By Ewen McRae
Spotswood is hoping an increased focus on its batting over the off season will reap big benefits this season, and the early signs are good.
After just missing finals in the Victorian Turf Cricket Association’s senior division last season, new coach Dan Schuppan said he was looking for greater output from top orders across the club this year.
“We talked about some home truths and a few statistics about our batting from last year which don’t lie, and my job as a first year coach is to challenge the guys,” Schuppan said.
“The way they’ve responded after a pre-season that really couldn’t have been better has been very pleasing, albeit still early days.
“We put a high emphasis on batting this pre-season, especially batting for long times and that’s been the big take away that we’ve brought into games now.
“We got four wins from four in round one as a club, so there’s a good feeling around the club and everyone’s really positive.”
While round two was washed out at the weekend, Spotswood’s First XI started the season in style in the opening round, with the top order showing the way on day one to post 5-311 against Seddon on the back of an unbeaten 108 from Gene Maurice.
After bowling Seddon out for 289 on week two, Schuppan said the signs early in the season were good for his side.
“You can only go on the one game, but we only lost the five wickets in 80 overs of cricket so that was a huge positive,” he said.
“We didn’t want to lose back-to-back wickets, which we were able to avoid and constantly build partnerships which in recent years has been something we’ve struggled with.”
Spotswood has added former junior player Mac Short to its line-up, after his time playing premier cricket for powerhouse Melbourne, and top order batsman Thilina Masmulla from overseas.
“I’ve said from day one our top end talent is really good, but if we’re going to go anywhere it’s got to be the young guys like Mac Short and Declan O’Brien that really come up to speed,” Schuppan said.
“Rather than having guys from a higher level coming down to us, these guys now have to step up and take their games to the next level, and I couldn’t be more impressed with the way they’ve gone about doing that.”
While they finished agonisingly close to finals last year in fifth spot, Schuppan is more interested in getting the processes right rather than making finals this summer as the big goal for the club.
“My big thing is to tick off a lot of boxes and get improvement in several areas,” he said.
“Whether it’s not losing wickets in clumps, or having a guy win your batting average with something in the 40s instead of 25, if you tick all those little boxes along the way then the wins will generally take care of themselves.
“If you’re winning you can reassess goals, but at the moment I’m not even worried about the end result because it’s just too far away.
“All I’m looking at now is Yarraville Club this week, what better way to test ourselves early in the year.”
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