Last Saturday Berry-Shoalhaven Heads Magpies lowered the colours of Lake Illawarra, South Coast cricket's most dominant team of the past 10 years, and in the process claimed the minor premiership in only their second season in the competition.
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The Magpies will be out to knock off another perennial heavyweight, The Rail, when they meet in a semifinal showdown this Saturday at Berry Sports Complex.
Should Berry-Shoalhaven Heads be successful in beating the Razorbacks for a third time in as many outings, they will have an opportunity to add a championship to their name.
This is not lost on Magpies captain Daniel Troy.
"We've had a good year and we can make it even better but we're not counting our chickens just yet," he said.
"I think we always expected to make the four but we've obviously had a really good season. Everyone's come together and we've achieved something special.
"It felt really good to beat Lake Illawarra.
"It's always very important to win the big games like that as it is important to win every game when it comes to the end of the season, but to knock them off and then build that confidence against a good side definitely means a lot."
Troy added it would mean a lot to his side if they were able to continue their good run and down a Rail side they've already beaten twice this season.
"We've beat them twice this year already but in very tight games. They've got a couple of standout batsmen that obviously we're going to have to perform well against or they can take it away from you.
"We're definitely not counting our chickens before they hatch but we're feeling pretty good about it though."
Troy said the team's success this season had been built on a team ethos and different players stepping up at different times throughout the season.
Troy himself hit a match-winning knock of 125 not out in his team's last-start win over Lake Illawarra.
He said it would be something special if Berry-Shoalhaven Heads could manage to go all the way and win the grand final.
"To come into the competition, not really knowing what it was like, we knew it would be pretty strong but to be able to go toe to toe with them and then to win it in only our second year of being here and being the first Shoalhaven team would be awesome," Troy said.
In the other semifinal clash on Saturday, defending champions Lake Illawarra play Ex Servos at Howard Fowles Oval.
Agron Latifi
Wollongong born and bred. I love reporting about the Illawarra region and have been doing it for more than 20 years. I've moved into sport recently after covering the education round for the last five plus years for the Illawarra Mercury. It's been a great pleasure.
Wollongong born and bred. I love reporting about the Illawarra region and have been doing it for more than 20 years. I've moved into sport recently after covering the education round for the last five plus years for the Illawarra Mercury. It's been a great pleasure.
