla, having already defeated them 4-1 back in round three.
Despite having the bye last week, the team of Jill Gleeson, Catherine Lanigan, Deb Hassell, Sandra Marwood and Deb Dark won their most recent contest 5-0.
Coomealla, led by Sue Laird with Ann Bowen, Angela Plumridge, Salli Fox and Jackie Horkings enter in good form after a solid win over Riverside last week.
Red Cliffs face Mildura both Division 2 and 3 mens, which tee off at 9.45am and 9am respectively.
