By RUSSELL BENNETT
CLYDE has unfinished business in the West Gippsland Cricket Association’s (WGCA) District division this upcoming season.
After finishing on top of the ladder with 11 wins from their 14 games, the Cougars were knocked out in the semi-finals at their home ground at the hands of the fourth-placed side – and the eventual premiers – Cranbourne Meadows.
And this season, the Cougars are spurred on to convert their home-and-away form into the ultimate finals success and move up into the WGCA’s top flight for 2016-’17.
Leading the way will be new coach Tim Dodgson, who lives just over the road in the Pasadena estate.
Dodgson, 40, replaces all-rounder Kyle Brooke who will remain at the club in a playing capacity but has taken the step back from the coaching role he’s held for three years, in part due to the birth of new son Louis.
Family comes first, and rightfully so.
Dodgson, meanwhile, is a Life Member of the East Malvern Cricket Club where he played for 20 years. In recent years, he has been involved at VTCA club Carnegie where he served as senior coach, chairman of selectors and assistant coach.
Joining him from Carnegie is gifted top order wicket-keeper batsman Daniel Walton, who scored 353 runs across all grades last season including three half-centuries; and Matt Bayliss – a left-arm medium bowler who took 20 wickets in the 2014-’15 campaign.
They join an already impressive Cougars line-up that includes the likes of Brooke, and gun all-rounder John Simpson who last season scored 454 runs with a top score of 104, and took 14 wickets at just 18.3.
“We looked at where we ended up last year and, with Brookesy (Brooke) having a new baby that gave us an opportunity to get a new coach in,” Simpson said.
“We decided that it’d be a good opportunity for a change of voice and a change of direction to look outside the club.
“That was our initial thought for this year – a change of voice. We’ve been progressing under Brookesy over the past three years but we need to take that next step up into Premier.”
Dodgson can’t wait to work with not only Brooke and Simpson, but everyone in the Cougars ranks. He views this season as a clean slate for players seeking an opportunity to convert promising lower grade form into a chance in Clyde’s first XI.
“My best cricket days are definitely behind me from a playing point of view, but I see myself as a leader of people – that’s what I do in my job,” Dodgson said.
“I look at it that if I can get a good club that had good results last year to have some of the boys in the lower XIs push those higher up for spots, and move a few blokes around that are accustomed to being a first XI player – If I can get 5-10 per cent improvement out of each person then I think that’ll push us a long way to our goal of winning the flag.”
