Matt Fearnley looking to lead St Pat's Old Boys' new-look bowling attack on the right path

But Matt Fearnley said there's still potential for their lineup to put a great performance together on their day.

Saints go into a 2020-21 grand final rematch against Orange City this Saturday, with both teams facing the usual prospect of going into the Christmas break outside of the top four.

Pat's are looking to avoid a third straight loss while the Warriors are staring down the barrell of a possible fourth successive defeat.

A big key for Pat's in this Saturday's one-day clash will be an improved day with the ball.

Fearnley is the sole remaining paceman from the grand final-winning Saints side that brought down Cavaliers on the final day of the 2021-22 season.

Mitch Taylor, Jack Goodsell and Angus Parsons have since departed the team, as has leading all-rounder Nic Broes, who was one of the side's leading spin options.

That collective of bowlers - arguably the greatest in the BOIDC competition at the time - is not something that gets replaced overnight.

Still, BOIDC's leading wicket taker from the 2021-22 regular season, Fearnley (24 wickets), is there to lead the way.

A teammate who also finished high on that list, Connor Slattery (19 wickets), remains among the Saints' ranks.

Pat's still have a wealth of promising juniors who are building up towards a top grade start in the future but piecing together a first class bowling attack at present is proving a challenge.

Fearnley said the current attack are performing admirably after being called up to BOIDC level, but it's now about learning how to pin teams down with consistent bowling.

"We've lost a high calibre of bowling, and we've got a group of guys who haven't played first grade. It's about getting back to basics. We can't be so aggressive with our bowling now and we've got to set the right fields for our more inexperienced bowlers," he said.

"It's a big learning curve for us. We really noticed that in the two dayers, especially having been put under pressure to bowl first in both of those games on flatter, batting wickets.

"The biggest thing was that we just didn't bowl with any pressure. There would be maybe two boundary balls an over and you can't build pressure with that. We haven't been patient enough either, and we've tried to do too much at times."

Fearnley said it's the mass loss of the team's previous bowling core at the same time which has made the development process tougher.

"We didn't just lose four bowlers. You lost four Western Zone bowlers. Losing all of them at once is a massive blow, and we've just got to be patient with what we have coming through,"

"We've had Jay Webber and Charlie Hutchings come up, and at some put I'd possibly put Hayden Goodsell up. We also had Benny Sennett give it a go for us against Rugby.

"It's the fact they didn't get an opportunity to come into a bowling attack with maybe one or two of those experienced bowlers. That's unfortunate.

"The mindset for us is that our strength is in our batting, and nothing's really gone our way to help with that - as we've batted first in our two day games."

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