By Nick Creely
There’s plenty happening at Casey-South Melbourne.
The Bloods – off the back of a hugely promising Victorian Premier Cricket campaign last season – have made a raft of changes as they look to break into the top-eight and continue to make its presence felt in the south-east corridor.
With the tragic passing of Ross Hibbins this year, the Swans have announced Shaun Petrie as the new club president, with the well-known cricketing identity looking forward to carrying on Hibbins’ brilliant work and help establish the club even further in the local community.
“Following a tragic year with the very sad passing of our club president Ross Hibbins, I’m extremely humbled and honoured to be asked to get on board with Casey South Melbourne,” he said.
“Make no mistake; we’re out to give the established premier clubs a real run for their money this season.
“We’re building on South Melbourne Cricket Club’s long distinguished history with a new working-class attitude.
“We’re a Cranbourne sporting club, we’re going to embrace the community we live in and represent it very well.”
The Swans, under Petrie’s leadership are looking to invest largely in the Damian Fleming Academy for young talent, and establish a closer connection with local cricket club and the local multicultural community.
From an on-field perspective, the Swans under newly appointed coach Brian Keogh – the man who last took the club to Premier finals – have been highly active in the off-season, with the huge re-signing of Sussex batsman Luke Wells and the return of gun batsman Nathan Freitag after a stint in Tasmania, bolstering an already impressive batting unit. Blake Mills has also returned to the club after a brief stint back at his home club, Morwell.
After a successful stint in the Swans’ Super Slam side, Hallam Kalora Park all-rounder Jordan Hammond will join the club on a permanent basis, West Bentleigh star Nick Huttley will also join the club to further bolster the bowling, while former country second XI player Steve Sandhu will join after moving to the area.
Keogh said that the list is building nicely, and was thrilled to have the majority of the playing list from last year also commit once again.
“I have been working closely with Craig Lambden, our director of cricket and Matt Pearson our head of development in the retention of our playing list from last season,” he said.
“It looks like we will have as much as 95 per cent of our players returning this season. It’s a great result and in part, reflects the culture we are looking to build.”
The Swans have also tinkered with its coaching structure, with former first-class player Will Carr – who has more recently been involved with Berwick – joining as a part-time bowling coach, with former Swans coach Brett Lewis returning as an assistant.
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