By Nick Creely
While there still is no clear indicator of exactly when the Victorian Premier Cricket season will eventually kick-off, for Casey-South Melbourne it’s all about building on the bonds created within the club and playing the patience game in terms of the cricket.
While the Swans will be desperately looking to break back into the finals when the season does eventually get the green light, for now, it’s all about staying connected, checking in with each other, and showing support throughout what has been an incredibly tolling Covid-19 pandemic.
Swans coach Brian Keogh said that the playing and coaching group were getting around one another and as a result the excitement and anticipation for the season – and getting together once again as a group – builds by the day.
“We’ve been active with our players’ page on Facebook – we’re trying to check-in with everyone, and make sure everyone’s okay,” he said.
“We’ve got some guys who have had their work hours decreased or loss of jobs, and Lachie Sperling really led the charge with this.
“He’s a teacher, and his school had a program, and obviously he put a cricket spin on this, but basically we’ve asked ‘what have you been doing in iso?’, ‘what are you most looking forward to about the season?’, and ‘what’s on your mind?’.
“We’ve had guys who have been really open about a few things, and we’ve been able to get around them.
“So as a club we’ve focused more on people’s health and wellbeing, and not anything cricket related.”
While Keogh said that the club can only control what they can control, and that is staying connected and showing support for one another, the Swans mentor weighed in on the season ahead, with Cricket Victoria only recently releasing a series of scenarios for getting the season underway.
“It already feels like a long pre-season, and we’ve not even had any pre-season,” he said.
“My gut feeling is option three (21 November start), which is a 17-round season, and all one-day cricket.
“Option one has almost passed us by, two-day cricket during Covid could be difficult, and in the one-day game there’s less breaks, and heaven forbid if someone got sick you don’t have to worry about chopping and changing.
“It makes the governance of the game a bit easier.”
With Keogh expecting the season to be played in one-day format, he said that the coaching group has had to re-adjust its thought process in terms of how his side could be structured.
“We’ve probably turned our attention to the white-ball, the game plans, those sorts of things,” he said.
“We’ve done a lot of work as a coaching group in knowing what our plans would be in one-day cricket and how we go about that.”
From an on-field perspective, the Swans went hard at gun bowlers Simon Mackin and Michael Topp as clubs scramble to improve their lists, with recruitment across the board as active as it’s ever been.
“I’ve never seen it so competitive in terms of the recruitment of players – this season, it’s just been rampant. Clubs cold-calling, it’s been unbelievable,” he said.
“If we identify a player who we believe isn’t getting an opportunity and we think there’s a gap in our list, it’s appropriate.
“We’ve spoken to lots of guys, but it is difficult when you don’t get the face-to-face interviews.”
The bowling department was a clear area of focus for the Swans this off-season, missing out on the signatures of Topp and Mackin, but the club secured mature-age quick Cal Dodson and young spinner Harrish Kannan to boost its stocks. Berwick spinner Isaiah Jassal is also expected to push hard for a spot in the first XI.
Keogh said the club was backing in what it already had, pointing to the likes of spearhead Nathan Lambden, Jackson Fry, Dodson, Lachie Sperling, Harrish Kannan, the returning Blake Glen and a range of other spinners such as Jonah Serong, Isaiah Jassal and Ashvin Adihetty to take the next step and get the club back in the finals race.
“Sperlo (Lachie Sperling) is like a new recruit, and at his best he’s a serious player, and he’s the fittest he’s ever been,” he said.
“Without piling on the pressure on him, we’re hoping for a really big year from him with bat and ball.
“Nathan (Lambden) could have another breakout season like he did two or three seasons ago, Jacko’s (Fry) last couple of months last season were really good he just didn’t get the reward, but he bowled really well so we think we can get good improvement out of him as well, and Cal Dodson is new to this level, but he’s a quality guy and competitive beast.
“And then we’ve got the spinners, so we feel we’ve got a really good mix.
“We’re going to go with what we got, there’s really upside there.”
In terms of the batting mix, Keogh indicated that the Swans will have an array of options to help fill the void left by overseas pro Luke Wells and mature-age gun Nathan Freitag, highlighting the emerging Ash Chandrasinghe and the experience heads around him as being a major positive for the club as they aim to be one of the high scoring teams in the competition, particularly with the white ball.
“We’ve given it (the batting mix) a fair bit of thought – Ash Chandrasinghe is obviously a lock at the top,” he said.
“Ash is 18, he’s as fit as he’s ever been, and he’s probably grown another inch or two again.
“We score quickly, we’ve got the Wyatts (Jordan Wyatt), Dev (Pollock), Wally (Michael Wallace) when he needs to, Sperlo scores quickly, and Dyl Hadfield scores quickly, and hopefully we can bat around Ash a bit.
“I’ve got no hesitation on locking him at number one – without piling the pressure on him, there’s no ceiling for him.
“And with the batting coaches we have, I think we can almost re-train some of our batters – in the white-ball cricket in the early overs you’ve got the opportunity to hit over the top, so there’s an opportunity there.”
While the Swans will wait patiently until cricketers are cleared to return to training, Keogh said the club was well-placed to be ready and raring for the season after a lucky handful living in regional Victoria were able to get some training in before the latest lockdowns.
“Prior to Stage 4, we had 14 guys who lived in the Gippsland area, they were able to train every Saturday morning at the Moe facility, so it was a mixture across our grades of experience and youth,” he said.
“With regards to the other guys, we’ve got all our guys on the Strava app, where we can monitor their fitness – we think that’s an area we could collectively as a group get better at.”
