Kooweerup’s Travis Canavan, Cardinia’s Mark Cooper, Upper Beaconsfield’s Scott Pitcher, Pakenham’s Mick Torney, Pakenham Upper-Toomuc’s Brett Carey, Officer’s Brett Reid, Tooradin’s Aaron Avery and Beaconsfield’s Justin Stanton will all want their hands on the premiership cup come March next year.
By David Nagel
IT’S time for the bowlers to mark their run-ups and the batsmen to take centre as the West Gippsland Cricket Association season gets under way this Saturday.
The Premier division is the association’s top level and this season looks like being the most evenly fought since the restructured eight-team format began in 2009/2010.
Reigning premier Beaconsfield will have its hands full staving off perennial finalists Cardinia and Kooweerup but there are other teams staking a legitimate claim at this season’s title.
Tooradin finished fourth last season and already has the respect of opposing teams, but that respect has grown stronger with the inclusion of fast bowler Lukas Hoogenboom from Hawthorn-Monash University and keeper-batsmen Tom Hussey from Casey-South Melbourne.
Newly promoted Pakenham has no plans to disappear from the top-flight and has recruited heavily.
New captain/coach Mick Torney leads an influx of five quality players who should make the Lions a competitive unit.
They also have quality players from last season including gun batsmen Ben Maroney who averaged 77 in District division.
Upper Beaconsfield captain Scott Pitcher has his team knocking on the door of finals and the inclusion of former first class player Shawn Flegler could be enough to see them in the March action. Pakenham Upper-Toomuc and Officer will be looking to recover from ordinary seasons and there’s certainly no shortage of confidence in both camps that this will happen.
Cardinia, which lost last season’s grand final in a classic encounter with Beaconsfield, has not converted its dominance of the last two seasons into silverware. Mark Cooper certainly has the cattle at his disposal to rectify this with last year’s player-of-the-year Neil Barfuss leading the Bulls’ charge.
Kooweerup had four of last season’s top-10 batsmen in its side, and with evergreen toiler Matt Davey leading the way with the ball, it should be there again when the whips are cracking.
Premier side Beaconsfield will take pretty much the same successful outfit into this week’s opener against Upper Beaconsfield.
Captain Justin Stanton is hoping for a more even spread from his batsmen to assist Brad Miles, while the bowling will be strong once again led by Jason Dodd and Cameron Henry.
