He stepped away from cricket over the last few summers but Orange City slugger Craig Rogan returned to the fold in a big way on Saturday, leading the Warriors to a three-run grand final victory over Centrals Red with a mammoth 109.
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After sending Centrals Red out to bat, City conceded 192 runs in the opening innings, a total that Rogan dubbed as a 'tricky' chase under the pressures of a grand final stage.
But in order to track down runs, you need to have confidence and Rogan says that wasn't lucking after lunch.
"190 in a grand final is big in any format, let alone a one-day match," Rogan said.
"We knew we had the firepower to chase run rate so that's what we concentrated on. It was really satisfying to execute the way we did.
"They have a good bowling line-up so we knew it was going to be tough but our mentality was to build a platform and go from there."
There wasn't much platform-building from anyone other than Rogan as opener Jamie Stedman (0) got out for a duck, before Adam Cowden (14) was in the sheds not long after, leaving City 2/21 and in a spot of bother.
Nathan Rosser (19) was next to take the crease, building a respectable partnership with Rogan before getting out. Nicolas Warburton (0) came out afterwards but was also dismissed for a duck as the score sat at 4/74.
But mathematics mattered little once Rogan started to see things clearly as he began to build on what would eventually be a 18-boundary effort.
"I've taken a big step away from the game over the last couple of seasons so I was pretty excited to come to the ground and perform today," he said.
"I got some more perspective of the game and situations and it definitely benefited. I was a bit scratchy early on but I ended up hitting a few in the the middle."
Not only was Saturday's grand final a high point for Orange City, but the entire season was sound, the Warriors finishing 11 points clear of the second-placed Cavaliers with 14 victories.
What does Rogan attribute that to?
"Our depth and our strength in juniors has been big for us," he said.
Our depth and our strength in juniors has been big for us.
- Craig Rogan.
"We played 20 players this year in second grade so there's a big rotation. There's a strong group of young fellas coming through and that's been the most satisfying."
One of the young fellas Rogan spoke of was 15-year-old Tynan Southcombe who produced a stout 4/46 in the first innings.
Lee Cornish (26) was another City player who deserves praise as he steadied the ship in the latter parts of the run chase.
Centrals Red had several strong performers as well as Nic Dunlop (60) and Adam Shepherd (71) did all they could to get their troops across the line. Anthony Salmon 3/33 was also brave.
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