By Nick Creely
The Iona Cricket Club prides itself on being a unique place brimming with immense culture and mateship.
And the club – despite being small in stature – has a big vision for their future.
It believes that it can be a destination club for players looking for a scenery change, and a place where individuals from all walks of life can feel a sense of belonging.
“It’s a unique place, that’s for sure,” club captain and committee member Luke Gilbert said proudly.
“Coming out to Iona, it’s a unique offering for people. It’s more about the social side of things, and because it’s more condensed there’s less politics.
“It is something they’re protective of, and ensuring people enjoy themselves – it’s a humble club, and everyone gets along well.”
The Swamp Tigers boast two senior sides in the Warragul competition – both of which enjoyed stellar 2020/21 seasons, soaring to premiership glory in Division 5 and playing off in a classic Division 2 semi-final against eventual premiers Catani – but are confident that it will add another side this season as they look to really ramp up their numbers.
At the recent AGM, the club had 14 people attend – an impressive result for a club with two sides, indicating significant interest in helping the club grow further in the coming years.
“We’re in the process of recruiting and talking to some guys, there’s a bit more emphasis on recruitment when you don’t have juniors, so we’re trying to be a destination club,” Gilbert explained.
“That’s just through network of guys playing footy – so it could be a Div 6 side playing in the one-day comp.
“Ultimately it could be an option for kids to come across and play with their parents in a semi social environment.
It’s something we want to promote.
“There are some young guys at the club that enjoy the social side and they want to put their hand up.
“But we’re talking to some good cricketers and they’re interested in sitting down.”
Gilbert said the senior cricket club was in a strong position – sparked by an increase in training standards and commitment.
“The motivation started last year – we used to train once a night, and a new coach Wade Haysom came in and said we want to be more professional, so we train twice a week,” he said.
“We had good numbers at Tuesday and Thursday – we’ve got a lot of guys that are 18 to 27 and a few older guys.
“We never had to call off training, so that went along way to solidifying some professionalism.”
Gilbert added that the excitement surrounding the upcoming season was palpable.
“This year, we’re already keen to start having a net indoors – we are looking at a meet the coach day, and have already been told we’ve got four or five guys from another club that want to have a sea change and jump across,” he said.
“In terms of what’s possible, we think we’re good enough to go up to Division 1 next year pending everyone stays fit.
“They’ve got the talent, so it’s about earning the right to go up – had we beat Catani, we were very much in the hunt to go up, especially with them going up
“We’re backing ourselves.”
The club is also desperate to rekindle juniors as it plans for the future, with plans in place to try and secure the next wave of cricketers coming through the club.
“It’s in its infancy stage – juniors numbers in cricket have declined, and you’ve now got clubs that are merging for juniors,” Gilbert said.
“With Iona, they did have juniors and a couple guys are still playing, so I guess there hasn’t been that natural flow on, the club hasn’t publicised itself too much.
“We’ve let things pan out and not pursue it, and now with the senior teams being in a successful position, what’s the five year plan? You could go under in five years.
“It’s pivotal now to put some steps in place to get that going.”
The club – which was established in 1996 – plays on a privately owned farm land paddock and therefore doesn’t receive the same level of financial assistance that shire owned land clubs have.
Everything the club does is off their own back.
“At the end of the year when we do finances we don’t have the money that others would have, we pay a private group to mow the ground every week, and then we’ve got the utilities, it’s difficult to apply for grants given it is private,” Gilbert said.
“It’s about how we can generate the money ourselves – we have 33 registered players, so you sort of go to them to see how we can get this sorted out off our own back.”
If anyone is interested in joining the club can contact the club via its Facebook page, or president Michael Neilson on 0438 295 966.
