Lavington bowler Luke Docherty loving his cricket with the Panthers since overcoming a stress fracture

The highly-rated quick, who joined Lavington last winter, has been making up for lost time after being forced to wait months to bowl his first ball for the club by a stress fracture in his right shin.

Docherty cut a frustrated figure during his 10 weeks on the sidelines and even contemplated whether it was worth the battle to get back on the field.

But nine games and 16 wickets later, his determination is being vindicated ahead of the Panthers' clash with Albury at Lavington Sports Ground on Saturday.

"Starting off being injured wasn't ideal and I'm a pretty bad watcher of cricket," Docherty admitted.

"There were a couple of games that were pretty hard to watch but being able to come back and play good cricket and be back with my mates has been great.

"It's been good to put my name on a few important wins."

When he was given the all-clear to resume bowling in mid-January, Docherty made an instant impact, taking 3-7 against flag favourites North Albury.

"That was one I was really looking forward to," he said.

"I'd been waiting for so long to be able to get back out and bowl and when I did get that opportunity, even though it was only three overs I was allowed to bowl, I wanted to have an impact every ball.

"I've had a lot of bad injuries in the past and mentally, they do beat you down a fair bit.

"You always ask that question, 'do I want to keep going' and 'is this all worth it?'

"But the question's starting to answer itself with the way we've been playing since I've been back.

"You have that week or two where you feel sorry for yourself and then you come to the realisation that, oh well, it could have happened to anyone, so you've got to get over it and do what you need to do."

The Panthers have won seven of their last eight games, including a thumping 51-run victory over Albury just three weeks ago.

ALSO IN SPORT

And with no one bowler carrying the sole responsibility of taking wickets - seven Lavington players have taken 11 or more this season - Docherty is thriving among such quality and variety.

"It's one of the better bowling attacks I've ever been a part of," he said.

"I don't really see any weak links and I don't really see any release for batsmen to try to get on top of anyone.

"In terms of it being well-rounded, that's pretty much us summed up; a good couple of quicks and then we've got spinners and good medium-pacers who come through the middle and do the job and tie up the batsmen so we all complement each other quite well.

"Me and Browny (Ryan Brown) started bowling together at Riverina a couple of years ago and that worked out pretty well, when we won the southern pool, so it's been nice to continue that on."

Lavington start favourites to reach the grand final but will be wary of an Albury side who upset the Hoppers last weekend.

"We're looking forward to it," Docherty said.

"It's definitely going to be another challenge but I feel like we're definitely ready and we've set ourselves up for a good game on Saturday.

"If I was to win a flag with these blokes, it's hard to find words for it, I reckon it'd be amazing,

"We've all clicked really well this year and to be able to go out and do it with your mates would be the best feeling and the best reward we could possibly get.

"It's been great to be amongst mates who all share a similar drive to what I do.

"You always want to try to get better so being surrounded by people like that is awesome.

"The standard in Cricket Albury-Wodonga is really good. For country cricket, I reckon it's pretty up there.

"Of the 11 teams, you're probably looking at eight, nine or even 10 that you can't take lightly."

Sam O'Connor replaces Shayan Shayan in the only change to the Lavington side which knocked out Belvoir last weekend.

Saturday, March 18 from 11.30am

St Patrick's v North Albury (Xavier High School)

Lavington v Albury (Lavington Sports Ground)

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: