Tara Murray
Altona Roosters are keen to keep their strong form from recent years intact in the Victorian Turf Cricket Association division 1 season.
After five finals series in six years across multiple divisions, the Roosters will be expected to be one of the teams to watch in an expanded division 1 competition this season.
Captain-coach Ash Peters said he was backing the group to have another strong season.
“Training has been really good,” he said.
“We’ve had six or seven sessions in the lead up and a practice match. We’ve played finals the last three years and won the premiership from fourth in 2018-19.
“We’ve got a good balance in recent years and I’m backing our boys in.”
Despite making finals in their first season in division 1, Peters admits they were slightly disappointed after last season, when they were knocked out in the semi finals.
Playing in division 1 west, the Roosters finished on top of the ladder. All four finalists had the same amount of wins.
Peters said had they made the grand final against Aberfeldie, they were confident they could have beaten them in the grand final.
There will be changes to the squad for this season, with a couple of players stepping away.
Jayodh Hennayake won’t play due to work commitments, while Mark Longhurst has left to play elsewhere with friends.
Peters said those two departures would open spots in the batting order in the top side.
He said there were a few blokes pushing for opportunities.
Veeral Patel, who joined the club last season after walking in off the streets looking for a club close to home, and Nathan Moon are two players that will be among those looking to fill those spots.
Peters said they were looking forward to a couple of different challenges that have been thrown at them this season.
The first being teams from division 1 west and north coming together in a merged competition.
“We’ve played most of them the last few years in the lower divisions,” he said.
“It’s a real good test having to play those teams again after a couple of years. It’s exciting.”
The other challenge will be getting used to playing one-day games. Usually, there’s a mixture of one-day and two-day games, but due to COVID-19 all matches this season are one-day games.
Peters said while it suits his game personally it was about 50-50 among his teammates whether it suited their games.
“Being one-dayers who can’t be off the ball for five to seven overs,” he said. “The game changes dramatically if you’re not on your game for the whole overs.
The Roosters kicked off their season on Saturday against Seddon.
The Roosters made 101 after winning the toss, with Aaron Briscoe top scoring with 31.
Michael Fallon took 4-23 off his eight overs.
Seddon had a couple of minor scares, but got the job done, finishing 6-103.
Damith Priyadarshana top scored with 29, to go with his two wickets from earlier in the day.
Chris Dine took three wickets for the Roosters.
In other matches, Tullamarine easily accounted for West Coburg.
Airport West St Christophers got the win against PEGS, Deer Park had no troubles against St Francis de Sales, Sunshine beat Glenroy and Craigieburn smashed Spotswood.
