Tara Murray
Winning the Victorian Turf Cricket Association division 4 player of the year is icing on the cake for Gellibrand’s Jacob Macdonald.
Having helped his side breakthrough for a premiership after a number of close calls in recent years, Macdonald was crowned the division’s top player at the recent awards night.
Macdonald finished ahead of Bellbridge’s Daniel Spencer and his Gellibrand teammate James Ryan finished in third.
Macdonald said while it was nice to claim the award, he had already got the one that he wanted.
“I’m pretty happy with the team performance this year,” he said. “To win the flag which I wanted to do in Gellibrand was really good and it’s nice to get some success.
“My captain-coach Paul Hetherington was pretty hopeful of my chances of winning it. We had a few players come the end of the year that had good seasons and thought we might have had a decent chance.”
Macdonald said Ryan, who is Gellibrand’s new coach for next season, was the perfect opening partner.
Macdonald made 642 runs at an average of nearly 50 for the season, while Ryan 331 runs for the season.
Another top order batter Jason Hibbert was named in the team of year alongside Macdonald.
Hetherington was named captain of the team of the year.
For Macdonald it was the first time that he had opened the batting in a long time.
“I met up with the coach a month out before the season and said I wanted to open the batting and wanted to take on some more responsibilities and leadership.
“I got a bit lucky and hit a century in the first game, otherwise I would have ended up back batting at number six.”
Now having managed to get a premiership at the club where his dad played more than 200 games, Macdonald is keen for that to continue next season in division 3.
“It [grand final] day was one of the best days in my life,” he said.
“We’ll look to recruit some players and we think we’ll have a good chance when we get up there.”
