Ducks aim to quack in glory of NUCA title

In Morgan’s own words, it’s a history littered with floggings and outright losses.

Which is why the town of Colbinabbin has been abuzz this week with the Ducks set to play in Saturday’s Northern United Cricket Association grand final against Calivil.

For the Ducks, it has been 27 years since they won their one and only cricket flag - in the former Rochester District competition when they beat Rochester for the 1988 premiership.

A young Morgan made a century in that grand final win, and almost three decades on will be a member of Saturday’s team that takes to the field at Elmore.

“Colbo had never made the finals before 1988... our cricket history is basically littered with floggings and outright losses,” Morgan said this week.

“We only just snuck into the top four that season and had to play top side Ramblers in the semi-final.

“It was a bit of a sticky wicket and they batted on the Saturday for about 130-odd, and it took us most of the Sunday to chase them down.

“That put us into the grand final against Rochester, and for us to beat those sides out of Rochester back then was never heard of.

“There were four Rochy sides - United, Ramblers, Rovers and Rochester.”

Over a three-day grand final, Colbinabbin - led by skipper and local principal of the time Marty Morris - pulled off an outright win over Rochester in the decider to capture the flag.

Rochester made 171 batting first, which Colbinabbin answered with 267, set up by 107 from Morgan batting at No.4 after coming in with the score 2-2.

Teenager Troy Hamilton also steered Colbinabbin on the path to victory with a half-century.

Rochester was all out for 123 in its second innings, with the Ducks wrapping up the outright win and flag by reaching 1-29.

“To win outright ... we had never done that,” Morgan said.

As well as Morgan’s ton, the other grand final highlight for Colbinabbin was a 10-wicket bag to Ray McEvoy, who took figures of 4-47 off 25 overs and 6-64 off 12.

During the 1988 grand final the Ducks had more than cricket on their minds after Brendan McArdle - the brother of Mick McArdle, who was playing in the game - was shot in the chest during a duck-shooting accident.

“Brendan got shot on the first Saturday of the grand final and we weren’t sure whether he was going to make it or not, so we had that to deal with as well,” Morgan said.

“He got air-lifted to Melbourne and it was touch and go there for a while, but he survived.”

A photo of the 1988 premiership team proudly hangs on the wall of the Colbinabbin pub.

Colbinabbin had a chance to add a second premiership five years ago when it met Dingee in the 2010 grand final, but it was beaten by three wickets.

The Ducks missed the finals the following four years, but under captain Brian Dwyer have been the dominant force of the NUCA this season and will go into the grand final undefeated.

“Paddy O’Brien has played with us before, but he came back this year; Hadleigh Sirett came back from Katandra; Darcy Booth travels over from Wangaratta every week; Chris Guinane plays footy with us and jumped on board, so it has given everyone a boost and here we are in a grand final," Morgan said.

Morgan says a premiership win would mean plenty to the stalwarts of the club.

“It would be great reward for guys like Billy West,” Morgan said.

“Billy has been a stalwart of the club for a long time and kept it going when it was really struggling, which wasn’t that long ago.

“And Frank Stewart has been our curator for years, so a win would be great for him as well, and it would be great for the town if we can get over the line.”

Colbinabbin team: Brian Dwyer (c); Paddy O’Brien, Chris Guinane, Steven Morgan, Hadleigh Sirett, Sam McRae, Lochy Sirett, Phil Morgan, Darcy Booth, Paul Morgan, Daniel Morgan, David Price.

Leading run-scorers: Brian Dwyer (392); Chris Guinane (308); Steven Morgan (282); Hadleigh Sirett (282); Paddy O’Brien (245).

Leading wicket-takers: Chris Guinane (35); Steven Morgan (17); Darcy Booth (16); Lochy Sirett (13).