Sport
31 March, 2026
MDCA A Grade Grand Final — The Captian's Say
In a career filled with memorable moments wearing the blue and white of Colts Phelans, leading the club to an A grade premiership as captain has to be one of the sweetest for Rhys Wagstaff.
A stalwart opener for a decade, Wagstaff took over from Rhys Egan this season to lead an A grade side that underwent some severe changes following the departure of English trio Max Jackson, Regan Goundry and Charlie Scorer.
Wagstaff’s leadership, combined with the arrivals of Asim Akhtar, Josh Collinson, Liam Stubbings, Tarkyn Balzan and Jack Gallimore, to name a few, the Colts didn’t miss a beat, returning to the season finale after a fierce semi-final victory over Maryborough.
There, they faced fierce rivals Laanecoorie Dunolly, a team that denied the Colts a one-day premiership back in December and headed into last weekend’s match with a 3-1 record over the reigning premiers this season.
After winning the toss and electing to bat, Wagstaff’s vaunted bowling attack capitalised on his decision, with Nick Henderson causing havoc at the top before Ben Evans mopped up the tail to bowl Laane all out for 111.
Despite losing Wagstaff late on day one and two quick wickets on day two, a superb partnership between Asim Akhtar and Liam Stubbings guided the Colts to back-to-back premierships.
Wagstaff said leading his team to title glory means a lot to him, crediting his bowlers for putting the team in an advantageous position early.
“We’ve really been striving towards getting our strong side and strong club values and to really put into place everything that we’re striving to be is fantastic. Good sides find a way to win back-to-back,” he said.
“We really looked towards our bowling shifts between Asim and Henderson at the top and then having Ben come in to bowl spin really helps us a lot to kind of break some of the partnerships that occur with the batsmen.
“(Evans) is probably our strike bowler. He has so many variation balls and it’s very hard to play him in the nets. I don’t envy being the batsmen in the middle.”
In the midst of a dominant bowling display, the Colts took a wicket through a very uncon-ventional and surprising manner, as Dayne Baker ran out key Laane bat Josh Fitzpatrick with a “Mankad”, a moment Laane failed to recover from.
According to Wagstaff, his team had mentioned Fitzpatrick’s tendency to leave the non-strikers end early before the controversial dismissal.
“We bought it up to him like six to ten overs previously and we thought we had no issues with that and we told him that he needs to be in his crease and then he kept doing it, so we felt that it was necessary to take on the game,” Wagstaff said.
While chasing 111 isn’t usually an arduous task, Wagstaff said he was well aware that the premiership was far from secured, with his team needing to remain patient against a talented Laane attack.
“I guess the mindset is just to go over by over. We’re not trying to obviously play crazy shots early and we know that we have a full day ahead of us to bat,” he said.
“It’s just about taking time and getting set as the boys did and it shows that once they’re set, they were really able to capitalise.”