Tall order for the Giants

Giants can upset the odds and beat Hutt City United in the grand final of the Hutt Valley premier men's softball competition at Fraser Park on Sunday.
Not a statement of confidence from the Giants camp itself but the words of Hutt City United manager Brent Dalton, who makes no secret of his respect for the Giants line-up.
With Hutt City United invariably being amongst the top two sides in the traditionally strong Hutt Valley competition and Giants about to play in the competition decider for the very first time, Dalton could be forgiven for seeing HCU as almost a past-the-post proposition.
Even more so when you consider that HCU have had the better of their previous clashes this season and that the one win Giants did manage over them was a first for their club.
Throw in the fact that HCU has the best-credentialled pitcher in the Hutt Valley competition in Black Sox Jeremy Manley plus another national representative in Rhys Caseley and a bevy of Hutt Valley reps and Dalton should be cock-a-hoop going into Sunday's grand final, shouldn't he?
Talk to Dalton though and you are quickly assured that HCU will be taking nothing for granted.
"Honestly we would be stupid to think that Giants will be easy beats," Dalton said. "They deserve to be in the final and, quite frankly, they are quite capable of winning it."
Dalton has been very impressed with the depth of talent in the Giants batting line-up and he sees that as being the area which will largely decide whether they can end the season as Hutt Valley champions.
"They don't rely on just one or two players to score their runs, they have a team full of players who can be very dangerous with bat in hand," Dalton said. "We can't afford to give them any leeway there otherwise we'll be in big trouble."
Dalton freely concedes the pitching of Manley is one of his own side's biggest trump cards.
He said Manley"s improvement since he toured Australia with the Black Sox earlier this season had been "really enormous" and that opposing teams were struggling to cope not only with his pace but his variations.
"Pitching is crucial in a final and in Jeremy we have a player who can dominate in that area,": he said "The big occasion will bring out the best in him for sure."
Giants, of course, don't have anyone of Manley's calibre on their pitching staff but Dalton doesn't see that as necessarily meaning that HCU have a greater chance of putting runs on the board.
"What you have to consider is that their pitchers have been good enough to get them to a final so they can't be too bad, can they?" he said. "I guess they don't have the profiile of Jeremy but our batters still have to hit them, and we've struggled to do that at times."
With that in mind Dalton is predicting a closely-fought grand final with the team which best handles the pressure of the occasion taking the title.
"I know there are people saying we should win comfortably but I can tell you that we are expecting a really competitive game." he said. "We will be backing ourselves to pull it off but Giants are capable of winning, no question of that."