By RUSSELL BENNETT
IF any side in the upcoming West Gippsland Cricket Association (WGCA) Premier season can withstand the loss of a player the calibre of Cal O’Hare, it’s Tooradin.
The Seagulls’ star player-coach will miss the bulk of 2014-15 after tearing his anterior cruciate ligament while playing footy for Devon Meadows last month.
He requires a knee reconstruction, with LARS surgery an option for the big man.
It’s a cruel blow for a side that already dealt with more than its fair share of bad luck last season. And three of the club’s leaders – new skipper Tom Hussey, Sub-District co-captain and club president Ricky Holland, and O’Hare himself – all say the finish to 2013-14’s Premier season still aches like a punch in the guts.
“We’re a very competitive bunch of blokes,” said Hussey at pre-season training at Saxon Sports in Frankston recently.
“We’re there to do one thing, and that’s to win.
“We know we have the talent but things just seemed to work against us last season.”
Among those things were significant injuries to keeper-batsman Hussey (thumb) and league medal-winning all-rounder Aaron Avery (hamstring) at precisely the wrong time of the season.
“We’ve definitely still got the right players to take it up to anyone,” O’Hare said adamantly.
Hussey was just as bullish, adding: “Dutchy (Holland) and the rest of the club have worked for a long time to make sure it’s not just up to a couple of players – we’ve got a great group of cricketers overall and our kids coming through are another year older.”
The likes of Andrew Proctor, Dylan Sutton, Luke Adams and the Lenders brothers are all as hungry for success as the older, more established players.
“The culture is the same all the way through our club, which you can see in the success of even our lower grades. We haven’t got a pub team,” Holland said.
Albeit from the sidelines this season, O’Hare can’t wait to watch Proctor’s rate of improvement continue.
The injury to the coach has opened up a spot in the Gulls’ top order and Proctor is keen to take it.
“He messaged me and told me he wanted it,” Hussey said.
“Without putting extra pressure on him, he really could be as good as anyone in the competition – he’s got all the shots.
“You could be in real trouble and he’ll just go out there and hit the cricket ball.”
Another player to keep an eye on this season – Avery. He won the Terry Stephenson Medal as the best player in Premier with 425 runs at 47 and 25 wickets at 10.4 but he could be primed for an even bigger season in 2014-15 without the captaincy burden.
