Footscray Angliss was keen to boost its bowling stocks as it moves into the Victorian Turf Cricket Association division 4 and has done exactly that.
Angliss, which finished runners-up in division 5 last season, has already announced two key recruits for next season.
Former Spotswood bowler Max Buck joins the club after a year off cricket, while Corey Irving crosses from West Newport where he dominated with bat and ball.
Angliss president Matt Cox said sound extra bowling depth was one area that they had to address.
“East Coburg blew us away with pace in the grand final,” he said. “They had some really good fast bowlers and we wanted to address that area.
“We knew that Brendan Bennett wasn’t going to play as many games next season. Jarrod Eccles has been fantastic for a long time and he needs a bit more support with the bowling.”
Cox said it was through connections with existing players which led to Buck and Irving joining the club.
He said it backs up the hard work that has been done off field to get the place to become somewhere people want to be part of.
“Max is good friends with Daniel Janka”, he said. “We knew that he had a year off doing some travel and we reached out.
“Corey is friends with Brendan. That plays an important role, the people at the club. They’re invested in what we want to achieve and are talking to these guys.”
Cox said they would still have feelers out in regards to other potential recruits, but said they were keen to build from within.
He said they were really excited about the direction of the club, which was being led by the coaching group, saying they were setting the standard.
Cox said they had managed to keep the majority of the playing group together. David Khera is the other out from last season.
“Jarrod and Lachie Broadway are back,” he said.
“Jarrod has been fantastic for us for a very long time with the bat and ball.
“Lachie is an outstanding bat and we made sure he didn’t go anywhere.”
With the club moving up a grade, it’s a new test of Angliss. But with both their top sides coming off grand finals, they’ve got plenty of confidence.
“We don’t want to go up there and make up the numbers and come back to division 5,” Cox said.
“We want to keep pushing forward. We’ve got an exciting group of youngsters in the under-15s who are going into the under-17s.
“We want them to want to play ones at our club. We have eight junior sides, we want to have that pathway.”
