MORTLAKE will return to a very familiar stage on Saturday.
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It will add the latest chapter in what has been a golden era for the club, playing its seventh division one grand final in nine years.
The period of dominance has yielded four premierships to date for the Cats, but Saturday’s opponent Terang is hoping to replicate the 2010-11 decider, when the clubs last met on South West Cricket’s grandest stage.
“It’s been six years since we’ve been in it and we played Mortlake on that day and won it,” Terang captain Brett Hunger said.
“It is a bit romantic. We’ve probably only got three players from that day who will play on Saturday: myself, Tim Keane and Jay Wynd.
“The majority of the other guys are young kids, so it’s been really good to see their development.
“To finally be on that journey with them right through to be with the grand final berth – it’s really exciting.”
Mortlake will take a line-up into Saturday’s clash that is very similar to the one that defeated Bookaar for the premiership two summers ago. Lachlan Barr, Josh Jewell and James Cody-Davis have stepped up in the absence of Tyler Schafer, Nick McDonald and Neil Kelly.
“It’s good we’ve been able to keep the core group together,” Cats captain Todd Lamont said.
“I know initially when we made finals with this group for the first time nine years ago, we were coming up against really experienced sides that had played a lot of finals.
“We’re probably a few years older than we used to be, but there’s still a lot of us in our 20s.”