By Tara Murray
A batting positional change for Gellibrand’s Jacob Macdonald did nothing to stop his run scoring as he claimed a second straight Victorian Turf Cricket Association competition best and fairest award.
After winning the Evans-Clark Shield last season as his side claimed the premiership, Macdonald on Friday night shared the best player award in the Roy Picone Shield with Point Cook Centrals’ Rasanjana Jayarathna.
Macdonald said heading into the season he didn’t think he had a chance of back-to-back medals.
He said it was icing on the cake, having claimed the premiership.
“It was good and nice reward to tick it off after a flag year as well,” he said. “To go back-to-back is special.”
Macdonald was quick to talk about the team’s performance than his own. Macdonald finished the season with 563 runs and 16 wickets.
He said from a team perspective they thought they would be competitive in the higher division and were aiming for finals.
They were not only able to achieve that, but managed to beat Moonee Valley in a second straight grand final.
“We were setting the bar low,” he said. “It was good to play finals and there was no expectation to win it.
“Definitely our best cricket was good enough and we played our best cricket at the right time.”
Macdonald, who had been opening the batting last season and early this season, moved down to number four part way through the season.
It was a decision many people weren’t sure about but it paid off.
“My captain midway through the year thought I would be better batting in the middle order and make sure the runs were ticking over as we went down the order,” he said.
“In the end it got us over the line. I had never batted at number four before.
“[Captain] Paul [Hetherington] also dropped himself from opening to number seven and he was player of the match in the grand final, so the positional changes worked.”
Macdonald was also named in the division 3 team of the year, while winning the club champion award and first XI batting award.
Macdonald’s teammates James Ryan and Brayden Macdonald were also named in the division 3 team of the year. Ryan was named captain.
The side will now step into the division 2 competition, the Steve McNamara Shield.
For most of the side it will be the first time playing at that level.
“We have a new captain-coach which is exciting,” Macdonald said. “The squad we have is young with an average average of about 27.
“The challenge is there and we want to be competitive again.”
Now having won two straight best and fairest awards and two straight premierships, Macdonald said you can’t rule anything out in the future.
“I sat here last year and said it won’t happen again and it did, so you can never say never,” he said.
“If we can go back-to-back-back premierships and I make zero runs, I’d be happy.”
