Sunshine Coast cricket coach Ashley Holznagel believes his team can still feature in finals and he’s urging his players to embrace the challenge.
The Scorchers have struggled to make an impact during this season’s Queensland Premier Grade campaign, claiming points from two of six two-day matches.
They’re 11th on a 12-team ladder with just a handful of rounds remaining.
But Holznagel suggested they can still make the four-team playoffs.
“I’m looking forward to the last five rounds,” he said.
“If you won five out of five then you’re still a chance of finals cricket. But we have to get back to concentrating solely on the process and training hard and really taking on that challenge of competing hard for the next five games.”
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They face Gold Coast, Ipswich, Valley and then a tough finish against Toombul and University of Queensland.
“Anything’s possible,” Holznagel said.
“Traditionally there’s only four games after Christmas and you normally know where you’re at by Christmas, but you never say never.”
The Scorchers have enjoyed patches of good cricket this season to show their potential.
Their wins were against sixth-paced Redlands and eighth-placed Wynnum Manly.
Talented players
While they don’t boast state representative players, they do have some genuine match winners.
Nick Selman and Josh Matthews have shown what they are capable of with knocks of 172 not out and 130 respectively, while wicket keeper John Turnbull has scored 99.
But the team has been hot and cold with the bat and they have lacked some penetration with the ball in the absence of injured paceman Ashley Renouf.
Matthews and Josh Tyson have also been hampered by injuries.
“We’ve just got to be more consistent and that will come though attitude and keeping on training hard,” the coach said.
Some youngsters have had some valuable game time, including Ben Gear, Lleyton Chick, Isaac Kelsey and Harry Clark-Burnham.
“He (Clark-Burnham) is finding his feet in first grade and he’s got some really nice starts. I feel he’s only going to get better and better,” Holznagel said.
Day back after heart attack
With Alecz Day in the line-up, the Scorchers boast one of the competition’s stars.
The fact that he has returned to state level cricket is something, given he suffered a heart attack at training in January.
“A highlight (of the season) is having Alecz back on the field. Only eight months ago he was in the biggest fight of his life and now he’s back playing with us,” Holznagel said.
It’s been steady as she goes for Day after his return in September.
The competition’s best player in 2018 has averaged about 40 in the longer format and he scored 91 in the one-day competition quarter final.
“Alecz likes to score hundreds, which he hasn’t done this year and that’s going to be the challenge after Christmas if we can get him right and hopefully, he can get a really big score that contributes to us winning,” Holznagel said.
Their next game is against Gold Coast at Buderim on January 9-10.
LADDER: Norths 95, UQ 78, Toombul 69, Souths 67, Wests 63, Redlands 63, Ipswich 61, Wynnum/Manly 61, Valley 56, Sabndgate-Redcliffe 54, Sunshine Coast 52, Gold Coast 49.
