By Nick Creely
A breath of fresh air is coming from Casey Fields as Casey-South Melbourne gears up for the Victorian Premier Cricket season.
After a raft of changes both on and off-field, the Swans look settled, and primed to bounce back from last year’s two win season that had them narrowly avoid the wooden spoon.
Current first XI batsman and 2017/18 leading run scorer Michael Wallace will step into the role of vice-president, making him the youngest ever for the club at just 27.
He will join Ross Hibbins – who has been re-elected as president, while the committee will also welcome in Craig Lambden onto the general committee.
It’s a role Wallace is looking forward to, and wants to make an impact as his club looks to build sustainable success both on and off-field.
“It wasn’t necessarily something I’ve been aiming for, but the opportunity presented itself and I’m happy to do that work for the club,” he said.
“I’ve enjoyed the support I’ve got from my friends and everyone around the club, and the role really shows how much they care, so I want to give back as much as I can.”
Wallace will learn off Hibbins throughout the season while also juggling his playing commitments, in a relationship he believes will benefit the club.
“Ross has been great to learn off, with the amount of work he puts in – for me, game day and training I’ll worry about playing, and then outside of that, I’ll help as much I can,” he said.
“We’ve got a great understanding in that I’m a player, and he’s been great in dealing with it all, but it’s great to learn from him. Ross Moore, Laurie Stevens, those kinds of people, have always been a great help for me too.”
With the Swans deep in pre-season and with less than two months away before the start of the season, Wallace said the club has focused heavily on a key area he believes will propel the players forward.
“Pre-season has been really strong so far, and we’ve had a heavier focus on fitness, which all the boys are enjoying, and we’re being pushed probably more than we have in the past,” he said.
“But it’s what we need – last year we could compete in games at times, but it was a mental, physical or a bit of both that let us down, so a bit more hard work will help us push over the line more in games.”
Driving the Swans is the disappointment of last year, but they are determined to turn things around with a different approach.
“Last year was disappointing for everyone at the club,” he said.
“It’ll turn around with hard work on the field, and hard work off the field. The challenge is there in front of us.”
Wallace pointed to the batting depth as a key area of improvement, with the signings of Englishman Luke Wells and also young star Ryan Quirk a big tick, while in the bowling department Josh Dowling should help off-set the big loss of Brendan Rose.
“If you look back at our games last year, it was probably our batsmen that didn’t quite step up and get us over the line, so it was definitely a focus (in recruiting),” he said.
Brendan is (also) a big loss, and he’s not an easy replacement – it’s an opportunity for others to come through, but we’ve still got Nathan Lambden, Jackson Fry, Dylan Hadfield, so the quicks are still there, and we’ve got Jonah Serong as a spinner and (Lachlan) Sperling as well.”
