2011 finals - our hopes wash away

Our Hopes washed away with the rain
Moonee Valley's hopes were washed away with the rain on Sunday, March 13, when the weather halted the push by our Fifths for a Grand Final berth in C Turf.

After the rains came down with Moonee Valley having a vice-like grip on the game, endeavours by players and supporters to get the wicket back to a playable condition were to no avail. When the rain eased off more than 20 people were out on Ormond Park sopping up water, pushing it away from the pitch and laying grass clippings, but to no avail. When another late fall of rain came through, umpire Andrew Crump had no alternative but to abandon the match.

Because St Andrews had finished higher than Moonee Valley on the ladder, it went through to the Grand Final - even though we had it on the ropes at 4/78 chasing our 236.

The picture here shows Moonee Valley out on Ormond Park trying to get the pitch ready - with life
member Bob Sciacchitano and the sodden hessians in the foreground.

Our Thirds had a bad couple of overs in the B Turf semi final, going down fighting to St Francis. We had them on the ropes at 9/91 before they posted 159, then we were in all sorts of trouble before a rally by Geoff Smith and young Luke Malone gave us some hope. We were all out for 122.

And our Under 12 White team fell an agonising four runs short of Brunswick in their semi final.

It will be the first time Moonee Valley has not had a team in a grand final since 2001/02. Our Firsts were in a GF in 2002/03 in our first season in VTCA, then we had an incredible run of seven seasons when we won one or more junior flags each year, culminating in 2009/10 when we had a junior premiership and flags for our Firsts and Seconds.

But in 2010/11 it's not to be, even though the weather was the only thing that stopped our Fifths from going through.