MELTON Centrals' coach Brendan Parker hopes his side can rebound from its disappointing loss to Burnside Springs last week and says he wants it to "play with positivity" in the lead-up to the Western Suburbs United Churches Cricket Association A grade finals.

The Centrals are the competition leaders and will head into the finals as title favourites, but Parker feels his side needs to relax and use its last regular-season match against Altona Sports as a "big warm-up for the finals".

"Even though we had a bad loss last week I told the players we don't need to panic and we need to get back and enjoy it again," Parker said.

"We need to rebound from that result and play with more positivity, but I think we'll be in good shape for the finals as the squad is pretty settled.

"Our training numbers are up, which shows there is some real excitement building up for the finals." The Centrals took a step in the right direction at the weekend, restricting Altona Sports to just 162 before going on to hit 1-89, which means the side is likely to record a win this Saturday.

Parker hopes his side will meet rivals Melton South.

"All season long it's been Melton Centrals versus Melton South. It would be an ideal match-up for a grand final and in our two matches for the season they won the first and we won the second." Parker singles out Cameron Thorp and Matthew Hayes as his two most important players.

"Cameron is good with both bat and ball, and how he plays over the next few weeks will have a major influence on how we go in the finals."

"Matthew has been around the club a long time and has a lot of experience and we'll be looking to both players to provide leadership to the rest of the group."

Anthony Loncaric