President Finbar O'Loughlin Speaks  from Edition 1 - October  2003   Back to Top
Gday and welcome to the 2003/2004 season. 

Initially a public thank you to those blokes who ran the club last year … Muzza, Hoss, Youngy, Captains Pyle, Ditch and Scotta and all those who helped with our fundraisers and along the way. 

To our loyal and our new sponsors…. the BIGGEST thank you.  A small Club like ours turns over a disproportionate amount of money throughout the season and your generous support is greatly appreciated.  I look forward to this season’s President lunch with great “enthusiasm” … and plenty of berocca. 

A recap on last season.  Our junior grades all had a great year and thanks to those who managed the teams, Phil Quabba, Rob Borgas, Brad Tanner & Peter Young. 

No finals in the Under 11’s and 13’s however our Under 16 lads made the semi but weren’t successful.  Many of those blokes are now in our senior squad and will be breaking their way into the A grade from early on which is great for our future. 

C Grade were also beaten in the semi final but Scotta Nicolai will ensure we get the trophy back this year!  

B Grade had a battle all year with some great wins and some terrible losses.  Ditch finally seemed to be able to get some consistency from his young squad when the season came to an end.  No finals cricket but some great development in players. 

After losing 8 blokes from the previous season’s Grand Final and written off at the start of the year, Pyle and the boys charged into the GF with their best win of the season. Unfortunately they followed it up with their worst game of the season.  That was last year and with roughly the same squad this year we’re very confident of success. 

Our Premier trophy, The Derham Dredge Award presented to the Best Club Person was shared by Brad “Hoss” Tanner and Peter “Pie Chucker” Young. Youngy will be missed this year following his return to SA. 

Two new awards were introduced last season. These are CLUB trophies and all results across all grades count. This recognises the inevitable moving between grades of players in a town our size and ensures every weekend’s effort is recognised. 

In honour of a couple of our Life Members, the Bob Colbey Award recognises the player who scores the most runs for Rovers, and the Craig Murphy Award recognises the player who takes the most wickets for Rovers, note … for ROVERS - not for a particular grade. 

I believe these awards are the most important “playing” awards in the club and add a new level of recognition we’ve missed. Great idea Muzz and co. 

In finishing up, thanks again to our Sponsors and supporters, the captains will ensure you have plenty to cheer this season. 

To the players, play in the right spirit and the right results will flow.  Get to training and use the newest and best nets in town. Get to the Memorial Club and enjoy the best club facilities in town with your teammates. Support your captains and recognise it’s a big job with plenty of off field jobs as well…. Help out where you can!

President Finbar O'Loughlin Speaks  from Edition 2 - December  2003   Back to Top
We’re now a couple of weeks from the Christmas break and Rovers continue to put some mixed performances in the books.
 The Juniors have had some successes. Under 11’s and 13’s doing extremely well and the Under 16’s proving competitive. We are presently in “discussions” regarding playing an overage player, which stripped us of the points for 2 wins. Our lad claims he thought he was right (although he didn’t check) as the opposition had a lad he knows is 2 weeks older. Time will tell but a lesson learnt by all involved…. 

C grade are equal top having won their last three straight. The RSL game required the involvement of the Association to calculate the scores as it seems scoring is not a high priority for some .. it can’t be that hard surely! Anyway we got the points.Saturday’s game was however a belter with us keeping West to 151, 155, or 159 …depending on which part of their scorebook you took (another example!).   In an amazing effort a broken down Steve Trindle, with Squirt as runner, and “Big Al” Hall at the other end (who would have loved a runner), put on 52 for the last wicket stand to see us get over the line….you bloody beauty. 

B grade continue to struggle putting it all together at the same time.  Milney couldn’t back up on last weeks 93 (Langer-esque) and the boys again collapsed for f-all. They have proven they are a better side than we’re seeing and I’m sure things will gel just around the corner. Once again it’s been difficult getting a settled side but some encouraging individual performances augur well for 2004. The beauty of this comp is you only need finish third to make the finals.. and then it’s just 2 wins to glory (and Mad Monday!). 

And A grade…. Poor Matty Pyle is pulling his hair out trying to get some consistency and “team” into the boys. They’ve had a chat and it showed in Saturday night’s effort with the ball under lights but we still need to put on a more competitive target.  Welcome back to Ty Rayfield who made plenty in his first week in town (C Grade – 87*) and isn’t far off making them pay in the A’s (hopefully).  Great to see Nick “Whacko” Clapp get amongst them on Saturday with a well-fought 46.  Nathan “Bones” Johnson has been the find of the year with some fabulous bowling efforts in the past 2 weeks. 

Socially we put on a barbecue under lights at Traeger on Saturday night. Good to see a few from B’s & C’s down to support the A’s.   The Sun FM Beach Party bbq was a success with by my counting 10 blokes coming down to give a hand…or were they just there for the wet t-shirt competition. Incredibly Big Al didn’t with the beach wimp award…obviously rigged. 

We’ve been getting around 15 blokes back to the club on Saturday nights, which considering the number of underage kids we’ve got playing seniors, is a pretty good effort.  We’d love to see more of you of course as the more the merrier .. particularly if you win the “Mug”! 

Mary’s Wednesday Evening Bowls has finished for the season and Rovers were a credible 12^th, two clear of relegation.  Our opportunity to advance further up the ladder on finals night was nipped in the bud when the heavens opened up. Our boys were ready to play, with the whites on and all, but no joy. Congratulations to all who played. I’m sure we brought a new dimension to “Lawn Bowls”. 

 Anyway.. our Junior grades continue to perform well. Under 11’s and 13’s still have huge numbers and hopefully this will be looked at by the Association next year so more kids can get a go.

