Harper Sercombe
A big season awaits Yarraville in the Victorian Sub- District Cricket Association.
The Eagles had a disappointing season in 2022-23 finishing in 11th spot, just winning six matches for the summer.
However, playing-coach Jonah Koch is remaining optimistic about the upcoming season amongst a host of fresh signings.
“We’re pretty positive about things,” he said.
“I’m pretty bullish about what we can achieve as a group… I think the pieces are starting to fall together nicely, I’m sure every side at this time of the year says the same thing, but hopefully, fingers crossed, we can put it together on the park.”
One of the key pieces Koch talks of is the signing of Josh Hahnel for the season.
Having tried his luck at Victorian Premier Cricket the last two seasons, Hahnel returns to his junior club where he has had plenty of success previously. In his last full season at the club in 2020-21, Hahnel made 545 runs for the season, averaging 45.42, having made two centuries.
Hahnel has spent the last two seasons playing with Melbourne University.
Another who Koch mentioned was Ashish Mathew from Box Hill, who also has Premier cricket first XI experience.
Hahnel will take the captaincy off Koch for the upcoming season, in a mutually beneficial arrangement.
“Josh’s been pretty eager and pretty keen to get involved in a leadership position,” Koch said.
“Just having another senior head in the group eases the burden and allows me to just focus on coaching and he can manage match day which I’m sure he’ll do a fantastic job at.”
The Eagles have also welcomed a couple of English imports to the ‘nest’ to further deepen their playing list.
“We’ve got Matt [Kenvyn] and Harry [McAleer], Matt’s a batsman and Harry’s a wicketkeeper batsman, so that just adds a bit of depth in that area for us,” Koch said.
“I’m very excited to see how they go, they’re young fellas and they might take a couple of weeks to find their feet but I’m certain that the experience we have around them with Ashish and Josh coming on board, I’m pretty confident that we can get the job done.”
One of the Eagles’ six wins came late in the season against minor premiers Spotswood, which the Koch took great confidence out of.
“I think our best cricket’s good enough, so I think if we can find that consistently this year, it’s going to be tough, but I’d like to think that we can be there or thereabouts come the end of the season,” he said.
“And once you get to that point, you create your own luck in finals I think.”
Having played their first practice game on Saturday and another scheduled for this Friday, the Eagles will be ready to go when the season kicks off in a couple of weeks time.
“A couple of hit outs should be good for the boys,” Koch said.
“Fingers crossed we can get onto the park and get into it.”
