Railways relish grand final favourite tag

Young Railways captain Zane Marwick believes his side can handle the pressure of being hot favourites to claim their fourth Albany Cricket Association A-grade premiership in five seasons when they face Manypeaks on Saturday afternoon.

The Tigers are fancied to claim their third straight flag, having lost just one game in 2015-16 and beating Peaks in all four encounters so far this season.

In their most recent clash last Saturday, the Tigers finished the second semifinal comfortable 58-run winners.

Marwick said his side were happy to go in with the added pressure of being favourites.

“Pressure comes with finals,” he said.

“We have been there the last few years and we’ve been there and done it so we know what to expect.

“It’s exciting and we will take it on.”

In his first season at the helm of the Tigers, Marwick was confident his team could finish off their superb season to date.

“(Manypeaks) are an experienced side who have a good game plan and we will be doing what we can to combat that,” he said.

“Our batting was really pleasing on the weekend, the patience we showed especially early on to build that platform and then attack in the last 10 overs.

“The bowling and fielding has been first class all year.

“We are very flexible and all very capable.

“So we should be very confident going in, we have beaten them four times this year.”

Rival skipper Ryan Kinnear said his side was very eager to get another crack at the Tigers.

“From Saturday we probably put our best batting effort together of the season but it was the only time our bowling and fielding let us down,” Kinnear said.

“We probably didn’t take our chances but the upside is our bowling group get a second chance.

“If you look at it, we only have to beat them once this season so we should go in confident we can do that.”

Kinnear said the toss was crucial.

“Hopefully we win the toss and bat and put a good score on the board,” he said.

“Then it changes the game completely.

“We are proud of what we’ve achieved as a club from where we’ve come from last year and the chance of winning a premiership is just icing on the cake but it’s going to be tough.”

Peaks upset the Tigers in similar circumstances in the 2010-11 grand final and the side could use that as further motivation, Kinnear said.

“The only thing we can draw from that is they were the best side and we came from a similar position and won,” he said.

“We can draw from that and try to do it again.”