By Marcus Uhe
Beaconsfield Cricket Club committee member Ben White described the club’s Special General Meeting on Thursday night as a “galvanising show of unity” that he hopes will be a springboard into a bright future.
A motion on a potential move to the Casey Cardinia Cricket Association was not even moved to the voting stage, so staunch was the support to remain in the Dandenong District Cricket Association from those in attendance.
Coming off a season in which the club battled for volunteer support and ran a smaller committee by comparison to its contemporaries, the talk of a potential move has rallied members and supporters, leaving White excited for what’s to come.
“The club presented on the night last Thursday and I think we had three times as many people show up to that special general meeting than we’ve had at the last couple of AGMs,” he said.
“People have come out over the last three weeks especially since we floated what the pinch-points are for us as a club, and the level of support of people saying, ‘get me involved, I’d love to do fundraising ’ or ‘get me involved, I’d love to do the merchandise’ or ‘ill be junior coordinator.’
“The number of people putting their hand to contribute to the club has been, I wouldn’t say overwhelming, but pretty close to it.
“I think we’ve got a strong base now and my push will be to bring those people together, set them on the clear pathway and really work hard during the offseason to build that level of support that we need as a Turf 1 club.”
The step up to Turf 1 level proved challenging for the club in an off-field capacity with requirements such as needing a scorer catching them off-guard.
At junior levels and lower grades, however, the club enjoyed a successful summer, with premierships in the under 12s, 14s and 16s, to go with a Turf 5 premiership two weekends ago.
The pathway between the senior and junior clubs will remain a priority for White and the committee, while moving down the grades to Turf 2 was not considered as an option or alternative to staying in Turf 1, despite White conceding that the topic was “something we probably need to discuss.”
“I think they’re all a priority in my opinion but the connection for us between our junior club and senior club has been one of the most important strategic positions since I’ve been involved, because that is our pathway,” he said.
“It needs to be local talent and how we develop those people into solid senior cricketers.
“We’ve found that this year and competing against teams that have got deeper pockets has been a challenge.
“They’re just things that as a club we need to navigate and work on what our model is, how we make that model sustainable, how we grow that model, how do we focus in on our core strengths, which I think has been and always has been, junior development, junior cricketers and developing them into senior cricketers.
“We had three junior sides win age group premierships the weekend before last, 12s 14s and 16s and the Turf 5 premiership we won had 8 members in the 13-man squad that were under the age of 20.
“…to have the club galvanise and that unified mindset that they want to stay and compete in the DDCA, and that’s the best thing for both our junior development, the best thing for competing at a higher standard of senior cricket in Turf 1, and the best thing for our off-field culture is setting up a sustainable model for success in those areas.”
