Casey-South Melbourne Cricket Club 156th ANNUAL REPORT 2018 PRESIDENT continue as our Bowling Coach and we welcome Matt Pearson to the Club as our lower grade Firstly, I would like to thank everyone involved Coach. Craig Lambden has taken on the role as at Casey-South Melbourne Cricket Club this our Cricket Operations Manager and Dane season, in one of the more difficult seasons Harkin will continue to manage the Junior De- both on and off the field. Things didn’t go to velop Program and the Damien Fleming Acade- plan for the Club across a number of areas, in- my. This year we have also contracted Luke cluding the 1st XI being unable to backing up Wells, opening batsman from Sussex County after a strong season the year before. The posi- Club, to lead the 1st XI and provide some men- tive from of the season was our lower grades toring on the field to our young playing group. winning more games this season than in the Lachie Sperling will assist Luke as our Vice previous 3 seasons. I would like to thank our Captain. past players who made a commitment to return To our sponsors, Holmesglen, Bendigo Bank, to the Club and mentor the young players. It is a Gray Nicholls, Coates Hire, Casey Race and credit to them and their willingness to help de- Highview Accounting, we could not do without velop a new wave of champions. After an end of you and we certainly appreciate your support. season review led by Mark Ridgway, the Board have re-structured a number of areas, includ- I would like to thank the City of Casey and its ing Cricket Operation, to ensure we are all mov- Officers led by Peter Fitchett, James Rouse and ing in the same direction. Wright Patterson. We have built a strong part- nership based on the desire to provide the re- Off the field this season, we were unable to fill gion a strong Premier Club who are focused on the vacant admin manager’s position, so these providing opportunities for local cricketers. duties fell to Ross Moore, Laurie Stevens and I This support has not only given us the best fa- to cover. I also want to thanks those who assist- cilities in the competition, it also allows us to ed us so we could get through to the end. On a run a Junior Develop Program where young positive note, not filling the Admin position has cricketers can get some high level coaching at put the Club in a stronger financial position, no charge. It indicates the forward thinking vi- allowing us to invest more heavily into Cricket sion that the City of Casey have for the commu- Operations. We have now secured 2 game day nity within the region. None of this is possible and 2 kitchen managers, who will share the without the support of the local Councillors load this coming season. Our goal now is to en- such as Amanda Stapleton and Geoff Ablett and sure we continue to grow financially and as a we thank them for a commitment that demon- Club. strates what a strong partnership can do for I would like to thank Prabath Nissanka who local sports and for creating a pathway for play- took over as Club Coach after Brian Keogh ers to gain higher level honours. needed to step down due to work commit- I would like to thank our groundsmen and cu- ments. Prabath was willing to take over the role rators Daniel and Jed, led by Anthony Kennedy, as the other applicants were unsuitable, which for preparing the wickets and grounds this sea- is a credit to his commitment to the Club. Un- son. Once again, both Ovals were rated in the fortunately he didn’t necessarily receive the top 4 and as a result we were asked to host support that we expected and stepped down at higher level games, including WBBL matches. the end of the season. I am very pleased to say Prabath accepted back his previous role as our Thanks again to the committee particularly bowling coach. I have not seen too many bowl- Ross Moore for the outstanding support he has ing coaches who have the technical skills of given me in his role as Vice President. This year Prabath and I expect he will be taking on higher we welcomed James Maxwell onto the commit- level roles in the near future. I would also like tee who joined Michael Wallace as a second to thank Naveed Nawaz who worked with player representative. Along with Ross and Ann Prabath as our batting coach and has now ac- Moore, Mick Taylor, Matthew Hawking and Bil- cepted a new role as Head Coach of the Bangla- ly Lincoln, we pushed through a challenging desh U/19 team. Also, we saw the return of season, but managed to place the club in a Jayde Herrick for the season. strong position moving forward. Matthew Hawking and Billy Lincoln have not re- On the field I would like to thank all the Cap- nominated this year so on behalf of everyone at tains, Lachie Sperling (1st XI), Peter Sofra (2nd the Club, I would like to thank them both for XI), Jack Atkinson (3rd XI) and Adam Hanger their dedication and service to the Club. Billy is (4th XI). They all show strong leadership and continuing as our 1st XI Scorer and we hope did us proud representing the Club. Once again Hawk will find some time to drop down to a few Mark Jones took on the difficult Chairman of matches. Selectors role, but due to work commitments was not able be around for selection so I would We are now prepared for success both on and like to thank Ross Moore and Laurie Stevens off the field and now it is up to the players. They for stepping into fill the gap. I would also like are all good enough, but they need to want it to mention the fantastic job that Billy Lincoln enough to put in the extra effort. I am excited to and Laurie Stevens did each game as our 1st see how it all unfolds. and 2nd XI scorers. Good luck boys! Our Coach structure in the new season will be Ross Hibbins different in that we now have established a Coaching Panel led by former Victorian bats- Club President man, Nick Jewell. As mentioned Prabath will COACH leading and sharing his experience with our 4th XI. In comparison with the previous season (2016/17), the 1st XI had a relatively poor season. In 2016/17 the team was placed 6th The support from many this season was and in 2017/18 dropped down to 17th. Most good. Firstly, my fellow coaches Dane players couldn’t commit to 2 days of train- Harkin, Naveed Nawaz and Jayde Herrick ing which therefore had a direct impact to who worked tirelessly to prepare our play- their performance. Looking at most of the ers as best they could. Naveed was also a matches we were losing too many wickets great support to me and the players on too early because we didn’t have a genuine match day. To our scorers Billy Lincoln, opening pair. As a result, our middle order Laurie Stevens, Rod Pollock – thank you, was often exposed to the new ball and our players appreciate it very much. Thank found it hard to recover. Players like Mi- you also to Laurie and Ross Moore who chael Wallace, Dylan Hadfield, Brendan worked tirelessly and were always there to Rose, Nathan Lambden and young Jonah support me. Rod Glenn as practice captain, Serong (especially given his age) did rea- organising as many as 60 players some sonably well during the season. There is nights and an awesome person to have plenty of room for improvement and it au- around. Craig Lambden and Tim Atkinson gurs well for the future. Lachie is always who provided support on match days and improving as a bowler and has some work at training. To the Chairman of Selectors, to do on his batting technique. Although Mark Jones thanks for your unwavering lacking in experience as a captain he has support and for being a great sounding shown plenty of potential and clear signs of board. To the committee who supported improvement. the playing group and has really set the club up off-field, thank you on behalf of everyone. A special thanks to Ross Moore The 2nd XI did well to win a few games and and Ross Hibbins. had the potential to play finals. The team was however hindered by injuries and lacked consistency which impacted their Unfortunately, the last season has not been performance and thereby cost them an op- an enjoyable or rewarding one for me due portunity to play finals. Injuries and play- to many reasons. I was disappointed by the ers not being available consistently was al- behavior and poor commitment of some so a reason for the team to churn through a players at the club and I have thereby de- few captains which caused an imbalance in cided to step down as the Head Coach. I the team. Several 2nd XI players who were- strongly believe that the administrators of n’t quite ready for 1st XI cricket were able the club must take necessary action against to force their way into the 1st XI team due players who misbehave and who are irre- to bad form and poor performance of some sponsible.