The 46-year-old has achieved it all across his career with the Mountain Men, and the club again have found themselves back at the right end of the A Grade ladder this season, in a tough fight for finals.

Laharum take on Colts across the next two Saturday's in a must-win clash.

RICHARD CRABTREE spoke to Adams this week about the excitement of being in finals contention, and all things cricket.

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RC: Mal - how are you feeling firstly for the contest this weekend? Everything seems pretty vital from here on out?

MA: Very vital this weekend. We obviously have to win this one to make finals. Noradj play Blackheath-Dimboola and I'm not sure what's happening with their side at the moment (after forfeiting last round). But we know we just have to win if we want to play finals.

Is it pretty exciting to be a part of the finals hunt once again?

Very exciting, to play finals of any sport is the goal, so we're looking forward to it.

We haven't played finals for a couple of years now, so I guess we are itching to get back there.

Colts this weekend - they are no slouches, nearly beating Noradjuha-Toolondo last weekend. Do you have any specific plans for them?

Yeah Colts have got some good cricketers for sure. They're a pretty good side. It'll be a good contest.

A two-day match does certainly change the way you approach it. We'll probably have a bit of a chat at training and go through a few things, how to go about it.

It's a good battle for finals in what has been a pretty even competition this season. How have you found it?

It's been an even season for every club. Everyone can beat anyone on their day I think, so looking at that I think it should be a pretty exciting finals series coming up, no matter which teams make it.

Do you reckon you can contend with those top sides?

We're probably a little bit off the pace, but as you know with cricket, anything can happen on the day.

The thing is with Laharum - if you followed Laharum cricket in two-dayers over the last couple of years, there's not many weeks where we get the same players in on both days. I think we always named about 15 or 16 players to get us through. I think that's the same this week with the two-dayers, and it will probably be the same with the two-dayers after that.

If we can get a consistent side on the field then we could probably at least put a really good effort in, and take it up to those teams.

A couple of handy guys in the side who are available every week are the two English recruits this year - Anthony Molloy and Adam Barber. Has it been good having them in the side?

Definitely. Very good. They've brought a lot to the club. I think if we didn't have them we'd probably be sitting at the wrong end of the ladder.

They're very good fellas inside cricket and outside of cricket as well.

I've heard the two Englishman have actually nicknamed you "genius" this year. Care to explain?

I don't know where they came up with that one mate, but that's what they've decided to call me. Not sure why. Can't be because of the way I'm playing I wouldn't think.

Getting international players is something more and more sides seem to be doing nowadays - is it pretty valuable?

Definitely valuable. It builds a team up and improves the standard of cricket around Horsham.

Having played for a while, I'm used to coming up against the same people week-in-week out. So it's good to have some fresh faces to come up against as well.

How long have you been playing out at Laharum?

I played under-13s out there, so that's 30-odd years ago. I had a couple years off when we started a family, but went back out there and got involved when they started the Twenty20 competition years ago, I think around 2010 or something.

It's probably a bit more of a social outing nowadays to get out of the house a little bit. I haven't played footy since 2010, so it's good to get out there and have a run around. I still enjoy that part of it, and the contest.

Probably the refreshments after as well.

Of course. It's good to sit down and have a beer with blokes from the other clubs as well. I still know a fair few people playing, so it's good to catch up with those fellas as well.

I've played a bit of junior cricket with a few of the lads still running around in the senior teams.

Were you originally from out that way near Laharum?

My parents moved up here in 1986 and we had a little 40 acre farm out near Wonwondah, so I sort of got involved with Laharum back then.

Then they didn't have an under-16 cricket side so I went to what was the old Arapiles under-16 side, then came back to play seniors with Laharum.

Cricket has probably changed a bit from back then I'd imagine?

Yep, definitely. We used to have an A, B and C Grade side and we used to train until about 9pm. Unfortunately those days are gone a bit. I think most teams are struggling for numbers a little bit. We had that forfeit the other week, which is a shame. You really don't want to see those things happening week-in, week-out.

You guys haven't played in three weeks because of that have you?

Yeah we had that washout day for the Twenty20s then had the last two weeks off.

Could be a bit rusty this week?

I think rusty with me is a bit of an understatement, even on a good day.

Just lastly, on your cricket career, is there a career highlight that stands out?

Probably not on an individual level, but winning a few premierships with some pretty good friends is probably what I'll take out of cricket.

The individual stuff comes along, but winning a couple of premierships as a team was probably the best. I think we got two in the A Grade and one B Grade flag. I guess over a career I got a couple of opportunities to play in finals and to win them is good. I've lost a few as well. Hopefully we get another chance to play finals this year.

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