 Thankfully, Under 16’s retained their points from the two wins over Federals. They also had an ineligible player so it was deemed to be “all square”. The boys have just beaten Feds again on the weekend so are now 10 points clear in third and look ok for a finals spot.   Well done to Alistair Young for taking 5/11 and Matty Paterson-Nicolai for his 41 and a caught and bowled on his 13^th birthday.

 Brad “Hossa” Tanner has moved to Darwin with work and all his efforts across the club but in particular with these blokes is greatly appreciated… and missed.  I’m getting up earlier on a Saturday now than I do on a workday!!!

 The senior year hasn’t been quite so good unfortunately, especially given the efforts put in by all Captains.  A Grade struck some bad luck thanks to some recent “localised” rain.  For those not in the know the sprinklers at Traeger Park came on three Saturday mornings in a row!  They played the first week as it was a day-night game and the track was drying out by 3.30. Unfortunately for us it was a minefield early but had dried out by the time the opposition batted – shades of 00/01 Grand Final when we arrived to a wet track day 2!

 While the council argued over what was to blame (rain, very localised rain, vandalism, we don’t know), the problem continued and the next two weeks were unplayable costing us any chance of making up lost ground.  Whilst we needed results to go our way it would still be nice to be playing for something. As it stands, Wests were beaten that weekend and a win by us would have closed the gap dramatically.  Council has now scrapped the “faulty” controller, is purchasing a new one and will water manually until the end of the season. Thank you! 

Milney’s B Grade boys have found the going very tough this year with 35 different blokes having played in this grade so far. We’ve had our chances to win but it seems we’ve taken “batting collapse” to a new level. With no hope of finals they are now in the middle of a game we’re every chance of winning. As the song says ….“Isn’t it ironic”.  Good to see Gav “The Voice” Flanagan back after time off with injury.

 C Grade are certain finalists this year but remain one game behind RSL off top spot. They’re desperate to finish top and go straight through as anything can happen come finals time. Qualifying will become an issue as everyone wants to play finals, but there just isn’t room to reward everyone who has helped get them there. Again, 34 blokes have pulled on the whites in C grade this year and choosing 11 to play the finals will be emotionally hard.

 The Association held a very successful fundraising evening with guest speaker Kerry O’Keeffe. Thanks to all from Rovers who attended and it was pleasing to see us with the biggest representation. I can assure you this was recognised by the ASCA Executive and appreciated.

 We’ll have our own big fundraiser in the coming months so I’ll be looking for even a bit more support from players this time to put some money in our bank.

 Good luck to all for the rest of the season.

Our A grade men had a disappointing year with only three wins. Whilst we were able to be both West and RSL throughout the season, any chance of claiming a final victory over Federals was lost due to “human error” and the Traeger Park sprinklers. Matthew Pyle has busted his guts all year to put a most competitive side on the pitch but a lack of depth has worked against him. The return of some quality players was offset by transfer of others inter- and intra-state and we just couldn’t take a trick. A decision to develop some younger players will pay dividends in the next year or two. 

B Grade have suffered due to the lack of A grade depth however Glenn Milne and his side finished the season on a high with an OUTRIGHT win against the top side. An amazing game where everything just clicked. We knew the performances were “in them” but what a pity we couldn’t get it right earlier in the season. Still, it’s a great way to end this season and hopefully it will give the confidence to some blokes for next year.

 C Grade finished unexpectedly short. After being a side to beat all year, we saved our worst form for the end and lost three on the trot. Beaten soundly in the semi-final any dreams of some joy for the club were gone. Scott Nicolai was rightly disappointed in our late loss of form but as they say “Cricket’s a funny game” .. just not meant to be that funny eh Scotta!

 Under 16’s also made the semi final which was a great effort from a side with many of last year's under 13's.  Jakob Roth led his team with captain’s performances, and then spent most Saturday afternoons playing C then B and then inevitably promoted to A grade. Well done to all the lads - Jakob, Dylan, Jeremy, Adam, Tyrone, Joel, Matt, Eddie, Matt, Cameron, Mitch, Jack, Michael and Alastair. See you next year.

 Presentation coming up so please look back later for trophy winners including the Derham Dredge for Best Club Person.

Only one shall remain …..

This is the last week of the minor round and, for those of you who have been following Memo Rovers this year, you won’t be shocked when I say only one team has made the finals.
Our C grade will play West this week with the winner finishing top and earning a free Grand Final spot. Loser plays off on 12 March. Good luck to Gaz and the boys and  hopefully some joy come 6pm on the 19^th.
The rest of the club is unfortunately, but understandably, looking forward to the end of the season. A and B Grade play Federals in one day games.
Feds A’s guaranteed themselves top spot a few weeks ago so this game will have no bearing on positions and it looks like their B’s can’t make top, so same in that game.
Accordingly, captains have been told to have some fun and finish the year in good spirits. Batting and bowling could show anything this week.
Under 16’s have tried valiantly all year under the guidance of Rob Borgas. They have shown their lack of experience a couple of times but when you consider all but one are under 15 and two regulars are under 13, it is understandable. We’ve got a good bunch of keen juniors who should make a great side in a couple of years.
Imparja Cup on the weekend which gets bigger every year. If only we can get it played at a sensible time (not 2 weeks before our finals, and I’m sure many of the visitors interstate preparations),  I’m sure it would receive greater enthusiasm from locals however there was a good crowd at Sunday’s final.
Presentation will be Saturday night after the games. It’s a “White Night”, which means come down after the game in your whites or be fined. An extra fine will be levied on those who do a “Nashy” – go home, shower and pull on the extra set of clean whites!  

See you at Sporties Saturday night!
Guv