Deer Park will look to inflict its own brand of revenge in the Victorian Pennant Bowls competition on Saturday.
After a shock loss to Moonee Ponds earlier in the season, the Parkers are keen to re-write past wrongs.
A win would also extend Deer Park’s unbeaten streak to eight, a remarkable turnaround given the club was 2-2 after a month of bowls.
Deer Park president Ray Franksen said an improved focus was the key to kick-starting the impressive run.
“I think we probably stopped getting too far ahead of ourselves,” he said.
“We really knuckled down and we knew it wasn’t just going to happen on the day and that we’d need to work together and play as a team.”
The hot run has instilled Deer Park as the premiership favourite heading into the business end of the season.
The Parkers are 29 points clear of their nearest rival and on top of division 1.
With Deer Park playing division 1 finals for the past three years, Franksen said he felt the time was right to challenge for a premiership.
“We are a little bit more mature about trying to reach premier division now,” he said.
“We have picked up four or five new bowlers in the top side.
“The blokes who have gone down to other divisions have helped pick up those sides and it has filtered down throughout the club.”
Franksen was also full of praise for first-year coach Gavin Niclasen.
Niclasen joined Deer Park with 20 years of coaching under his belt, most recently at Whittlesea Bowls Club.
“Gavin has been terrific,” Franksen said.
“We have meetings in our committee room before every game and everyone has settled into a rhythm.
“Before he arrived we just really went to training and we didn’t really do anything special.
“Now Gavin has us doing drills and I think a lot of blokes believe in their ability a lot more now.”
