By Nick Creely
Casey-South Melbourne are just a matter of weeks away from welcoming Kingston Hawthorn to Casey Fields for the highly-anticipated opening round of the Victorian Premier Cricket season.
And the excitement within the club is palpable.
Now back at training, and looking to build on last season under new coach Michael Wallace and highly-regarded coach Brian Keogh, and as well to collectively improve and develop its talent in the lower grades, the Swans simply can’t wait for that first ball to leave the bowler’s hand on Saturday 28 November.
The Swans are expected to have a somewhat different, but exciting new-look this season after the departure of some of its first XI players, with a potential shift of batting positions and some new faces in the bowling department, as the club gears up for a full one-day season.
It’s a format coach Brian Keogh believes the club is very well suited for, and can do some genuine damage in with aggressive senior players such as Lachie Sperling, Jordan Wyatt, Dylan Hadfield and Nathan Lambden ready and raring to go as the Swans look to break back into finals cricket.
“We were disappointed with our win-loss last year in the firsts – we think we can do much better than last season,” he said.
“It’s an incredibly competitive competition, and any side can beat any side on their day, and we think if we do the basics longer than the opposition we can win as many as we lose.
“And if you’re on the right ledger of the wins and losses then you will be thereabouts at the end of the season.”
Keogh has been fairly active from a recruitment point of view this off-season, bringing in bowlers Callum Dodson, Isaiah Jassal and Harrish Kannan, while exciting top-order batsman Kasun Suriaratchie is back at the club after scoring 473 runs back in 2015/16.
A clear focus has been to bolster that bowling department after finishing last for total wickets taken last season, with Keogh believing that despite the disappointment of 2019/20, the bowling group learnt a lot from some tough results and will bounce back.
“Our improvement is going to have to come within this season,” he said.
“We’ve talked a lot on Zoom about our game plan in detail, and there is a real focus on bowling in partnerships, and being able to trust your stock ball.
“We’ve talked a lot about field settings and how to best protect parts of Casey Fields.
“One thing we didn’t do as well last year is build pressure from both ends, so there’s a real commitment on that, bowling consecutive dot balls, and not just from one end, but both.”
With the Swans’ bowling department to once again be led by quick Nathan Lambden – who like several of the Swans who live in Regional Victoria and have benefited from being able to train and play already this season – Keogh said that the spearhead is tracking beautifully for the opening round, while also pointing to fellow seamers Jackson Fry and recruit Cal Dodson as vital players.
“I’m really bullish about Nathan, he’s fitter, doing a lot more work,” he said.
“His form in white ball last year was really good, his SuperSlam numbers were great, as was his 50 over stuff.
“He’s well suited to the format we think
“And I’m bullish about Jacko (Jackson Fry) and Cal Dodson too – I met with Cal a few months ago, and he’s fitter and stronger now.
“He’s back of a length, bowls a heavy ball, so we’re looking forward to seeing how he goes.”
The Swans welcome the Hawks to Casey Fields on Saturday 28 November, with the match to begin at 11.00am.
