SPINNING all-rounder Jake Buttigieg is just 20, but he’s been handed the reins of west B1 club St Andrews in the Victorian Turf Cricket Association.
In a massive show of faith by the Saints, the former Melton third XI player was named senior coach.
The appointment aligns with the policy of a club eager to re-energise an ageing player list.
Buttigieg said that initially he was apprehensive about how the veteran players would react to taking orders from someone so young in the game.
But he said it had been all positive since his introduction.
“It was more so for the first couple of sessions,” Buttigieg said.
“It’s interesting seeing how guys respond to being told what to do by a 20-year-old. It’s a different perspective.
“We’re just trying to be more professional in everything we do.”
The Saints will turn a new chapter this summer.
For too long, the club has stuck with the tried and true.
The key coaching appointment signals the start of a rejuvenation process.
The cornerstone to the club’s rebuild is reinstalling a junior section that has been non-existent for years.
Buttigieg has been in the Saints camp for three years but hazards a guess it’s more than a decade since the club fielded an under-age side.
The Saints have worked hard during the off-season to attract a new wave of juniors, running training sessions at a local school. One result will be the appearance of an under-11 side.
“We needed to start building from the bottom up,” Buttigieg says.
The coach has his sights set on reaching the first XI finals.
The Saints haven’t featured in the finals since their admission to the VTCA.
Buttigieg is “quietly confident” his side can get the monkey off its back in 2012-13.
“The feeling around the place is very positive,” he said. “The first XI is going to be very competitive.”
Buttigieg, an off-spinner and middle-order batsman, joined the Saints as a teenager.
He was duchessed by the club for some time, but resisted the early advances.
When he finally buckled, he was left wondering what took him so long.
“My uncle has been on the committee and he was trying to get me down for a while,” he said.
“They were keen to recruit me four or five years ago, but I was playing sub-district thirds at the time.
“They were definitely persistent and since I joined, I’ve fallen in love with the club. It’s a great bunch of blokes.”
